ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 105–107, april 2018 book review dunu roy  centre for science and environment. 2017. annual state of india’s environment—soe 2017. new delhi: centre for science and environment; isbn: 978-81-86906-02-6; inr 350 the ‘state of india’s environment report’, published annually by the centre for science and environment, is out for 2017. first produced in 1985, this report is eagerly awaited by environmentalists, policymakers, and citizens, as it contains a wealth of information that is of interest to many. this one has three essays, ten chapters, and forty-four articles: a formidable collection, by any reckoning. does the cse succeed in bringing all these together into one overarching vision? the section at the end, on ‘data and development’, is the most valuable part. it summarizes that most agencies implementing the sustainable development goals (sdg) do not have the latest/relevant data; only 23 per cent of soil health cards have been issued; 30 per cent of the land is degraded; there is a 12 per cent decline in environmental crimes; 36 per cent of forest clearances were for irrigation and 20 per cent for mining; cities are growing at the cost of wetlands; and there are only 2 buses per 1000 people. all this information should pose several questions, such as: why is the state of the environment such? and have the official data been checked against other sources?  environmentalist, hazards centre, c4/111, sda, new delhi, 110016. qadeeroy@gmail.com copyright © roy 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.24 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.24 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] to examine whether the report has done so, one could begin by asking, for instance: why has soil health not been determined? the chapter on rural development has five articles; these argue that information and communications technology (ict) platforms will transform the agroeconomy by letting farmers negotiate better prices. the authors acknowledge that demonetization has hit farmers, who are also locked into informal debt traps, and growth has failed to create employment; but they offer that things could improve if land records were digitally linked; cash use was reduced in mandis (wholesale markets); and the public crop insurance scheme was made more attractive. only one author asks, ‘why are people poor? how do they get out of poverty?’ but the questions remain unanswered. there is no mention of farmer suicides, the overuse of fertilizers, pesticide poisoning, droughts, or floods, which many independent commentators have analysed vividly. in the related chapter on ‘disaster and conflict’, the lead author holds that the 1990s drought was of the poor india, but the 2016 drought was of the rich. hence, one must catch every drop of water, store it, recharge groundwater, revise the drought code, and ‘work obsessively to secure water in all times’. other authors show that while rs 11.25 lakh crore was spent on flood control measures, flood-affected areas rose in the same period by over 160 per cent; and that river beds are rising because of sediment loads, while embankments are unable to contain rising water levels. yet, they recommend; build dams with cushions to avoid flood runoffs, strengthen embankments to withstand floods every 10 years, improve flood forecasting, and strengthen rescue and rehabilitation. only one author argues that there is a need for a fresh outlook at managing floods that includes sediment management. no further space is given to this author’s large body of work on precisely the same subject. one would imagine that the chapter on ‘water and sanitation’ would explore this theme further. but the maximum space is devoted to toilets. arguably, 65,000 tonnes of feces are disposed in the open daily, but how is that related to the death of one out of five children due to pneumonia (and diarrhoea), or to the outrageous thalerian proposition that the focus should be on ‘behavioural change’? the cse’s survey of 168 slums in bhubaneshwar is used to conclude that untreated wastewater can pollute water sources, particularly drinking water sources, but how does that lead to the argument that where ‘open defecation and surface disposal of faeces are common, these are the major causes of water contamination’? what is the link between wet wastewater from toilets and dry open defecation? the extensive campaign of sewerage workers, who will have to bear the brunt of waste disposal, apparently deserves no mention. [107] dunu roy the tendency in this chapter, to underline the (mis)behaviour of the poor and encourage government schemes, is carried over into other chapters. the chapter on ‘air pollution’ praises india’s adoption of bharat stage vi (bs-vi) emission standards in 2020, thus ‘leap-frogging’ the kuznetsian inverted-ucurve to catch up with developed countries. a cse team that visited gaya to monitor air quality in anganwadis (childcare centres) comes to the rapid conclusion that ‘rural homes across india should also be encouraged to move on to clean cooking fuels’. in the chapter on ‘energy and industry’, a study of 30 villages is used to reinforce the hypothesis that decentralized distribution generation would provide universal access to energy. industrial pollution can be controlled by implementing continuous monitoring systems, and banks and financial institutions would be able to control non-performing assets if they only address environmental and social risks! the cumulative argument, that technology has the solutions to social problems, is pervasive throughout the report, even though the data cited in the report itself does not support the argument. so, is there an overarching vision of an alternative to what the first essay, by cse director general sunita narain, calls ‘unbridled consumerism-led growth (that) is not even working for the rich, forget the poor’? narain proposes that there is an ‘opportunity to reconsider the future strategies’ based on local resources with local communities. on the other hand, the second essay, by deputy director general chandra bhushan, compares the international negotiations at paris with those in kigali and suggests that success can be achieved ‘when we shift the negotiations from big platforms (with politicians) to smaller sectoral negotiating platforms (with experts)’. and the third essay (by journalist rakesh kalshian) discusses the anthropocene with the hope that its makeover will be democratic so that ‘activists, thinkers and leaders craft challenges and invitations that bring some of us a little closer to a better possible world’. all in all, the imperative political questions that concern people and the environment are relegated to the background. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 73–75, april 2018 conversations 1: climate change reflections on international climate diplomacy nitin desai  the origins of climate diplomacy lie in the alarm bells rung by climate scientists at villach in 1985. this led to the convening of two influential climate conferences and to the establishment of the intergovernmental panel on climate change in 1988 and the call for a climate convention (united nations framework convention on climate change, or unfccc). negotiations for the unfccc ran parallel to the preparatory process for the rio earth summit and the convention was opened for signature at rio. it was merely a framework that did not impose any binding obligations on emission reductions on the parties, except for the indicative goal of holding emissions at 1990 levels by 2000. the negotiations were a battle between europe, which wanted mandatory commitments, and the us—led at that time by a president beholden to oil and coal interests—which resisted this. within the g-77, interests were widely divided— small islands argued for immediate and strong action; oil producers resisted action, to protect their economic prospects; and large emerging economies, led by india, did not want constraints on their development ambitions. the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ was enshrined in the unfccc, and has now become central to the negotiating stance of china, india, and other developing countries. when it became clear that the indicative targets would not be met, the pressure for stronger action led finally to the kyoto protocol, in which industrial countries accepted binding obligations on emission reductions by 2008–2012. that also brought developing countries indirectly into the mitigation effort through the clean development mechanism (cdm). the kyoto protocol was not a mitigation plan worked out on the basis of goals for allowable temperature increase and related emission targets—it was a bazaar bargain, with the distribution of mitigation effort  (former) under secretary general, economic and social affairs, united nations, b63 defence colony,1st floor, new delhi 110024; desaind@gmail.com copyright © desai 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.17 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.17 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] between industrial countries reflecting negotiating skills and nerves rather than objective criteria. towards the end of the kyoto period, a fresh round of negotiations was launched at bali in december 2007. but by this time, the dynamics of climate diplomacy had changed substantially. the focus had shifted to china, where the combination of rapid growth and coal dependence has led to a rapid increase in emissions. the pressure on india is a consequence of this concern over the growth in china’s emissions. the basic argument is that any reasonable goal for allowable temperature increase is unattainable unless the large emerging economies join in the mitigation effort. concerns about global competitiveness reinforced this pressure from the west. climate diplomacy is now dominated by what could be called a 40:40:20 power structure, the unit of measure being each country’s contribution to ghg emissions. the first 40 per cent includes the two largest emitters, the us and china, who have de facto veto power, because any mitigation agreement would become pointless if both of them stay out. the second 40 per cent consists of the eu, a 10 per cent power; russia, japan and india, each of them a 5 per cent power; and a string of 2 per cent powers like brazil, south africa, mexico, indonesia, south korea, saudi arabia, etc. the last 20 per cent covers the smaller states, whose influence comes from their membership in some larger group, like the association of small island states or the african group. ratifying governments welcomed the paris climate summit of december 2015 as pathbreaking, and the media and lay opinion found it reasonably good, but activists considered it inadequate. now with trump in power in washington, the elation that greeted the agreement is perhaps seen as premature. an effective agreement on climate change should include a goal for the acceptable limit for the increase in temperature. the paris agreement does that, with its 2 °c goal and 1.5 °c aspiration. it should include a greenhouse gas (ghg) budget for the distribution of allowable global emissions between countries and a time profile of ghg emissions consistent with the accepted goal. that the paris agreement does not do, as it leaves mitigation effort to the voluntary pledges of each country. as a corollary, the agreement has moved away from the flexibility mechanisms that existed earlier. but it does have some of the other ingredients required, like the treatment of forestry and land use changes, support adaptation actions, and financial and technology transfer commitments. in terms of outcomes, do the intended nationally determined contributions (indc) meet the tests of effectiveness and equity? the emissions gap report (unep 2016) suggests that the indcs do present a significant reduction compared to a projection of current policies, but the proposed mitigation contributions are far from enough to keep us on the 2 °c pathway. the estimated gap between the unconditional promises and the 2 °c path is 14 gigatons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent (gtco2e) in 2030 and 7 gtco2e in 2025. [75] nitin desai the indcs are meant to be fair and adequate. there is no agreed metric for indcs, and evaluation has been left to non-governmental organizations (ngo). according to one such report (climate equity reference project 2015), the pledges from poorer countries amount to 10.1 gtco2e, well in excess of their estimated fair share of 6.6 gtco2e, while rich country pledges amount to only 5.5 gtco2e, against their fair share of 24.2 gtco2e. this assessment is based on production emissions; the gap would widen if the assessment were based on consumption emissions. the indcs that have been submitted are basically energy policy plans. the key to averting the worst consequences of climate change lies in incentivizing a shift to low-carbon strategies for energy use through technology development, pricing reforms that reflect the social cost of carbon reform, and a reconsideration of regulatory policies from a carbon perspective. the future will belong to those who move most rapidly to this reorientation of development. references climate equity reference project. 2015. “fair shares: a civil society equity review of indcs.” november. accessed online at http://civilsocietyreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cso_fullreport.pdf unep. 2016. “emissions gap report.” november. nairobi: united nations environment programme. accessed online at http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/10016/emission_gap_re port_2016.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 1-3, january 2023 editorial a pressing problem kuntala lahiri-dutt as hundreds of residents are evacuated from the himalayan pilgrimage town of joshimath, the realities of the scale of impact of extreme disasters associated with a changing climate and other uncertainties loom large in india. globally, scientists have proven beyond belief that these disastrous events are caused by human action, that is, they are anthropogenic in nature. they agree that the anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases, especially since the industrial revolution, originates from the energy sector: the mining and burning of coal, generation of thermal power, vehicular emissions, and other emissions, such as those from industries. one way to deal with the growing incidence of climate-related extreme events is to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and gradually move to a decarbonised world. this is why nations across the world have committed to reducing carbon emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the conference of parties (cop) 21, held in paris in 2015, and cop 26, held in glasgow in 2022. while the review of ruth gamble’s book directly addresses the himalayan problem, all the other book reviews in this issue address the question of climate change. humanity’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions to tackle climate change has culminated in focused action to realize an ‘energy transition’, which is perhaps better described as ‘transitions’, due to their multifaceted and highly contextual nature—some countries may transition earlier and others later, some countries may adopt gas as ‘a transition fuel’, some countries may even move straight to renewable energy sources as living standards improve and households stop using biomass. broadly speaking,  journal editor, insee and environment and development program at the crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, crawford school of public policy, kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au copyright © lahiri-dutt 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.1010 mailto:kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.1010 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] transitions are marked by a shift from an energy mix that is heavily reliant on fossil fuels to one that produces very limited or zero carbon emissions. for this reason, energy transitions are also commonly known as decarbonization. there is no questioning that transitions have occurred before, as humans moved in the eighteenth century to the intensive and extensive use of fossil fuels; the current transitions, however, mark a crucial moment in the history of human civilization, as they will fundamentally change many of the ways human society has functioned over the last two or three centuries. the transitions are occurring in parallel with a great leap in artificial intelligence technologies, which together are leading to what is being called the ‘fourth revolution’ in human civilizational history. decarbonization will occur as consumption becomes electrified, replacing energy generated using fossil fuels with that generated using renewable sources, which will also make other sectors such as transport cleaner and improve energy efficiency through the digitalization of networks. progress in transitioning to cleaner energy sources varies exponentially between countries and regions across the world, primarily due to three main reasons: first, the availability and affordability of alternative and renewable energy sources; second, the extent of technological disruption of coal operations and value chains; and third, national clean air policies. although fossil fuels still contribute to about 80 per cent of global energy usage, energy transitions of different types are already underway. there is a growing recognition of climate change imperatives by state and non-state actors as well as individuals. the ‘push of market forces’, that is, cheaper alternatives being presented in different contexts, including north sea gas in the uk, oil shale in the us, and solar and wind in australia, is driving the transition in many parts. lastly, as noted, state policies, such as the concerted efforts put forth by the european union, are playing a key role in the demise of coal. the manifestations of energy transitions are also manifold. to understand their full scope, researchers will need to cross over their disciplinary boundaries, and policymakers and planners must work together with them to realize the full potential of these transitions. for example, to comprehend and trigger changes in energy use, we will need to understand what causes behavioural change and shifts in consumer preferences; how mobilities are influenced by both market forces and state policies, what new infrastructures will appear and how they will change our landscapes, and [3] lahiri-dutt finally, how new communication networks driven by artificial intelligence will control energy production, distribution, and regulation. to fully understand the implications of energy transitions, scientific knowledge must move beyond its isolated existence and break free from its ivory tower to move closer to the social sciences to embrace interdisciplinary research. to think about it: the industrial revolution not only ushered in new socio-technical worlds, but it also created new politics: trade unions came into existence in the coal mines, human society changed, power became centralized and decentralized in previously unforeseen ways, and control over coal came to signify great riches. similarly, the ushering in of petroleum radically changed the way we moved goods and human beings. it is up to us, researchers, to ensure that the transition away from these fossil fuels opens up new democratic possibilities in the decarbonised world, in particular, for countries such as india, which are part of the global south. two pieces in this issue are placed in this context. rakesh kacker and nidhi srivastava discuss the elements and possible constraints of a smooth energy transition in india in their commentary. mrinal saikia and ratul mahanta, in their original research paper, show how to measure vulnerability to climate change in char areas, that is, river islands. the special section in this issue presents different aspects of the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems and carries four original submissions. an additional piece that deals with char areas is by gorky chakrabarty. it complements the other paper on chars with its different disciplinary approach. even though about 70 per cent of the country’s electricity comes from coal and much of its imports constitute petroleum products, india is fully committed to reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. interdisciplinary research on ecology, the economy, and society will play a critical role in ushering in a new democratic future in which no more incidents such as that at joshimath will occur. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 115–118, january 2020 conversations: national mineral policy 2019 — balancing stakeholder interests and concerns will intergenerational equity be implemented? rahul basu  1. introduction as in the karnataka (sps & ors vs state of karnataka & ors. [2013]) and goa illegal mining cases (goa foundation vs uoi & ors [2014]), the question of implementing the intergenerational equity principle arose in the odisha illegal mining case (common cause vs uoi and ors [2017]). in the judgment on the latter case, the hon'ble supreme court of india (sc) discussed the intergenerational equity principle at some length, expressed its dismay that the existing mineral policy “seems to be only on paper and is not being enforced perhaps due to the involvement of very powerful vested interests or a failure of nerve” and directed the union government to announce “a fresh and more effective, meaningful and implementable policy”. this conversation on balancing stakeholder concerns in the national mineral policy 2019 stems from the concluding sentence of the policy, which envisages implementation through a “national consensus among various key stakeholders”. this is a change from the earlier national mineral policy 2008, which only mentioned a national consensus. 2. who are the key mining stakeholders? the obvious mining stakeholders include the extractors, the mining dependent (employees, suppliers and service providers), the mining affected  goa foundation, g-8, st. britto’s apartments, opp. st. britto’s high school, mapusa, goa 403507 india; rahulbasu1@gmail.com. copyright © basu 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.95 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.95 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] (the losers of land, culture, community, environment and health), the users of mineral ore, and the government itself. usually lost in this conversation are the true owners of natural resources, the people and our future generations. as the policy acknowledges, “natural resources, including minerals, are a shared inheritance where the state is the trustee on behalf of the people to ensure that future generations receive the benefit of inheritance” (section 1). 3. accounting for the resource curse mining is simply the sale of inherited mineral wealth. governments wrongly treat the proceeds of extraction (royalty, auction premia) as “income”. politicians and voters support more mining as it would result in more “income”. in reality, these are sale proceeds. we found that from 2004 to 2012, goa received rs. 2,387 crore for minerals worth rs. 51,655 crore of economic rent, resulting in a loss of rs. 49,268 crore (95 per cent) (basu 2015). chhattisgarh has estimated a loss of rs. 6 lakh crore due to the recent coal auctions (baghel 2019). over the decade 2000-2010, government statistics imply an 82 per cent loss in australia (the future we need 2018). if extraction were correctly accounted for as the sale of inherited wealth, this would be untenable (the future we need 2017a). extractors are receiving minerals for a pittance. naturally, they try to extract as quickly as possible and leave. conservation of trees and tigers and protecting the interests of tribal populations are perceived to be antidevelopment, if not against the national interests. as documented by the karnataka lok ayuktha (gok 2008; gok 2011), governance is controlled through political contributions, lobbying and bribes. the losers are the people and especially future generations. are they key stakeholders? 4. how to implement intergenerational equity? as owner trustees of intergenerational wealth, we must ensure (a) zero loss at the point of sale (i.e. capture the entire economic rent), (b) invest the entire proceeds of extraction in a new intergenerational trust asset (ideally a future generations fund like in norway1), (c) ensure the corpus is kept 1 since 1996, norway has dedicated all inflows from north sea oil to build up a large endowment fund so that both current and future generations benefit from the oil wealth. [117] rahul basu whole, and (d) only the real income be distributed to the present generation as a right of ownership, a citizen’s dividend (the future we need 2017b). seeing natural resources as a public trust raises other concerns as well. mining destroys other inherited assets. “free, prior and informed consent (fpic)” of the mining affected is necessary. certain areas and deposits should be declared no-go areas based on a variety of criteria – environmental, sacred spaces, strategic reserves, etc. caps on extraction are needed on at least three different grounds:  first, under the precautionary principle to ensure the environmental damage is within limits. mining damages can be minimized by using the mitigation hierarchy – avoid, mitigate, restore, offset, partially addressing concerns raised by ranjan (this issue).  second, to ensure that the extraction work, itself an inheritance associated with the mineral deposit, is available to future generations.  and finally, as kumar (this issue) pointed out, to ensure that future generations have minerals for their use, not just money. the miners make a profit commensurate with the capital they invest. the mining dependent are paid for what they do. the impact on the mining affected is controlled, and compensated for under the polluter pays principle and through the district mineral foundations. and the government ensures the availability of minerals to sustain the economy. 5. implementation? as jain (this issue) points out, the new policy includes vague references to most of these ideas, as well as to an inter-ministerial body to institutionalize them (the future we need 2019). however, the implementation provision proposed in the earlier policy for amendments to the mines and minerals (development and regulation) act and other laws, rules and regulations has been deleted. will intergenerational equity be implemented? will our future generations venerate us? the fund is now worth over usd 1 trillion, nearly usd200,000 per norwegian. (norges bank n.d.) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] references baghel, bhupesh. 2019. “letter from chhattisgarh cm dated 12-apr-2019 addressed to india pm.” accessed december 18, 2019. http://goenchimati.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2019-04-12-letter-fromchhattisgarh-cm-to-mom-on-rs-6-lakh-crore-loss-on-coal-auctions.pdf basu, rahul. 2015. “catastrophic failure of public trust in mining: case study of goa,” economic and political weekly l (38): 44-51 gok. 2008. report of the reference made by the government of karnataka under section 7(2a) of the karnataka lokayukta act, 1984, part i. bangalore: karnataka lokayukta, government of karnataka. accessed december 18, 2019. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/karnataka-lokayukta-intoallegations-of-illegal-mining1.pdf gok. 2011. report of the reference made by the government of karnataka under section 7(2a) of the karnataka lokayukta act, 1984, part i. bangalore: karnataka lokayukta, government of karnataka. accessed december 18, 2019. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/karnataka-lokayuktareport-on-illegal-mining.pdf norges bank. n.d. “the history.” accessed december 18, 2019. https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/the-history/ the future we need. 2017a. “accounting for the resource curse.” accessed december 18, 2019. https://medium.com/@thefutureweneed/accounting-for-theresource-curse-b2a4a6d1612c the future we need. 2017b. “what is the future we need?” accessed december 18, 2019. https://medium.com/@thefutureweneed/what-is-the-future-we-need8ae3de8d55a3 the future we need. 2018. “australia’s looting machine.” accessed december 18, 2019. https://medium.com/@thefutureweneed/australias-looting-machine16f9b2461a0c the future we need. 2019. “minerals: a shared inheritance for future generations.” accessed december 18, 2019. https://medium.com/@thefutureweneed/minerals-a-shared-inheritance-forfuture-generations-af004dad223a cases cited: sps & ors vs state of karnataka & ors. [2013]. wp(civil) 562 of 2009. goa foundation vs uoi & ors. [2014]. wp(civil) 435 of 2012. common cause vs uoi and ors. [2017]. wp(civil) 114 of 2014 https://www.nbim.no/en/the-fund/the-history/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 151–154, january 2020 book review india’s quest for low carbon transition p. balachandra  rajat kathuria, saon ray and kuntala bandyopadhyay, eds. 2018. low carbon pathways for growth in india, new delhi: springer, isbn: 978-981-130904-5 (hb); 978-981-13-0905-2 (ebook), xviii + 188 pp; euro 114.39 (hardbound). globally, low carbon transitions have become a necessity, especially for large emerging economies like india. the good news is that since 2000 indian economy is already in the midst of meaningfully trying to reduce its carbon intensity — emissions per unit of gdp produced. according to the estimates based on data from the bp statistical review of world energy and the reserve bank of india, carbon intensity of indian economy in terms of kgco2 emissions for every 100 rupees of real gdp produced (base year: 2011-12) has reduced from 2.23 in 2000 to 2.09 in 2009 and further to 1.76 in 2018.this is a reduction of 6.5% during the first decade and a significantly high 15.6% during the current decade. the trends are positive, and the future appears promising. several factors have contributed to these reductions — policy push for renewable energy and low carbon  department of management studies & centre for sustainable technologies, indian institute of science, bangalore 560 012, india; patilb@iisc.ac.in copyright © patil 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.102 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.102 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] technologies in the energy sector, energy efficiency in the consuming sectors and ever-growing ‗energy light‘ services sector. the future too appears more promising for these sectors with the government‘s aggressive encouragement for renewable energy in the power and transport sectors. however, to achieve india‘s intended commitment to reduce its emissions intensity by 30% to 35% by 2030 from the 2005 levels, initiatives will need to be more aggressive and creative. given such a context, the volume edited by rajat kathuria, saon ray and kuntala bandyopadhyay provides us with an interesting collection of articles that map out the complex challenges involved in addressing india's quest for effecting a low carbon transition. the edited collection comprises 13 articles. the opening chapter introduces the debates and the concluding chapter rounds up the various discussions. the remaining 11 articles, contributed by experts on india‘s current energy scenario, are distributed under three broad themes. in the first theme, the articles offer a macro perspective on the likely pathways india will aim to achieve low carbon goals. in chapter 2, kaushik deb and manoj kumar give a short summary of india‘s four-decade growth trends in the energy sector (supply and demand) and its relationship with the gdp growth. no significant learnings, in my opinion, are captured. in chapter 3, saon ray and kuntala bandyopadhyay review various climate change models with a focus on understanding their likely economic impacts. it gives a good tabulated summary of india-specific climate change models. the chapter, however, ends abruptly without offering any insights. chapter 4 by himanshu gupta contains an elaborate discussion on the niti aayog‘s reference energy scenario for 2047, which explored possibilities for india adopting several low-carbon pathways. interestingly, it is noted that such low carbon pathways require an investment of about 0.7% of gdp between 2012-2047 for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions compared to a reference scenario. according to the author, such investment is worthwhile, and reductions are achievable given that india is yet to produce 90% of steel and build 80% of residential buildings required till 2047. in chapter 5, vaibhav chaturvedi estimates the costs of inaction in reducing the country‘s carbon footprint. the author‘s estimates are wildly speculative and fraught; such an exercise would be akin to predicting the world of 2020 by experts drawn from the 1920s. the second theme deals with discussions on potential interventions in specific economic sectors with case studies drawn from indian railways and municipal water supply. in chapter 6, zeba aziz argues for the adoption of the ―avoid-shift-improve‖ approach for low carbon transition. this approach advocates that urban systems be optimally designed to ―avoid‖ motorized transport, and if that is inevitable then there should be a [153] p. balachandra ―shift‖ to public/non-motorized transport while simultaneously working to ―improve‖ fuel efficiencies. the authors, saon ray and nandini kumar, in chapter 7, similarly urge for adopting energy efficiency and renewable energy for mitigating carbon emissions in the industrial sector. the plea for significant de-carbonization of the indian railways through electrification from renewable energy sources is the topic for discussion by t.s. ramakrishnan in chapter 8. this chapter is a summary of the detailed feasibility study carried out to explore the possibility of carrying out the complete de-carbonization of the indian railways by 2030-31. the projections for 2030-31 suggest that the railways require to install 90-150 gw (gigawatt) of solar capacity to generate 136-225 twh (terra watthour) of electricity. chapter 9 by indro roy and chapter 11 by nilanjan ghosh, in the third segment, contain discussions on water resources management and their linkage to climate change and low carbon growth from two divergent perspectives – urban water supply and irrigation water supply for agriculture. in chapter 10, indro roy brings out the unique aspects of solar energy, given its modularity and ease of scale-up, in terms of its ability to meet both the needs of india‘s energy security through large-scale power generation and the universal energy access through off-grid electrification. the author here touches upon the important issue of geopolitics in india‘s quest for energy security, especially given its overdependence on the middle east for crude oil and on china for solar infrastructure. the expanded geopolitics of energy security is discussed in chapter 12 by subhomoy bhattacharjee. he discusses the india-china dynamics in the context of energy logistics in the indian ocean. on the whole, the articles and the discussions are predominantly dependent on secondary sources — literature, databases, scenarios, estimates, perceptions, etc. it is basically, a synthesis of already available knowledge. the editors, in my opinion, appear to argue for practical and commonsense positions while stating that ―the world is likely to be very different in 2030,‖ and predicting ―the future is hazardous‖ (p. 187). given rapid technological changes, and the disruptive transitions in human lifestyles and business models (including energy delivery), the india of 2030 cannot be visualized from the data of 2010–15. this is one of the weaknesses of this book. this is evident from the recommendations from the authors – energy efficiency and renewable energy as strategies for achieving low carbon growth across sectors. since india has already made significant progress concerning these two interventions, it is natural for any reader to expect a novel and unique set of strategies that could be effective in accelerating the low-carbon transition in the indian economy. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] overall the book is well written, and a useful addition to the collection of books on sustainable development and climate change mitigation. this book would be of help to researchers, policy makers, ngos, practitioners from the public and private organizations, donor agencies, etc. it can function as a reference book for all the above stakeholders in planning for a low-carbon transition. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 107–110, january 2020 conversations: national mineral policy 2019 — balancing stakeholder interests and concerns economic opportunities and environmental challenges offered by india’s new mineral policy ram ranjan  1. introduction india‟s national mineral policy (nmp) 2019 proposes to increase the mining of minerals by 200% in the next seven years. the objective is to reduce the trade deficit in the mineral sector by 50% and increase the share of manufacturing in the national gdp. an increase in domestic extraction of key minerals, such as iron, manganese and limestone, will certainly provide economic stimulus to the local regions besides offering a stable base to the manufacturing sector. the immediate benefits of domestic mineral extraction will be an increase in royalties to the state governments and employment and income generation due to forward and backward multiplier effects. 2. nmp and rare earth minerals the nmp could focus more on the exploration and exploitation of rare earth minerals, which will become increasingly crucial to supporting homegrown strategic and commercial industries in the future. for instance, neodymium, which has strong magnetic properties, is crucial for miniaturization of electronic products (e.g. smartphones) and is an essential component in a range of products such as mri scans, tvs, aircrafts and turbines. similarly, india‟s push towards electric cars will require a steady  department of economics, school of humanities and social sciences (sohss), shiv nadar university, nh 91, tehsil dadri, gautam buddha nagar, uttar pradesh, india 201314; ram.ranjan@snu.edu.in copyright © ranjan 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.93 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.93 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] supply of rare metals such as lithium, cobalt and neodymium. currently, india has only about 6% of global rare earth metals (at 7 mt) compared to china, which owns 36% (at 44 mt) (cnbc 2019). india does have a large reservoir of beach and sand minerals, at 35% of global reserves (the economic times 2016), and their exploitation can help support domestic industries. production of strategically important monazite (which is a source of thorium) can further benefit from creation of processing and value adding ecosystems. 3. mining sector’s challenges and limitations jain (this issue), notes that the nmp is a win-win for the mining companies and the investors. however, for all these benefits to accrue, mining must be made corruption free, well-regulated, transparent, and the generated revenues invested in growth enhancing avenues. global evidence indicates that mining revenues often get mismanaged. as a result, many mineral rich countries remain economically backward. despite the strategic and commercial relevance of mining to countries, its long-term potential to support gdp growth is relatively small. the production value of non-coal minerals in india was only 27 billion usd in 2012 (2.1 per cent of gdp in 2010), whereas the same figure for china was 123 billion usd (1.8 per cent of gdp in 2010) (international council of mining and metals 2014, 14). currently, in developing countries, mining contributes not more than 5% per cent of gdp. given the relatively small contribution of the mining sector to gdp, the trade-offs from growing mining activities need to be considered carefully. 4. recognizing mining’s impact on the environment mining adversely impacts the environment and impairs its ability to provide ecosystem services. while the new policy identifies ecological hotspot regions as no-go areas, it may not be enough. kumar and basu (both in this issue) point out the need for a sustainable approach that addresses the vagueness in nmp and the „resource curse‟ challenge. three environmental aspects of mining are worth noting:  first, district level analysis of mining-driven deforestation suggests that districts that engaged in any type of mineral extraction (during 2001 and 2014) saw a net loss of 350 sq km of forest area compared to a non-mining district (ranjan 2019, 32). further, districts that [109] ram ranjan engaged in coal, iron or limestone extraction suffered a larger loss of 450 sq km compared to those that do not produce these minerals. states rich in iron and coal, such as odisha, chhattisgarh, madhya pradesh, karnataka and jharkhand, account for 35% of country‟s forest cover. therefore, any increase in mining will invariably lead to higher forest loss. the restoration costs of such large-scale forest degradation would become substantial and must be internalized within the cost accounting of private and government sectors that will benefit under the new policy.  second, deforestation and degradation of natural resources in india is also occurring due to the presence of non-mining related stressors, including urbanization, infrastructure development, climate change, natural hazards, population pressure, trade in timber and forest products, poverty and economic growth. the additional damages from mineral extraction in presence of these stressors can have a multiplier effect. besides mining, farming is another major driver of deforestation. in india, agriculture still contributes 15% of gdp and employs more than 40% of the workforce (world bank 2019). allowing mining in agriculturally intensive regions would exacerbate the deforestation rate, directly as well as through a feedback process. the feedback process arises when mining affects soil and water quality, thereby reducing farm productivity. a loss in farm productivity promotes further clearing of forest lands.  third, a nexus invariably exists between the mining firms and the regulatory bodies; such nexus is sustained through direct and indirect political donations (magat, krupnick and harrington 1986, chaps. 3 & 4). this nexus compromises the ability of the lawmakers to make and enforce stringent environmental regulations. the example of shale gas mining in rural pennsylvania is worth studying, as it highlights the ineffectiveness of ex-ante economic cost-benefit analysis in protecting the environment and the local communities. mining is often characterized by the use hazardous procedures that contaminate environment (such as radioactive leakages into water bodies, groundwater pollution or accidental spilling of chemicals or minerals into pristine environments). the baotou region in china, which produces 85% of world‟s rare earth minerals, suffers from serious environmental pollution caused by leakages of reactive pollutants into water bodies. every ton of rare earth metal production generates 2000 tons of reactive pollutants. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] early recognition in the nmp of the aforementioned consequences of mining will facilitate sustainable approaches in mineral extraction and ensure that irreversible environmental damages are minimized. references cnbc. 2019. “here‟s why china‟s trade war threat to restrict rare earth minerals is so serious.” accessed at https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/30/heres-why-chinastrade-war-threat-to-restrict-rare-earth-minerals-is-so-serious.html on december 16, 2019. international council on mining and metals. 2014. “the role of mining in national economies” (2nd edition), october 2014. accessed december 16, 2019. https://www.icmm.com/website/publications/pdfs/social-and-economicdevelopment/romine_2nd-edition. magat, w.a., a.j. krupnick, and w. harrington. 1987. “rules in the making: a statistical analysis of regulatory agency behavior,” the rand journal of economics 18 (3): 461-464. https://doi.org/10.2307/2555610 ranjan, r. 2019. “assessing the impact of mining on deforestation in india”, resources policy, 60: 23-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.11.022 the economic times. 2016. “india not realising potential of rare earth industry.” accessed december 16, 2019. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metalsmining/india-not-realising-potential-of-rare-earthindustry/articleshow/54940321.cms?from=mdr world bank. 2019. “agriculture, forestry and fishing, value added (% of gdp).” accessed december 16, 2019. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/nv.agr.totl.zs on https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/30/heres-why-chinas-trade-war-threat-to-restrict-rare-earth-minerals-is-so-serious.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/30/heres-why-chinas-trade-war-threat-to-restrict-rare-earth-minerals-is-so-serious.html https://www.icmm.com/website/publications/pdfs/social-and-economic-development/romine_2nd-edition https://www.icmm.com/website/publications/pdfs/social-and-economic-development/romine_2nd-edition https://doi.org/10.2307/2555610 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.11.022 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/india-not-realising-potential-of-rare-earth-industry/articleshow/54940321.cms?from=mdr https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/india-not-realising-potential-of-rare-earth-industry/articleshow/54940321.cms?from=mdr https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indl-goods/svs/metals-mining/india-not-realising-potential-of-rare-earth-industry/articleshow/54940321.cms?from=mdr https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/nv.agr.totl.zs%20on ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 281-284, july 2023 book review political economy of farming in india: chronicling 50 years of scholarship and transformation budhaditya das* jodhka, surinder s, ed. 2022. agrarian change in india. hyderabad: orient blackswan private limited. “we do not want a solar power generation plant here. our animals and nature will be destroyed. we eat rotis made of bajra and drink ghi; we are content. this will finish if the plant is constructed here.” an old farmer told us angrily during a recent phase of fieldwork in western rajasthan. on another day, another village resident explained why some people seemed willing to give their land away to renewable energy projects: “a farmer who earns one lakh rupees annually from his land calculates that he could earn two lakh rupees if he leases his land to the company.” the dilemmas, opportunities, and choices *assistant professor, school of human ecology, dr. b.r. ambedkar university, delhi. das.budhaditya@gmail.com copyright © das 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1017 mailto:das.budhaditya@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1017 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [282] of millions of farmers across india’s vast rural landscape have always been intertwined with our nation’s vision of progress, future, and modernity. contrary to many expectations, agriculture refuses to fade from the national imaginary, even 75 years after independence. agrarian change in india is a book that chronicles the journey of this occupation and its connections with the state, markets, and society in a changing world. the volume is a collection of 23 essays that have previously been published in the economic & political weekly (epw) over 50 years from 1965 to 2019. epw holds a special position within the social sciences in india, not only for being a repository of some of the finest writings and thinking on political economy but also for nurturing sophisticated scholarship on south asia. the essays are divided into five sections: (1) conceptual frames; (2) holding size and land reforms; (3) the green revolution and market edifice; (4) relational structures and transitions, and (5) emergent agrarians. land forms both the base and beginning of agriculture and is the central element of several chapters. economic and proprietary relations around land have been the principal basis for stratification in rural society. chapters authored by pranab bardhan, ronald herring, sucha singh gill, and sheila bhalla, among others, examine the patterns of land ownership and land reforms introduced by the postcolonial state within the broader frames of justice, equity, productivity, and the well-being of cultivators. somewhat paradoxically, scholarly debates on indian agriculture have built upon the insights of the remarkable philosopher of industrial capitalism, karl marx. the “mode of production debate” that unfolded in the pages of epw in the 1970s and 80s remains a staple for every student of india’s rural economy. the fate of farming and the farmers within (and beyond) capitalism—or what came to be known as the agrarian question—is the focus of several chapters by celebrated scholars (daniel thorner, sam moyo, ashok rudra, alice thorner, and barbara harriss-white, among others). markets are another focus area of the volume, in keeping with their centrality to agrarian life. input, output, credit, and labour markets govern farm-level decision-making and determine profits and prospects for economic mobility for farming households. state attempts to regulate or intervene in markets—whether in the form of fertilizer subsidies, export and import tariffs, krishi mandis (farmer markets), or rural employment schemes—are driven by the agrarian political economy, global market forces, as well as a range of economic ideologies. chapters by ramesh chand, richa kumar, mekhala krishnamurthy, and ar vasavi focus on market policies, the green revolution, and their implications for farmer well-being in both regional contexts and at the national level. finally, the [283] das volume draws our attention towards farming communities and social groups engaged in agriculture and the heterogenous regional dynamics that shape the economic trajectories of these communities. power, prosperity, poverty, and precarity are unevenly distributed within indian agriculture, as shown by chapters on the farmer-capitalists of coastal andhra pradesh (carol upadhya); jat farmers of punjab, haryana, and western uttar pradesh (surinder jodhka, jens lerche, anita gill); farm entrepreneurs in gujarat (mario rutten); and migrant, women, and dalit labourers in bihar, west bengal, and uttar pradesh. in its scope and coverage, agrarian change in india is comprehensive, and yet it leaves the reader still desiring a lot more. one wishes that more chapters engaged with questions of ecology, gender, and science and technology. climate and ecological crises are now affecting farming livelihoods in an unprecedented manner, with climate risks increasingly inseparable from the systemic risks of agrarian capitalism (matthan 2023). new technologies such as drones, digital transactions, remote sensing, and genetic modification have also emerged on the agrarian horizon. there is no dedicated chapter on water management, even though canal irrigation, river valley projects, and groundwater extraction are crucial drivers of agrarian change (shah, vijayshankar, and harris 2021). moreover, agrarian change in “marginal” ecosystems and ecologically difficult areas, such as arid zones, uplands, mountains, and forest areas (bakshi, chawla, and shah 2015), remains an understudied phenomenon as the academic focus remains on fertile plains, river valleys, and irrigated tracts. as demonstrated in the earlier vignette from rajasthan, agrarian change also intersects with the processes of urbanization, industrialization, and political conflicts over land and dispossession in contemporary india (levien 2015). articles from epw that focus on some of these themes would have been welcome additions to the volume. these omissions, however, do not detract from the overall value and significance of the volume. surinder jodhka’s introduction provides a comprehensive and insightful discussion on the field of agrarian studies and is particularly helpful in tracing key moments in india’s agrarian history over 200 years. agrarian change in india is an indispensable volume for anyone who wishes to understand indian agriculture and familiarize themselves with the scholarly debates and theoretical developments in this field of study. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [284] references bakshi, sanchita, arunish chawla, and mihir shah. 2015. “regional disparities in india: a moving frontier.” economic and political weekly 50 (1): 44–53. levien, michael. 2015. “from primitive accumulation to regimes of dispossession.” economic and political weekly 50 (22): 146–57. matthan, tanya. 2023. “beyond bad weather: climates of uncertainty in rural india.” the journal of peasant studies 50 (1): 114–135. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2116316. shah, mihir, ps vijayshankar, and francesca harris. 2021. “water and agricultural transformation in india: a symbiotic relationship-i.” economic and political weekly 56 (29): 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2022.2116316 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 223–226, july 2020 in memory karl-göran mäler: the adi-guru of environmental economics saudamini das  karl-göran mäler, one of the most loved and revered environmental economists of the century, passed away on may 20, 2020 in stockholm. born on march 3, 1939 in a small town in västernorrlands county in northern sweden, karl-göran grew up to be one of the most significant ecological economists in the world, contributing enormously to the discipline as well as helping to spread it across the globe. his passing leaves a permanent vacuum in the world. karl-göran was a professor of economics at the stockholm school of economics (1975–2002), a member of the royal swedish academy of sciences (1981–1994), a member of the committee for the sveriges riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of alfred nobel (1982– 1994) and the head of this committee during 1986–87, director of the beijer institute of ecological economics (1991–2006), and then a professor emeritus at this institute. he co-founded beijer institute of ecological economics together with partha dasgupta in 1991. he was one of the founding members and then a council member of the european association for environmental and resource economists (eaere), a recipient of the volvo environment prize in 2002 (shared with partha dasgupta), and a recipient of the european lifetime achievement award in environmental economics in 2005 (shared with david pearce). however, to the ecological economics fraternity, he was a global professor of environmental and resource economics sans boundaries and nationalities.  national bank for agriculture and rural development (nabard) chair professor, institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007, india; saudamini@iegindia.org. copyright © das 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.269 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.269 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [224] karl-göran mäler releasing environmental valuation in south asia at the ―nature, economy and society: understanding the linkages‖ sixth biennial conference of indian society for ecological economics, 20–22 october 2011, centre for economic and social studies (cess), hyderabad. [image courtesy: insee] karl-göran was an original thinker in the field of the environment; he produced seminal works on varied subjects such as pollution, environmental protection, property rights, poverty, theory of sustainable economic development, regime shifts, and irreversibility in natural systems, among others. his first book, environmental economics: a theoretical inquiry (1974) is a foundational volume for environmental economics. this book was published when the field was first evolving and, thus, helped its ideas grow. his books such as environment and development: an economic approach (with jan bojö and lena unemo), economic measurement of environmental damage: a technical handbook (with ronald e. wyzga), various edited volumes (with different colleagues), and many research publications in several top international journals are all significant contributions and speak volumes about his scholarship. his highly influential research ―the acid rain game‖ (1989) was probably the first paper to provide an economic rationale (through a compensatory payment mechanism) to encourage international cooperation to resolve critical transboundary environmental problems. his seminal paper ―national accounts and environmental resources‖, published in environment and resource economics (1991), made a compelling case for incorporating nature in national income accounting. equally revolutionary [225] saudamini das were his lectures on intermediate ecosystem services and the problem of double counting if the value of supporting services is separately accounted for in the total economic value measures of ecosystem services. karl-göran has initiated several pioneering activities; the two worth mentioning are the askö meetings and capacity-building work in the global south. he envisioned that a combination of the two disciplines, economics and ecology, would be necessary to find a sustainable solution to the catastrophic environmental problems in the world. he strengthened this interdisciplinary approach by bringing the world’s leading ecologists and economists under one roof in the famous askö meetings of beijer institute, the deliberations of which are published as the askö series and also in some of the top journals of the world. karl-göran, along with partha dasgupta, initiated network programmes in environmental economics research and teaching in the global south that resulted in the formation of these regional networks: south asian network for environment and developmental economics (sandee), centre for environmental economics and policy in africa (ceepa, previously ranesa), and latin american and caribbean environmental economics program (laceep). these networks provided training through research and training workshops (r&t), mentoring of early-career researchers by globally renowned professors, guidance in proposal and manuscript writing, and so on. they revolutionized environmental economics research and teaching, helped the careers of hundreds of early-career researchers, and transformed perceptions and attitudes towards the environment and environmental policymaking in the global south. in india, sandee was and still is a lifeline for environmental research. karl-göran was attached to sandee and enjoyed great camaraderie with leading indian environmental economists and sandee associates such as kanchan chopra, gopal kadekodi, m. n. murthy, and the late narpat singh jodha, to name a few. he never missed his sandee research and training workshops and summer schools (for as long as he was able to travel), a bond he never shared with others. we, the sandee researchers, would look forward to the opportunity to present our work to him at the r&t workshops, be reprimanded by him, and then work further, day and night, for the next presentation. the r&ts, our real gurukul, have provided us with a strong foundation for our careers and helped us integrate with global research. karl-göran will always remain the father of the environmental economics capacity-building programmes in south asia. as with sandee, karl-göran’s association with the indian society for ecological economics (insee) was equally strong and dear. he delivered a ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [226] keynote address during the sixth insee biennial conference in hyderabad. initially, he was supposed to come to new delhi for a meeting on the government of india’s invitation and then travel to hyderabad. the delhi meeting was eventually cancelled, but karl-göran still travelled to india so that he could keep his promise with insee and meet his indian colleagues at the conference. we will always remember this gracious gesture. on a personal note, two people had a profound impact on his life—his father, karl mäler, and his wife, sara aniyar. his father, born in the nordic forests of sweden, rose to become an elected member of the swedish parliament. karl-göran was a proud son and always kept his father’s lessons close to his heart; even when he was at the care home, he kept his father’s statue with him. karl-göran met sara at a workshop in jamaica and their beautiful life together started then. sara complemented him perfectly and was always by his side; she spent two months in quarantine in the care home with him and karl-göran left for his heavenly abode still holding her hand. i was fortunate to be mentored by karl-göran and to have enjoyed a personal friendship with him and sara while i was a mäler scholar at the beijer institute. i loved visiting museums, exhibitions, historical sites, and eateries with them in stockholm. i was always amazed at the way karlgöran could stand at the corner of a street and narrate interesting stories about the street, the histories of the main buildings, the chronologies of architectural innovations, the evolutions of the famous eating joints in the area, and the exact spot from which he got the best view of the northern lights during his childhood. he was as madly in love with his country, people, and dear city of stockholm as he was with his discipline. his energy, ideas, persistence, and gentle chiding will inspire us for years. references kristrom, bengt, partha dasgupta, and karl gustaf lofgren, eds. 2002. economic theory for the environment: essays in honour of karl-göran mäler. cheltenham: edward elgar. mäler, karl-göran. 1974. environmental economics: a theoretical inquiry. baltimore, published for resources for the future by the johns hopkins university press. mäler, karl-göran. 1989. ―the acid rain game.‖ in valuation methods and policy making in environmental economics, edited by henk folmer and e. van ierland, 231252. elsevier, amsterdam. mäler, karl-göran. 1991. ―national accounts and environmental resources.‖ environmental and resource economics 1 (1): 1–15. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 273-276, july 2023 book review buddhist wisdom for a sustainable world vishal narain ng, ernest c h. 2020. introduction to buddhist economics: the relevance of buddhist values in contemporary economy and society. cham: palgrave macmillan. around 2600 years ago, siddhartha gautama— better known to the world as the buddha, the enlightened one—laid down a path to overcome suffering and attain nibbana—freedom from the eternal cycle of birth, life, and death. introduction to buddhist economics provides a succinct application of this path to reconciling the goals of economic growth and human wellbeing with ecological sustainability, a core concern of ecological economics. the prime concern of buddhist philosophy is the overcoming of  professor, management development institute, gurgaon, haryana, india. vishalnarain@mdi.ac.in copyright © narain 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1087 mailto:vishalnarain@mdi.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1087 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [274] dukkha, translated as suffering, broadly meaning a sense of discontent with one’s circumstances. the four noble truths around which buddhist philosophy is built are the truth of suffering, the cause of suffering (desire), the possibility of overcoming suffering, and the path leading to overcoming suffering (the eight-fold path). from a buddhist perspective, human wellbeing is attained not through the satisfaction of material desires, but through a path of wisdom, ethics, and meditation. these three cornerstones of buddhist practice are encapsulated in the eight-fold path. right view and right intention constitute wisdom; right action, right speech, and right livelihood constitute morality; and right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration constitute meditation. moral discipline is the foundation of the spiritual path—the path leading to happiness and well-being. buddhist morals, however, are persuasive rather than coercive. since all phenomena are governed by cause and effect, our happiness is shaped by how we think, speak, and act in our daily life. three important concepts in buddhist philosophy are dukkha (suffering), anicca (impermanence), and anatta (nonself). the doctrine of anatta emphasizes the lack of a permanent self— objects and phenomena do not exist independently but only as long as the causes and conditions that support them exist. this phenomenon of conditioned arising is encapsulated in the pali word “pratityasamutpada”. the book uses these principles and concepts to outline an approach that helps us overcome the weaknesses of the market economy and secure a congruence among economy, ecology, and society. the book comprises 12 chapters organized into five parts. part i introduces the subject and framework of the book through two chapters, namely, “what is buddhist economics?” and “the four noble truths: a decision-making and problem-solving framework”. each of the subsequent parts discusses the four noble truths as applied to the problems of the market economy. the most common measure of human wellness in the market economy is the level of economic activity (gdp). material production, consumption, and possession are considered essential benchmarks—more is better. this welfare approach, the author argues, is a materialistic approach to human wellness. this is contradicted, for instance, by the easterlin paradox (easterlin 1995) that economic growth as measured by real gdp per capita does not necessarily translate into an increase in reported well-being. a welfare approach to measuring human happiness through gdp has its limitations. it does not consider the impact of income inequality and assumes that we can only observe how people behave and not how they feel. happiness is activity based and related to self-realisation and an orientation towards others: an inner development of the individual, it is a subjectively experienced form of human wellness (ims 2013). [275] narain gdp is therefore considered a poor measure of aggregate or individual happiness and well-being. the author of this book notes that while the market economy is an innovative and efficient mechanism for economic activities, it gives rise to several unintended consequences, represented by short-sighted, profit-oriented, and self-centred decisions. the alternative concept of “gross national happiness”—embraced by countries such as bhutan, which is a buddhist nation—seeks to deviate from materialistic conceptions of economic growth to capture aspects of human well-being, equity, governance, and sustainability. a market economy sees the individual self as the operating entity of the economy. buddhist teachings on anatta and dependent arising (pratityasamutpada) challenge this notion. the doctrine of anatta states that there is no real entity operating. the sense of self to which we are attached in our pursuit of utility maximization is an illusion; it lacks a permanent identity. according to buddhism, that which we consider a “self” is simply a bundle of five aggregates: physical form, feeling, consciousness, intention, and mental formation, each of which transforms from moment to moment, continually. when we try to see a permanent self beyond these five aggregates, we fail to find one. further, the concept of pratityasamutpada reveals our interconnectedness. our happiness and well-being are inseparable from that of other generations. this is an idea closely linked to the concept of sustainability. our well-being is interrelated and interdependent with that of others. this interdependence provides a foundation for the environmental, social, and governance (esg) initiatives of corporate organizations, which urge them to move beyond the narrow, profit-maximising postulates of neo-classical economics and consider the wider implications of their actions for society and ecology. the buddhist approach to work, encapsulated in the idea of “right livelihood”, refers to work that helps others rather than harming them. thus, trade in liquor, flesh, trafficking, or manufacturing arms and ammunition is ruled out. work has an intrinsic meaning; it is not to be seen as a means to satisfy our unlimited desires but as a way of doing good for others. work is an integral part of life—a skilland character-building process. such work creates well-being for the individual and society. the richness and quality of life of human beings can be assured if economic activities meet the test of ecology, future generations, and society (zsolnai 2011). buddhist economics teaches us to derive maximum happiness with minimum possessions—perhaps the best way to reconcile human well ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [276] being with ecological sustainability. happiness that is dependent upon the pursuit of and attachment to outside impermanent consumption is a key source of dukkha. our physical and mental well-being is tied to how we think and act daily. for instance, the keraniyametta sutta, one of the major buddhist texts, lays down the qualities a person should imbibe if he wishes to attain santapadam, a state of calm. likewise, the mangala sutta, or the discourse on blessings, outlines what a person must do to be blessed or happy. buddhist economics thus offers a holistic, enlightened approach that integrates sustainability, equity, and compassion (brown 2017). the key principles of buddhist economics, namely, minimizing the suffering of all sentient beings, simplifying desires, cultivating genuine care and generosity, and reducing desires beyond minimum material comfort can bring sustainable benefits for everyone. the book is an interesting and lucid read for those new to economic theory and buddhism. it systematically introduces readers to the doctrine of buddhism and economic theory and connects the two bodies of work seamlessly thereafter. it adopts what zen buddhism describes as a ‘‘beginner’s mind”. barring a passing reference in chapter 12, one subject that receives relatively scant attention is the differences between different buddhist schools—notably, mahayana and theravada—in espousing these principles. except for that minute limitation, it succinctly explores a pragmatic solution to the daunting ecological crisis confronting humanity. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references brown, clair. 2017. buddhist economics: an enlightened approach to the dismal science. new york: bloomsbury publishing. easterlin, richard a. 1995. “will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?” journal of economic behaviour and organization 27 (1): 35–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(95)00003-b. ims, knut j. 2013. “from welfare to well-being and happiness.” in handbook of business ethics: ethics in the new economy, edited by laszlo zsolnai, 217–48. oxford: peter lang academic publishers. zsolnai, laszlo. 2011. “buddhist economics.” in handbook of spirituality and business, edited by luk bouckaert and laszlo zsolnai, 88–94. london: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321458_11. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(95)00003-b https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230321458_11 ecology, economy, and society–the insee journal 6(2): 277-280, july 2023 book review the challenges of climate change and community resilience m. n. murty* a.k. enamul haque, pranab mukhopadhyay, mani nepal, and md rumi shammin, (editors). 2022. climate change and community resilience: insights from south asia. singapore: springer nature. this timely and important edited volume is dedicated to professor karal-goran maler (1939–2020), who, along with professor sir partha dasgupta of cambridge university, founded the south asian network for development and environmental economics (sandee). the volume consists of 29 chapters organized into 8 thematic sections, featuring contributions from 70–odd authors affiliated with sandee. their scholarly focus is on exploring how various communities belonging to rural and urban ecosystems in south asia attempt to tackle climate change challenges by developing long-term resilience * professor rtd. institute of economic growth, delhi, india. sandee and insee fellow. mn.murty71@gmail.com copyright © murty 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1045 mailto:mn.murty71@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1045 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [278] capacities. as is now well-documented, climate change has dramatically altered and stressed a wide range of ecosystems. the global rise in average temperatures has led to unprecedented glacial melt, a rise in sea levels, a steep increase in cyclones, and changes in rainfall patterns. communities across the world are exploring adaptation and mitigation strategies to minimise losses in the short and long run, respectively. moreover, given the sheer scale and rapidity with which extreme weather events have begun to impact livelihoods and threaten the subsistence of a vast number of communities, there is an urgent need for studies that can take stock of the challenges and explore adaptation strategies and coping responses. in addressing these issues, the volume under review attempts to discuss how community-based resilience strategies are being implemented in parts of south asia. the volume emphasises the community-based adaptation (cba) strategies that appear to be evolving are bottom-up, participatory, and place-specific, and aimed at taking care of the needs of community members. the essays, in particular, take up the study of cba strategies in both rural and urban ecosystems. several elements of the cba—such as traditional knowledge and technological options for adaptation and coping with disasters—are subjected to scrutiny across the volume. alternative livelihood options for rural communities are also discussed, along with a careful assessment of institutional or government support for assisting communities to achieve resilience capacities. the essays also point out that field-based studies can unequivocally confirm that rainfall patterns are indeed changing and have begun to affect rural communities in several south asian countries. given such increasing uncertainties, communities are being forced to figure out strategies to adapt to recurring flooding or water scarcity. in several instances such as in bhutan, farmers have shifted from maize to rice and then from modern to traditional varieties of rice. similarly, farmers in pakistan have chosen to elevate their houses in order to keep stored foods safe from the growing number of flood shocks. in the south indian state of kerala, local communities have repaired damaged bunds, worked on restoring soil quality, and developed wider supply networks to achieve resilience and ensure that they still have access to much-needed farm inputs during periods of extreme flooding. in other parts of south india, on the other hand, wells have been deepened to cope with water scarcity. in nepal, farmers in the mountainous zones are actively involved in building rainwater harvesting structures besides also changing their crop mix from [279] murty water-intensive, traditional cereal crops to vegetables. in sri lanka, it is noted that small-tank cascading systems containing several types of tanks have now become critical to consolidating local resilience. these tanks appear to provide direct and indirect agricultural benefits such as water for irrigation, fisheries, and livestock; flood prevention; and control of soil erosion. the volume includes several case studies on the theme of indigenous technologies for cba. in bangladesh, floating agriculture contributes to farmers’ resilience against water logging and floods. bandallings, a traditional structure made of locally available wood, are frequently deployed to protect river banks from erosion. some studies indicate that the increased uptake of solar energy, forest conservation efforts, and the provision of the option of liquefied petroleum gas (lpg) for cooking in india and bangladesh have contributed to the significant reduction in co2 emissions. many south asian countries, the volume informs, are working towards developing more robust institutions to manage climate change–related disasters like cyclones, storm surges, and floods. in bangladesh, for instance, there are several government and ngo initiatives for coordinating efforts at national, subnational, and local levels for disaster management. similar initiatives are present in other countries, including india. one of the essays points out that in the bid to reduce storm damage in coastal areas in india, the role of mangroves has come in for new appreciation. mangroves often blunt the impact of strong winds and thereby help reduce the loss of life and property in coastal zones that regularly face cyclones. in view of these benefits, the government should provide incentives to coastal communities for the conservation of mangroves and avoid turning them into shrimp farms for commercial profits or deforesting them for fuel wood. in an essay on the broader theme of disaster risk reduction, saudami das (chapter 17), estimates that a mangrove forest of one-kilometre width in the study area could save as much as ₹ 3,339,166 for the economy and ₹ 3,968 from reduced liability to the government. in the urban context, several efforts to achieve cba have aimed at the ecofriendly management of solid waste, urban sewage, and drainage. studies on urban waste management in nepal show that providing randomized intervention for information and sensitization on waste management resulted in cleaner neighbourhoods. household surveys show that people are willing to pay more for better solid waste management. in bangladesh, women are at the centre of waste management in a typical urban household. muntaha, nabila, and haque’s case study (chapter 24) shows how women’s ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [280] awareness about segregating waste at home results in the better management of city waste and thereby helps avoid water logging. in another study on india, sharma, brahmbhatt, and panchal (chapter 22) highlight the role of participatory and decentralized institutions to show how urban poor and women from low-income households can be mobilized for climate change actions through the creation of community action groups (cags). due to acute drinking water shortages caused by the drying up of natural springs—which has been attributed to climate change—several conservation efforts in the himalayan towns of nepal have focussed on upstream dwellers (water service providers) who can improve the drinking water supply for downstream dwellers (water users). a voluntary agreement between water service users and water providers for the payment of conservation efforts of providers (payment for ecosystem services) could ensure regular water supply to the urban dwellers downstream. finally, the book discusses alternative livelihood options for the communities of south asia’s climate change–affected rural ecosystems. for example, in bhutan, community tourism benefits have been shown to help rural households when agriculture and other income sources are affected by climate change. in sum, this edited volume provides valuable and instructive case studies to help us understand and take stock of the growing challenges that climate change impacts have brought about in south asia. the essays, which are mostly fieldwork–based studies, are empirically rich and provide compelling ground–level evidence. they enable us to debate and discuss the various complexities involved in studying resilience. this edited collection will be useful to students, interdisciplinary researchers, policymakers, and those interested in the climate change debate in south asia. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 215–218, july 2020 report a report on the insee-cess international conference on “climate change and disasters: challenges, opportunities, and responses” jeena t. srinivasan  the tenth biennial conference of the indian society for ecological economics (insee) on climate change and disasters: challenges, opportunities and responses was organized jointly with and hosted by the centre for economic and social studies (cess), hyderabad, in partnership with the deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit gmbh (giz, india) and the national institute of rural development and panchayati raj (nirdpr). it took place in hyderabad during november 6–8, 2019. in the context of the increased risk of climate-related natural disasters such as floods, heatwaves, and storms, both predicted by scientific studies and recently experienced in different parts of the world and india, the objectives of the conference were to discuss the following: what are the likely impacts of climate change on human and natural systems? how will climate change affect different sectors and sections of society? what are the alternative policy options to address the risks that climate change and extreme weather events pose? the three-day conference comprised discussions on these issues across various plenary, panel, and technical sessions in addition to inaugural and valedictory sessions. springer nature also organized a special session on ethical publishing. the conference received considerable media coverage and hosted over 200 delegates, including a few from abroad.  centre for economic and social studies, n. o. campus, begumpet, hyderabad 500016, telangana, india; secretary, insee (2018–20); organizing secretary, tenth biennial conference of insee; jeena@cess.ac.in. copyright © srinivasan 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.121 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.121 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [216] in the inaugural address, vinod thomas (former senior vice president, world bank) noted that india and south and southeast asia are not only highly vulnerable with regards the climate crisis, but are also ill-prepared to handle it. this was the perfect start to the conference, and it set the pace for the deliberations that followed. thomas opined that countries must be prepared to tackle disasters, develop and adopt measures to reduce risks and exposure, and build resilience within the next few years. in his presidential address, k. n. ninan (president, insee) gave an illuminating presentation on the growth and development of ecological economics in india, and on climate change and disasters from an indian perspective. the inaugural session also featured speeches by the representatives of the collaborating organizations, who reflected on climate change issues, possible solutions, information needs, decentralized approaches, and civil society initiatives aimed at mitigation and adaptation. there was also a video message from clóvis cavalcanti (president, isee), which was played at the conference. the conference had five illuminating keynote addresses by distinguished scholars on specific sub-themes. rajeev ahal (giz, india) talked about the need to improve water security, climate resilience, and efficiency of water use in agriculture and industry. he emphasized the need for cooperation between the private and public sectors to ensure the integrated climateadapted management of water. kirit parikh (integrated research and action for development/irade, new delhi), who spoke on the need to develop a low carbon strategy for inclusive growth, emphasized that india should focus on renewable energies and link inclusive growth requirements with factors like housing, drinking water supply, sanitation, education, healthcare, electrification, provision of cooking gas, the infant mortality rate (imr), and fertility. taking a more global perspective, thomas sterner (university of gothenburg, sweden) spoke about the twin issues of climate policy efficiency and fairness/feasibility, and the policy instruments needed to prevent worsening of the environment. in his talk on climate change, forests, and biodiversity, n. h. ravindranath (indian institute of science/iisc, bengaluru) pointed out an increase in tree mortality, ecosystem disturbances, and the effects of climate-related extremes; he stressed that many ecosystems are more vulnerable than humans. madhu verma (indian institute of forest management/iifm, bhopal) presented the economic value of the ecosystem services of 16 tiger reserves in india using a value plus approach, and emphasized the use of valuation to justify enhancing investments in conservation. [217] jeena t srinivasan the conference had 10 engaging and thought-provoking panel discussions. while one panel discussed the complex interlinkages of water with other critical systems such as food, energy, and the economy, and how integrated water resources management (iwrm) can contribute to climate resilience, another showed the importance of hazard vulnerability maps and planning for disaster resilient cities. the third panel discussed how cities in countries like nepal and bangladesh were coping with hydro-meteorological events and floods, and the role of hard and soft interventions in mitigating such disasters. a fourth panel discussed the efficacy of local self-governance and the climate change action plans initiated by panchayats in kerala, india. another panel discussed martin weitzman’s contributions to environmental economics and his seminal works on climate catastrophes. the contribution of the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) to climate mitigation and adaptation in terms of carbon sequestration was the theme deliberated by the sixth panel. the seventh panel discussed the quantitative methods used to assess climate change impacts on agriculture, and the eighth panel considered climate change and mitigation in rainfed areas. building climate resilience through the restoration of common lands was the theme considered by the ninth panel. the last panel discussed the findings of a climate change vulnerability assessment in the indian himalayan region, which experiences frequent floods, storms, and landslides; women and children in this region are amongst the most vulnerable. another highlight was the outreach event organized by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) in partnership with insee. the ipcc authors presented the special reports of the ipcc and the ongoing ar6 (sixth assessment report). there were presentations on the physical and scientific bases for climate systems, climate models, and projections; the impact of global warming and the importance of mitigation activities for achieving the sustainable development goals; land management and the interaction of the atmosphere with land resources; and, finally, the effects of climate change on marine life and coastal livelihoods. further, 56 papers contributed by participants were presented in 12 technical sessions. some papers discussed the macroeconomic dimensions of climate change, including fiscal transfers and the political economy of disaster management. others discussed gender issues, food security, and the sustainable development goals. a few papers analysed the effects of floods, recovery patterns, and the effectiveness of early warning systems, and highlighted the role of the state and civil society. others attempted to quantify the damage caused by floods and the risks at the community level ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [218] and on the ecosystem. there were also papers on environmental and climate justice, institutional interventions, agricultural adaptations to climate change, and the role of mgnrega in building the adaptive capacity of rural communities, renewable energy, and infrastructure to mitigate climate change impacts. gopal kadekodi (former president, insee), in his valedictory address, spoke about the dynamic interlinkages between ecosystem services and their stakeholders, and the need for changes in climate strategy. for their outstanding contributions to ecological economics, insee conferred the lifetime achievements award on c. h. hanumantha rao; the title of insee fellow on m. n. murty, ramprasad sengupta, and madhu verma; and the bina agarwal prize for ecological economics to joan martinez-alier. public lectures by insee members were organized in three reputed institutions in hyderabad as curtain-raiser events. a pre-conference workshop on “behavioural and environmental economics” and a postconference workshop in association with the south asian network for development and environmental economics (sandee) on “non-market valuation of environmental goods and services”, each attended by 35–40 participants, also took place. overall, the conference was rich in terms of the variety of topics covered as well as in participation. the delegates had many opportunities to engage in academic and social interactions and to build their networks. the cultural event showcasing telangana folk dances and culture added colour to the conference, and the sumptuous menu included organic, millet-based ethnic food. the conference received generous financial and in-kind support from various governmental and non-governmental organizations. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 77–80, april 2018 conversations 1: climate change fiscal measures when climate negotiations are not feasible thomas sterner  peak oil is not a real problem but a very instructive model. if we were running out of fossil fuels, as the peak oil people claim, what would happen? well, fossil resources have owners; so, recognizing the impending scarcity, they would raise prices and we would simply be faced with a high and rising price. this is natural resource economics 101. a high price acts to stimulate alternatives, savings, and efficiency and, in turn, overcome scarcity so that we never run out of resources. once, in the 1980s, the club of rome discussed running out of metals like lead. that never happened—because of the price mechanism. economics works in the case of ‘peak oil issues’. however, the price mechanism does not always work—for example, when there are no property rights, the market mechanism cannot operate. this is the case of climate change—when we burn oil, we also use the assimilative capacity of the ecosystem to deal with carbon dioxide, which is scarce, but has no owner. therefore, the real problem is not scarcity of oil but the stability of the atmosphere at a carbon content that keeps the climate in a state that is tolerable for humans (watson 2018). people ask: why do we not just mandate renewables and efficiency investments? but how is the ordinary housewife, carpenter, or tata engineer going to know exactly how much insulation to use or exactly what technology to buy if there is no price signal to guide them? the world needs a high and rising price signal for fossil fuel, but we are forced to create this  university of gothenburg, 405 30 gothenburg, sweden; thomas.sterner@economics.gu.se copyright © sterner 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.18 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.18 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] signal through political agreements at the international level. we can estimate the necessary size. if the economy were to grow by 6 per cent per year and we need to cut emissions by 2 per cent per year (around 50 per cent in 40 years), then it is necessary to increase the real price by 10 per cent per year. this is the simple part. it is the implementation that is complicated—not because of the underlying science, but because sovereign states must negotiate, and they do not agree on the distribution of burdens. during the decade from the signing of the kyoto protocol in 1997 until the copenhagen summit in 2009 (the 15th convention of parties to the united nations framework convention on climate change), world policymaking focused on quantitative targets. the kyoto protocol established legally binding commitments for the reduction of various greenhouse gases (ghg)—such as carbon dioxide (co2), methane, and nitrous oxide— produced by annex i nations as well as vaguer commitments for all member countries. with various exceptions, one strong norm for setting individual country commitments was ‘grandfathering’—the notion that future emission rights should be in proportion to past emissions. another way of saying this is that a certain baseline was set and uniform percentage reductions were required from that baseline. grandfathering is not ethically acceptable for all parties. still, it has been a starting point for negotiations.1 in these negotiations, low-income countries regularly claim lower reductions or even increases in emissions to compensate for the fact that they have ‘not yet’ reached some level of desirable ‘development’ (desai 2018). india has even suggested that historically accumulated emissions should be equalized, which would mean that countries that were early to industrialize, like the uk, would already have ‘used up’ their emission rights. low-income countries typically argue for equal per capita allocations (accumulated either over time or annually). the trouble is that many developed economies do not find even the requirement of equal emissions per capita and per year acceptable. consider the two large countries with the most extreme positions: the us and india. table 1 shows a ‘world’ consisting of just two countries: the us and india. the first column shows approximate emission levels for india and the us 1 under the kyoto protocol, industrialized countries were supposed to reduce their total ghg emissions by 5.2 per cent compared to 1990, but national limitations on reduction ranged from 8 per cent for the european union and some others, to 7 per cent for the us, and 6 per cent for japan. russia was not required to reduce emissions at all. some countries, such as australia and iceland, were allowed to increase emissions. thus, grandfathering was not applied exactly or strictly on all countries (in which all countries were required to make exactly the same reductions), but it formed the norm or baseline from which some small adjustments were made. [79] thomas sterner table 1: allocation by grandfathering or by per capita allocation country current grandfathering per capita us 5400 2700 1000 india 2000 1000 2700 total 7400 3700 3700 source: world bank (2018) in 2012 with a total of 9,400 metric tons of co2-equivalent. now, the world needs to cut total emissions by 50 per cent quite quickly. with grandfathered rights, both countries would have to reduce their emissions by 50 per cent. that would, of course, preserve the inequality, as the us— despite having a much smaller population than india—has always used more than twice as much carbon as india. this appears very unfair to many people, and generally unacceptable to india, which would prefer at least equal per capita emissions. equal per capita emissions would make for very different allocations, since india has over 17 per cent of the world’s population and the us just over 4 per cent (since we are dealing with future population numbers, the numbers are not exact or certain). under this allocation, india could increase its emissions somewhat, while the us would have to reduce emissions by 85 per cent rather than by 50 per cent. this might satisfy some people’s fairness criteria, but it is so unacceptable to the us that it will never happen. country positions as far apart as those of india and the us can become a true impediment for dialogue, since it is almost better for each party to feign disinterest in any discussion than to risk compromising its position in a bilateral negotiation. earlier negotiations over global commons issues, such as the law of the sea, took many decades of negotiations before the current laws were agreed on and codified. the trouble is that this time, with the climate, we simply do not have so many decades—it is imperative that we start reducing emissions very soon. naturally, a fair solution would have been best. but if fairness is not achievable and the alternative is severe climate change, guess who will be the most affected? unfortunately, it will again be india, which is so hot that an extra 5°c will cause tremendous damage. it is in this context that the suggestions to negotiate taxes instead of quantities should be seen. a green tax reform would not imply major costs to india. the indian state has to tax something to earn revenue. taxing fossil fuels may be preferable to taxing income or property or levying a value-added tax, as all of these have substantial problems of introducing wedges in the economy or leading to practical resistance. the revenue from taxing fossil fuels would stay in india and help lower other taxes and oil imports and benefit the booming ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] renewables industry. so, a fossil fuel tax would benefit countries that import fossil fuels and that have renewable energy potential. if all countries tax fossil fuels, climate change might be sufficiently mitigated, and no country will lose because all businesses will face high carbon prices everywhere. the playing field will be level. such a tax reform will have a negative cost in many countries. instead of taxing productive inputs or mobile resources—such as technology, which we need to encourage—we should tax fossil fuels, which have negative health and environmental consequences. a common critique is that this would hurt the poor, but that does not mean this critique is correct. in fact, it appears to come from fossil fuel lobbyists. in reality, in low-income countries, mainly the relatively affluent consume fossil fuels. in society, the poor have a lower consumption share in their budget for fuel compared to the richer deciles; thus, a fossil fuel tax is much better for the poor than a value added tax or other, more general taxes. references world bank. 2018. “total greenhouse gas emissions (kt of co2 equivalent).” accessed online at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.ghgt.kt.ce?locations=in-us ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 83–86, april 2018 conversations 2: forest conservation revisiting canons and dogmas in the conservationversus-human rights debate asmita kabra  the conservation-versus-human rights debate typically positions ecologists and conservationists against social scientists and human rights activists (rangarajan and shahabuddin 2010). i argue that recent research in the natural and social sciences invites us to revisit entrenched mythologies, canons, and dogmas on both sides. the moral imperative of biodiversity conservation and protection of endangered species resonates with most people, as does the importance of protecting the rights of vulnerable people. to understand the spaces of agreement and dissent, it is important to disentangle the twin moral imperatives of conservation and social justice from the canons and dogmas informing conservation, actual conservation strategies, and the outcomes for humans and non-human species. the core premise of protected areas-based conservation is that human presence in ‘pristine’ or ‘wilderness’ areas is detrimental to biodiversity (karanth 2018). this canon of human disturbance has underpinned the creation of ‘inviolate’ protected areas as the preferred strategy for biodiversity conservation worldwide, and also underlies optional strategies like participatory conservation, ‘sustainable landscapes’ (karanth 2018), as well as the ‘land-sparing’ arguments of more recent vintage (phalan et al. 2011). the rate of creation of protected areas has accelerated in the twentyfirst century as part of a global consensus under the united nations convention on biological diversity (uncbd).  school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, delhi 110006; asmita@aud.ac.in copyright © kabra 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] millions of the world’s poorest people depend on protected areas for vital ecosystem services, and are disproportionately impacted by the exclusionary nature of conservation, since it is inherently a ‘place’-based activity. restrictions on poor peoples’ access to resources in protected areas underpin the conservation-versus-human rights debate. agencies have shifted towards using conservation strategies that are more participatory, but allegations of loss of livelihoods and lifeworlds of peoples dependent on protected areas remain widespread and well documented (adams et al. 2004). the strongest critiques of the canon of human disturbance have emerged from within the ecological sciences, in which the multiple meanings of conservation are being debated today (sandbrook 2015). several ecologists argue that not all human use of natural landscapes can be counted as ‘disturbance’; the nature and scale of human interventions matter. small-scale use of resources by local communities for subsistence or commercial purposes must be distinguished from large-scale extraction for corporate profit (malm 2015). second, human use of protected areas is not equally detrimental to all species (persha et al. 2011). co-inhabiting a landscape with humans may be easier for leopards or lions than for tigers or elephants (bhatnagar 2009; odden et al. 2014), although it is important to differentiate coexistence from co-occurrence. third, the impact of human use on particular species should be distinguished from its impacts on communities of species and on entire ecosystems. lastly, human interventions like fire management and livestock grazing may be critical in maintaining the structure and functions of ecosystems like grasslands (saberwal 1996), even though overuse may cause long-term damage. evidence of incremental conservation gains from reduction or elimination of human use is scant, mainly because these gains have been assumed rather than demonstrated. available evidence of biodiversity gains from fortress conservation usually does not consider the cascading impacts of exclusion on the landscape to which, for instance, people evicted from protected areas are moved. another unknown is how localized conservation successes through the establishment of protected areas compare against the widespread losses of biodiversity due to untrammelled urbanization and economic growth. in today’s globalized world, resources flow continually between inviolate, less intensively used, and intensively used landscapes, but it is ignored in the [85] asmita kabra ‘sustainable landscapes’ approach cited by karanth (2018). these critiques are shared by ecologists as well as social scientists. interdisciplinary research in human-dominated landscapes, including urban areas and ‘novel ecosystems’, calls for nuancing the conservation-versushuman rights debate further. protected areas-based conservation theory assumes that once human use is restricted or eliminated, ecosystems revert automatically to their original ‘pristine’ state, but restoration ecology research highlights that ecosystem recovery from human ‘disturbance’ happens neither automatically nor immediately. for ‘vacated’ landscapes to start supporting non-invasive flora and fauna, significant long-term human interventions are required (babu et al. 2009). the choice, here, is not between inviolate versus managed protected areas but between different management regimes. social science critiques of the canon of fortress conservation include work by environmental historians who show that protected areas are not ‘pristine’ landscapes but historically shaped by human agency. political ecologists questioning the nature-culture binary argue that ‘wilderness’ areas are, in fact, socially constructed and continue to be shaped by deeply political processes (peluso and vandergeest 2001). those in power often abuse the dogma of fortress conservation to extend control over territories and resources through ‘green-grabbing’ (fairhead et al. 2012). anthropological research on forest-dependent people has strongly questioned the canon of the ‘noble savage’. indigenous and other individuals and communities that depend on natural resources are neither intrinsically conservationist nor necessarily isolated and remote remnants of a more equitable, harmonious, and sustainable past (sinha et al. 1997). abundant empirical evidence exists about dynamic social changes in these societies, diversity of resource use, increased mobility, and aspirations for modernity. i agree with karanth (2018) about the need for robust, evidence-backed strategies as opposed to faith-based claims. social scientists, ecologists, conservationists, and activists working for the rights of humans and nonhuman species must strive to free the conservation-development debate from false canons, dogmas, and mythologies. value plurality and defensible science are essential for opening new dialogic spaces and finding workable strategies to save humans and non-human species from destruction. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] references adams w.m., r. aveling, d. brockington, b. dickson, j. elliott, j. hutton, d. roe, b. vira and w. wolmer. 2004. “biodiversity conservation and the eradication of poverty.” science 306 (5699): 1146–1149. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097920 babu, s., a. love, and c. r. babu. 2009. “ecological restoration of lantanainvaded landscapes in corbett tiger reserve, india.” ecological restoration 27 (4): 467–477. https://doi.org/10.3368/er.27.4.467 bhatnagar, y.v. 2008. “relocation from wildlife reserves in the greater and trans-himalayas: is it necessary?” conservation and society 6 (3): 263–270. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.49219 fairhead, j., m. leach, and i. scoones. 2012. “green grabbing: a new appropriation of nature?” journal of peasant studies 39 (2): 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.671770 karanth, k. ullas. 2018 (forthcoming). “reconciling rights of individuals with rights of wild species.” ecology, economy and society 1(1) [this volume]. malm, a. 2015. “the anthropocene myth.” accessed january 2018. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/anthropocene-capitalism-climate-change/ odden, m., v. athreya, s. rattan, and j.d.c. linnell. 2014. “adaptable neighbours: movement patterns of gps-collared leopards in human dominated landscapes in india.” plos one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0112044 peluso, n., and p. vandergeest. 2001. “genealogies of the political forest and customary rights in indonesia, malaysia and thailand.” journal of asian studies 60 (3): 761–812. https://doi.org/10.2307/2700109 persha, l., a. agrawal, and a. chhatre. 2011. “social and ecological synergy: local rulemaking, forest livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation.” science 331 (6024): 1606–1608. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199343 phalan, b., m. onial, a. balmford, and r.e. green. 2011. “reconciling food production and biodiversity conservation: land sharing and land sparing compared.” science 333 (6047): 1289–1291. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208742 rangarajan, m., and g. shahabuddin. 2010. “displacement and relocation from protected areas: towards a biological and historical synthesis.” conservation & society 4 (3): 359–378. saberwal, v. k. 1996. “pastoral politics: gaddi grazing, degradation, and biodiversity conservation in himachal pradesh, india.” conservation biology 10 (3): 741–749. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10030741.x sandbrook, c. 2015. “what is conservation?” oryx 49 (4): 565–566. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0030605315000952 sinha, s., s. gururani, and b. greenberg. 1997. “the “new traditionalist” discourse of indian environmentalism.” journal of peasant studies 24 (3): 65–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159708438643 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097920 https://doi.org/10.3368/er.27.4.467 https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-4923.49219 https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2012.671770 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0112044 https://doi.org/10.2307/2700109 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199343 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208742 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10030741.x https://doi.org/10.1017/s0030605315000952 https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159708438643 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 87–90, april 2018 conversations 2: forest conservation reconciling rights of individuals with rights of wild species k. ullas karanth  some animal rights advocates argue that each individual animal of any species, domestic or wild, must enjoy the same rights as an individual human being. beckoff (2013) presents a bouquet of arguments for such ‘compassionate conservation’. this extreme position is unlikely to be useful in practice; so, i sidestep it in this brief article. science-based conservation must address its primary goal of recovering endangered wild species. however, conservationists are also occasionally compelled to eradicate harmful species and even kill individuals of rare species (such as man-eating tigers). they must also deal with the harvest and use of some wild species. within such a scientific framework, species conservation can be defined as promotion of the ‘rights’ of wild species, thus embracing the issue of compassion at some level. unlike human individuals, however, all wild species cannot enjoy equal rights. scientific attributes, such as rarity and degree of endangerment, fuse with social values, like utility and cultural appeal, to determine the conservation priority for each species. however, modern science shows that, now, wild nature needs urgent recovery assistance for our own good. such utilitarian arguments, based on the economic value of nature, are now accepted globally, and this acceptance is at the core of the consensus around the need for ‘sustainable development’, which includes ‘conservation’.  director for science-asia, wildlife conservation society, bronx, new york-10460, usa & centre for wildlife studies, 224, rajnigandha, 21, vittal mallya rd., bengaluru-560001, india; ukaranth@gmail.com copyright © karanth 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.21 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.21 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] population of the resource-hungry homo sapiens is expected to plateau at 10 billion by 2050. for achieving this transient evolutionary success, humans have outcompeted and extirpated many other wildlife species, and even other hominins (harari 2011). during the anthropocene, extending over the last 10,000 years, we humans have enforced our rights as individuals quite ruthlessly over all other species. the scientific evidence for humandriven extirpations, range collapses, and species recovery in nature reserves is abundant and compelling (barnosky et al. 2011; dirzo et al. 2014; karanth et al. 2010) —contrary to the repetitive assertions of kabra (2018) and the supportive citations therein. the indian subcontinent has a 60,000-year history of successive waves of human colonization, each of which possessed greater technological mastery over wild nature. invasive application of fire, agriculture, animal husbandry, and—more recently—industry have shrunk areas that still harbour somewhat intact natural animal-plant assemblages (not ‘pristine’) to less than 10 per cent of the land. these ‘natural landscapes’ now cover less than half of even the public reserved forest estate. the rest has been lost, to primarily agricultural expansion and secondarily industrial-urban expansion (shyam sunder and parmeshwarappa 2014). this wholesale landscape modification by humans using fire, axe, and plough and by the over-hunting of wild animals has led to species extirpations and massive range collapses (barnosky et al. 2011; dirzo et al. 2014; karanth et al. 2010). conspicuous examples of such extirpation of ‘species rights’ by humans in india include the cheetah, javan and sumatran rhinos, banteng, and the pink-headed duck. other threatened species such as the lion, indian rhino, tiger, elephant, and the great indian bustard have been evicted from over 90 per cent of their former ranges, belying claims of a prior harmonious coexistence (kabra 2018). undoubtedly, many less charismatic species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have suffered a similar fate. the rights of individuals of a single species, homo sapiens, have massively ‘trumped’—i cannot think of a better word—the rights of entire wild species. if preservation of endangered species is accepted as a ‘moral’ imperative (kabra 2018), it is hard to justify the further expansion of destructive human domination into the remaining 3–4 per cent of land now set aside as a refuge for extinction-prone species. some animal species can coexist with specific human land uses and cultural practices, but that fact does not negate the need to reduce negative human impacts on many other endangered species. [89] k. ullas karanth evolving a societal response to redress this imbalance between human rights and ‘rights’ of threatened species requires serious thought, whether from a ‘utilitarian’ perspective or ‘moral’ one. many of the assumptions that underlie emancipatory laws, such as the forest rights act, do not even recognize—let alone address—real problems involved in protecting ‘species rights’. their human rights-based frame enables them to escape this responsibility using unsupported assumptions. such faith-based assumptions include the idea that wild species are not impacted by the increase in human population density, which is accompanied by the doubling of life expectancy; reduction in poverty; and the consequent, rising demand for more animal protein, water, sanitation, and healthcare. such assumptions ignore also the impacts of changing technology and culture, such as the demand for motorized draft power and transport and for access to modern healthcare, education, electricity, and mass communication. the promotion of putative, ‘traditionally harmonious’ coexistence of threatened (and, sometimes, dangerous) animal species with societies under such market-linked demographic transitions, inside 4 per cent of land designated for wildlife protection, is unlikely to enhance the welfare of either. another formula employed to avoid the contradictions between achieving human emancipation and nature conservation has been the mantra of ‘sustainable development’, which no one can criticize prima facie. conservation thinker john robinson (1993) has robustly critiqued its underlying conflation of ‘conservation’ (saving other species) with ‘development’ (making life better for our own species) and its ignoring inherent contradictions. i think his alternative proposal (robinson 1993) for ‘sustainable landscapes’ offers a better framework to address these all-tooreal contradictions. the scheme is formulated for terrestrial habitats and argues for setting aside and spatially separating landscapes for (1) strict nature protection, (2) non-intensive uses at low human densities, and (3) intensive agriculture and industry. undoubtedly, application of the ‘sustainable landscapes’ model to specific countries and regions will present many scientific challenges, and depend on evolving social and political consensuses at the right spatial scales. nevertheless, i believe such an approach is more likely to work than the options of a luddite escape into an imagined past or an uncritical conflation of ‘conservation’ and ‘development’. the concept of sustainable landscapes stands firmly on defensible science. it does not wish away social aspirations for economic and technological ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] progress. hopefully, it can mediate better than other proposed alternatives, between the conflicting rights of wild species and individual humans. references barnosky, anthony d., nicholas matzke, susumu tomiya, guinevere o. u. wogan, brian swartz, tiago b. quental, charles marshall, jenny l. mcguire, emily l. lindsey, kaitlin c. maguire, ben mersey and elizabeth a. ferrer. 2011. “has the earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?” nature 471: 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 bekoff, marc,.ed. 2013. ignoring nature no more: the case for compassionate conservation. chicago: university of chicago press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226925363.001.0001 dirzo, r., hillary s. young, mauro galetti, gerardo ceballos, nick j. b. isaac and ben collen. 2014. “defaunation in the anthropocene.” science 345: 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1251817 harari y.n. 2011. sapiens: a brief history of humankind. london: vintage books. kabra, a. 2018. “revisiting canons and dogmas in the conservation-versus-human welfare debate.” ecology, economy and society 1 (1): 83-86. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20 karanth krithi k., james d. nichols, k. ullas karanth, james e. hines and norman l. christensen, jr.2010. “the shrinking ark: patterns of large mammal extinctions in india.” proceedings of the royal society of london, b: biological sciences 277: 1971–1979. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0171 robinson j.g. 1993. “limits to caring: sustainable living and the loss of biodiversity.” conservation biology 7: 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.15231739.1993.07010020.x shyam sunder s. and parameswarappa s. 2014. forest conservation concerns in india. dehra dun: m/s bishen singh mahendra pal singh. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226925363.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1251817 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0171 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07010020.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07010020.x ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 179–183, july 2020 notes from the field himal rakshaks of sikkim: the burden of being the flag-bearers of community-based conservation rashmi singh  1. introduction in october 2017, one of my respondents, karma, an ex-herder in west sikkim, made a statement: “people who keep animals are much more concerned for the himal (mountains) here than the himal rakshaks (the honorary guardians of mountains); just because we do not go and pick up plastic from the mountains (i.e., support the conservation agency driven mountain cleaning campaign) or wear t-shirts with conservation slogans does not make us the destroyers and them the protectors.” karma’s father used to live in the temperate and alpine regions of khangchendzonga national park (knp) and khangchendzonga biosphere reserve (kbr) for a large part of the year as part of the seasonal movement necessary for yak herding. his son and other family members would accompany him to the forest during the summer; the entire family would stay in the pastures and help with the day-to-day tasks associated with livestock management. but in 1998, a grazing ban policy was formulated by the government of sikkim, and pastoral communities were removed from knp and kbr between 2002 and 2004. my research project in sikkim focussed on a wide range of questions about historical and recent changes in traditional pasture management. however, during the field study, the himal rakshaks (hrs) repeatedly surfaced in my  school of human ecology, dr. b r ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmere gate, delhi – 110006; rashmi89singh@gmail.com. copyright © singh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.110 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.110 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [180] interactions with local communities. but who are these people? and what made them subject to the anger of the ex-herders of west sikkim? this article examines the contentions that surround the hrs in west sikkim, as epitomized by karma’s statement. based on my ethnographic research, i show how the honour associated with being an hr is locally contested and influences the everyday lives of the hrs. while conservation initiatives may benefit biodiversity conservation, they may also have farreaching societal consequences for local actors, particularly those who become the “face” of conservation initiatives. it is paramount to pay attention to these consequences, as they may perpetuate or reproduce social inequalities or systematic exclusion and, in some cases, further ecological harm. 2. rangeland conservation and the himal rakshaks while the resource management practices of pastoral societies can be considered as adaptations to regional and climatic conditions (behnke and scoones 1992; niamir-fuller 1999; scoones 1994), conservation plans in high-altitude rangelands are still based on the principles of the equilibrium model of rangeland management. the equilibrium paradigm assumes that rangeland ecosystems are potentially stable systems that are destabilized by improper use by pastoral communities, which causes degradation (brown 1971; stebbings 1935). almost as if tracing the steps of fortress conservation, which has assumed rather than demonstrated gains of human removal (kabra 2018), the state of sikkim implemented a grazing ban with the aim of conserving the biodiversity in and around knp and kbr. however, following the ban, the forest department found it difficult to manage the natural resources in the remote and rugged mountain terrain. this led to the recognition of the crucial role of traditional knowledge and the experience of local herders in the management of high alpines. based on this realization, a participatory conservation of himal (mountains) was proposed (shrestha et al., 2013). in 2006, the forest department initiated the hr programme, under which 21 individuals were recognized as “the honorary guardians of mountains” and were given stewardship of the alpine areas. this initiative was indeed unique, due to its aspiration of capacitybuilding among local community members to help conserve the high reaches of knp. the hrs were trained by organizations like the mountain institute (tmi), world wildlife fund (wwf), and khangchendzonga conservation committee (kcc) in basic biodiversity monitoring techniques and in documenting and reporting wildlife crimes and instances [181] rashmi singh of illegal grazing in and around knp and kbr. as many hrs were also the eco-development committee (edc) members who had helped to remove the herders from knp and were expected to report grazing and other wildlife-related crimes, conflicts with other community members were bound to happen. 3. being himal rakshaks: social inequalities and systematic exclusion while there seemed to be an evident sense of pride in being honorary guardians of their own mountains, the hrs mentioned that they often have to deal with hostility and social exclusion in the villages within the studied area. this was apparent in some of my interviews; ex-herders showed signs of agitation towards the hrs. in november 2019, one hr mentioned that while explaining the impact of grazing to his fellow villagers, he had gotten into a fight with them. moreover, after that incident, his brother did not speak to him for 10 years. in another incident, in november 2019, two hrs mentioned that during a discussion on the need to conserve the forest, a locally influential herder stated that the hrs had betrayed the community. they mentioned that even after more than 15 years since the implementation of the grazing ban, some households that had previously been involved in livestock herding harboured feelings of hatred and betrayal towards the hrs because the latter had supported the forest department in the removal of their own community members from the forests. during the field surveys, five of the hrs mentioned that they bore the cost of conservation in their daily lives, as they were excluded from local social events and the associated livelihood opportunities. social capital is extremely crucial in this region to attain the benefits of seasonal livelihood opportunities associated with trekking tours (as porters and tour guides), seasonal labour in agricultural fields, and daily wage labour under the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act, 2005 (mgnrega). currently, some ex-herders hold influential positions and, therefore, play a critical role in providing livelihood opportunities in the region. hrs, therefore, lose out on many livelihood opportunities that are controlled by ex-herders because of systematic exclusion. hrs, as the face of conservation in west sikkim, have borne the brunt of social exclusion, loss of livelihood opportunities, and antagonism from their own community. these social exclusions are seldom, if ever, considered when evaluating the impacts of conservation policies and decisions. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [182] 4. conclusion natural resource management, which includes community participation in the name of the himal rakshak programme in sikkim, shares some similarities with earlier stories of community-based conservation in india, where the devolution of policies and community participation emerged as an extension of state control (lele 2004; sarin, singh, sundar, and bhogal 2003). however, while the himal rakshak initiative started with the aim of conserving knp and kbr by involving knowledgeable local individuals in the monitoring of protected areas, it has a unique angle in that it valorizes local knowledge only in forms and actions that dovetail state policy. all the while, hrs have mixed feelings of contentment and pride on one hand and disappointment arising from having to bear the cost of conservation and social exclusion on a daily basis on the other. there has been a rapid increase in the discourse around community participation and local knowledge in conservation policy and practices. however, the unique case of the hrs in the sikkim himalayas points to the risks and vulnerabilities that emerge from the implementation of community-based conservation initiatives that do not pay adequate attention to long-term social outcomes for the members of the local community who become the flag-bearers of conservation programmes. acknowledgements i thank the forest, environment and wildlife department, government of sikkim, for their cooperation. i express my gratitude to suresh babu, rohit negi, and asmita kabra for their guidance. i am grateful to kinzong sharap bhutia and tshering uden bhutia for their constant support and guidance in the field and ramesh chettri for assisting me during fieldwork. i thank syed shoaib ali for his valuable feedback. a special thanks to all the respondents and himal rakshaks for their time and interest in this research. references behnke, roy, and ian scoones. 1992. “rethinking range ecology: implications for rangeland management in africa.” issues paper 33. london: international institute for environment and development. brown, h. leslie. 1971. “the biology of pastoral man as a factor in conservation.” biological conservation 3: 93-100. kabra, asmita. 2018. “revisiting canons and dogmas in the conservation-versushuman rights debate.” ecology, economy and society-the insee journal 1 (1): 83–86. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20 [183] rashmi singh lélé, sharachchandra. 2004. decentralising governance of natural resources in india: a review. report for undp dryland development centre, nairobi.bangalore: centre for interdisciplinary studies in environment and development. niamir-fuller, maryam. 1999. managing mobility in african rangelands. london: intermediate technology publications. sarin, madhu, neera m. singh, nandini sundar, and ranu k. bhogal. 2003. “devolution as a threat to democratic decision-making in forestry? findings from three states in india.” in local forest management: the impacts of devolution policies, edited by david edmunds and eva wollenberg, 55–126. london: earthscan. scoones, ian. 1994. living with uncertainty: new directions in pastoral development in africa. london, uk: intermediate technology publications. stebbings, edward percy. 1935. “the encroaching sahara”. geographical journal 86: 510–518. shrestha, priyadarshinee, partha s. ghose, lak t. theengh, and basant sharma. 2013. monitoring of high altitude habitats in west sikkim by himal rakshak. india: world wildlife fund. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 91–95, april 2018 notes from the field the andaman and nicobar islands are not an ‘empty space’ pankaj sekhsaria  1. introduction in july earlier this year (2017), i had the opportunity of a series of interactions with long-time residents of areas in and around port blair, the administrative headquarters of the andaman and nicobar islands. one of the key pivots of the presentations i made was a recent plan for the development of the islands that was first publicized by the niti aayog in late 2015 and has been pushed aggressively ever since at various levels. the plan is titled ‘an approach paper on “prospects of island development – options for india”’ (anon. 2015), and it proposes a range of projects. these include a railway line connecting port blair in the south to diglipur in the north of the andaman group; a petrochemical complex and a special economic zone (sez) for mayabandar in middle andaman island; a port and a huge tourism complex in little andaman island; and a transshipment terminal, a port, and wind and solar energy farms in great nicobar island. in a meeting of the niti aayog held in september 2016, a part of the plan for promoting high-end tourism was granted approval. in november 2016, a follow-up call was issued for proposals for the ‘preparation of concept development plans and detailed master plans for holistic development of 10 islands’ (niti aayog 2016). a few months later, in february 2017, the incumbent lt. governor of the islands, prof jagdish mukhi, also  senior project scientist, dst-centre for policy research, department of humanities and social sciences, iit delhi. he is a long-time member of the environmental action group kalpavriksh. he has worked in the andaman and nicobar islands for over two decades; psekhsaria@gmail.com copyright © sekhsaria 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.22 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.22 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] announced a rs. 2,400 crore 240-kilometre railway project to connect port blair with diglipur—the stated rationale being that this will be a strategic asset and also boost tourism in the islands. 2. forced irrelevances one framework that the niti aayog plan and proposal should have considered is the andaman and nicobar protection of aboriginal tribes regulation (anpatr), promulgated in 1956 (anpatr 1956). under the provisions of this regulation, significant areas of the islands have been protected for the island’s indigenous communities, like the jarawa, onge, and shompen. these parts of the islands are the last remaining strongholds of the tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests that once clothed the entire island chain, and are crucial habitat, therefore, for the famed biological diversity of these tropical islands (sekhsaria 2013). significantly, however, the niti aayog approach paper of about 40 pages does not mention it at all, even as it goes on to propose a number of projects that will impinge directly on the land and rights of the indigenous communities protected under the regulation. what is additionally shocking is there was no accounting in the niti aayog plan of the fact that the islands are prone to extensive tectonic activity and were impacted severely in the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami of 2004 (abbany 2016; asc 2010; sekhsaria 2009). the central point that i sought to communicate during my presentations and interactions was that this particular plan continued in line with others from the past where concerns over the islands’ indigenous peoples, ecological diversity, and geological volatility and vulnerability were being given a complete go-by. if anything, the vulnerability of the islands and its denizens was only being increased manifold by a non-accounting of their uniqueness and specific socio-cultural-ecological-historical context. i was surprised by the reaction of the islanders on two counts of general non-awareness. one, overall, this community did not know of the ecological richness, on the one hand, or of their extreme vulnerability to the tectonic volatility of the island chain. two, a large number of them did not know at all about the niti aayog approach paper, leave alone the details of the specific proposals that had been made. the implications of this are indeed are multifold, and can be understood simultaneously as a cause of the present state of affairs as also an outcome of ways of thinking about and looking at the islands. the interactions reinforced for me the belief that all efforts notwithstanding, the islands remain on the fringes of the national consciousness and are considered [93] pankaj sekhsaria relevant only as adjuncts to a nation that is destined to be nothing less than a global superpower. nothing exemplifies this better than how the islands are being mobilized as an important outpost in the rapidly escalating narrative of their geopolitical and strategic importance. 3. a nuclear power plant for the islands the andaman and nicobar islands have always occupied an important place in the indian imagination as a security and strategic outpost. the sentiment has been expressed repeatedly over the years, and its logic was evident in the comments made in 2012 by admiral nirmal verma, then chief of naval staff. speaking on the occasion of the commissioning of ins baaz on great nicobar island as the first naval air station in the nicobars, verma (2012) made the point very unequivocally: the islands of the andaman and nicobar group have always occupied the consciousness of the security and defence community of our nation. the geographic disposition of the archipelago, separated as it is by more than 650 nautical miles from our mainland, offers a vital geo-strategic advantage to india. (…) apart from geography, the economic potential of the islands is also remarkable, being endowed with a vast exclusive economic zone, accounting for almost 30% of india’s entire eez. they also sit astride some of the busiest shipping lanes of the indian ocean, most carrying strategic cargo for the east asian economies. in a fast-changing international economic and security environment, the islands have become an even more highly valued asset. it has become explicit in articulations such as prominent commentator ashok malik’s 2014 article in the hindustan times, where he referred to these islands as ‘a prized piece of mid-ocean real estate that policy gurus in delhi have consistently neglected and left unexploited’ (malik 2014). nothing signifies this better and more chillingly than the late, and former president of india, apj abdul kalam’s vision for the islands. speaking during his inaugural address at a security seminar organized by the defence establishment in port blair in 2009, he visioned the future islands to have among other things a: 250 mw nuclear power station on one of the islands for a & n exclusively, … bases for static aircraft carrier with dynamic warfare system & connectivity between the islands with fiber optic network, a nuclear submarine based fleet and … a robust tsunami forecasting and communication system (anon. 2009). the scale of intervention proposed—and its hugely technocratic-militaristic tenor—is in line with the growing defence and strategic interest in this group of islands. in proposing a nuclear power plant in one of the world’s ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] most seismically active zones, however, it betrays a complete lack of awareness of the geologic, tectonic, and historical contexts of these islands. not only is there no assessment of the economic and technical viability of such a power plant (how it will be constructed; how the power will be evacuated), the vulnerability and risk generated on account of its location in this seismically active zone has not been accounted for at all either. 4. terra nullius? whether these huge projects will indeed be executed is something only time will tell, but what these ideas betray, like in the case of kalam’s nuclear plant suggestion, is a stark ignorance of the historical, social, ecological, and legal context of the andaman and nicobar islands. the envisioning of such projects does not acknowledge factors such as the extreme seismicity of these islands—the earthquake that caused the gigantic tsunami of december 2004 was epicentred only a 100 nautical miles from the nicobar islands. it ignores the islands’ ecological fragility—the high diversity and endemism of plant and animal species—and even the legal provisions for forest protection and the rights of the indigenous peoples. the premise, clearly, is what anthropologist vishvajit pandya has described in the case of these islands as that of ‘terra nullius’—empty, unexplored, virgin territory that is waiting to be acted upon and operationalized. one needs only to scratch the surface a little to realize how deeply flawed and violative these projects and visioning are of constitutional rights and of moral propriety. ideas of vulnerability, sensitivity, and fragility are being given a complete go-by. in the end, the price will be paid only by these islands and their varied human and non-human denizens. it is not a new story, but it has a magnified resonance here because these islands are unique and special in more ways than one! references abbany, z. 2016. “ring of fire: five facts about the most earthquake prone region in the world.” https://p.dw.com/p/2ttcf amateur seismic centre. 2010. “earthquakes in the andaman & nicobar islands, india.” http://asc-india.org/seismi/seis-andaman-nicobar.htm anon. 2009. “kalam inaugurates seminar on security and development of andaman and nicobar.” http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/1464/27/ anon. 2015. “an approach paper on prospects of island development options for india.” new delhi: integrated headquarters of ministry of defence (navy). https://p.dw.com/p/2ttcf http://asc-india.org/seismi/seis-andaman-nicobar.htm http://andamanchronicle.com/content/view/1464/27/ [95] pankaj sekhsaria anpatr. “andaman and nicobar protection of aboriginal tribes regulation including all amendments till 2004, no. 4 c. f. r. (1956).” andaman & nicobar administration. malik, a. 2014. “our string of islands theory.” hindustan times. 2 september. new delhi. niti aayog. 2016. “request for qualification (rfq)-cum-request for proposal (rfp) for consultancy for ‘preparation of concept development plans and detailed master plans for holistic development of 10 islands.’” new delhi: niti aayog, government of india. sekhsaria, p. 2009. “when chanos chanos became tsunami macchi: the postdecember 2004 scenario in the andaman & nicobar islands.” journal of the bombay natural history society 106 (3): 256–262. sekhsaria, p. 2013. “tribal reserves, ibas, and bird conservation: the unique case of the andaman and nicobar islands.” indian birds 104(9): 85–90. verma, n. 2012. “address by admiral nirmal verma chief of naval staff, on the commissionng of ins baaz (nas campbell bay).” http://ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2012/07/ins-baaz-indian-navys-air-station-in.html http://ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2012/07/ins-baaz-indian-navys-air-station-in.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 125–129, january 2020 notes from the field rising drinking water insecurity in the indian himalayan region of sikkim: a multi-stakeholder perspective barun kumar thakur,  kanish debnath,  vaishali dhingra  and debi prasad bal  1. dwindling water resources and daily travails in accessing freshwater for the past 15 months, we are working on a project to assess drinking water security challenges in the indian himalayan region (ihr) of sikkim. one of our project‟s aim is to estimate the social and economic cost of drinking water scarcity in the rain shadow regions of the ihr. for this purpose, we have been assessing the water availability and water quality in the district of south sikkim. in the ihr‟s mountainous terrains, freshwater is mostly available from natural springs and lakes. however, humaninduced climate change impacts such as reduced snow-cover in the peaks, frequent landslides, and reducing vegetation cover are resulting in less water availability and drying up of many perennial springs and reservoirs (wester et al. 2018).  department of economics, flame university, pune – 412115, india; barunsandilya@gmail.com   department of economics, flame university, pune – 412115, india. kanish.debnath@flame.edu.in  department of economics, flame university, pune – 412115, india and department of h&ss, nit sikkim, ravangla-737139 vaishalidhingra89@gmail.com  birla school of social sciences & humanities, birla global university, bhubneshwar751029, india debiprasad.bal@gmail.com copyright © thakur, debnath, dhingra and bal 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.97 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.97 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] even though there is a broader recognition of the looming water crisis in many parts of sikkim (government of sikkim 2016), the actual realisation of its impact among residents is very diverse. in south sikkim, household access to drinking water can broadly be categorised into three types: (a) government-supplied piped water, (b) private arrangements for piped water, and (c) non-piped water supply or drawing water from the nearest water sources. the first category of households is mostly confined in the urban areas and near to village centre. the respondents reported high level of satisfaction with the current water supply system compared to the past. we observed that waterworks developed by the government (such as the construction of reservoir tanks, maintenance of pipelines) have eased access to water in these villages. however, some of the respondents felt that real, sustainable solutions will need to be implemented to avoid any water crisis in the future. the second category of households often makes their own arrangements by paying a village plumber a monthly payment. the source can be any nearby public water spring or public water tank. the plumber maintains the pipelines and keeps a check on water availability. we observed this system working well. the members of the local government (panchayat) are aware of such arrangement of water supply. interestingly, respondents too expressed a high level of satisfaction with the system and did not wish any government intervention. the final category of households made up those who had to trudge a distance of more than 100 meters in steep terrain to get water for their everyday needs. in such households, often the responsibility of household water provision rests on the womenfolk, who make multiple trips to meet their household water needs. surprisingly, many respondents from this category were positively satisfied (although on a lower level) with the water supply system. we observed that these places also acted as social gathering sites, where women brought their kids and engaged in their daily chores such as washing clothes. 2. eliciting further insights from household surveys there is a clear evidence of drying up of spring water sources and temporal and spatial variation in rain patterns (tambe et al. 2012). however, in our 58 interactions, people did not express major concerns for water shortages. as not many households experience water scarcity, a lack of concern for depleting water sources was a worrying observation because freshwater is also used for other purposes, predominantly agriculture. major crops produced in the region are cardamom, ginger, turmeric, potato, maize, and spices. even though many households realise that the rains have become [127] barun kumar thakur, kanish debnath, vaishali dhingra and debi prasad bal erratic, and that they used spring water for irrigation, we noted, that as long as there was enough water in the main source point, households did not mind carrying it to the house, while doing little to conserve rain water . only 2 out of 58 households surveyed had installed rainwater harvesting system to tackle water shortages. for all villages we visited, we did not find village-level initiatives that encouraged water conservation. in order to have a deeper understanding of water insecurity at the household level, we conducted 58 semi-structured face to face surveys. our survey team typically included a male staff (local) and a female staff (nonlocal) accompanied by a local village member if the need arose. our survey team helped to ease language barriers and promoted confidence among people. in cases where we informed a local member of the panchayat, it was easier to elicit more and accurate information. in many instances, female members of the households were particularly keen to answer our questions as they are often responsible for household water provision. one of the female respondents told us to ask the questions only to her. we can also attribute our ease of access to households to the better social indicators of the state. we had no instance of household refusal to take part in the survey. households in rural areas were more forthcoming with their problems and even in suggesting potential solutions for water-related issues. they showed overwhelmingly greater participation and eagerness in the exercise. on the other hand, we observed households in urban areas expressed a suspicious or distrustful attitude towards the survey. one of the respondents remarked, „but the government does not value all this. they will keep it in a file somewhere and never look at it.‟ in another case, we were told that „it is better to make private tanks and tap water from the source rather than waiting for the government.‟ people also tend to overstate or understate the current situations depending on their expectations from the government. this has lead to incorrectness in the data in a few of the surveys. for example, we have often noted that people overstated the number of households depending on a particular water source, or understated the number of hours they have access to piped water supply. so, we had to confirm this information with panchayat members. in many instances, we had to explain clearly that our survey team cannot change the state government policies. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] 3. willingness to pay for safe water during household surveys, water samples were collected on the spot and tested for physiochemical properties using field test kits. testing and stating the results of the households‟ water quality not only improved their confidence, but also created awareness and benefits of clean drinking water. post water testing exercise, households were more forthcoming with their queries on water issues. this indicated that transparency in discussing water issues was a win-win for both sides. it helped us to obtain a household‟s wtp for safe and regular drinking water. households‟ valuation of clean and safe drinking water was captured in how much they are willing to pay to subscribe to such a service. once again, there were huge variations among households depending on their income and gender. we found a negative relation between household wtp and income level. lower-income households quoted a significantly higher wtp than higher-income households. a higher wtp among low-income households was understandable because those who live in remote villages will have a high socioeconomic cost of arranging water for themselves and are willing to spend a larger part of income for safe drinking water. we also found that the wtp for safe water was higher among the female respondents as the womenfolk are majorly responsible for arranging household water provision. we also interacted with the stakeholders in the government to learn more about the “dhara vikas” project for springs and springshed rejuvenation in west and south sikkim (government of sikkim 2014). some officials agreed that though there are major initiatives by the government involving a new cadre of para-hydro-geologists, the experience of people can be very diverse. they drew attention to significant challenges in tapping water resources at higher altitudes and the water quality at lower altitudes. such situation coupled with growing variability and uncertainty of climatic conditions makes many communities vulnerable. since clean water is now a valued asset, the government will have to play the lead role in nudging people towards innovative and sustainable technological solutions. acknowledgements this research was funded by the national mission on himalayan studies (nmhs) under ministry of environment, forest and climate change (moef&cc). we are thankful to the various state governments, panchayat officials, and the villagers for helping us in this fieldwork and research. [129] barun kumar thakur, kanish debnath, vaishali dhingra and debi prasad bal references government of sikkim. 2018. state of environment report sikkim 2016. sikkim: envis hub. rural management and development department, government of sikkim. 2014. dhara vikas handbook: a user manual for springshed development to revive himalayan springs. gangtok: government of sikkim. tambe, sandeep, ghanashyam kharel, m. l. arrawatia, himanshu kulkarni, kaustubh mahamuni, and anil k. ganeriwala. 2012. “reviving dying springs: climate change adaptation experiments from the sikkim himalaya,” mountain research and development 32 (1): 62-73. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journald-11-00079.1 wester, philippus, arabinda mishra, aditi mukherji, and arun bhakta shrestha. 2018. the hindu kush himalaya assessment. berlin: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1 https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journal-d-11-00079.1 https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journal-d-11-00079.1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 131–136, january 2020 notes from the field vulnerabilities and resilience in post-fani chilika: lessons from the field shreyashi bhattacharya  1. introduction payal, a young married woman in her 20s, is a housewife in the village of aloopatna who helps her husband in fishing and associated works. she speaks two languages other than odiya – hindi and bengali, quite an exception in the village. she narrates in hindi, how recent disasters and state apathy threatens the survival of every fishing family in chilika. her words simultaneously bespeak the fact that despite being subjected to frequent natural calamities, the chilika lagoon presents an interesting ecosystem of dependence and survival, embedded within rich socio-cultural narratives. the women of aloopatna and brahmapur welcome the guests with a traditional arati thali (a plate with sacred offerings), putting vermillion spots on their foreheads and offering them the beverages. the grim despair of their lives, associated with natural disasters, remains masked even as they welcome the guests. the main objective of the field school programme in chilika lagoon, organized by the school of enterprise, environment and development (seed), university of waterloo, the rekhi centre of excellence for the science of happiness, indian institute of technology kharagpur and nirman, was to understand the idea of resilience in disaster prone vulnerable communities of the lagoon. the fields of our study were two  rekhi centre of excellence for the science of happiness, indian institute of technology kharagpur; kharagpur, india 721302; shreyashi.b123@gmail.com copyright © bhattacharya 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.98 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.98 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] villages – brahmapur and aloopatna, situated on the coast of the lagoon, both affected by cyclone fani in may 2019.1 2. adapting in a volatile environment resilience refers to the development of coping abilities in adverse situations that can be characterized as a continuation of several risk-prone situations that make communities vulnerable. our field observations provided interesting insights into community lives. it presented us the ground realities beyond statistical reports that are important in formulating livelihood rehabilitation strategies in the post-disaster period. the roads of brahmapur and aloopatna, aflush with the uprooted trees and broken structures stood witness to the devastation people had endured. many villagers in brahmapur, where houses were destroyed, were living in makeshift shelters of tarpaulin roof covers. elderly women, primarily fishworkers, complained about the reduction in fish yield in the aftermath of the cyclone. the government has doled out abysmally low compensation, inr 3000 per affected household. communities are vulnerable irrespective of natural disasters. the villages of chilika, too, encounter struggles in their daily lives with declining income from fishing and corporate encroachments, including fencing of designated fishing zones by powerful private lobbies at the cost of community fishing rights and access. the villagers continue to use coal as cooking fuel, which has a massive impact on the environment, as lpg cylinders are expensive. housing allowances under indira awas yojna were distributed based on a beneficiary’s political affiliation. the number of cyclone shelters is also inadequate and needs maintenance, further revealing the despondency of the situation. despite multiple challenges, villagers refuse to leave the place as they consider the lagoon as their mother. they say that chilika has taken care of them since they were small children, so, leaving the region would equate to abandoning their roots, they say. coping mechanisms in the aftermath of fani are also largely attributed to this local socio-cultural belief system. such coping strategies reveal not only their ability to overcome the trauma but also the desperation behind it. 1 fani was a category 4 cyclone that hit the indian state of odisha on 3 may 2019, mostly affecting puri and khordha district. claimed to be the strongest tropical cyclone since the supercyclone of 1999, fani left a trail of destruction of approximately rs 24,176 crores in the state (india today 2019). [133] shreyashi bhattacharya figures 1 and 2: destruction caused by fani in brahmapur and aloopatna picture courtesy: author ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [134] 3. gendered renderings the women in chilika shared an interesting relationship with the ecosystem. the concept of motherland among them transcends normative definitions: the lake is their land, livelihood and culture. a subtle practice of social forestry was noticed among the women of these villages. they only use dry fuelwood or leaves for household construction purposes as they believe the land surrounding chilika is a holistic representation of the lake. in the midst of the cyclone, locked up in their houses and hearing the raging sounds, their only solace was prayers to ma chilika, who they consider their saviour. they sang hymns and songs to appease their mother and request her to protect them. women are proficient in making pickles, papads, curd and handicrafts that can find them a separate niche in the market. there are local self-help groups (shg) that have helped empower rural women by giving them the opportunities to transform their skills into an economic engagement. omm gayatri jute cluster (in collaboration with district supply and marketing society (dsms), puri), run by a woman named manasi, is an shg where rural women sell home-made bags, purses and stationeries made of jute. all products are low-cost and biodegradable. its shg members’ average earning is inr 5000, and a source of inspiration for the women in brahmapur and aloopatna. the women of chilika do not take part in fishing but help in other associated works like cleaning boats and the fish. during a focused group discussion, it was apparent that the elderly women agreed with the men in the village that housewives should not be part of the employed workforce. however, women of the younger generation are eager to participate in various economic opportunities. 4. life rolls on… the visits to the villages in chilika provided a profound understanding of the challenges and resilience of the fishing communities. one of the key strategies required for building resilience in a vulnerable community is to have a detailed understanding of their socio-economic profile that is determined by specific political-economic imperatives of the statecraft. as the villagers said, the government officials visited the villages after fani only to calculate the losses, there seems to be a lack of follow up procedures by the authorities in rehabilitating these communities into their regular livelihood. how can a person suffering from financial and identity crisis and frequent ecological trauma be compensated? is the development of coping strategies among these communities in chilika a result of the apathy towards vulnerable groups in rural regions? [135] shreyashi bhattacharya the divisiveness among the communities as a result of the caste system and political affiliations makes them more exposed to the calamities. it is unfortunate how superstitious beliefs sometimes blur the lines between traditions or culture and ignorance, thus affecting survival practices. this can be realized through some of the narratives from brahmapur, where people chose to stay in the island, partly due to miscommunication but mainly because they believed god would will save them, despite the alerts from the government. by the time they realized the danger, it was impossible to get on the boats arranged by the government to get them on the mainland as the waves in the lake had turned violent. however, having faced such massive destruction, the people aren’t devoid of hope. according to them, surviving fani has given them the will to endure more. women seemed much more receptive of engaging in the workforce after our visit. formulating backup livelihood strategies can provide them a safety net to cope up with the challenges without devoicing their identity and relationship with chilika. 5. conclusion while leaving brahmapur, a young boy who had come with his mother in the fgd, lightly pulled my sleeve and asked me something in odiya. as i looked for someone to translate, he grew impatient and left with his mother. one of the women in the group, who could speak broken hindi, translated that the little boy was asking if before leaving the place, i can help them in rebuilding his school that was used as a cyclone shelter and is now in need of repair. as i recalled the boy’s desperation and impatience, i wondered how many interactive academic groups he has been part of to have developed such impatience. recollecting the tragedy to answer queries from academics, year after year while receiving no concrete solution can be understandably exhausting and add to the trauma of the community. it is imperative that academics share a collective responsibility of giving something back to these communitiesthrough some tangible action plans that might benefit them in future disaster scenarios. such action plans might be informed by an understanding of the current challenges, making people aware of possible causes and providing them with simple strategies that would alleviate their problems in the long run. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] acknowledgements jenia mukherjee and amrita sen gave suggestions on the initial drafts of this article. the author also acknowledges priyadarshi patnaik, coordinator, rekhi centre of excellence for the science of happiness, iit kharagpur and prateep nayak, seed, the university of waterloo for providing her with the opportunity to participate in the week-long field school in chilika, odisha. the residents of aloopatna and brahmapur are deeply acknowledged for being generous with their time in giving us, and to the larger world, the opportunity to know their challenges and dreams. references india today. 2019. “cyclone fani caused rs 24,176 crore damage in odisha: report.” india today august 6, 2019. accessed september 10, 2019. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/odisha-cyclone-fani-damage-1577841-2019-08-06 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/odisha-cyclone-fani-damage-1577841-2019-08-06 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 203–207, july 2020 book review in search of post-development futures anirban dasgupta  ashish kothari, ariel salleh, alberto acosta, arturo escobar, and fedrico demaria, eds. 2019. pluriverse: a post-development dictionary. new delhi: authorsupfront and tulika books. isbn: 978-8-193-73298-4, pp. 384, ₹950 (pb). while writing this review in delhi during a seemingly endless lockdown, i am struck with some keen realizations. such a ―natural disaster‖ at a global scale is unprecedented in my lifetime. however, as we affirm our humility with respect to nature and try to become more mindful of human transgressions against the nonhuman, some of us are equally hopeful that science will ultimately conquer the virus. such are the fears and hopes that dominate my mind as i engage with the ambitious volume under review. pluriverse follows an engaging academic tradition of post-development writing that began in the 1980s and acquired  faculty of economics, south asian university; akbar bhawan, satya marg, chanakyapuri, delhi 110021, india; dasgupta@econ.sau.ac.in. copyright © dasgupta 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.255 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.255 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [204] considerable intellectual heft throughout the 1990s. post-development literature, in essence, sought to challenge several of the claims that called for pursuing industrial development in the ―third world‖ in the period following the second world war. post-development scholars, in fact, largely viewed unbridled development projects and plans as being both ecologically unsustainable and economically unjust. pluriverse has a three-part structure, beginning with scholars located on different continents reflecting on the crisis of development in the contemporary world. this is followed by a set of critical write-ups on mainstream ―reformist‖ ideas that acknowledge some shortcomings in the current development agenda and proffer suggestions to fix them. the final, and longest, section compiles the various transformative and radical ways to reimagine the functioning of the world once development in its current avatar is dethroned. the volume comprises a diverse set of contributions that range from relatively well-known schools of thought like agroecology, buen vivir, and degrowth to the relatively lesser known writings on eco-anarchism, jain ecology, and sea ontologies. the editors, however, are careful to emphasize that the origins of these visions spring from diverse world views such as indigenous cultures, social movements, and ancient philosophical and religious traditions. importantly, they point out that although these perspectives are marked by differences, they can also be understood as ―complementary notions and practices‖. before going into detail about the content, it is important to alert the reader about the form in which the hundred plus entries have been written up. the average entry is only two-and-a-half pages long, and the reader is required to distil the crux of the argument from such brief summaries. setting aside the unavoidable variation in the quality of the writing across the volume, it is safe to say that even the best pieces often fall short of communicating their key concepts. one cannot help recalling the longer and more substantive entries in the earlier development dictionary (sachs 1992), where the contributors had ample space to introduce and elaborate upon their subjects, and provided an annotated bibliography for further reading. the undue compression of the contributions is less than ideal for intellectually curious readers who would have gained from more detail and elaboration. it is possible that each contributor was given limited space because the editors were keen to accommodate as many perspectives as possible. the development perspectives presented in the first section illustrate the issue i have indicated above. the six pieces by authors based in the six [205] anirban dasgupta continents (not including antarctica) are highly uneven in their coverage and treatment. while nnimmo bassey, maristella svampa, and kirk hoffman write about contemporary development processes and their critiques of the same by focussing on ―developing‖ regions of africa, latin america, and the island nations in oceania, respectively, the two-and-a-half page remit does not allow them to even scratch the surface of the task at hand. interestingly, the two scholars based in the global north, philip mcmichael and jose maria tortosa, do not write on north america or europe specifically but comment more generally on chosen aspects of global development. at the risk of sounding pedantic, i wonder why the northern scholars do not have anything particular to report on the development in their own geographical contexts. are development and its shortcomings only visible in the global south? it can be said, of course, that authors should not be limited to their continent of origin. if so, it still appears incongruous that it is the scholars based in the global north who have the privilege to comment on development projects across the world. the second section, aimed at debunking some of the ―buzzwords‖ in the mainstream development discourse, is particularly interesting. despite the limited space available to the authors, some have managed to communicate the core of their criticism compellingly. jeremy gould, in his entry on ―development aid‖, takes a fresh look at how development practices have become a much more forceful form of corporate funded aid. larry lohman is successful in lucidly explaining the advent of trading in ecosystem services, while making his key criticisms clear. deepak malghan writes engagingly on efficiency, one of the building blocks of technocratic development, before finishing off rather hurriedly and unsatisfactorily with the following statement: ―the efficiency revolution has run its course‖ (52). other articles that deal with popular ideas like ―green economy‖ and ―smart cities‖, which are regularly peddled around in mainstream development as magic bullets, turn out to be similarly unsatisfactory as they are not allowed to run their full explanatory course due to a paucity of space. clearly, the most compelling parts of the book, which also justify its title, are the reflections that make up the ―people’s pluriverse‖—the myriad imaginings of a post-development transformative future. the range of ideas presented in these entries is truly remarkable, moving between longstanding lines of radical thought like deep ecology, liberation theology, and worker-led production to recent entrants in the post-development lexicon like minobimaatisiiwin and kametsa asaike, representing indigenous quests for a fulfilling and harmonious life. given the large number of entries in this section, it is not only impossible to comment on each piece individually but also difficult to make statements that relate to the section as a whole. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [206] i particularly want to raise the issue that delving into conventional religions for post-development wisdom leaves me dissatisfied. this may be the result of my inability to engage with religious thought seriously given my materialist predisposition or the realization that ―doing good‖ to fellow humans and non-humans is taught in all religious texts, making it less about subscribing to a particular religion and more about the humanist undercurrent present in all major religions. but humanism as a universalist tenet par excellence may sit uncomfortably with post-developmentalism and, as such, there is no entry under humanism in the pluriverse. moreover, since all major religions have been deeply entrenched in social power hierarchies, often by justifying oppressive practices, it is problematic to talk about a given religion’s vision of a post-development egalitarian society without owning up to its own legacies of injustices. another disturbing aspect of several entries in this section is the lack of critical perspective on the ideas presented. a case in point is the contribution on gross national happiness (gnh) in bhutan. a minor rage in the international development community in recent years, it remains the official development framework in bhutan and is used extensively while planning government interventions in different domains. while the concept of gnh is not trivial and deserves serious intellectual engagement, it is striking that the author avoids any mention of the various criticisms of the gnh and related development choices that exist prominently in the literature. degrowth is another concept on which productive engagement with naysayers is avoided entirely. in particular, the debate on whether the framework of degrowth should entirely reject growth or if we are better off growing within limits went unaddressed. it is also critical to examine the applicability of degrowth for the global south. can poorer countries actually afford degrowth? it would have been a valuable addition to the volume if the authors engaged with some of these arguments. in these omissions, one senses a lack of interest in taking on the difficult task of critiquing the development mainstream. i am reminded of wolfgang sachs’ comment in the preface to the second edition of the development dictionary: looking at the development dictionary today, it is striking that we had not really appreciated the extent to which the development idea has been charged with hopes for redress and self-affirmation. it certainly was an invention of the west, as we showed at length, but not just an imposition on the rest. on the contrary, as the desire for recognition and equity is framed in terms of the civilizational model of the powerful nations, the south has emerged as the staunchest defender of development. countries in general do not aspire to become more ―indian‖, more ―brazilian‖ or for that matter more ―islamic‖; [207] anirban dasgupta instead, assertions to the contrary notwithstanding, they long to achieve industrial modernity. (2010, viii) sachs’ insight succinctly captures the challenge of moving beyond the contemporary development paradigm, which cannot be overcome without a serious engagement with both development orthodoxies and the popular sentiments that sustain them. i am not suggesting that post-development literature as a whole has shied away from this responsibility, but this volume could surely have taken on such questions more directly. post-development thinking has played an important role in questioning some of the fundamental elements of the global development project— industrial accumulation and the accompanying unsustainable levels of consumption. adopting such ideas would undoubtedly be key in formulating plans for a sustainable and just future. the problem, however, has always been in the inability of scholar-activists to construct feasible models for the future and envision pathways for attaining them. going back to my initial thoughts in the time of the pandemic, post-development thought definitely helps me to place human beings within the larger natural system and makes me aware of the risk of imbalance in human–nature relations. but it does not provide a framework to generate and use scientific knowledge in a globally collaborative way to come up with solutions for the pandemic related crises that we face today. reference sachs, wolfgang, ed. 2010. the development dictionary: a guide to knowledge as power. second edition. london and new york: zed books ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 155–159, january 2020 book review policy and politics in india in the age of global warming rohit jha  navroz k dubash, ed. 2019. india in a warming world: integrating climate change and development, new delhi: oxford university press, isbn 978-019-949873-4, 576 pp, rs. 1995 (hardbound) the hell fires of 2019-20 that engulfed australia and incinerated large swathes of the country tell us that the impacts of climate change and global warming are clearly upon us. small wonder then that climate change activists often describe their challenges in dystopian imagery with allusions to melting glaciers, boiling oceans, burning forests or the extinction of entire species. navroz dubash‟s edited volume india in a warming world, however, is pointedly against a turn to extreme alarm. the collection of essays with an informed and measured introduction, instead, attempts a balance between careful research and meaningful climate activism. at  research assistant on project titled „reconceptualizing rivers in south asia as histories of the biological pulse‟, kyoto university; 198f, utsav apartment, rohini sec 18, new delhi110089; rohitjha95067@gmail.com. copyright © jha 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.103 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.103 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] heart, consequently, is the realistic, if not pragmatic, attempt to debate and explore how development goals can be achieved without warming the planet beyond 2 degree celsius. the essays in the volume are broadly clubbed under two distinct, though conceptually overlapping, themes: a) reviews and b) perspectives. the review chapters are written by scholars from various disciplines such as climate science, science and technology studies, law and sociology. the perspective chapters, on the other hand, are drawn from a mix of climate change activists and policy makers. under the two broad themes, the essays are then further grouped into five sections: a) climate change impacts; b) international debates and negotiations; c) politics; d) policies; and e) climate and development. in the first section, the readers are offered a nuanced understanding of the various climate models and the presumed impacts of climate change on flora and fauna of india. as j. srinivasan in his essay notes, for example, that though there is a great demand in india for credible predictions about climate change impacts, the techniques to acquire such capacity is still a „work in progress‟ (p. 30). through an „event attribution‟ analysis, krishna achuta rao and friederike otto underline three case studies ─ chennai floods (2015); heat waves in andhra pradesh (2015) and extreme heat in phalodi, rajasthan (2016) ─ two of these cases, chennai and phalodi, showed that counterfactual (or non-manmade changes) were the cause of climate change as opposed to factual (or anthropogenic or man-made changes). nagraj adve in a meticulous study emphasizes the importance of ethnographic approaches for capturing and describing climate change impacts on the ground. adve argues that the inaccuracy of climate models at district levels combined with poorly informed development plans can aggravate climate change impact women, mostly from underprivileged communities, facing „the maximum burnt of unplanned development, global warming and climate change‟ (p. 75). this section enriches our understanding of climate models, the dynamics and thermodynamics of climate change and the impact of climate change across regions and communities. the second section takes us behind closed doors and up close into international negotiations and debates on climate change. the writers in this section anil aggarwal and sunita narain, tejal kanitkar and t. jayaram, sandeep sengupta, chandrashekhar dasgupta, shsyam saran, ashok lavasa, d. raghunandan, lavanya rajmani, ajay mathur and anunabha ghosh uncover for us the many political and policy interests that have thus far shaped climate change negotiations at the international level. the writers in this section also appear to jointly share the view that most outcomes [157] rohit jha from climate negotiations at the international level have thus far tended to be biased in favour of the developed world. the strategies of tackling climate change at the international level and its impact for developing countries like india is brilliantly brought out in this section. the point of contestation is whether we as a planet should follow the equality principle based on the emission we emit in the present or should we follow that equity principle which takes the historical emissions of all the countries into account. it‟s an interesting debate. the readers concerned about climate change and its international politics will surely find it captivating and revealing. the third section focuses on the politics of climate change at national level. it discusses the role of civil society organizations, large and small business corporations, labour organizations and the media. pradip swarnakar points out that civil society organizations mostly work within two strategic frameworks: the climate sustainability framework which is „apolitical‟ and the climate justice framework which is „political‟. swarnakar examines in considerable detail the collaborative network building activity of these two types of csos and their methods for enabling mass participation and mobilization. the chapter by shankar venkateshwaran and mukund rajan, on the other hand, looks at how business organizations attempt to address climate change actions. the relationship between profitability and sustainability, they underline, has become a key concern for several indian businesses. according to them, such concerns have over the years translated into more investments under corporate social responsibility (csr) and the appointment of chief sustainability officers (cso) in several major indian companies. however, financially few investor communities in india are factoring sustainability into their business models compared to their global counterparts. ashim roy, benny kuruvilla and ankit bharadwaj map out the debates on the „transition‟ by indian labour, currently embedded in the carbon economy, towards a green economy. india‟s „right to develop‟, they argue, will need to be aligned with achieving public and democratic control of energy and social infrastructure (housing, water, and sanitation). thus, in their opinion, the role of trade unions and public ownership of production will be vital in addition to the implementation of responsible climate action plans by indian businesses. the media, fourth pillar of democracy, is also important in raising awareness around all these issues. the mainstreaming of climate change in media, as anu jogesh points out, has moved from merely focusing on international climate negotiations towards more keenly following up on domestic challenges and politics. her emphasis, however, is mainly restricted to the english media reporting from 2010 to 2017. she ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [158] acknowledges lack of review of regional papers, which are much larger in their numbers and readership, as a limitation. the chapters on policy suggest that the implementation of climate change plans in india tend to get entangled in the federal structure of the indian state with notable disconnect between national and regional goals. koyel kumar mandal looks at the issue of climate finance, whereas ambuj sagar examines the transition to climate technology. both these authors draw attention to lack of clarity in the role of climate finance and the adoption of climate technologies, especially in the planning efforts. elizabeth gogoi discusses the status of state climate change planning through a study of state action plans on climate change (sapcc) that was first drafted in 2009. as of now 32 states and union territories have approved these plans and their implementation process has begun. gogoi looks at assam, bihar, chattishgarh, kerela, maharasthra and odisha that are part of the „action on climate today‟ (act), which uses sapcc as a starting point to support climate change planning. all these states seem to be in the process of tailoring and adjusting the national action plan to their local conditions. navroz k dubash and anu jogesh take the point further and highlight the intricacies of state climate plans in five states: himachal pradesh, karnataka, sikkim, madhya pradesh and odisha. these states provide us with a polyphonic discourse on the inner workings of climate policy. though some states are working towards adjusting their climate plan to local environments, there, nevertheless, seems to be an institutional lack of sorts in many states. as an official from odisha, in an interview said: “we are a weak institutional sector, whether environment or climate change, our strengths don‟t lie in institutional capacities” (p. 363). this statement seems to bring out the sordid ground reality of climate institutions in india. as navroz dubash and shibani ghosh, in the first chapter in this section, put it: “the past decade has witnessed a rise in climate institutions in india, but it has been a reactive and ad hoc process” (p. 342). the last section is dedicated to the issues of development and climate change. while lele and krishnaswamy argue for the „sequestration method‟ in the context of forests, kumar and vishvanathan call for the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation for the entire agriculture sector. rohan arthur argues for a coordinated and planned approach to tackle rising sea levels and veena srinivasan warns of the consequences of increased variability with more droughts and dry days which will impact the access to water for many. the need for district-level institutional frameworks based on community lines seems to emerge as the shared vision of the contributors of this section.. integrating development with climate change in other words, can be the best bet to overcome a situation [159] rohit jha that is otherwise mired with political skirmishes, institutional weaknesses, mis-communication and lack of sectoral coordination. outlining pathways for the democratic control of resources and the planned implementation of credible strategies for dealing with climate change impacts, hence, is an urgent requirement. in sum, the collection of essays provides us an up to date understanding of the climate change debate in india. the message, in essence, is that policymakers and political decision making can be involved in a productive dialogue and need not always be seen as antagonistic and locked in zero sum games. though india‟s social and economic worlds are undoubtedly made up of complex and often conflicting interests, sustainability challenges can most likely be met, as india in a warming world tells us, by informed and considered interventions rather than by alarm and knee jerk reactions. the essays in this volume, moreover, besides being ably supported by an insightful introductory essay by navroz dubash, are helpfully complimented by a range of infographics, tables, facts, anecdotes and empirical data. the reader will surely be engaged as much with the accessible style and presentation of the book as they will be with its content. this book is highly recommended, and let‟s say even necessary, for anyone who is looking to understand climate change in india and wants to do something about it. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 261-267, july 2023 insights from the field conservation amidst urbanization: insights from explorations around bannerghatta national park, bengaluru dhanya bhaskar, samudyatha ramananda, and sarang k t 1. introduction protected areas (pas) function as cornerstones of biodiversity conservation while catering to the livelihoods of nearly 1.1 billion people globally (cbd 2022). pas have become increasingly important in urbanizing landscapes, where they supply ecosystem services such as local climate, water regulation, and pollution mitigation. in addition, they provide access to outdoor leisure for city dwellers, thereby enhancing the idea of being “close to nature” (van oijstaeijen et al 2020). however, current and future urban expansion trends indicate localized but cumulatively significant negative impacts on pas, including fragmentation (mckinney 2002; mcdonald et al 2008). bengaluru, the third-largest metropolis in india, harbours a major pa—the bannerghatta national park (bnp)—on its outskirts (figure 1). due to unplanned residential and industrial expansion, the bnp area has witnessed massive urban sprawl (ramachandra and setturu 2019). our research attempts to highlight the urbanization-driven transformations in people– nature interactions around bnp, with the view of contributing to integrated strategies for the management of pas within wider peri-urban landscapes.  associate professor (ecosystem and environment management), chair, centre for policy studies, indian institute of forest management, bhopal, madhya pradesh, india. dhanyab@iifmbhopal.edu.in  project assistant, indian institute of forest management, bhopal, madhya pradesh, india. samudyathar@iifmbhopal.edu.in  junior research fellow, indian institute of forest management, bhopal, madhya pradesh, india. ktsarangiifm@gmail.com copyright © bhaskar, ramananda and sarang 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1000 mailto:dhanyab@iifmbhopal.edu.in mailto:samudyathar@iifmbhopal.edu.in mailto:ktsarangiifm@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1000 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [262] this article details the early findings from exploratory visits and surveys carried out in the first half of 2022 to understand the complexities of conservation in the fast-urbanizing landscape of bnp. 2. study site bnp, dominated by dry deciduous and scrub forests, spreads over 260 km2 across four wildlife ranges: bannerghatta, harohalli, anekal, and kodihalli. it is a critical habitat for asian elephants, leopards, and sloth bears, and it is an important ecological corridor closely linked to other pas like the cauvery wildlife sanctuary and bandipur tiger reserve (ramachandra and setturu 2019). following its designation as a national park in 1972, stable vegetation cover has been maintained within bnp, but the surrounding areas have suffered large-scale conversions from industrial, residential, and tourism development (adhikari et al 2017). an eco-sensitive zone (esz) of 268.9 km2 was declared vide a moefcc notification in 2018 to regulate land-use activities around the park. this was later reduced to an area of 168.8 km2 (rao 2019). there are 77 villages in the esz and 16 enclosure (el) villages within the park (moefcc 2020). local communities have traditionally been dependent on the forest for agriculture, livestock grazing, and collection of forest produce (varma et al 2009). with forests coming under state control, access to forests has become a challenge (jayaprakash and hickey 2019). figure 1: location map of bnp indicating the study villages source: map created using qgis (version 3.14.16) [263] bhaskar, ramananda, and sarang 3. methodology in order to examine trends in forest dependence and livelihoods around bnp, we explored villages from its four wildlife ranges and purposively selected 12 villages—6 el villages and 6 from the esz where urbanizationinduced changes (land conversions, change in occupation, etc)—were observed (figure 1). semi-structured questionnaire-based surveys were conducted by randomly sampling 8–10 households from each village using the list obtained from the local anganwadis (child care centre/school). here, we present our initial analysis based on the data collected from a total of 102 respondents. 4. results: observations and reflections 4.1. status and use of forests when probed about trends in the status of the forests, 37% and 29% of the respondents from el and esz villages, respectively, indicated that human– wildlife conflict (hwc) and incidences of crop damage, livestock loss, and loss of human life have increased (figure 2). this was subsequently linked to an increase in forest area and quality (29% responses in esz and 31% in el) as the karnataka forest department (kfd) is actively undertaking plantations and reclaiming encroached lands. people also relate increased forest protection to reduced forest dependence, especially in esz villages (17% responses), while el villages within the park continue to have some extent of forest dependence. 4.2 changes in agriculture despite the proximity to a megacity, the majority of the population around bnp continues to practise agriculture. a major trend perceived by respondents is a change in cropping patterns, especially from ragi (finger millet), the staple crop, to mulberry for sericulture over the last two decades. about 76% of the esz and 62% of el respondents (figure 2) cited crop damage from wildlife as the most significant reason for the shift. the fragmented nature of the bnp, combined with the relatively high density of elephants, has fuelled hwc. finger millet (57%), red gram and maize (12% each), and coconut (7%) were the main crops that were harmed (venkataramana et al. 2017), making them unpopular. meanwhile, commercial viability, better water supply and road transport, and accessibility to asia’s largest cocoon market in ramanagara and other urban markets in bengaluru have nudged farmers to grow either mulberry or fruits and vegetables. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [264] figure 2: trends in forest dependence, agriculture, and livestock ownership around bnp source: primary data from household surveys land-related conflicts and diversion are prevalent both in el (18%) and esz (17%) villages. all the respondents sampled from two of the el villages do not have legal land documents, which affects their rights for agriculture and water supply. they either lease out land or continue to practise agriculture in “problematic areas”, which people claim to be agricultural land or diverted gomala (grazing commons), while kfd calls it encroachment. we could see a live example of this in one of the el villages where there is no demarcation between the gomala and the forest boundary. the village also faces the possibility of resettlement due to increasing hwc, but people are unwilling and unsure of the life that they will have elsewhere. 4.3 changes in livestock ownership total livestock ownership has reduced in both el (30% responses) and esz (38%) villages. specifically, goat and sheep (11%) and local cattle breeds (11%) have reduced over time in esz villages. the major reason for this shift in esz was the lack of gomalas (52% responses) (figure 2), which have reduced in both area and access, owing to diversion for agriculture, housing, etc, or even inclusion in forest areas. restricted access to forest fringes for livestock grazing was recorded in both esz (18% responses) and el (16% responses) villages. kfd has declared livestock grazing along with forest encroachment, smuggling, fires, etc, as restricted activities in order to promote natural regeneration in forests (manjunath 2016). [265] bhaskar, ramananda, and sarang risk from wild animals is the most pertinent challenge (43% responses) for livestock ownership in el. increasing incidences of leopard attacks have reduced the attractiveness of rearing sheep that need to be grazed. local cattle breeds have become rare, as high-yielding hybrid cows are preferred to cater to the ever-increasing milk demands of bengaluru. exotic breeds reduce the “burden” of grazing as they can be comfortably stall-fed but are quite expensive to maintain and often face high disease risk. losing hybrid cattle to wildlife depredation proves expensive, turning people hostile towards conservation efforts (margulies and karanth 2018), which is an instance of conflict between urbanization and conservation. an old couple, gurappa and bairamma, whom we interacted with in chudahalli, an el village, report witnessing frequent hwc. they lost their 26-year-old son to elephant trampling when he had gone out to graze sheep in the forest. they sold all their livestock and are now dependent on their 0.5-acre land. sadly, gurappa himself was subject to an elephant attack a couple of years later when he was keeping watch on his ragi crop at night. recent reports show increasing cases of hwc involving elephants, leopards, and wild boars (venkataramana et al 2017), despite installing electric and railway fencing (saklani et al 2018). fragmentation caused by mining and construction affects elephant migration routes, drawing them to farmlands. about 27% of esz respondents reported that mining activities in their villages lead to dust, noise pollution, and crop damage. the attraction of urban centres like bengaluru, kanakpura, jigani, anekal, etc, and the need for an improved lifestyle, have also prompted shifts from agriculture and dairying to factory-based and private jobs and daily-wage work. 5. conclusion the proximal stressors on this landscape—loss of commons and ecological corridors and the resultant hwc, tightening forest protection, mining, etc—could be broadly linked to two major drivers: urbanization and conservation. the pull factors of urbanization, including high demand for commodities like vegetables, milk, and construction material, along with changing aspirations, have incentivized the shift to alternative livelihoods. meanwhile, the push factors of conservation—leading to increasing hwc and restricted access to forests—have pushed people out of forestdependent livelihoods, exacerbating the urbanization pull. our field observations indicate that the impacts of these shifts are not felt equally across the spatial and social gradient; for instance, marginalized caste groups and people located closer to the forest are affected more by the lack of access to grazing lands, impacts of hwc, etc. thus, it is crucial ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [266] to further explore social and spatial differentiations in the impacts of urbanization on bnp for the effective integration and management of the pa in the rapidly urbanizing landscape. acknowledgements this research is funded by the department of biotechnology (dbt), government of india, vide grant no bt/in/german/dfg/14/bvcr/2019. we would like to thank all our survey respondents for their valuable time. we are also grateful to our field enumerators for their support in conducting surveys around bnp. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is not provided in a repository as the data collection and analysis is ongoing. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references cbd. 2022. “protected areas – an overview.” secretariat of the convention on biological diversity (scbd). https://www.cbd.int/protected/overview/. moefcc. 2020. “no. 25/12/16-esz-re.” ministry of environment, forests and climate change. gazette of india: extraordinary, part ii, section 3 (ii), annexure iv: 1–42. https://kspcb.karnataka.gov.in. adhikari, sanchayeeta, timothy fik, and puneet dwivedi. 2017. “proximate causes of land-use and land-cover change in bannerghatta national park: a spatial statistical model.” forests, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.3390/f8090342. jayaprakash, lingaraj g and gordon m hickey. 2019. “mistaking the map for the territory: what does the history of bannerghatta national park, india, tell us about the study of institutions?” society and natural resources 32(12): 1433–1450. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1643431. manjunath. k b. 2016. working plan for the forests of bengaluru rural division (2011– 12 to 2020–21). deputy conservator of forests, bengaluru rural division, karnataka forest department. https://aranya.gov.in/new/newdownloads/wp/bangalore%20rural%20wp.pdf. margulies, jared d and krithi k karanth. 2018. “the production of human– wildlife conflict: a political animal geography of encounter.” geoforum 95: 153– 164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.06.011. mcdonald, robert i, peter kareiva, and richard t t forman. 2008. “the implications of current and future urbanization for global protected areas and https://www.cbd.int/protected/overview/ https://kspcb.karnataka.gov.in/ https://doi.org/10.3390/f8090342 https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1643431 https://aranya.gov.in/new/newdownloads/wp/bangalore%20rural%20wp.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.06.011 [267] bhaskar, ramananda, and sarang biodiversity conservation. biological conservation 141 (6): 1695–1703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.025. mckinney, michael l. 2002. “urbanization, biodiversity, and conservation: the impacts of urbanization on native species are poorly studied, but educating a highly urbanized human population about these impacts can greatly improve species conservation in all ecosystems.” bioscience 52 (10): 883–890. https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0883:ubac]2.0.co;2. ramachandra, t v, and bharath setturu. 2019. “sustainable management of bannerghatta national park, india, with the insights in land cover dynamics.” fiib business review 8 (2): 118–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/2319714519828462. rao, mohit m. 2019. “despite objections, bannerghatta national park’s ecosensitive zone curtailed.” the hindu, march 15. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/despite-objectionsbannerghatta-national-parks-eco-sensitive-zone-curtailed/article26537428.ece. saklani, arjun, dilip kumar, aaranya gayathri, and avinash krishnan. 2018. “the railway-line fence: a new passive elephant barrier at bannerghatta national park, southern india.” gajah 48: 20–23. https://www.arocha.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/09/saklani-et-al-2018-gajah-railway-line-fence.pdf. van oijstaeijen, wito, steven van passel, and jan cools. 2020. “urban green infrastructure: a review on valuation toolkits from an urban planning perspective.” journal of environmental management 267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110603. varma, surendra, vijay d anand, gopalakrishna sp, kg avinash, and nishant ms. 2009. “ecology, conservation and management of the asian elephant in bannerghatta national park, southern india.” a rocha india/asian elephant ecology and conservation reference series 1: 13–52. venkataramana, sreenivasa gv and hg lingaraju. 2017. “an assessment of crop damage and economic loss caused by elephants in harohalli and kodihalli ranges of bannerghatta national park, karnataka, india.” current science 161–167. https://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v113/i01/161-167 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2008.04.025 https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052%5b0883:ubac%5d2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1177/2319714519828462 https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/despite-objections-bannerghatta-national-parks-eco-sensitive-zone-curtailed/article26537428.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/despite-objections-bannerghatta-national-parks-eco-sensitive-zone-curtailed/article26537428.ece https://www.arocha.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/saklani-et-al-2018-gajah-railway-line-fence.pdf https://www.arocha.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/saklani-et-al-2018-gajah-railway-line-fence.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110603 https://doi.org/10.18520/cs/v113/i01/161-167 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 191–196, july 2020 book review building inclusive frameworks lavanya suresh  sharachchandra lele, eduardo s. brondizio, john byrne, georgina m. mace, and joan martinez-alier, eds. 2018. rethinking environmentalism: linking justice, sustainability, and diversity. cambridge and london: mit press. isbn: 978-0-262-03896-6, pp. 302, usd 45.00 (pb). this book is an outcome of the discussions held at the ernst strüngmann forum on ―rethinking environmentalism: justice, sustainability, and diversity‖ on june 19–24, 2016, in frankfurt am main, germany. the participants of the forum, who are stalwarts in their respective fields, authored the chapters in this book. it provides a comprehensive review of the justice, sustainability, and diversity frameworks used to study environmental problems, and i am tempted to call it a reader. in the critique of pure reason, immanuel kant suggested that our ideas do not conform to the objects of the world  assistant professor, department of humanities and social sciences, birla institute of technology & science, pilani, hyderabad campus, jawahar nagar, kapra mandal, medchal district 500078, telangana; lavanya.suresh.la@gmail.com. copyright © suresh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.215 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.215 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [192] around us; instead, objects are defined by the world of our ideas (kant 1882). the constructivist approach builds on this idea and claims that processes, concepts, analytical frameworks, and definitions are normative and should be understood based on their socio-political context. this book falls squarely within this field of thought and seeks to provide a self-reflective understanding of environmentalism by considering ―how differences in framing environmental problems are driven by differences in normative and theoretical positions, as well as ways in which more inclusive framings might enable more societally relevant and impactful research and more concerted action/practice‖ (p. 154). however, the book goes beyond just reviewing these frameworks by calling into question the value-neutral claims of different theoretical and analytical frameworks applied in the study of environmental phenomena. thereby, it brings the politics of environmentalism to the fore. the book addresses a significant gap in the literature on environmentalism by demonstrating how conceptual and analytical framings are socially constructed and are products of sociopolitical power structures (p. 103). the central theme of the book is its enquiry into ―frameworks‖. frameworks trigger a set of emotions and ideas—including stereotypes (p. 5)—and articulate the relationship between power and knowledge that pervades the production of discourse and practice that, in turn, shapes definitions (p. 58). a footnote in chapter 4 states, we understand framings as a set of concepts and perspectives based on how individuals, groups, and societies organise, perceive, and communicate about reality. it involves a social construction of phenomena. framing selects certain aspects of an issue and makes them more prominent so as to elicit certain interpretations and evaluations of an issue. therefore, frameworks are understood as epistemic developments that are constructed and used to understand the world (p. 75). in evaluating these frameworks, the authors also suggest ways to make them more inclusive. at the normative level, they consider a frame to be more inclusive when it addresses more than one of the three broad values of environmentalism: sustainability, justice, and diversity. at the theoretical level, the inclusivity of a frame is determined by its ability to incorporate or reconcile different representations of social and natural reality (p. 252). the chapters are organized into four themes: forests and other high biodiversity ecosystems, urban environments, energy and climate change, and water. under each theme, there are descriptive chapters and one synthesis chapter that ties the whole theme together. often, books that are a product of conferences have different papers that are put together as [193] lavanya suresh chapters, and there is no connection or coherence between them. this is not the case here. in each of the descriptive chapters, the authors remain faithful to the overall aim of the book, which is to evaluate how inclusive frameworks are in socio-environmental research. the synthesis chapter that summarizes the theme reflects on not only the broader literature but also draws upon the content in the other chapters in that section. some chapters address more normative questions whereas others focus on descriptive aspects. the strength of this book lies in the ability of its authors to provide a cohesive narrative throughout the book. in the introductory chapter, the book’s editors set the stage by explaining that the book seeks to answer the question of who gains and who loses when different theoretical, epistemological, and socio-political perspectives are used to address socio-environmental problems. chapters 2–4 address the theme of forests and other high biodiversity areas. in chapter 2, kent redford and georgina mace focus on traditional biodiversity conservation and point to the malleable aspects in the definition of biodiversity. they argue that although biodiversity is thought of as a unitary concept, it has multiple meanings that differ in technical and value-based ways (p. 23). to understand conservation, they outline four conservation frameworks that have evolved since the 1960s (p. 30). this helps to shed light on a set of tensions underlying the way biodiversity conservation is defined (p. 34) and enables them to conclude that biodiversity conservation is not a term with a universally agreed-upon definition, but rather, it is a value proposition. ecosystem services that humans derive from nature are an important concept in sustainability and conservation. in chapter 3, peter minang explores the connections between values and incentives in the context of ecosystem services in high-diversity tropical forest systems. he highlights the potential linkages between held, assigned, and relational values and multiple incentive typologies through two main decision-making framings: rational choice and bounded rationality (p. 41). the chapter explores the implicit theory of change present in every frame that is based on an incentive structure. this aspect of frameworks based on incentives is rarely articulated in terms of the context within which the incentive will take place and how it will operate differently in a different setting, which is referred to as a theory of place (p. 51). the synthesis chapter for this theme, written by leticia merino-pérez et al., presents a detailed review of how varied framings of biodiversity and forests approach issues of justice and governance, which, in turn, influence conservation and sustainable management programmes (p. 59). the chapter reflects on thematic and conceptual focal points: causes and drivers of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [194] forest and biodiversity losses and the proposed prescriptions in different framings. in doing so, it evaluates the values explicitly or implicitly held by these frames (p. 62) in the fields of conservation biology, ecological economics, political ecology and collective action, and institutional analysis theory. further, the chapter analyses eight initiatives from these fields that represent different approaches to biodiversity conservation. it addresses the normative concerns that drive these diverse initiatives, the interaction of frameworks and values, and conceptual and ethical framings about the main challenges faced by these conservation approaches (p. 75). the second theme of urban environments is covered in chapters 5–7. the two background chapters in this section demonstrate how broad the theme of environmental framings can be. in chapter 5, amita baviskar presents an eloquent account of how social position and political-economic power influence the framing of urban environmental problems. she demonstrates how unequal urban spaces in india operate by comparing two neighbours: an upper-middle-class family living in a comfortable high-rise apartment and their housemaid, whose family occupies a shack next door. this chapter argues that the power to define and address an issue as an environmental problem is unequally distributed and that social location and cultural capital shape interpretive frameworks and capacities to act (p. 85). this chapter stands out for its distinctive narrative style and the two environmentalisms it depicts (p. 139). in chapter 6, nancy grimm and seth schindler use a social-ecologicaltechnological system framing (sets) to discuss the nature of cities as well as nature in cities, which encompasses issues relevant to both the global north and south (p. 99). this chapter addresses the issue that ecology is often hard to see in the city (p. 90), which is why the urban poor have not been able to wield environmentalism as a discursive resource to secure their interests (p. 91). the authors argue that bourgeois concerns drive environmentalism in cities where concerns over air and water quality are articulated in ways that penalize the poor while ignoring the culpability of other classes (p. 95). cities continue to be ecosystems (p. 107) and the contrasting challenges associated with cities of the global south compared with those of the north need to be seen as being interwoven into the design of various dimensions of cities, their infrastructure, and inhabitants (p. 120). in chapter 7, xuemei bai et al. provide a comprehensive review of five framings of urban environmentalism—sets, urban metabolism, complex urban environments, environmental justice, and cities as solutions from different normative and theoretical positions (p. 127). the chapter also addresses four conventional dichotomies that influence conceptual and [195] lavanya suresh analytical framings—the urban–rural framing, global north versus global south, the brown versus green agenda in cities, and private rights versus environmental commons. the authors then propose that a more inclusive definition of the urban environment will enable frameworks that take into consideration issues of justice and bring recognition to the fact that cities are complex, dynamic, and evolving systems with non-linear trajectories, influenced by a variety of urban constituencies (p. 128). the third theme of energy and climate change has two background chapters by patrick bond (chapter 8) and manfred fischedick et al. (chapter 9), who take the paris 2015 climate agreement as a starting point. bond traces the positions taken by four individual south african environmentalists and a set of environmental organizations that have all been highly critical of the inadequate progress in international climate negotiations. chapter 8 explores the dichotomy that is often drawn between two major civil society forces within climate activism: international nongovernmental organizations (ingos) and grassroots climate justice activists (p. 156–159). he recommends that climate justice movement organizations should attempt to link up more decisively with each other, as it will enable them to confront neoliberal discourses (p. 178) directly. on the other hand, fischedick et al. in chapter 9 recognize the top-down character of most international climate change discourses and posit that the paris agreement allows for more decentralized, polycentric decision-making and design in climate change policy. they point out that local and regional planning and campaigns are adopted more quickly than national and international efforts. decentralized efforts also put a greater emphasis on inclusiveness and transparency, which allows for explicit climate justice commitments (p. 183). through a set of three hypotheses, the authors demonstrate that climate justice—with its emphasis on unequal distribution across local communities—has an inherent bottom-up feature and provides an opportunity for a polycentric paradigm that distinguishes itself from the mainstream techno-centric strategy of control. this will instead allow for creativity, experimentation, and innovation (p. 198). in the synthesis chapter by sun-jin yun et al. (chapter 10), there is a detailed typology of framing of the energy and climate debate. the authors draw specific attention to the increasingly problematic status of marketbased arguments and policies. they focus on discourses of climate justice, energy sovereignty, and green economy (p. 207). in their extensive review of 12 framings on energy and climate, four frames focus on the market, three on analytical frameworks, and five on post-market aspects of the economy. the chapter captures the key ideas, values, and concerns that ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [196] emerged from framings of the energy–climate debate and speaks of ways to promote dialogue among them (p. 210). the last theme, water, has only two chapters. chapter 11 by margreet zwarteveen et al. addresses the issue of water accounting and how it is employed to solve water problems. the authors take on a social constructivist position and critique new science policy initiatives that involve water (p. 227) by addressing the performative aspects of knowledge (p. 231). the chapter establishes how water accounting claims objectivity by being characterized as modern, which, in turn, leads to its legitimization and all-pervasiveness. the chapter focuses on whether water accounting meets its own modernist claims and ends with a discussion on how water accounting tools can be used in less modernist ways to meet goals of equity and diversity, rather than just efficiency (p. 232). the synthesis chapter (chapter 12) by amber wutich et al. examines seven frames in water research and analyses them based on their normative and theoretical positions, different views on progress (p. 252), and definitions and perspectives (p. 252). the chapter demonstrates how the frames vary widely in terms of inclusiveness and justice (p. 255). for each of the frames, the chapter assesses six aspects that range from their intellectual history to their political effectiveness. these aspects are illustrated under each frame through case studies. the chapter also demonstrates how inclusive frameworks can work in practice (p. 279). by assessing the frames on water through a standard set of criteria, the authors have demonstrated points of tension, overlap, and disconnect between them (p. 283). overall, this book is an intense and lucid compilation of various dimensions of environmental frameworks analysed through the lens of sustainability, justice, and diversity. the authors convincingly argue that frameworks should be more inclusive. however, one drawback is the lack of a conclusion chapter. the focus of this book is so broad that there is a need to consolidate the arguments made under each of the themes. i was hoping that given the calibre of the authors involved in this project, they would have concluded the book by theorizing on the concept of ―frames,‖ which would have been a great addition to the existing literature on the constructivist approach. nevertheless, this book is a must-read for academicians, students, practitioners, and activists who work on environmental issues. references kant, i. 1882. critique of pure reason. london: george bell and sons. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 1-6, july 2023 editorial reflecting on the past and welcoming the future kuntala lahiri-dutt* and pranab mukhopadhyay ecology, economy and society (ees) began its humble but hopeful journey with its inaugural issue in april 2018. the founding editors were renowned professors jayanta bandopadhyay, kamal bawa, and kanchan chopra, each of them a doyen in their domain. they brought their years of experience of building the indian society for ecological economics (insee) to an aspiring journal that aimed “to highlight and provide examples of…diverse approaches to the study the links between ecology, economy, and society” (chopra 2018, page 3). as it happens in the journey of every institution, the founding editors have now handed over the baton to a team comprising kuntala lahiri-dutt, jagdish krishnaswamy, and pranab mukhopadhyay. these editors represent the next generation of insee members. the group of founding associate editors has also undergone a transition. vikram dayal, rohan d’souza, harini nagendra, rucha ghate, jagdish krishnaswamy, and pranab mukhopadhyay have now completed their terms as associate editors. a new set of colleagues have joined the team—nandan nawn, joyashree roy, and rumi shammin. some members of the editorial team—suresh babu, julien-francois gerber, haripriya gundimeda, veena srinivasan, and sudha vasan—continue as associate editors, with asmita kabra providing stability as the managing editor. overall, there has been a seamless integration of new colleagues into the journal’s editorial collective. we start by expressing our gratitude to the founding editors and welcoming the colleagues who have now joined us. * professor, crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, and the australian national university, australia. kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au  professor in economics, goa business school, goa university, india. pm@unigoa.ac.in. copyright © lahiri-dutt and mukhopadhyay 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the authors. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1138 mailto:kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au mailto:pm@unigoa.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1138 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] the editorial team and the advisory board continue to have significant diversity in knowledge domains as well as geographies, age, and gender. this is expected of a multi-disciplinary journal like ees. as a result, the journal has moved from strength to strength over the years. in 2018, the journal was on the ugc-care list in india, and it started getting indexed in scopus by 2021. in 2021, ees also got listed on the directory of open access journals (doaj) and was accepted into the free journal network in 2022. even though there are concerns about the use of index measures to judge the quality of a research journal, some benchmarks are helpful for self-reflection. the scimago website1 places ees in the third quartile. considering ees is a young, independent journal, this gives us a warm glow feeling. the high quality of research published in ees is being noticed globally, and citations per document have been slowly but steadily rising. for example, so far, the “most downloaded” articles are magotra et al (2020), bindra et al (2020) and bhattacharya (2020). the “most cited” articles are kabra (2019), fanari (2019) and chopra & das (2019). international collaborations stand at nearly one-third, indicating that the journal caters to an international audience. the location of ees in the global south, and the fact that it is an independent open-access journal brings multiple challenges. some of these are financial and administrative, and others are academic. ees asks for no author publication charges (apc). this is possible only because of the unwavering support of insee. additionally, ees has received some financial support from the indian council for social science research (icssr), foundation for ecological security, the ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment and independent donors. the inaugural issue of 2018 carried an editorial, one research paper, two commentaries, two reports, two thematic essays, three book reviews, and two notes from the field. in addition, it had seven pieces in the conversation section. the journal has grown significantly since then. the current issue carries four research papers, four book reviews, one thematic essay, and one insight from the field. since its first issue, ees has carried special sections which specifically focussed on rehabilitating degraded ecosystems, the commons, new epistemologies of water in india, and ecological distribution conflicts in india. in this issue, the theme explored is political ecology; it has 1 https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21101049095&tip=sid&clean=0 https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21101049095&tip=sid&clean=0 [3] lahiri-dutt and mukhopadhyay been edited by kuntala lahiri-dutt, sudha vasan, and asmita kabra. it offers six research papers, one commentary, and one insight from the field. the increasing number of submissions and their quality give us hope that ees is providing researchers a much-needed space for interdisciplinary conversations. its popularity is also indicative of the scholars’ desire to explore the challenges that growing economies pose to the environment and society. the current issue brings together a specially curated collection from the domain of political ecology. however, we at ees are yet to have an accurate balance in terms of the biophysical and social sciences in the conceptual framing and evidence analysed. consequently, the interpretation of ecology can vary. this is not uncommon, and other emerging interdisciplinary fields also reflect such partiality to one or other areas. for instance, political ecology is clearly more inclined towards the politics of resources and the environment, as humans co-constitute these elements. this inclination is evident in the papers in this issue that use a conceptual framing of political ecology. the field of political ecology emerged in the 1980s as a new analytical tool to explain within a singular framework both environmental and distributional issues. it drew upon the broader field of political economy to argue that environmental degradation does not affect everyone in society in the same way. while development interventions initiate environmental change, those who are economically, socially, and politically more powerful are able to extract a larger share of the benefits, whereas an unfair burden of the costs are borne by those who are less powerful. as a methodology, political ecology not only heralded a disjuncture from the benthamite utilitarianism of the greater common good, but also shifted scholarly dialogues on nature–society relationships to class-based analyses within other social hierarchies. political ecology also asks questions about justice, autonomy, and agency. scale is integral to these analyses, and the papers in the special section show how the methodology can be deployed at multiple scales, yet recognizes the specificity of contexts and places, and most importantly, puts politics at the heart of our thinking about ecological questions. a little bit of self-questioning is necessary here. over the years, political ecology has turned into a much more heterogeneous field than it was when originally conceptualized. this transformation—or maturity of the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [4] methodology—was enabled by significant research that adopted poststructuralist, social constructivist, and new materialist approaches. to use an example, let us briefly see how the underground—the part of the earth that is below our feet—has been considered by political ecologists. using a new materialist approach, kaika and swyngedouw (2000) show how an extensive water infrastructure under urban centres remains hidden, opaque, invisible, underground, locked into pipes and conduits, and act as passages that render how societies fetishize commodities (such as water). others such as bebbington and bury (2013) explain the underground through the cartesian view of space as either empty (to be put to use by society) or a container of things (or stuff, resources for extraction). melo zurita (2021) disagrees, and argues that before humans started constructing infrastructure projects, underground spaces were—and still are—an essential part of cosmologies. indeed, the underground was not only sometimes crucial to survival, it was also a space of refuge, providing vital ingredients to sustain life. deploying a feminist political ecology perspective, lahiri-dutt (2022) maintains that the underground is neither a purely natural (container of resources) nor a mental construct, and can be seen as being constantly redefined and co-constituted as a humanized, and even a gendered, place. wider debates in political ecology reveal the productive tensions in the field. knudsen (2023) suggests that although political ecology has posed critiques of modernist views of science, broken binaries to draw attention to multiple realities, and distributed agency to the subalterns, the time has come to move away from studying events and interactions, and to create a new ontology that can illuminate the kinds of unseen mechanisms and trends that can illuminate the world as stratified, from a critical realist perspective. this slight shift away from new materialism, knudsen believes, will bring political economy back into political ecology. however, the challenges of discussing the ontology of environmental problems that are embedded in human experience and discourse remain. forsyth (2023) adds a slightly different angle to this invitation by arguing that political ecology asks not only what is ecologically real but also how, and with what politics, ideas of reality are made and used. he suggests that the task now is to examine how ideas of ecological realities are created, how (and why) some persist while others dissipate, and the inclusion or exclusion of different perspectives in social research. strands of these debates, we hope, can be detected in almost all the papers published in the special section of this issue, irrespective of whether they are part of the special section. for example, “who accesses solar pv? energy [5] lahiri-dutt and mukhopadhyay justice and climate justice in a local government rooftop solar programme” assesses how the darebin city council of melbourne, australia, addresses the issue of energy justice through the solar saver programme that enables seniors, low-income residents, and tenants to install solar pv in their homes at no upfront cost. these urban residents are at risk of energy poverty and disproportionate climate impacts throughout the world. therefore, the study has great value for replication in other contexts. the research paper, “exploring the ‘green’”, uses a historical lens to review the environment and ecology of pre-colonial assam, while another research paper debates questions of private property rights and forest conservation outcomes using empirical evidence from west bengal. in the special section, articles range in topics including extractivism in turkey and east india; the environmental crisis in the brahmaputra valley, assam; the complexities of rural drinking water policies and their implementation realities in southern bihar; and how discourses of toxicity are contested by various stakeholders in the yamuna floodplains in the delhi metropolis. the critical lens of race analysis is added to the global consideration of political ecology by mukul kumar, in his article dissecting who creates, and who suffers as a result of, industrial disasters. adding further richness to this issue is simon batterbury’s and denisse rodriguez’ commentary titled “emancipatory political ecology pedagogy in and out of the classroom”. it deals with how political ecology pedagogy can be taken outside of the classroom, and it is of great relevance to a global audience of researchers. finally, this issue features four book reviews and two insights from the field. the first one analyses how conservation and urbanization, despite conflicts, are taking place in bannerghatta national park in bengaluru. the second one analyses gender-based, contextual preferences in arranging marriages in brahmaputra chars in assam. together, these articles showcase the journal’s growing ability to deliver on its stated mandate of methodological pluralism and inter-disciplinary research. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. references bebbington, anthony, and jeffrey bury. 2013. “political ecologies of the subsoil.” in subterranean struggles: new dynamics of mining, oil, and gas in latin america, edited by anthony bebbington and jeffrey bury, 1–26. austin: university of texas press. https://doi.org/10.7560/748620-003. https://doi.org/10.7560/748620-003 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] bhattacharya, shreyashi (2020) ‘vulnerabilities and resilience in post-fani chilika: lessons from the field’, by ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 131136. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.98 bindra, prerna singh, chirag gajjar, arunabha ghosh, manoj kumar, crispino lobo, digangana mukherjee, pradeep nair, shannon olsson, nitin pandit, tina patrao, uma ramakrishnan, usha ramanathan, nimish shah, priya shyamsundar and prashanth n. srinivas. (2020) ‘the post-covid india: making science and technology socially and environmentally relevant’, ecology, economy and society-the insee journal 3(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 chopra, kanchan. 2018. “ecology, economy and society–the insee journal.” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1, no. 1: 1–3. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.3. chopra, v., das, s., (2019) estimating willingness to pay for wastewater treatment in new delhi: contingent valuation approach, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal, 2(2): 75–108. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.78 fanari, e. (2019) relocation from protected areas as a violent process in the recent history of biodiversity conservation in india, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal, 2(1): 43–76. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.55 forsyth, tim. 2023. “political ecology and ontology: is literal critical realism the answer? a response to knudsen.” journal of political ecology 30, no. 1: 191–7. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5546. kabra, a. (2019) ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal, 2(1): 9–26. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 kaika, maria, and erik swyngedouw. 2000. “fetishizing the modern city: the phantasmagoria of urban technological networks.” international journal of urban and regional research 24, no. 1: 120–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00239. knudsen, ståle. 2023. “critical realism in political ecology: an argument against flat ontology.” journal of political ecology 30, no. 1: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5127. lahiri-dutt, kuntala. 2022. “the secret and gendered life of the underground.” gender, place and culture: a journal of feminist geography. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2022.2091522. melo zurita, maria de lourdes. 2021. “core beliefs: the underground is full of stories and structures.” architectural review 1480, 6–12. magotra, rohit, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, and jyoti parikh (2020) ‘role of marine national park for sustainable livelihoods of artisan fisherfolk: a case study of mnp, jamnagar’, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3(2): 59–82. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.98 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.3 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.78 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.55 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5546 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00239 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5127 https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2022.2091522 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 161–168, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india revealed by water, hidden in water: indic hydroepistemologies of sacred things anway mukhopadhyay  and anuradha choudry  abstract: this essay explores two basic trajectories of the hydro-epistemology of sacred things in indic cultures: things revealed by water—the visible gifts of water—and things hidden in water with which we can communicate only indirectly, by touching the water. unlike mircea eliade’s concept of hierophany, this represents a mode of the sacred that cannot be auto-manifest and depends on water for radiating its sacrality. while the sacred things revealed by water—the conch shell, the bana linga, the svarnamukhi shila, the shaligrama shila—are water’s gifts to the indic religions, there are things that are hidden by water; their hiddenness maintains their secrecy and sacrality. for instance, in certain sati pithas, the petrified body parts of goddess sati are said to remain submerged in water. one can only touch them indirectly, by touching the water that is in touch with the sati’s body. this article illustrates this two-pronged epistemology of the sacred that is propelled by water in indic religious cultures. keywords: hydro-epistemology, sacrality, indic, sati pithas, hierophany 1. introduction when we set out to explore the hydro-epistemology of sacred things in indic traditions, we found two basic trajectories: things revealed by the water—gifts that dot the boundary between nature and culture—and things hidden in the water that we can touch only indirectly, by touching the water. sacred things from the water include the conch shell (hinduism and  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india; anwaymukhopadhyay@gmail.com.   department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india; panditanu@gmail.com. copyright © mukhopadhyay and choudry 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.228 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.228 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] buddhism), the bana linga, the svarnamukhi shila, and the shaligrama shila (hinduism);1 these are the gifts of water to indic religions. there are also other sacred tokens that the water hides; their concealment ensures or enhances their sacrality. for instance, in various sati pithas (sacred sites of devi worship associated with her avatar, sati), petrified body parts of goddess sati are said to be submerged in the water, thereby making the water sacred. one cannot directly touch these hidden tokens from the sati myth; one can only touch sati indirectly by touching the water in which the petrified flesh of sati is hidden. this article illustrates this two-pronged epistemology of the sacred that is induced by water in indic religious cultures. 2. theoretical frameworks we find that mircea eliade’s concept of ―hierophany‖ is not adequate to account for the phenomena on which we focus in this article. while eliade’s idea of ―hierophany‖ focuses on the self-manifestation of the sacred, the gifts of water revealed by its waves, as well as the sacred things hidden in its bosom, represent a mode of the sacred that is not and cannot be auto-manifest and rather depend on water for its location and function within the epistemology of the sacred. eliade (1959) opines, ―man (sic.) becomes aware of the sacred because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane. to designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany‖ (11). in this article, however, we argue that in the case of waterborne sacred objects or those hidden in water, the sacred does not manifest or show itself. instead, the water shows or refuses to show it. when unseen, it is still considered sacred; indeed, its sacredness is grounded in that it remains hidden by the water. on the other hand, when it is seen, it does not show itself but is revealed by running water that drops it on the shore. here, hierophany does not refer to the agency of the sacred itself, but rather the agency of the mother of sacred things: water. in order to explore specific forms of water-induced spirituality prevalent in various indic modes of religiosity, we draw and elaborate on bron taylor’s 1 bana linga—also known as svayambhu (i.e., self-born) linga is an ellipsoid stone that hindus worship. the stone symbolizes lord shiva, the supreme god of power in the hindu trinity (brahma–vishnu–maheshvara). the stone is commonly found on the bed of the narmada river in madhya pradesh, india. svarnamukhi shila is the natural stone obtained from the svarnamukhi river in andhra pradesh and it represents shakti/devi. shaligrama shila, collected from the gandaki river in nepal, is a fossilized shell worshipped as a manifestation of lord vishnu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ellipsoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/narmada_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/narmada_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/narmada_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/madhya_pradesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/india [163] anway mukhopadhyay and anuradha choudry (2014) idea of ―sea spirituality‖. while speaking of ―sea spirituality‖ in the context of surfing, taylor dwells on the ocean as the source of life— ―mother ocean‖. according to taylor, ―there is not much we know with certainty about the origins of life other than that the ocean is literally the source‖ (230). this we can say without having a clue why a spirituality that evolved in close contact with the sea developed not in isolation from the senses but rather through them. this sort of ―sensible spirituality‖, taylor insists, ―celebrates the energies of the universe and life itself‖ and ―does not require metaphysical speculation that reaches far beyond our ken‖ (230). the mode of religiosity on which we focus in this article is sensory in nature: one has to touch the holy stones revealed by water and blow the conch shell, a gift from water, by pressing one’s mouth to its mouth. however, the trajectory we follow is different from that of taylor’s on sea spirituality. while the surfer, as a sea spiritualist, rides a wave and in doing so connects to the ocean (taylor 2014, 230), the spiritualist or religious person who worships sacred stones or blows the sacred conch shell ritualistically hears the roiling sea or the laughter of the river in the conch shell or sacred stone, respectively. thus, the sea spiritualist moves closer to the sea; this happy recipient of the gifts of water waits on the shore for the water to reveal, with maternal affection, her enormous riches. 3. revealed by water sacred things have various connotations and functions in indic religions. in hinduism, where the spectrum of the sacred is bafflingly wide and allpervasive, the sacred thing is often not just a thing, but a manifestation of the divine itself. for instance, the bana linga, shaligrama shila, and svarnamukhi shila are all natural objects that are seen as varied manifestations of the divine. even though one might be tempted to associate their sacrality with the eliadean idea of ―hierophany‖, we need to first look at their origins. water is a primordial mother, the manifester of sacred objects, and the bringer of sacred gifts to the people who love and are loved by it; to find the sacred stone, you must go to the river. however, we need to consider here that water in general, not just rivers, is the mother of gods. water brings sacred gifts—the stony manifestations of the divine—to the shore, which simultaneously separates and connects nature and culture; thus, religion begins its course. the stone’s sacrality is essentially embedded in, and curiously coterminous with, the sacrality of the water that carries it. in this context, we can see the water, carrying the sacred stones that are to be worshipped as gods/goddesses, has the palpable, physical presence of the vedic aditi who, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] as tracy pintchman (1994) observes, ―shares her maternal nature with the waters and the earth‖ (32–33). pintchman says, ―aditi, the waters, and earth may on some level be different aspects of one another, for they are homologized by being cited collectively as mother of the gods‖ (32–33). if we dissociate the rivers carrying these sacred stones from the complex mythological frames that may occasionally downplay the primacy of ―water as mother‖ and see the jalatva (water-ness) of the river water as the actual source of the sacrality of the divine stones nurtured in the riverbed—that is to say, if we train ourselves to read the sacred differently and nonconventionally, from a physical or tangible perspective—we come to understand how important it is to acknowledge and appreciate the power of water to bring the gods as its gifts to us. as shrikala warrier (2014) rightly observes, all the bana lingas in the narmada river are said to be shiva himself. warrier reminds us that the five main deities of hinduism, foregrounded in the panchayatana2 worship initiated by shankaracharya, ―are worshipped in the form of stones found in five sacred rivers‖ (140–141). interestingly, these stones are also associated with the five primordial elements of creation in hindu cosmologies—ether, air, fire, water, and earth. nevertheless, even though these five sacred stones are supposed to represent the five primordial elements, including water, it is water that nurtures and carries them to the religious hindu. water, in a way, becomes the all-encompassing entity that manifests the sacrality of all the elements, in effect becoming the ultimate agency behind the hierophany of the five sacred stones. these five stones are born of water and are manifested as sacred entities (not just ―things‖) through its flow. here, we come to the spiritual dynamics of water revealing rather than hiding the sacred. the hydro-epistemology of the hierophany of these stones becomes comprehensible to us when we adopt taylor’s (2014) framework of ―sensible spirituality‖ and touch the heart of the sacred epistemes of popular hinduism in their simplest forms, shorn of the scriptural superstructure that, when over-emphasized, often smothers unadorned nature. eliade (1959) explains that for the religious person, ―the sacred is equivalent to a power, and, in the last analysis, to reality‖ (12). however, in the case of sacred things brought by water to the domain of religion, true power and reality are in water itself. while the bana linga or the shaligrama shila may be seen as svayambhu (self-born), in the final analysis, they are the offspring of water. the maternal agency of water cannot be overlooked, when a non 2 panchayatana refers to the veneration of the five hindu deities: shiva, vishnu, shakti/ parvati, surya, and ganesha. [165] anway mukhopadhyay and anuradha choudry biased ―contemplative cultural critic‖ (mani 2009, 1–4), capable of overcoming an obsession with scriptures, touches these sacred stones with love and reverence and hears in them the laughter of waves. kapila vatsyayan (2010), while discussing sacred stones like the shaligrama shila and bana linga in the context of indic water myths, focuses on the ecological message that ―these simple stones‖ convey, which facilitates ―a sensitive comprehension of ecology‖ (xiv). indeed, by worshipping these stones, we celebrate the primordial motherhood of water. it is in the water as a physical matrix that different ideas and figurations of the sacred take shape. as the origin of all sacrality, water weaves a complex web of the sacred by revealing certain things and hiding others. from the sacred objects that are considered direct manifestations of the divine, we now move to those tokens of the sacred that do not ontologically overlap with the divine, but are nevertheless associated with it or have other sacred functions. take, for example, the shankha (conch shell). as gautam chatterjee (2001) elaborates, the conch shell ―symbolises the cosmic space of which the attribute is sabda or sound‖ (77). while the sacred stones representing the five deities are gifts from the rivers, the conch shell is a gift from the sea. however, its relationship with the sea is quite complex—the sea, as it were, remains alive within the physical body of the shell. ―like the insides of the sea, conch-interiors are considered innately sacred, and devotees adorn their entire physical and spiritual selves and homes by using its internal parts‖ (sarbadhikary 2019, 7). even though the conch shell has many sacred functions in hindu rituals, ―the conch’s sacrality rests with the object’s naturalness, not ritual value‖ (sarbadhikary 2019, 8). in other words, it is a natural gift from the sea. following sarbadhikary’s (2019) insistence that the conch shell, ―when sounded every dusk‖, makes ―the home open out to the sea again‖ (8), we can say that it is a peculiar gift from water that opens our hearts to the sea and to the ultimate abundance of water. drawing on the view that the shankha always reminds us of ―nature’s innate freedom‖ (sarbadhikary 2019, 8), we argue that water gives us the conch shell to help us recognize, again and again, its source in primordial waters when we hear the sound of the sea emerging from its cavity. in tibetan buddhism, the conch shell is a ―symbol of the proclamation of the buddha’s teachings, which fearlessly resounded throughout the ten directions‖ (beer 2003, 171). once again, we find in the conch shell, which is a gift from the rolling waters of the sea, the cadence of the waves. the sacred gifts that come to us from water cross the boundary that separates nature and culture; thus, we understand that culture is, in the context of the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [166] hydro-sacred, not a process of transcending nature but one of celebrating its gifts. 4. hidden in water now, we shall focus on the ways water hides sacred objects and invites the religious person to touch the water—this is the only way to access what is hidden underwater: the unrevealed sacred. here, the secret and the sacred become one. water preserves the sacrality and secrecy of the hidden object, forcing us to understand that water is not just a matrix of sacred stones, but also a medium for communicating with that mode of sacredness that revels in its inaccessibility. here, you do not dive into the water to find or grab the sacred object; you simply touch the water or take a dip in it, without presumptuously trying to discover the sacred thing hidden in the water. in certain sati pithas—sacred spots where lie hidden parts of the corpse of goddess sati, dismembered by vishnu’s chakra after her self-immolation and the destruction of the yajna arranged by her father, daksha (mukhopadhyay 2018, 10–11, 7–681)3—one recognizes this phenomenon of water hiding the sacred beneath its surface. sati’s sacred body parts, in petrified form, are hidden in the water, out of reach. one can only touch the water, take a dip in it, or sprinkle it on one’s body; it is only by touching the water that the person, indirectly, accesses the sacred aura of the goddess’s petrified body parts and pays tribute to them. in these cases, one cannot directly touch the body of the goddess; one’s respectful touch must be mediated by water. in the case of tantric shaktism, there are many ritualistic contexts in which touching the goddess becomes an important way of paying tribute to her and being blessed by her touch. touch is mutual—whatever you touch also touches you, especially within the panentheistic vision of tantric shaktism (williamson 1984, 253–254). however, in the case of the sacred body parts of sati, hidden by water, the sacred touch, although mutual, is mediated. you touch the water that is in touch (literally) with the sacred body parts of sati, and the water touches you back, on behalf of the goddess. just as with the revelation of sacred objects, in the case of hiding sacred objects too, water enjoys the agency of ensuring the sacred function of those objects. in the sati pitha of kankalitala, adjacent to shantiniketan in the district of birbhum, west bengal, there is a kund (a small water body) beside the 3 chakra or sudarshana chakra is the divine discus that is the weapon of vishnu. yajna is a ritual that is performed in front of a sacred fire and is accompanied by chants (mantras). it is part of the ancient indian tradition and has been referred to in vedic literature (especially the brahmanas and the yajurveda). [167] anway mukhopadhyay and anuradha choudry temple of goddess kali. according to legend, sati’s waist fell here and is still submerged in this water body (clark 2011; devasharman 2015, 100). in a piece on the sati pitha of kankalitala, william clark (2011) expresses wonder about the invisibility and inaccessibility of sati’s actual body part at this site: i cannot help but wonder if at the bottom of the kund there may be some sort of rock formation corresponding to the fallen body part of ma sati. it seems likely that an isolated, shallow pond such as the kankalitala kund would periodically dry up during periods of draught, exposing the bottom. if and when this does occur, is an object revealed that was the initial source of attraction for ancient people to this sacred site, or is the kankalitala kund merely a pond that has acquired sacred status for reasons unknown? however, as yatinandan devasharman (2015, 100) points out, the kund at kankalitala never actually dries up fully. even during the summer, when the entire birbhum district reels under scorching heat, this kund remains full. according to legend, it has a subterranean connection with the manikarnika ghat of varanasi. devasharman informs us that devotees of the goddess consider the water of the kund to be as holy as that of the ganges. they convey their secret desires to this kund and, when their desires are fulfilled, they place sweets and paper boats on the surface of the water. they sprinkle the water on their heads while expressing their desires and sip the water. in other words, for the devotees of the goddess, the water of the kund is alive; it listens and responds to their pleas. the water is precious because it is the only medium of communication with the sacred part of sati’s corpse that is submerged in it. the devotee conveys their plea to the petrified body part of sati, and the response comes through the water. they have to touch the water to convey their heart’s desires to what is hidden in it; the benediction of the sacred remains of the goddess are also conveyed through the water. without loving the water and being loved by it, you cannot engage in a loving relationship with the feminine divine enshrined in this sati pitha. in the context of sacred objects hidden by water, another example would be lake manasarovara, which is famous as one of the holiest and most important hindu pilgrim spots. according to the myths of shaktism, sati’s right hand fell into the manasa sarovara, which is now located in tibet and is called manasarovar (devasharman 2015, 191–194). while for hindus in general the water of this lake sacred in itself, the shakti worshipper experiences this sacrality from a different perspective. here too, sati’s body part is submerged in the manasarovara—it is not accessible. only water remains before the eyes and hands of the devotee. the shakti worshipper conveys the message of devotion to the goddess only by touching the water of the lake, which keeps sati’s petrified hand hidden beneath its surface. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [168] 5. conclusion we have shed light on those sacred functions of water in indic traditions that often escape our critical gaze. while indic water epistemologies typically focus on the sacrality of water itself (vatsyayan 2010, xiii–xviii), we have underlined the intricate ways in which water determines the epistemology of the sacred in india. rather than being an apparently passive, abstract instance of the sacred, or an object of worship, water engages in active play with the very epistemes of sacrality. it conditions, modulates, and determines the modalities of the manifestation (the sacred objects it reveals) or non-manifestation (the sacred things it hides) of the sacred things that are at the heart of the religious cultures of india. whether it reveals or hides them, the agency lies in the waves and ripples of the water. references beer, robert. 2003. the handbook of tibetan buddhist symbols. chicago: serindia. chatterjee, gautam. 2001. sacred hindu symbols. second edition. new delhi: abhinav publications. clark, william. 2011. ―kankalitala: mandir and sacred kund.‖ accessed on march 23, 2020. http://www.kalibhakti.com/kankalitala/. devasharman, yatinandan. 2015. bharater adhyatmik aitihya: 51 shaktipitha. kolkata: nijaswa communication. eliade, mircea. 1959. the sacred and the profane: the nature of religion. translated by willard r. trask. new york: harcourt, brace and world. mani, lata. 2009. sacred secular: contemplative cultural critique. new delhi: routledge. mukhopadhyay, anway. 2018. the goddess in hindu-tantric traditions: devi as corpse. london and new york: routledge. pintchman, tracy. 1994. the rise of the goddess in the hindu tradition. albany: state university of new york press. sarbadhikary, sukanya. 2019. ―shankh-er shongshar, afterlife everyday: religious experience of the evening conch and goddesses in bengali hindu homes.‖ religions 10 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010053. taylor, bron raymond. 2014. ―sea spirituality, surfing and aquatic nature religion.‖ in deep blue: critical reflections on nature, religion and water, edited by sylvie shaw and andrew francis, 213–234. london and new york: routledge. vatsyayan, kapila. 2010. ―introduction: the ecology and myth of water.‖ in water: culture, politics and management, edited by india international centre, ix–xxx. new delhi: pearson education. warrier, shrikala. 2014. kamandalu: the seven sacred rivers of hinduism. london: mayur university, with hindu heritage protection, mumbai. williamson, raymond keith. 1984. introduction to hegel’s philosophy of religion. albany: state university of new york press. http://www.kalibhakti.com/kankalitala/ https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10010053 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 169–178, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india hydrocultural histories and narratives: insights from the sundarbans amrita dasgupta  to put water at the heart of the narrative is to demand that we adopt a more flexible conception of space unruly waters: how mountain rivers and monsoons have shaped south asia’s history (sunil amrith 2018, 9) abstract: this article focuses on water-centric quotidian-actualities by bringing to the fore collected oral histories from the field and their relation to the local religious literature—bonbibi’r johuranama, raimangal, manasa mangal. when asked about the water history of the region, the narratives of the locals reflect the desire to shift the attention from terrestrial–aquatic tyranny to climatic despotism. to put this into perspective, the islanders, at present, are conscious about how climate change holistically affects their deltaic ecosystem. the realization does not stop the community from engaging in age-old religious practices that have acquired habitual existence in the lower bengal delta. this provides an entry point to a new cultural system re-centred on historical imaginations and novel spatialities, which in every aspect is exemplary for contemporary policy-makers. keywords: hydroculture, water, culture, bonbibi, sunderbans 1. introduction from cultural and political transitions, modern history has shifted its focus to water, owing to the escalation of the irrecoverable existential threats induced by climate change (amrith 2018). the literature on agrarian history  independent researcher, 19/a devinibash road, dum dum, kolkata-700074, west bengal, india; amritadasgupta58@gmail.com. copyright © dasgupta 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.232 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.232 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [170] from the 1970s and 1980s is strewn with studies on irrigation, as harnessing water was the main concern for indian society then (chaudhuri 1970; stokes 1978; stone 1979; bose 1986; kaiwar 1992). the age-old presence of step-wells in rajasthan, gujarat, and delhi, followed by the modern construction of dams in south india, bear testimony to the historic preoccupation in agriculturally motivated india with finding methods to battle water depletion and disappearance. the pursuit and belief in the security of water for agricultural purposes in delta regions, supported by the idea of india as a repository of the monsoon, propelled people to migrate to deltas from the latter half of the twentieth century, particularly in the face of accelerating poverty and inequality. however, the growing potential of water to shape national history and rural communities was largely neglected after the 1990s till the first half of the twenty-first century, as most historians shifted their focus to water’s effect on urban culture. it should have been otherwise, as india is primarily agriculture-dependent. the landscapes of south asia and the development of its urban centres are influenced by water. this is best illustrated in the religious values of the bay dwellers. in the sundarbans, water acts as a social leveller that benefits and impairs all its inhabitants equally. religious practices centred on water in different communities, through the divine personification of the same as gods (poseidon, greek mythology) and goddesses (ganga, indian mythology), have not only assigned undying importance to the element but have also facilitated recent legal developments that have enshrined the importance of water. some recent examples include the national water framework bill (2016), which calls for the rejuvenation of river systems through local community participation and the inclusion of rainwater harvesting in new urban constructions under the kerala municipality building rules, 1999 (amended 2004). evidently, religious practices are influential enough to propel the crafting of policies that not only protect these community practices but also draw from them to institute water security measures at scale. this paper, drawing on empirical insights from the sundarbans, examines the importance of water in sustaining a community and how the local inhabitants religiously revere it. 2. water in mangrove religions and rituals: enmeshed human–non-human realities the study focuses on the region’s history after partition (1947), which resulted in the geopolitical remapping of india. new borders dissecting rivers, created based on bureaucratic ratiocination of the environment, have [171] amrita dasgupta resulted in mismanagement of disasters caused by cyclonic storms, flooding, heat stress, and sea-level rise. these incidents have led to a shift in the focus of modern history to the evaluation of natural uncertainties in the coastal region (amrith 2018). subsequently, it becomes imperative that policymaking is informed by the reimagining of the philosophy behind the cultural, religious, and eco-centric imaginations of water-dependent forest inhabitants. thus, this paper aims to bring to the fore the quotidian realities of the sundarban islanders in relation to the life lived in and around water. a study of religious dictates and folklores associated with the people of the bhatir desh (land of ebb and tides) will facilitate the endeavour. for the specific case that this paper makes, it is imperative to mention that the gods and goddesses of the sundarbans are believed to preside over the forests, its resources, and the animals of the region. religious narratives include norms associated with divine appeasement through austerity and death rituals. the islanders also practise certain religious rituals they believe will protect their livelihood. given the geographical location of the sundarbans, the islanders depend on the forests and rivers for survival. the salinity of the water renders the land unfit for cultivation. thus, they have to penetrate the forest to secure wood, wax, and fruits, bearing in mind the risk of attacks by wild animals—mostly the tiger. in the river, they may encounter crocodiles and snakes. the evolution of a syncretic religion in this reserve forest is driven by an all-encompassing fear of life loss related to specific animals, which naturally induces the prominence of the worship of inferior bengal goddesses who exclusively have control over the actions of these animals. this explains the psychological dependence of the islanders on lesser deities—bonbibi, dakhin rai, kalu ray, manasa, and makal thakur. this paper examines their divine alliance with forest animals—tigers, crocodiles, snakes, and fish. despite belonging to the pantheon of inferior gods, the actions people take to seek their blessings follow bhodrolok1 hindu procedures. 2.1. the mythologies of bonbibi and water bonbibi, or the tiger goddess, is worshipped by all those who use the forest resources of the sundarbans (figure 1). her worship is most widespread in the atharo bhatir desh (land of the 18 ebb tides). however, there has been a systematic shift towards worshipping kali (the hindu female goddess of 1 pertaining to the hindu upper/middle class identity, bhodrolok translates to ―gentleman.‖ the idea came into existence between 1757 and 1947, along with the rise of british raj in india. it was used to refer to any person who has wealth and polished (mostly english-like) manners. this segment of colonized society zealously exhibited their religious practices and ultimately normalized it within the public sphere. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [172] figure 1: bonbibi source: author, 25 january 2018 figure 2: glimpse of the preparatory stages of fishing in bakkhali, west bengal source: author, 26 may 2017 prowess; the destroyer of evil forces) by prawn seed collectors, as the community believes the occupation to be deadly because of its symbolic association with the rage of kali (jalais 2010). the risks of working in water are immense as compared to that of working on land in this region; camouflaged and submerged crocodiles can attack without warning. the worship of kali can also be attributed to urban encroachment in the delta. unlike the mohule (those who work in the forest), prawn seed collectors are all women, who perceive the water as not only their source of livelihood but also metaphorically as a temple. the islanders believe that the attacks on land and sea are punishments from the resident goddess, bonbibi, who mandates the loss of life of anyone who consumes forest resources out of greed. therefore, while wading through the river, these women immerse their hands in the water and, with devotion, evoke the mercy of their benevolent mother. they sing no specific chants. their devotion stems from the spontaneous desire for a good catch and security of life. gender equations become important here. although women are allowed to be the occupational partners of their husbands, these same women are denied access to fishing boats once they are widowed. the same thing happens with the prawn seed collectors; once widowed, they are restricted from entering their occupational temple, in an [173] amrita dasgupta figure 3: bidyadhari, the performative sphere of ganga worship adjoining the ganga temple in ashrom ferry ghat source: author, 28 august 2018 androcentric ostracization based on hindu laws. the water, though not a part of the rituals except for being housed in the mangalghat (a ritual urn) to assure the wellness of worshippers, assumes layers of meanings in the daily lives of islanders (figure 2). 2.2. representing the realms of forests and water through empirical information at the ashrom ferry ghat (gosaba), from where the boats leave for bali island, there stands a temple of mother ganga. locals2 recounted the need to rebuild the temple just after cyclone aila (2009), when the land was engulfed by the sea, embankments were broken, and habitats were ruined by the rising sea level. no amount of blowing of conch shells could calm the anarchic sea. the main purohit (priest) of the temple mentioned the need to provide alms to the water goddess occasionally, to keep her calm. the women of gosaba are often seen setting lamps and fruit afloat on banana leaves at the ferry ghats (figure 3). here, we often find the families of fishers engrossed in prayers, pleading to the mother to be compassionate to their breadwinners in the open delta. thus, the inherent fright of the animal-fearing community of the river compels scrutiny of the mythical triparty relationship between ganga, parvati, and manasa (hindu female goddesses), as described in the manasa mangal kavya.3 manasa, the snake goddess, was not allowed to enter heaven; the manasa mangal recounts her promotion to a greater goddess from being a folk deity. on achieving greatness, she performed a myriad of miracles in several places, including the sundarbans. parvati always hated manasa, as she believed that her husband was sexually interested in manasa. on 2 based on interview in dulki sunderbans on 25 january 2018. 3 the oldest of all, mangal kavyas recounts the initiation and spread of the snake goddess’ worship in bengal by the conversion of a devotee of lord shiva into a devotee of manasa, the snake goddess. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [174] the contrary, manasa was like a daughter to parvati’s husband. ganga tried her best to make parvati understand the father–daughter relation that mahadev and manasa shared, but to her dismay, nothing helped. this familial discontentment compelled ganga to take pity on manasa and support her through the struggle. therefore, the islanders worship the snake goddess to avoid snakebites, and, in the process, they also please mother ganga. specific death rituals were performed for those who died from snakebites in the region, to maintain the social order of the sundarbans (obscure). the dead body of the snakebite victim was supposed to be set afloat on a bamboo raft, and the widow was to accompany her dead husband. during the journey, the widow was expected to chant the glory of the snake goddess and ganga so that the river remains calm and the widow successfully reaches her destination. mythologically, the destination was heaven and the journey was undertaken by behula—a woman determined to please mahadev in order to restore her husband’s life. here, the water is personified as the goddess; when angry, she can devastate all that is around her but, when satisfied, is the best ally. according to the scriptures, bhagiratha brought river ganga to earth from the heavens. on ascending to the throne of the sagara dynasty, he became aware of the miseries of his forefathers, who burned in the fires of hell. to repent for the mistakes of his ancestors, bhagiratha left his kingly responsibilities to embrace a life of austerity in the mountains. on the advice of his guru, trithala, he aimed to satisfy ganga through his penance. ganga, as the myth proceeds, is capable of washing away the mortal sins of humans, and only she could offer salvation to bhagiratha’s forefathers from the curse of saint kapila. it required the purgation of the soul by an offering of water by the son to his forefathers—ritualistically, this is called tarpana—and niravapanjali or the ceremonious immersion of the ashes in the holy water after cremation. the tradition still continues in hindu death rites (sraddha), where water plays an important role; it cleanses the soul of impurities and prepares it for birth after the successful completion of pind daan (offering of food and water to dead forefathers). the sundarbans, as a part of the larger bengali culture, adheres to these age-old death rituals. concurrently, the pilgrimage to sagar island during makar sankranti4 is important. the island is situated on the continental shelf of the bay of bengal; it is a place for hindu pilgrimage. every year, on the day of makar 4 makar sankranti celebrates the transition of the sun (hindu god, surya) into capricorn (makara). hindus rejoice on this day to mark the beginning of longer days and the end of the month of the winter solstice. [175] amrita dasgupta figure 4: bonbibi with dukhey in her lap source: author (25 january 2018) figure 5: dakhin rai source: author (25 january 2018) sankranti (in the middle of january), thousands of pilgrims gather to enjoy a holy dip in the confluence of the ganga, brahmaputra, and meghna, followed by a trip to the adjoining kapil muni temple. although this is a festival for the sun god, surya dev (sun god) accepts no offerings and prayers until the people take a dip in the sangam (where the river meets the sea) to cleanse themselves of mortal evils. local scriptures, such as bonbibi’r johuranama (the miracles of bonbibi) and the raimangal, shed light on the distribution of forest resources. after saving dukhey from the monstrous dakhin rai, bonbibi commanded that forest resources should be distributed equally among the animals and humans in the presence of barkhan gazi5 (figures 4 and 5). the shapeshifting tiger dakhin rai protects forest produce like honey and wood from human consumption, but there is no reference to the riverine commons, which testifies to how the scripture refers to forest resources as land resources. this leaves the readers wondering how water resources are to be shared and whose refuge is to be sought when dealing with resources from the water. nevertheless, the islanders pray to kalu ray and makal thakur 5 bonbibi’r johuranama (the miracles of bonbibi) tells the tale of the birth of bonbibi and her brother shah jongoli and their winning over of the sundarbans. they were sent to the sundarbans by allah to save its people from the villainous tiger, dakshin rai, who could take human form. he would take the lives of the people who came searching for wood, food, wax, or honey in the sundarbans. dukhey was given as sacrifice to dakhin rai in lieu of the resources garnered by his uncle from rai’s forests. dukhey, scared by his fate, sought the security of the forest goddess. bonbibi waged a war against rai and ultimately won. barkhan gazi, a resident of the forest (now remembered as a pious saint), requested bonbibi to spare rai’s life and establish order in the forest. she did as she was requested by equally dividing the forest resources among the animals and forest dwellers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [176] to resolve issues relating to crocodiles and varieties of fish—the most significant non-human inhabitants of the sea. raimangal aptly underscores that forest resources are mainly considered inland resources. dakhin rai hankers to protect his resources and demands human sacrifices in exchange for wax and honey taken from his forest: yabat na daya more narabali puja (so long as human sacrifice is not offered to me) nahi diba mon-modhudekhaiba moja (i will not give you wax or honey; i will have fun) jodi tumi narabali puja para dita (if you are successful in offering me a human sacrifice) sat dinga mom diba tomar dalite (i will give you seven boatloads of wax)6(das et al. 1980, 86). water and sand are integral to the belief system relating to animal exorcism in the area. animal exorcism is facilitated by fakirs (tiger-charmers). woodcutters, honey gatherers, and wax collectors are advised not to enter the forest without their fakirs. the fakir is believed to have the power to disperse tigers and to prevent life-threatening attacks. faith in the fakir is so strong that he is believed to have command over crocodiles, control over the level of seawater, and the power to prevent animal attacks even when the attackers are close to the mouth of the river. no work commences in the forest until the fakir has recited his charms and incantations and performed the ceremonial act of drawing lines with mud (a mixture of water and sand) for the dispersal of all dangerous animals. when the woodcutters start their work, the fakirs sit on anchored boats and chant; there is the imminent possibility of the occurrence of a fluvial catastrophe if the chant fails: in the name of my brothers hingli, bingli and mangala, and the horses of ghazi saheb, also in the name of barkat (god). o mother kameswari, thou art uppermost in my mind. i have put azrael, the rider, on the backs of the tigers and tigresses of this jungle. go eastward, thou of colour of fire; go eastward or westward, go to the right-about, i command thee, and feed thyself by killing deer and pig. if this my charm fails, may the top-knot of mahadeva fall at the feet of kali. (o’malley 1908, 62–63) in the sundarbans, there are two types of boat rituals that use water. these rituals can be broadly classified as business-centric and women-centric (naskar 2017). to secure the expansion of the family business and the health of their husbands at sea, the women of the islands perform the rites of bhora bhashan. for this, 17 types of leaves tied together by a red thread and 17 types of fruits are offered to the river goddess. the day after the 6 english translation by the author. [177] amrita dasgupta worship, all these items are submerged in the river as a token of thanks for the blessings of the goddess. the same ritual is repeated every tuesday, which is evident from its name, joy mongolbar (mongol is the bengali word for tuesday). the women-centric boat rituals are elaborate. the river water becomes the foundation of the boat-temple. as the idol of sashti is enshrined within the boat, the vessel itself becomes a temple. this simply means that the women of the household turn the boats of their husbands into temples by placing the idol of goddess sashti in them. they perform rites to invoke her benevolence and seek divine empowerment in an attempt to safeguard the lives of their husbands at sea. it is necessary to understand that a riverine community includes water in every survival strategy—these are occupational and god-fearing observances. 3. hydrocultural realities defining everyday lives: conclusions given the dangers surrounding the inhabitants of the sundarbans, their psychological serenity is ensured by their faith in dedicated ritualistic practices. hence, water is not only salient because of its importance for their occupational identity, but it is also crucial to their geographic and personal identities. the people not only share a fear-based relationship with the environment but also nurture a friendly attitude towards it. their ideas of submission to nature and of seeking its benevolence are rooted in their fear of dying. the sources of danger constitute a recurrent theme in religious texts and quotidian practices. water has the same ritualistic importance in all religions practised in the region, as it is the absolver of sin. owing to this preconceived idea of how water can dissolve one’s sins, the islanders equate it to a means of forgiveness, in addition to depending on it for survival. water assumes the omnipotent position of the gods and goddesses of the sundarbans, manifesting the strong syncretism prevalent in the region. acknowledgements i am particularly grateful for the advice provided by dr. jenia mukherjee during the funded summer school at chilika (2018) conducted by the university of waterloo, canada, in collaboration with the rekhi centre of excellence for the science of happiness, indian institute of technology, kharagpur. her assistance in keeping the progress of the paper on schedule is much appreciated. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [178] references amrith, sunil. 2018. unruly waters: how mountain rivers and monsoons have shaped south asia’s history. uk and new delhi: penguin random house. bagchi, kanangopal. 1994. the ganges delta. calcutta: university of calcutta. bose, sugata. 1986. agrarian bengal: economy, social structure, and politics 1919–1984. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. chaudhuri, binay bhushan. 1970. ―growth of commercial agriculture in bengal – 1859–1885.‖ the indian economic & social history review 7 (1): 25–60. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f001946467000700102. chattopadhyay, tushar kumar. 1980. ―the dakshina rai cult.‖ in a focus on sundarban, edited by anil kumar das, sankarananda mukherji, and manas kamal chowdhuri, 79–89. calcutta: editions indian. hunter, william wilson. a statistical account of bengal: 24 parganas. vol. 1. london: districts of the 24 parganas and sundarbans. london: trubner & co. jalais, annu. 2010. forest of tigers: people, politics, and environment in the sundarbans. new delhi: routledge. kaiwar, vasant. 1992. ―property structures, demography and the crisis of the agrarian economy of colonial bombay presidency.‖ journal of peasant studies 19 (2): 255–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159208438480. mukherjee, radhakamal. 1938. the changing face of bengal: a study in riverine economy. calcutta: university of calcutta. naskar, debabrata, ed. 2017. sundarban sabhyata o lokosanskriti anweshan. kolkata: dey’s publishing. o’malley, lewis sydney stewart. 1914. bengal district gazetteer, 24 parganas. calcutta: the bengal secretariat book depot. stokes, eric. 1978. the peasant and the raj: studies in agrarian society and peasant rebellion in colonial india. uk: cambridge university press. stone, ian. 1979. ―canal irrigation and agrarian change: the experience of the ganges canal tract, muzaffarnagar district (u.p.).‖ in economy and society: essays in indian economic and social history, edited by kirti n. chaudhury and clive dewey, 136–160. delhi: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f001946467000700102 https://doi.org/10.1080/03066159208438480 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 81–82, april 2018 conversations 2: forest conservation editorial note vikram dayal  ullas karanth and asmita kabra both agree about the importance of research based conservation. however, as is apparent from their conversation about people and conservation, different research communities or researchers may take different positions—informed by research—on issues. karanth and kabra recognize the moral claims of nature and species on the one hand, and people on the other, but still disagree. karanth stresses the specific goal of the conservation of endangered wild species. kabra criticizes the attempt to maintain ‘pristine’ environments, but karanth emphasizes natural environments of sufficient size—distinct from ‘pristine’ environments—which are very different from highly managed areas with high levels of human activity. kabra, on the other hand, emphasizes the difference between vulnerable people—who suffer when they lose access to natural landscapes—and the economically richer members of homo sapiens that karanth is talking about. karanth talks about the history of homo sapiens on an evolutionary time scale and associated mass extinctions, whereas kabra discusses instances where human activity of a limited extent, like managed grazing, can be useful for conservation goals. kabra too points out that homo sapiens has altered every landscape—nothing is ‘pristine’, not even areas rich in wildlife—and yet, excluding vulnerable people may have harmful side effects.  coordinator for this conversations section. institute of economic growth, university enclave, new delhi, north delhi, delhi, 110007, vikday@iegindia.org copyright © dayal 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.19 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.19 ecology, economy and society– the insee journal [82] kabra takes issue with robinson’s ‘sustainable landscape’ approach, which karanth advocates. karanth has issues with the forest rights act (fra), but kabra does not specifically mention it. perhaps readers of the journal can look forward to a conversation on the fra. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 135–148, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india fluid epistemologies: the social saga of sediment in bengal jenia mukherjee  and pritwinath ghosh  abstract: by using the term ―fluid‖, this article critically interrogates western ontologies of ―solid‖ (land) and ―liquid‖ (flowing waters), which were transplanted in colonial south asia and transmitted in post-independence river/water policies and actions with severe socio-ecological implications. drawing lessons from recent environmental history and political ecology of water (―hydrosocial‖) literature that shed light on liminal scapes beyond the mainstream land/water binary in hydrological studies, this study conceptualizes ―fluidscapes‖ by drawing on field research in the river islands (chars) of lower bengal. by capturing snippets of livelihoods in the chars of the malda and murshidabad districts, west bengal, situated upstream and downstream of the farakka barrage respectively, this article advances why and how it is imperative to rethink sediment beyond its physicalgeomorphological existence and to see it as social sites of interactions. it unravels avenues through which chars can be perceived as not only emblems of uncertainty but also as zones of possibility bestowed with rich ecosystem services and the collective resilience of choruas. keywords: river islands, sediments, ecosystem services, ganga, bengal 1. introduction the anthropocene, loaded with a planetary doomsday message and a clarion call to collectively understand complex systems like the environment, has made for epistemic pluralities dedicated to challenging  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india; jenia@hss.iitkgp.ac.in.   department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india; pritwinathghosh@gmail.com. copyright © mukherjee and ghosh 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.222 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.222 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] and surpassing various forms of cartesian binaries that have operated for long, constricting our mindscapes and actions. the formulation of the ―fluid‖ or of ―fluidscapes‖ is an attempt to critically interrogate western ontologies of ―solid‖ (land) and ―liquid‖ (flowing water), which were transplanted to colonial south asia and transmitted into post-independence river/water policies and actions with severe socio-ecological implications. drawing on lessons from environmental history and the political ecology of water (including ―hydrosocial‖) literature, which shed light on the liminal, nebulous scapes beyond the mainstream land/water binary in hydrological studies, this article conceptualizes ―fluidscapes‖ based on information and insights from field research conducted on the river islands (chars) of the lower ganga basin, west bengal. we shed light on two chars: hamidpur in malda district and nirmal in murshidabad district, west bengal, situated upstream and downstream of the farakka barrage, respectively. the barrage has intensified erosion and sedimentation by interrupting the natural flow of the river ganga in its lower course. these chars have complex histories of land submergence and emergence, which in turn have shaped the lives and livelihoods of the choruas.1 these areas have also been marked by conflicts arising from contestations of inter-state (bangladesh) and intra-state (jharkhand) boundaries due to the constant shifting of the river. moreover, the residents of hamidpur char recently gained citizenship rights in india by mobilizing the choruas with the support of non-statist organizations. the literature on river islands is scarce and features overtly declensional narratives. by capturing snippets from the lives and livelihoods of people living in chars, and exploring the everyday lived and embodied realities of choruas in these shifting sediments, this article advances why and how it is imperative to rethink sediment beyond its physical-geomorphological existence and perceive it as a site of social interaction. the multilayered physicality of sediment, along with its ephemerality in estuarine contexts, comprises dense social stories woven within the web of temporality, crafting inexplicable trajectories awaiting explorations from a pluralistic research lens. here, we attempt to unravel the avenues through which chars can be considered not only emblems of uncertainty but also as zones of possibility, which are bestowed with rich ecosystem services and the collective resilience of the choruas. 1 in the bengali dialect, people inhabiting chars are known as choruas. [137] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh 2. theoretical approaches the social dimensions of sediment can be contextualized within the environmental history and political ecology of water studies and, more specifically, hydrosociality. till date, the significance of sediment has been studied mainly from technical perspectives—physical geographical, sedimentological, fluvial geomorphological, hydrological, and hydrobiological—that attest to the significance of sediment circulation in riverine systems. however, these perspectives ignore the sediment–society connect, i.e., livelihoods that depend on sediment, which are thickly populated by ecosystem-dependent marginalized communities that adapt to these ―muddyscapes‖. by addressing problems relating to the implementation of ―colonial hydrology‖ (d‘souza 2006), south asian environmental social science scholarship has exposed us to multilayered realities surrounding human engagements with muddy terrains in tropicaldeltaic-estuarine geographies across time (mukherjee 2011; lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013; baruah and mukherjee 2018; de micheaux, mukherjee, and kull 2018). the hydrosocial cycle describes how ―water and society make and remake each other over space and time‖ (linton and budds 2014, 170). while early hydrosocial literature mainly dealt with political and social injustices around water services in urban landscapes, the recent thrust has been on rivers, and specifically on issues surrounding dam construction and the related controversies, irrigation maintenance and conflicts, and river basin governance (baruah and mukherjee 2018; de micheaux, mukherjee, and kull 2018). what happens when hydrosociality encounters sediment? de micheaux, mukherjee, and kull (2018) have postulated a ―hydro(sediment)social‖ (hss) cycle by advancing hydrosocial analysis with an enhanced consideration of the sediment component of river materiality. the hss cycle encompasses the manifold ways in which humans and nonhumans mesh in hydrological and social relations, impinging on water circulation, distribution, and quality, along with the materials that the water gathers—muddy sediment (mukherjee 2018). the formulation becomes extremely relevant and meaningful in the tropical deltaic-estuarine contexts of south asia. the conceptualization challenges ―colonial hydrology‖ and its continued legacy and implications for river discourses, management, and governance paradigms and actions. drawing on the work of geographers and anthropologists (appadurai and breckenridge 2009; lahiri-dutt 2014; krause 2017), researchers have very recently coined the term ―fluidscape‖, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] which combines ―moving‖ biophysical and social realities, and includes water flows, sediment, river channels, populations, etc.2 3. scholarship on river islands despite a growing interest in island studies, river islands have been largely ignored (baruah and mukherjee 2018). in the words of lahiri-dutt (2014), ―[river islands] exist in the vocabulary neither of those who study rivers, nor those who study islands, and have largely remained beyond the mainstream discussions on nature/culture‖ (22). within the (eastern) indian context, lahiri-dutt and samanta (2013) offer an intimate glimpse into the microcosmic world of the (damodar) chars. they depict coping mechanisms rooted in the embodied experiences of choruas who keep ―dancing with the river‖ and drifting in the nebulous space. however, mukherjee (2011), while describing empirical realities in the ganga chars, explains why coping should not be romanticized, but should rather be understood as a ―compulsory exercise‖. the recently edited volume by basu, roy, and samaddar (2018) employs a political ecology perspective to explore riverine erosion in the brahmaputra chars, crises relating to resource allocation, massive displacements in deltaic bengal, and challenges emanating from migration resulting from floods in the barak river in northeast india. going beyond this declensionism implicit in political ecology narratives, we explore both the challenges and potentials of river islands, which, we argue, can be harnessed in the long run to reimagine the fates of chars and choruas across shifting material and social realities. 4. methodology this article is based on a series of field explorations conducted upstream (malda) and downstream (murshidabad) of the farakka barrage as part of a international union for conservation of nature (iucn) project (2011–12), in which teams from india and bangladesh documented existing ecosystem services in the chars. this research was followed by another exchange grant (indian council of social science research-university of lausanne) between indian and swiss scholars (2015–17), which allowed for the livelihood dynamics in these fragile fluidscapes to be explored (map 1). 2 the eu-india funded equip project (of which the lead author is the indian principal investigator) uses ―fluidscape‖ as the theoretical traction to forge ―fluid governance‖ in the ganga and rhône deltas. [139] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh map 1: the lower ganga basin, west bengal source: google maps. accessed on 23 january, 2020. in january 2020, a field visit was conducted to generate more up-to-date information on the quotidian realities of the choruas. these realities are determined and shaped by river erosion and floods; the roles played by several statist and non-statist actors like block development officers, panchayat pradhans3, nongovernmental organizations (ngos), and grassroots organizations; and an array of situated adaptive practices pursued by the choruas for sustenance and survival in the chars. field explorations were conducted during different seasons (summer, winter, and monsoon) to observe whether livelihood equations are affected by seasonal variations. detailed ethnography through the application of qualitative methods like focus group discussions (fgds), key informant interviews (kiis), and case narratives were pursued to validate and cross-validate information across a range of actors, from government officials to choruas. 5. lessons from the field char formation is a natural occurrence in the lower ganga basin. however, the implementation of the farakka barrage project has impacted patterns of riverine sedimentation with repercussions on the formation, consolidation, and dissolution of chars. the upstream and downstream of the barrage is dotted with more temporary chars; the constant emergence and submergence phenomena has forged repetitive cycles of settlement— displacement—resettlement—re-displacement (sdrr), in turn shaping 3 the elected head or decision-maker of the lowest unit of the village administration—the panchayat. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] map 2: hamidpur char source: google maps. accessed on 23 january, 2020 vulnerability and adaptive practices among choruas (mukherjee 2011). the two empirical case studies presented here will validate this proposition. 5.1. case study 1: hamidpur char, malda hamidpur char is located in kaliachak ii block, malda district (map 2). it is situated 15 km upstream of the farakka barrage. it spans 15,700 ha and about 210,000 people inhabit the char. agriculture is the primary occupation in this char. kaliachak ii is one of the most environmentally vulnerable blocks among malda‘s 15 blocks. there are disastrous floods and erosions almost every year during the monsoon. in the last 20 years, one-fourth of the territory of kaliachak ii has been eroded, 22 villages have been completely destroyed, and 8 villages have been partially swallowed by the river. within the hamidpur gram panchayat (gp) boundary, eight villages were completely waterlogged during frequent floods in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016.4 with the eastward shifting of the ganga since the 1970s, villages on mainland hamidpur have been submerged, and new chars have emerged on the other bank of the river, adjacent to jharkhand, the neighbouring state. the flood and erosion victims were compelled to migrate and settle in the newly emerged chars to pursue their livelihoods. hamidpur char is one such island with a settled population. indeed, the desperate attempt of those who lost their homes on 4 interview conducted with the kaliachak ii block development officer in july, 2017. [141] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh figure 1: an interview respondent showing documentary evidence of land entitlement source: authors (19 november 2011) mainland hamidpur to retain their old connections and memories is evident in the nomenclature of the char. although the choruas have established some basic mechanisms to sustain themselves on hamidpur char, the government does not recognize their tenurial rights. the char is considered as shikasti (governmental non-revenue land) according to the revenue bill (an outcome of the bengal alluvion and diluvion act, 1825), which states that if a piece of land that was previous submerged in water re-emerges, it becomes state property; as such, no revenue can be generated on the re-emerged char. due to the lack of governmental recognition, people in hamidpur char suffer from a lack of access to basic infrastructural facilities like schools, roads, health centres, etc. there have also been instances of illegal trafficking of cattle, crops, medicines, etc. and other criminal activities, including the trafficking of women. trafficking occurs most during the winter and monsoon because the fog and rain act as significant barriers to indian border security force (bsf) personnel operating from check posts. the continuous shifting of the river and the emergence and submergence of chars are crucial variables that complicate the story of citizenship or noncitizenship in this ―fluidscape‖ (figure 1). while the government of west bengal has remained indifferent to granting citizenship rights to the choruas settled in hamidpur char, the jharkhand government issued voter id cards to some of the villagers (particularly to those inhabiting villages in the western part of the char, close to jharkhand) in 1990. when the char started eroding on the western side in 1998 and the choruas migrated to the eastern part, they still retained the voter id cards issued by the jharkhand government but could not avail of any facilities as they could not access the state directly; the river lay between them and jharkhand. in 1998, troubled by material losses and the government‘s apathy, educated and informed villagers formed the ganga bhangan pratirodh action nagorik committee (gbpanc). these villagers were supported by active researchers working in the area. soon, a grassroots movement emerged with the support of action groups and ngos like child rights and you (cry). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] the movement aimed to secure disaster relief and better rehabilitation for the choruas. the action groups mapped and surveyed the chars and attempted to initiate the institutionalization of these islands to ensure better protection and eligibility to access government welfare schemes for the choruas. these efforts finally culminated in the choruas in hamidpur char collectively demanding recognition and their citizenship rights. scholaractivists like kalyan rudra promoted and supported the movement. rudra‘s technical findings shed light on the farakka barrage‘s role in disrupting the natural flow of the ganga and in turn aggravating floods and erosion in the malda and murshidabad districts (rudra 2003); his work provided a muchneeded scientific edge to the choruas‘ cause. in december 2010, gbpanc organized a multi-stakeholder meeting in hamidpur char. at that event, the choruas got the opportunity to show their (past) property entitlements to the additional district magistrate (adm) of malda district. as a direct consequence of this event, the choruas received identity cards and voter id cards from the government in 2011. once the char received governmental recognition, two primary schools and a junior school were constructed between 2012 and 2015, and electricity access was ensured in 2015. emergency centres were also built. since 2014, a woman from hamidpur char has represented her people as an elected member of the hamidpur gram panchayat. official recognition also paved the way for the political participation of the choruas. they are now the beneficiaries of numerous government initiatives and schemes such as nirmal bangla (clean mission, bengal), madhyamik siksha kendras (msk) and sishu siksha kendras (ssk), pulse polio and other immunization programmes. the char residents can now reap the benefits of government schemes through continuous activism and simultaneously remain free of having to pay agricultural revenues, as it still enjoys the status of shikasti. the choruas access an array of environmental services from this fertile land (annexure); they get immense livelihood benefits, evident in the remark of the block development officer (bdo), kaliachak ii, ―people are no longer poor there‖.5 5.2. case study 2: nirmal char, murshidabad a severe flood in 1989–1990 caused major erosion and led to the submergence of akherigunj in block bhagwangola ii, murshidabad district. ―akherigunj‖, which literally means ―the last settlement‖, disappeared from the map. the disastrous erosion engulfed 2,766 houses 5 interview conducted in july 2017. [143] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh map 3: nirmal char source: authors and left 23,394 persons homeless (rudra 2003). nirmal char emerged on the opposite bank of the river between 1990 and 1992 (map 3). the erosion victims migrated and settled in the newly emerged char. another massive flood occurred in 1998, following which nirmal char took its present shape (map 3). the northeastern part of nirmal char has a big village that covers 571.42 ha under the akherigunj gram panchayat; it has a population of 24,754.6 agriculture is the major occupation there; however, people have other livelihoods as well. some women are involved in cultivation and livestock rearing (table 1). the women also take part in manufacturing fuel wood (using jute sticks and cow dung) and in small-scale agro-based production (figure 2). floods and erosion are common phenomena during the monsoon (between june and september) every year. the oscillating river downstream of the farakka barrage claims acres of the char and impacts the lives and livelihoods of choruas. crops are destroyed and the quality of yield is reduced, which further lowers the market selling price of crops. 6 interview conducted with the village resource person (vrp) in january 2020. the vrp is a contractual post which was created in 2013. vrps are recruited by the district social unit of the state government. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [144] figure 2: women engaged in work source: authors (28 january 2020) table 1: occupations in nirmal char sex occupation percentage male farming 78 livestock 10 fishing 11 other jobs 1 female farming 2 livestock 1 cooking (midday meal) 5 housewives/domestic help 92 source: records provided by the vrp (29 january, 2020) after every disaster, people suffer from diarrhoea, fungal infections, snakebites, etc. and cannot afford to go to the health sub-centre of the akherigunj gp, as communication gets disrupted. nirmal char shares a boundary with the rajshahi district of bangladesh. due to acute poverty, especially after floods, competing claims among the farmers of the two countries intensify, and choruas become desperate to set up farming operations in the ―zero point‖. as such, this is highly risky, as it is illegal to farm on this ―no-man‘s land‖. indeed, there are strict security restrictions imposed by the bangladesh bsf. a series of field explorations between 2011 and 2020 captured changes in this char in terms of availability and access to public infrastructures. nine primary schools, seven integrated child development services (icds) centres, one primary health centre, and one flood centre now operate here. the people receive benefits under various government welfare schemes: national rural employment guarantee act (nrega), swachh bharat abhiyan (open defecation free village), etc. [145] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh figure 4: donga or chui nouka source: authors (19 november 2011) figure 3: houses made from jiyal trees source: authors (19 november 2011) there was a dearth of disaster awareness and response until quite recently. aid usa distributed food (rice, pulses, potatoes, etc.) to 367 families and polythene tent materials to 70 families during the 2011 floods. since 2015, an ngo called future achievement has implemented local disaster mitigation measures. moreover, the choruas pursue adaptive practices using intergenerational social skill sets to combat the lack of adequate policydriven initiatives. the ecosystem services not only allow the choruas to sustain themselves in this fragile landscape, but they are also significant flood resilient mechanisms (annexure). when the char is waterlogged, choruas live on their machas (rooftops) for several days until the water recedes. they arrange wooden cots on bamboo poles and use polythene tents as covers. their houses are made from jiyal trees, the roots of which are deeply entrenched in the soil, making the houses storm resistant (figure 3). boats made of tin sheets called donga or chui nouka can accommodate up to two persons (figure 4). these act as effective modes of communication between char villages; they connect families during times of disrupted communication. 6. conclusion ―human technology, livelihoods, social relations and power equations are just as imbricated with river sediment processes as they are with simply water‖ (baruah and mukherjee 2018, 335). while the global discourse of the anthropocene presents islands as ―hazardscapes‖ that are vulnerable to climate change (particularly sea-level rise), the social analysis of local realities in shifting sediment across historical and political dimensions depict chars as ―not lines of separation but zones of interaction…transformation, transgression and possibility‖ (howitt 2001, 240). while these ephemeral and transient river islands are exposed to erosion and the far-flung impacts of climate change, the intensity of vulnerability is lower, as it depends on a combination of factors, including ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] the community‘s exposure and sensitivity to hazards and their adaptive capacity and collective resilience (das 2012; das and d‘souza 2020). the embodied experience, knowledge, and capabilities of the choruas are forged by and aligned to the chars. the livelihood capabilities, cultural practices, and perceptions of the choruas await detailed documentation; these can shed light on the array of coping mechanisms that can be considered significant from the climate change perspective. sediment-enriched hydrosocial realities have to be incorporated into policy formulation related to floods, climate change, etc., making way for neither solid nor liquid but ―fluid governance‖, especially within tropical-estuarine-deltaic contexts. acknowledgements authors would like to acknowledge iucn, unil-icssr seg (2015-17), isird, iit kharagpur (2017-2021) and eu-india equip project (20192022) for providing funds to pursue the field research. references appadurai, arjun and carol a. breckenridge. 2009. ―foreword.‖ in soak: mumbai in an estuary, edited by anuradha mathur and dilip da cunha, 1–3. new delhi: rupa publications. baruah, mitul and jenia mukherjee. 2018. ―rivers and estuaries.‖ in the routledge international handbook of island studies, edited by godfrey baldacchino, 324–338. oxon and new york: routledge. basu, madhurilata, rajat roy, and ranabir samaddar. 2018. political ecology of survival: life and labour in the river lands of east and north-east india. new delhi: orient blackswan. das, saudamini. 2012. ―the role of natural ecosystems and socio-economic factors in the vulnerability of coastal villages to cyclone and storm surge.‖ natural hazards 64 (june): 531–546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0255-9. das, saudamini and nisha maria d‘souza. 2020. ―identifying the local factors of resilience during cyclone hudhud and phailin on the east coast of india.‖ ambio 49 (september): 950–961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01241-7. d‘souza, rohan. 2006. ―water in british india: the making of a ‗colonial hydrology.‘‖ history compass 4 (4): 621–628. howitt, richie. 2001. ―frontiers, borders and edges: liminal challenges to the hegemony of exclusion. australian geographical studies 39 (2): 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8470.00142. krause, franze. 2017. ―towards an amphibious anthropology of delta life.‖ human ecology 45 (3): 403–408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9902-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0255-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-019-01241-7 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8470.00142 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9902-9 [147] jenia mukherjee and pritwinath ghosh de micheaux, flore lafaye, jenia mukherjee, and christian a. kull. 2018. ―when hydrosociality encounters sediments: transformed lives and livelihoods in the lower basin of the ganges river.‖ environment and planning e: nature and space 1 (4): 641–663. https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848618813768. lahiri-dutt, kuntala. 2014. ―beyond the water-land binary in geography: water/lands of bengal re-visioning hybridity.‖ acme: an international e-journal for critical geographies 13 (3): 505–529. lahiri-dutt, kuntala, and gopa samanta. 2013. dancing with the river: people and life on the chars of south asia. yale: yale university press. linton, jamie and jessica budds. 2014. ―the hydrosocial cycle: defining and mobilizing a relational-dialectical approach to water.‖ geoforum 57 (november): 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.008. mukherjee, jenia. 2011. no voice, no choice: riverine changes and human vulnerability in the “chars” of malda and murshidabad. occasional paper 28. kolkata: institute of development studies. http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/op-28.pdf. mukherjee, jenia. 2018. ―from hydrology to hydrosociality: historiography of waters in india.‖ in routledge handbook of the history of sustainability, edited by jeremy l. caradonna, 254–272. uk: routledge. rudra, kalyan. 2003. the encroaching ganga and social conflicts: the case of west bengal, india. west bengal: department of geography, habra h.c. mahavidyalaya. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2514848618813768 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.008 http://idsk.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/op-28.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] annexure table: ecosystem services types services benefits provisioning food crops: rice (varieties: ayush and boro), wheat, pulses (kalai), vegetables (gourd, eggplant, cauliflower, etc.) cash crops: jute, corn, chillies, turmeric fruit: watermelon, banana, cucumber, etc. subsistence; surplus sold in mainland markets livestock: cow, buffalo, goat, sheep, poultry subsistence; transportation; agriculture; assets during times of crises (floods and erosion) fish: rui, tangra, boal, katla, chingri, ritha, chital (indigenous names) subsistence; surplus sold in the market against cash income medicines (herbs): keshra (a grass variety) locally used by ojhas (traditional healers) or non-certified rural healthcare providers fuel wood: cow dung (ghunte), dried jute sticks and cow dung (lodha) natural energy resource for cooking, lighting, etc. water: groundwater (accessed through tube wells), the river (and its sediment) drinking; cultivation; transportation housing: mud (floor), straw (roofs), bundles of jute sticks (walls), jiyal trees (pillars), etc. flood resistant makeshift houses regulating water regulation: recharged floodplains after every flood fertile soil for agriculture recharged groundwater pollution control: flushing of waste and pollutants after heavy floods regenerated soil supporting navigation transportation natural resource for livestock feed: kaishas (a local variety of grass) livestock nutrition cultural water festivals and rituals; folk songs; lores by the chais (a local ethnic community) cultural bonding, collective living, resilience source: field explorations by the authors (2011/2017/2020) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 67–68, april 2018 conversations 1: climate change editorial note jagdish krishnaswamy  in 2017, too, intense rain events, especially in urban areas and the increasingly spatial and temporal variability of rainfall distribution brought into the limelight the issue of attribution of extreme weather events to climate change. in our inaugural issue we have three perspectives on climate change from a diverse set of authors: bob watson, thomas sterner, and nitin desai. three points emerge from their conversations. the first is that anthropogenic climate change is already transforming climate and that these changes will continue—regionally and globally. secondly, even if countries do not take on agreed commitments to cut emissions, fiscal measures—such as incentives, and taxes on fossil fuels— will encourage industry and societies to switch to development pathways that are less carbon-intensive. the third is that—even if some of the historical large emitters are not making their fair share of contributions—countries that have argued for climate change justice in the past in terms of sharing the burden of reduced emissions would benefit from striving to create an economy and society that reduces anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. however, there is still a big gap between what countries committed to in paris and what is needed to limit the increase in global warming to 2 °c. india made two ambitious commitments in paris.  coordinator for this conversations section. ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, royal enclave sriramapura, jakkur post bangalore, india 560 064; jagdish@atree.org copyright © krishnaswamy 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.10 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.10 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] one was to install by 2022 175 gigawatt (gw) of renewable energy (re) capacity and operationalize it, and raise by 2030 the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy use to 40 per cent. the other commitment was to sequester over 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide (co2) through afforestation and ecological restoration. backed by political will at the highest levels, remarkable progress has been made on the first target. by august 2017, india had installed 58.3 gw of re capacity. this feat has drawn international attention and praise. to achieve this target, however, the government of india will classify hydropower projects above 25 megawatt (mw) as re. in the western ghats, biodiversity has already been negatively impacted by small hydro projects. the reclassification is likely to tremendously increase the trade-off between ‘green’ energy and other sustainable development goals (sdgs). trade-offs with hydrologic services, livelihoods, and biodiversity is likely to impede india’s attempts to achieve its carbon sequestration targets. in agriculture, business as usual will seriously breach planetary boundaries, from water security to biodiversity and ecosystem services (campbell 2017). all countries must make a major part of discourse the need to understand the complexities and uncertainties of governing the land–climate interface at various scales—from local to global—especially between 2030 and 2050. the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) is preparing its sixth assessment report (ar6), and ipcc scientists are working on a special report on land and climate. the report will address the issue of managing trade-offs and synergies between sdgs and ecosystem services, on the one hand, and climate change adaptation and mitigation goals, on the other. to achieve a low-carbon-emissions pathway, governments need to pay attention to trade-offs and synergies with other development goals and muster the political will to manage these in a socially just and participative manner. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 113–115, april 2018 book review sharachchandra lele  m v nadkarni. 2017. parisaranītiśatakam. veliyanad, ernakulam, kerala: chinmaya international foundation shodha sansthan, adi shankara nilayam, isbn: 978-93-80864-40-2 ecological economics has always prided itself on being not a sub-discipline of economics—the adjectival form notwithstanding—but a much broader field of enquiry into our environmental predicament. prof m.v. nadkarni, who founded the first academic department of ecological economics in india, has always exemplified this breadth of enquiry. his books have ranged from a study of farmer movements to the political economy of forests and, more recently, gandhian ethics. nadkarni’s latest book parisaranītiśatakam (or ‘hundred verses on environmental ethics’) continues this innovative tradition by composing 113 verses in both sanskrit and english to propound the basic principles of environmental thought. each sanskrit verse is written in devanagari and roman script, then transliterated word for word into english. the meaning is then presented poetically in english verse, which is followed by a short commentary by the author on its theme. the word nīti has two meanings—ethics and policy. like bhartrahari’s nītiśatakam of c. 500 ce, nadkarni’s composition encompasses both meanings and more. it includes not only philosophical statements about the ethical responsibility of human beings towards the environment but also factual statements about how human actions are affecting nature and, thereby, human well-being and its distribution, and specific suggestions about actions that need to be taken.  ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, royal enclave sriramapura, jakkur post bangalore 560 064 karnataka, sharad@atree.org copyright © lele 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.26 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.26 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] the first eight verses propound nadkarni’s core philosophy: human beings are decidedly the most evolved of all species on earth; and have developed unprecedented powers to modify the environment; and, therefore, have the greatest responsibility towards its protection. at the same time, these verses highlight an existential constraint—that we have only one earth, and so we cannot afford to spoil it irreversibly. at the very end of the collection, he returns to this point, and highlights also our responsibility towards future generations. in verses 9–30, nadkarni describes our environmental crisis—the loss of biodiversity; the industrial revolution that led to local air and water pollution as well as global warming; and the consequences of global warming in the form of melting icecaps, rising oceans, and chaotic rain patterns. as a true ecological economist, nadkarni is quick to relate these biophysical changes to its human consequences—and, particularly, the uneven nature of these consequences. the poor suffer the most, as also women, while the rich enjoy luxury consumption (verses 31–35). indeed, it is this overconsumption that is at the root of the environmental crisis—not the subsistence-level resource use by the poor. coming to solutions, nadkarni emphasizes that technology itself cannot solve the problem, unless there is a sea change in attitudes and values. he highlights the difference between shreya (true happiness) and preya (pleasure), and suggests that focusing on shreya will benefit not only the environment but also the rich themselves. similarly, the solution to poverty lies not in unbridled growth but in a series of environment-friendly and livelihood oriented measures: organic farming; material use efficiency and recycling; water efficiency and treatment; small-scale industries, which are more fulfilling for workers than assembly lines; and scaled-down development projects based not on a simplistic benefit-cost calculus but on a genuine understanding, limiting and alleviation of the pain of the displaced. nadkarni ends by praying that humankind—currently denying its oneness with nature and bent on destruction—may get the good sense (subuddhi) to change its ways. this is not a religious invocation, but a spiritual one; indeed, he criticizes so-called religious celebrations—whether in obeisance to durga or ganesha—for the pollution they create and wonders how such worship can ever be successful. the environmental ethic, he says, transcends all differences of religion and nationality. the content may not be new for scholars of the environment, although its balance between sustainability and equity and between economics and ethics is still valuable. the innovation lies in its form: pithy yet poetic. for instance (verse 93): [115] sharachchandra lele if great dangers exist, for forests endowed richly, from any project planned, just give up that undoubtedly. the main audience is clearly the wider public: those with sanskrit skills can enjoy the sanskrit versions while others can enjoy the english versions (and some, like me, might re-familiarize themselves with sanskrit). to reach this audience more effectively, i would suggest that the book be published online also and in a different format: the sanskrit verses in one column and the english verses in a parallel column, so that transliterations or notes do not distract from enjoying the flow of the poetry, and the reader can appreciate nadkarni’s ability to explicate in the ancient tongue a set of modern ideas. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 111–114, january 2020 conversations: national mineral policy 2019 — balancing stakeholder interests and concerns national mineral policy 2019: a remedy as bad as the disease? s. vijay kumar  1. introduction the mineral sector is regulated through the mines and minerals (development and regulation) act 1957 (mmdr act) enacted by parliament, and the rules thereunder and the changes in the law (and rules) and the policy have generally been going in step. the mmdr act was amended in 2015, primarily to make auction the sole mode of granting mineral concessions (i.e. prospecting licences and mining leases). some consequential changes were also made in the rules: the national mineral policy (nmp) of 2019 is thus primarily a revision of nmp of 2008. one of the important consequences of the change in the law (and now in the policy as well) is that, despite some phrases in the policy to the contrary, the private sector no longer has an incentive to do exploration to locate minerals at their own risk and cost, since that will not enable them to claim mining rights, as these rights will be auctioned to the highest qualifying bidder (kumar 2019). two other major changes in nmp 2019 compared to the 2008 policy need to be noticed. one aspect is the linking of nmp 2019 with the vision of “make in india” (goi 2018) announced by the prime minister in 2014 and amended subsequently, which includes the mining sector.1 the second is the introduction of a concept of “inter-generational equity” based on  the energy and resources institute (teri), india habitat centre, lodhi road, new delhi -110003; svijay.kumar@teri.res.in. copyright © kumar 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.94 1 the “make in india” initiative is intended to give a boost to entrepreneurship in india in 25 identified sectors in manufacturing, infrastructure and services. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.94 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] aspects like available reserves/resources. in this context, the perspective of basu (this issue) that mineral extraction needs to be accounted for as the sale of inherited wealth is an interesting view. 2. stakeholders and their interests the key stakeholders of nmp 2019 are: the states; the central government; local communities adversely affected by mining-related activities; ngos in support of local communities or environmental issues; the mining industry in general; other upstream and downstream industries; and citizens (including future generations) concerned with the quality of life. the following main conclusions may be drawn:  auctions: the central government supports auctions because it purports to bring in “transparency” and reduce “discretion”. the mineral-rich states, too, support auctions, since it potentially increases their revenues. the mining industry, in general, is not in favour of the auctions as it increases their costs, creates an impression of the scarcity, and interferes with market forces; however, the larger players in the metal-making industry with deep pockets find auctions a good way of increasing their raw material security. local communities may currently see no difference between the mining based on the earlier system and the mining based on the auctions; but the reality is that the auctions will transfer the substantial surplus to the states leaving that much less to be potentially invested (by way of corporate social responsibility, etc.) in local communities. while the general view is that through the auctions route the mining companies will no longer be able to make windfall profits, ngos working with local communities may prefer a larger share of the revenues being invested locally rather than being deposited in a state treasury. exploration agencies (upstream industry consisting of domestic companies like geomysore and indo-gold and indian arms of foreign companies like rio tinto, angloamerican etc.) are, as mentioned, the most severely impacted.  make in india: downstream industry (process r&d, metal making and manufacturing) is likely to be adversely impacted, in the long run, by the higher prices of mineral ore consequent to the auction process. in the long term, because of disincentive to conduct exploration, many metals (including technology metals, energycritical metals, platinum group of metals, etc.) used in new technologies will remain undiscovered. this will increase the already [113] s. vijay kumar high import dependence of domestic industry and may affect the competitiveness of indian manufacturing.  intergenerational equity: the 2019 policy seeks to address intergenerational equity in the obvious way – by apportioning known resources in a conservative manner over time. jain (this issue) has mentioned about attracting investments and ensuring the welfare of the communities. those opposed to mining per se as an unsustainable activity will clearly prefer the approach of nmp 2019. unless exploration is incentivised, and the resource-cum-reserve base is continuously augmented through new discoveries of minerals, the policy will adversely impact the mining industry as well as the downstream industry to the extent that recycling cannot meet the need. as mentioned by ranjan (this issue) trade-offs arising from increasing mining activities need to be considered carefully. 3. balancing act(s) clearly, the challenge is to reconcile the concept of auctions as the “nondiscretionary” way of granting mining leases with incentives for mineral exploration. in other words, some way must be found to reward a successful exploration effort. currently, the alternative idea on the table is to apply the auction process only to the “bulk” minerals like iron ore, bauxite and limestone, where the exploration is a relatively simple process and risk is low since these minerals occur over large areas and close to the earth’s surface. in such cases, the exploration agencies can be paid for their work from public funds. in respect of the remaining minerals, which are likely to be found at depths and where the risk to successful location is high, expenditure from public funds can be difficult to be justified. in such cases, assurance of the mining lease rights in line with international practice is the only way of incentivizing exploration (kumar 2019). this may require the central government to acknowledge that auction need not be the only mode of disposal of natural resources. legally there is no difficulty because unlike the common public perception, the supreme court in its opinion dated september 27, 2012, on the reference by the president of india, actually stated that (special reference no.1 of 2012 under article 143(1) of the constitution of india) auction is not the only way of discharging a public trust while alienating natural resources.2 2 see kumar and ganeshan (2017) on why the supreme court was right when it said that the submission that “[…] disposal of a natural resource for commercial use must be for revenue ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] another alternative is to turn the clock back to the pre-2015 position and return to a situation where exploration is incentivized through the grant of mining lease rights, but where prospecting (and mining) concessions may be discretionary based on mous with industry, or an effort to promote the public sector. some strengthening of the process can be envisioned which will reduce the scope of “arbitrary discretion”. however, given the recent history of the 2g spectrum and coal licence cases, it will be very hard to justify such a framework which will give the impression in the public mind of windfall profits and crony-capitalism. references goi. 2018. “public procurement (preference to make in india), order 2017 – revision.” public procurement division, department of industrial policy and promotion, ministry of commerce and industry. new delhi: govt. of india. accessed on december 10, 2019. https://dipp.gov.in/sites/default/files/publicprocurement_makeinindia_31may20 18.pdf kumar, s. vijay and swati ganeshan. 2017. “why we need a new mineral exploration policy for national mineral security.” discussion paper. new delhi: the energy and resources institute. accessed on december 10, 2019. https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/nmep_discussionpaper_june18.pdf kumar, s. vijay. 2019. “exploration and mining in india: time for a deeper look.” discussion paper. new delhi: the energy and resources institute. accessed on december 10, 2019. https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/201909/exploration-mining-india.pdf maximization, and thus by auction, is based neither on law nor on logic…. besides legal logic, mandatory auction may be contrary to economic logic as well.” https://dipp.gov.in/sites/default/files/publicprocurement_makeinindia_31may2018.pdf https://dipp.gov.in/sites/default/files/publicprocurement_makeinindia_31may2018.pdf https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/nmep_discussion-paper_june18.pdf https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2018-05/nmep_discussion-paper_june18.pdf https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/exploration-mining-india.pdf https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/exploration-mining-india.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 147–150, january 2020 book review climate change adaptation in the global south chandni singh  anamika barua, vishal narain and sumit vij, eds. 2019. climate change governance and adaptation: case studies from south asia. boca raton: crc press, isbn: 9781138054509, pp. 187, gbp 110 (hardbound). in 2019, south asia experienced severe floods, record-breaking heatwaves, increasing rainfall variability, and the rapid melting of glaciers. climate change is undoubtedly exacerbating these extreme events and there are clear signals that such impacts will intensify in the future (ipcc 2018), especially in parts of south asia. as the poor and most vulnerable cope with and prepare for such a heightened risk regime, climate change adaptation becomes a critical tool in the suite of actions that governments and exposed populations can undertake. in climate change governance and adaptation: case studies from south asia editors anamika barua, vishal narain, and sumit vij offer us a rich set of case studies examining how climate adaptation is implemented and governed across south asian countries. they draw on knowledge of researchers and practitioners working across a spectrum of  indian institute for human settlements, bangalore.iihs bangalore city campus, 197/36, 2nd main road, sadashivanagar bangalore 560080. india; csingh@iihs.ac.in copyright © singh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.101 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.101 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] sectors to highlight how climate change is not only ―redefining the roles of different actors in governance processes‖ (p. ix) but also necessitating ―adaptive governance to deal with increased uncertainty and risk associated with future impacts‖ (p. 93). the book is divided into three sections: 1) climate change governance and societal challenges, 2) adaptation through effective governance, and 3) climate change governance at national/regional scales. under each section, individual chapters present case studies, and i will discuss a few illustrative ones to give a sense of the depth and breadth of the topics that are covered in the book. the literature on perceptions of climate change and variability has burgeoned since 2010 but often stops at recording perceptions of changes in temperature, rainfall, and extreme events. the more challenging question that seems to be left out is — how these everyday lived perceptions and experiences can enable adaptation for decision-making? chapters 2 and 3, in fact, address this gap by drawing on data from uttarakhand and nepal respectively, to explore how meanings that people associate with environmental change1 can then turn such bottom-up meaning-making into improved local participation and inclusive adaptation action. in chapter 3, floriane clement focuses on forms of natural governance in the terai (lowland plains) of nepal and discusses to what extent deliberative governance can open spaces where local concerns and national priorities around resource governance, risk management, and adaptation can come together. using the lenses of ‗fairness‘ and ‗competence‘ to gauge the quality of deliberative processes, clement examines how and why different actors across scales form coalitions as a way to represent their needs and aspirations. the initial results from this essay suggest promise, as she finds that ‗even within an unequal public sphere, deliberation can support the opening up of discourses towards…shared understandings of farmers…vulnerabilities‘ (p. 46). importantly, the case study demonstrates how current national climate change policies fail to recognise local experiences of climate change and that creating spaces to allow for different ‗storylines‘ of adaptation are critical to inclusive action. it is posited that a significant outcome of climate change in south asia will be increased migration (rigaud et al. 2018). in an exceptionally well-argued chapter, anne wesselink et al. (chapter 5) discuss the critical and often contentious issue of climate-induced migration with empirical examples 1 broader term which encapsulates natural resource degradation and climate variability. [149] chnadni singh from bangladesh. they chart the conceptual development of climateinduced migration and highlight the place of bangladesh in this literature as ‗a laboratory of sorts, in which a series of national-level strategic plans, projects, programmes, trust funds and financing schemes are being designed and tested…‘ (p. 78). synthesising the burgeoning empirical literature on climate and migration from bangladesh, they demonstrate how discourses on migration within the national government and international donor community tend to remain simplistic and blind to the non-climatic drivers of migration such as land grabs and unequal power. recognising the multiple drivers of migration is the first step to inclusive adaptation planning and implementation; and the authors end with the concept of ‗phronesis‘ (p. 83) to act as a guiding principle for effective adaptation. phronesis, an aristotelian term, is defined as practical wisdom, can help reorient climate migration discussions from ‗what is true‘ to ‗what is good‘ (p. 83). perhaps, this discussion on what good or effective adaptation might look like is an important normative shift for adaptation researchers and practitioners alike. while the book focuses on climate adaptation, in chapter 8, joyashree roy et al. turn to governing climate mitigation actions. a sort of misfit at first glance, the chapter is an important reading for climate researchers examining mitigation and adaptation synergies. using the concept of ‗vertical integration‘ (p. 139), the authors explore how national governments are interpreting global mitigation targets (e.g. reducing global average temperature to well below 2°c) and how interpretations percolate to inform state action plans, industrial emissions norms, and finally, individual behaviours. citing examples from india such as incentivising solar erickshaws and diversifying the energy mix to include bioenergy, they find that india‘s strong fiscal federalism does not always translate into effective vertical alignment of climate mitigation actions. beyond technology transfer, they argue, transformative changes are required that encompass scientific, social, economic, and institutional realities that national and state governments are often compelled to operate within. overall, climate change governance and adaptation: case studies from south asia is an important book with rich empirical examples of adaptation governance. i, however, think that an opportunity to provide a concluding chapter has been missed. a chapter that the authors could have used for tying the different cases together and synthesising the key findings that could then inform a transformative agenda for climate governance. however, by showing the importance of local dynamics and realities in shaping adaptation processes and outcomes, the book makes an important contribution and will be a valuable reading for students and researchers in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] natural resource management, climate change adaptation, and development studies. references ipcc. 2018. ―summary for policymakers‖ in global warming of 1.5c. an ipcc special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°c above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, edited by v. masson-delmotte, et. al. ipcc (in press). accessed on 18 december 2019. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/sr15_spm_version_r eport_lr.pdf rigaud, k. k., a. de sherbinin, b. jones, j. bergmann, v. clement, k. ober, j. schewe, s. adamo, b. mccusker, s. heuser, and a. midgley. 2018. groundswell: preparing for internal climate migration. washington, dc: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/29461 https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/sr15_spm_version_report_lr.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/sr15_spm_version_report_lr.pdf https://doi.org/10.1596/29461 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 161–164, january 2020 report a report on national seminar “ecology, environment and religions: key issues and challenges” kanchan bharati  and dhananjay kumar  the relationship between human and environment is one of the fundamental and most debated issues in the present day. human beings are an imperative part and manipulators of the ecosystems. the integrity and functionality of vital natural assets like forests, lakes, rivers, land etc., are increasingly being compromised. change in environment and ecology is more of a moral challenge. it calls us to examine how we use and share the goods of the earth, what we pass on to future generations, and how we live in harmony with interfaith traditions (gottlieb 2006). basically, it deals with what human being practices which depend upon their ideology. as lynn white (1967) observed, ―what people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny—that is, by religion‘‘. due to this epistemological emphasis, ecology and religion is an emerging area of study, research, and engagement that embraces multiple disciplinary subjects in an attempt to integrate discussions that have occurred in largely separate circles (leal filho, dahms, and consortemccrea 2019). so far, discussions organized under the banner of the ecology and religion have generally confined in the specialized departments in the western universities (grim and tucker 2014). moreover, those are more or less  assistant professor, centre for culture and development (ccd), xti campus, sevasipost, vadodara-391101. kbharati82@gmail.com  assistant professor, centre for culture and development (ccd), xti campus, sevasipost, vadodara-391101. dhananjaykumarnitrkl@gmail.com.  copyright © bharati and kumar 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.104 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.104 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] centred on the eurocentric dialogues. however, scholars, data and field material from india have been slow to follow this lead. this is despite its being a large sub-continent, with its rich and varied ecologies and cultures, and the birthplace of three major and several minor religious traditions. to address this gap, the centre for culture and development (ccd), vadodara (gujarat) with the help of indian council of social science research (icssr) (mumbai – india) organized a national seminar on ‗ecology, environment and religions: key issues and challenges‘ during 26-27, february 2018. it brought together scholars, experts from different disciplinary fields and religious practitioners for two days of informative and stimulating discussions. the seminar aimed at examining the interrelationship between ecology to the human behaviour through the lenses of (i) physical dimension (ii) social dimension and (iii) religious or spiritual dimension. well-known water conservationist & environmentalist, also known as ‗waterman of india‘, shri rajendra singh, in his keynote address raised a significant point on linking the human, ecology and environment by stating that unless the community is involved in the conversation of the conservation of nature, any concern for environmental preservation is not achievable. dr. binny sareen, regional director-global peace initiative for india, in her guest of honour address gave a spiritual perspective towards maintaining ecological balance and sustainability. spiritual ecology refers to the intersection between religion, spirituality and environment which can play an important role in controlling not only the outside world positively but also the inner nature. the seminar began by focusing on the ‗ecology and biodiversityhumanenvironment relationship‘ with three presentations. lancelot d‘cruz emphasized upon the tribal communities, traditional ethnomedicinal wisdom and on the need for documenting and using their traditional knowledge for biodiversity sustainability and conservation. deepa gavali argued that communities can help in maintaining ecological biodiversity and conservation by preserving important endangered plant species. arun mahato highlighted how chhota nagpur‘s indigenous communities‘ cultural practices of festivals had contributory elements of preserving biodiversity. the second session focused on the ‗social dimension of ecology: societyenvironment relationship‘. amit mitra explored the role of markets in linking ecology to religion, the consequence of being an imbalance of ecological sustainability and negative impact on sacred groves conservation. shashikant kumar highlighted interweaved nature of urbanization and environmental sustainability, focusing on how regional developments causes environmental problems. rohit prajapati delved on the different [163] kanchan bharati and dhananjay kumar socio-legal dimension of environmental conservation based on legal cases related to development projects with environmental issues. ramnath k. rao chronicled various debates on environment, development and women in ecological discourse. the third session focused on ecologically sustainable development through some case studies. emphasizing on environment education for students, jothi xavier put forwarded a three c‘s initiative for environment teaching pedagogy which includes curiosity, creativity and compassion. dhananjay kumar‘s theoretical paper discussed humanity‘s impact on the earth's atmosphere and crucial outcome of the dramatic reshaping of the global biosphere like degradation of forests and agriculture, resource depletion, public health issues, loss of biodiversity and resilience in ecosystems. jayesh bhatt remarked about the cases of terrestrial ecosystem loss like habitat alteration, invasive species, pollution, population growth and overexploitation in the banni grassland of kutch. mahesh lakum viewed the industry and environmental predicaments from subaltern lens and pointed the lacuna in existing research on environmental degradation with the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. the last two sessions, four and five, focused on the religious and spiritual dimension on ecology: religion-environment relationship. session four has three presentations. fr. joseph mattam presented the concise description of laudato si by pope francis where it was noted that earth is crying because of the harm humans have inflicted on her because of the use and abuse of the goods. maulana mufti ahmed devlavi presented some aspects of the islamic perspective on environmental ethics, pointing existence of more than 750 verses in the quran related to nature and conservation. sanjay rattan highlighted the faith-ecology paradigm of protecting the environment. linking religious groups to conservation he argued that religious bodies have the influence and ability to shift one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and climate change. session five was a panel discussion participated by the scholars and religious leaders representing their respective academic and spiritual views on religion and environment. through their rigorous discussions, panelists drew our attention to the hope of achieving a goal where development, environmental commitment and spiritual practices can work together to protect and enhance the quality of life on this planet. lastly, jayesh shah, ambassador, parliament of the world's religions, in his concluding address mentioned that for more than thirty years, the world‘s major institutions, scientists, governments and the largest ngo‘s have compiled and analyzed details of how we are abusing the planet and yet the crisis is with us. each of the faith traditions has something unique to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] offer to humanity and earth. the focus thus, should be on the role each of the faith traditions could play at the ground level based on the sayings of their scriptures or traditions for the conservation and preservation of environment and ecology. the seminar discussed important questions and concerns for protecting and caring of the earth for today and future generations. by bringing people from diverse sub-fields of environmental science, ethnoecology, political ecology, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, subaltern studies and religious tourism studies the seminar had set out in addressing the challenges to ecology and environment in our troubled world. it made a significant effort for cross-fertilization of ideologies, ideas, methods, theories and philosophies of physical, social and spiritual studies. acknowledgements we thank our colleague jayesh shah, research consultant, centre for culture and development, who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research, although he may not agree with all of the interpretations of this paper. we would also like to show our gratitude to lancy lobo, director, centre for culture and development, for sharing his pearls of wisdom with us. we also thank ―anonymous‖ reviewers for their insights. references gottlieb, roger s. 2006. ―introduction: religion and ecology—what is the connection and why does it matter?‖ in the oxford handbook of religion and ecology, 11–16. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195178722.003.0001. grim, john, and mary evelyn tucker. 2014. ecology and religion. washington, d.c.: island press. leal filho, walter, lena maria dahms, and adriana consorte-mccrea. 2019. ―sustainability and religion: past trends and future perspectives.‖ in sustainability and the humanities, edited by walter leal filho and adriana consorte mccrea, 611– 19. cham: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31995336-6_35. white, lynn. 1967. ―the historical roots of our ecologic crisis.‖ science 155 (3767): 1203–7. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195178722.003.0001 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95336-6_35 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95336-6_35 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.155.3767.1203 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 13–18, july 2020 commentary covid-19: urban density’s poetic justice nitin pandit  1. introduction following centuries of pandemics and unplanned urbanization, charles dickens laid bare the physical filth and amoral inequities that beset english society in bleak house in the nineteenth century. thereafter, slow but steady improvements in science and sanitation have led to longer lives and greater prosperity in the western world, despite intermittent setbacks including wars, recessions, genocides, and pandemics. the concomitant growth in population and industry has resulted in individuals hoping that some day they too could add to the increasing globalization of filth and inequities by becoming part of the one percent. as for the accumulating warnings from rachel carson, the club of rome, climate change activists, collapsing ecosystems, and vanishing bees, we have sort of muddled through, till now. along came a bat, perhaps also a pangolin, and it rattled the entire apple cart where greed had become, in fact, laissez-faire. the vulnerabilities of human artifacts like governments, markets, and institutions were made visible by small edible lifeforms at a global scale. oh, the inconvenience of it all, bringing back nightmares of other indiscriminate marauders like the spanish flu! just when we had been lulled into slumber, having controlled sars/mers and restricted ebola! we find it convenient to shift the blame to some meat markets (paul and vanak 2020) and go back to sleep over a bob dylan rant:1  ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree), royal enclave, srirampura, jakkur post, bengaluru 560 064, india; nitin.pandit@atree.org. copyright © pandit 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.252 1 bob dylan, ―when you gonna wake up?‖, in slow train coming, 1979. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.252 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] god don’t make no promises that he don’t keep you got some big dreams, baby, but in order to dream you gotta still be asleep 2. density v. sprawl since the energy crisis of the 1970s, urban planners have criticized american suburbia, or sprawl, as the quintessential indicator of profligate and individualistic consumption driven by inefficient use of energy. ―network effects‖ became the new buzzword, defined by high-density living and intense interactions among people. while increased energy efficiency provided tremendous benefits, total energy use skyrocketed through the convenience of consuming products and services that density provided. the tremendous economic growth that followed was fuelled by the convenience of urbanized consumption. by march 2020, there was reason to worry because covid-19 was clearly multiplying in the urban centres central to our economic growth and we were hosting it. as people are both vectors and victims, social distancing became the necessary band aid, but it went against the very grain of density—the primary measure and holy grail of design for urban planners. coronavirus changed it all and started haunting urban planners when urban centres started seeing its rapid spread. ―it’s about density,‖ said new york’s governor andrew cuomo (shoichet and jones 2020), having seen firsthand how increased interactions in dense areas were convenient for people and also facilitated the rapid spread of covid-19. stalwarts like paul krugman came to the defence, extolling the other virtues of urban density in new york (krugman 2020), while influencers like joel kotkin highlighted how the urban sprawl in los angeles (kotkin 2020) helped flatten the curve. one knows that all interventions against the virus are experimental and, therefore, suspect, even as inequities and the plight of the urban poor are exposed threadbare. so, premier thought leaders in city planning are moving quickly to retain their place in the sun by calling for polycentric or decentralized cities, offering patterns of smart density for the new normal (zeljic 2020). the love affair with urban density is intense and not to be abandoned easily. [15] nitin pandit 3. slumdog millionaires in populous, rural, developing countries like india, city planners have quickly bought into the idea of dense cities as a solution to weakening rural livelihoods in line with western ideals of planning. glorified rags-to-riches stories have masked over the abhorrent living conditions of the urban poor, and dense urbanization in slums fragmented by concrete towers have become the reality. the urban setting—devoid of the buffered protection that biodiversity offers—created the ideal conditions for the disaster that followed. it took a virus to show that western urban planning solutions do not translate well to the indian context (lakshmi 2020), where millions of migrant workers in the slums of mumbai and other megacities have been rendered vulnerable to the novel coronavirus and in the government lockdowns that followed. urban planners in india continue to adopt western ideas centred on dense urban cores to facilitate transport and provision of other public services, accompanied tree planting (cnbc sustainable energy 2020). the overdue emphasis on constructing more parks in cities and building eco-friendly buildings (mathews and gupta 2020) may make the recommendations sound like old wine in a new bottle to the poor who are confronted with a life-and-death situation. the city of mumbai—fuelled over many decades by commerce and bollywood—has become a dense centre that demands resources far beyond the capacity of natural systems. while defenders of the status quo are asking for more investments for the provision of basic urban systems that never got implemented (pai 2020), one wonders why these rich and dense cities, engines of growth, have not made these provisions for so long. in fact, when provisions were made—as in the case of mumbai—urban planners designed a substantial public transport system to move its poor efficiently to their jobs but neglected to provide basic amenities where they lived. the theory goes that densely populated areas exhibit the network effect through increased interactions. however, they are also underserved areas as well as red zones for disease transmission in mumbai for precisely the same reason. network effects can have a positive impact on some parameters, but they are also a ―thick interface‖ for negative vulnerabilities like covid-19. this fact challenges the traditional urban planning mindset, where density-driven design is justified with rushed analysis (fang and wahba 2020) to ensure a continuous stream of investments. political power also grows more concentrated with greater density, and, naturally, the powerful demand more resources for their constituencies. a classic vicious cycle sets in, driven by the suppliers of goods and services who strive to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] feed the beast, which grows bigger in turn with what economists call a rebound effect. meanwhile, with the risks being borne largely by those in slums and the shanty towns of mumbai, there is no reason why the vulnerable poor shouldn’t be sceptical of who will benefit from the glistening portrayals of unlimited or smart urban density. surely the affected urban poor can see through the edifice, which will last at most till the magic vaccine becomes available! they may also know that a reinvigorated return to the ―old normal‖ will not change the behaviour of critical urban stakeholders such as the builder-developers, who are able to glide past most developmental and environmental norms through political patronage. with the risks of such virulent shocks transferred to the poor, one can hear the re-established old guard get comfortably numb again as they chant jethro tull’s ballad:2 let's bungle in the jungle well, that's all right by me i'm a tiger when i want love but i'm a snake if we disagree 4. epilogue it is obvious there needs to be a better balance than what can be achieved by density-driven design alone (gohil 2020). we will continue to debate solutions that are systemic, from a prosperous way down (odum and odum 2008) to incremental ones through a series of lifestyle changes (bhar 2020), but we cannot hide now that the vulnerability of our fundamental conception of a rapidly dense and urbanized planet is quite clear. meanwhile, some migrants, disenchanted by an urban system that has let them down, will remain in their villages to regain their dignity. perhaps, as italo calvino notes, we will remain a part of the urban inferno (calvino 1978) or become vigilant citizens. or maybe some of us urbanites will enjoy the return of nature into our concrete jungles and reminisce a bit about ―daffodils‖, a childhood favourite by william wordsworth. but that’s a scenario that doesn’t fit into business-as-usual. 2 jethro tull, ―bungle in the jungle‖, in bungle in the jungle, 1974. [17] nitin pandit references bhar, soumyajit. 2020. ―degrowth and covid-19: are we drawing a simplistic connection?‖ mongabay india, april 21. https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/ commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-arewe-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/. calvino, italo. 1978. invisible cities. new york: harcourt brace jovanovich. cnbc sustainable energy. 2020. ―urban forests and the transformation of cities, part one,‖ cnbc, april 17, 2020. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/urbanforests-and-the-transformation-of-cities-part-one.html. fang, wanli, and sameh wahba. 2020. ―urban density is not an enemy in the coronavirus fight: evidence from china.‖ world bank blogs, april 20. https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/urban-density-not-enemycoronavirus-fight-evidence-china. gohil, jasmine. 2020. ―the future of built environment in india.‖ yourstory, may 3. https://yourstory.com/2020/04/future-built-environment-india-infrastructure. kotkin, joel. 2020. ―angelenos like their single-family sprawl. the coronavirus proves them right.‖ los angeles times, april 26, 2020. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/ story/2020-04-26/coronavirus-cities-densitylos-angeles-transit. krugman, paul. 2020. ―is density deadly?‖ the new york times, march 24. lakshmi, rama. 2020. ―india’s one lesson from covid crisis and work-fromhome: how to build a real smart city.‖ the print, april 20. https://theprint.in/opinion/ lesson-india-covid-crisis-how-to-build-real-smartcity/398771/. mathews, rejeet, and akanksha gupta. 2020. ―covid-19 and summer heat: building our cities anew.‖ timesnow, april 25. https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/ covid-19-and-summer-heatbuilding-our-cities-anew/582592. odum, howard t, and elisabeth c odum. 2008. a prosperous way down: principles and policies. university press of colorado. pai, madhav. 2020. ―from my window: a view of the covid-19 pandemic in mumbai.‖ thecityfix, april 17. https://thecityfix.com/blog/window-view-covid19-pandemic-mumbai-madhav-pai/ paul, mridula, and abi t vanak. 2020. ―covid-19: who do you blame a pandemic on?‖ down to earth, april 23. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/economy/covid-19-who-do-you-blame-apandemic-on--70652. shoichet, catherine e, and athena jones. 2020. ―coronavirus is making some people rethink where they want to live,‖ cnn, may 2. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/02/ us/cities-population-coronavirus/. https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/%20commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-are-we-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/ https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/%20commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-are-we-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/ https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/urban-forests-and-the-transformation-of-cities-part-one.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/urban-forests-and-the-transformation-of-cities-part-one.html https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/urban-density-not-enemy-coronavirus-fight-evidence-china https://blogs.worldbank.org/sustainablecities/urban-density-not-enemy-coronavirus-fight-evidence-china https://yourstory.com/2020/04/future-built-environment-india-infrastructure https://www.latimes.com/opinion/%20story/2020-04-26/coronavirus-cities-density-los-angeles-transit https://www.latimes.com/opinion/%20story/2020-04-26/coronavirus-cities-density-los-angeles-transit https://theprint.in/opinion/%20lesson-india-covid-crisis-how-to-build-real-smart-city/398771/ https://theprint.in/opinion/%20lesson-india-covid-crisis-how-to-build-real-smart-city/398771/ https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/%20covid-19-and-summer-heat-building-our-cities-anew/582592 https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/%20covid-19-and-summer-heat-building-our-cities-anew/582592 https://thecityfix.com/blog/window-view-covid-19-pandemic-mumbai-madhav-pai/ https://thecityfix.com/blog/window-view-covid-19-pandemic-mumbai-madhav-pai/ https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/economy/covid-19-who-do-you-blame-a-pandemic-on--70652 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/economy/covid-19-who-do-you-blame-a-pandemic-on--70652 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/02/%20us/cities-population-coronavirus/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] zeljic, aleksandar sasha. 2020. ―polycentric cities: the future of sustainable urban growth.‖ gensler. https://www.gensler.com/researchinsight/blog/polycentric-cities-new-normal-manila-finance-centre. https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/blog/polycentric-cities-new-normal-manila-finance-centre. https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/blog/polycentric-cities-new-normal-manila-finance-centre. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 119–124, january 2020 notes from the field mgnrega farm pond works – perspectives of people and policy dimple tresa abraham  and neetha n  1. introduction india is ranked thirteenth among the list of water stressed countries in the world (bansal, 2019). in recent years india has witnessed acute water scarcity across states, resulting in a growing recognition that lives and livelihoods of all are intrinsically linked to water, and measures on a war footing are required to ensure that our basic needs of water is met. the jal shakti abhiyan (jsa), set up in 2019, has reported that over the past few years 3.5 lakh water conservation measures were implemented, of which 1.54 lakh were direct water conservation and rain water harvesting measures. the criticality of monsoons and rainwater harvesting has been championed by the prime minister, who in june 2019 had sent personalised letters to all village chiefs and had made a national call to take measures to conserve rainwater (ians, 2019). excavation of farm ponds, trenches and other earthen works are popular measures for water harvesting and conservation, and many of these receive monetary support from the government departments and ministries concerned. under the jsa and the flagship public works programme of the country, the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act  centre for women‘s development studies, 25bhai vir singh marg, new delhi – 110001, india; dimple@cwds.ac.in   centre for women‘s development studies, 25bhai vir singh marg, new delhi – 110001, india; neetha@cwds.ac.in copyright © abraham and neetha 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.96 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.96 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] (mgnrega), emphasis is given to farm pond works. 1 if we look at mgnrega, since its inception, over 50% of its works are related to natural resource management, with a focus on rejuvenation of traditional water bodies and building new ponds and tanks on common lands. in addition to works on common/public property, the mgnrega also have a provision to develop irrigation facility on private lands of eligible households, particularly those from the weaker socioeconomic groups (sc/st and bpl), and marginal and small farmers (those owning less than 2 hectare of land respectively). this provision aimed at creating sustainable livelihoods for individual households. the data indicate that the share of water harvesting and irrigation structures on private lands to total works have risen in recent years.2 the notes from the field discussed here are based on insights from an extensive study 3 undertaken by cwds in 2018 on mgnrega private land works across the states of karnataka, madhya pradesh (mp) and west bengal. in addition, the notes also draw comparison to similar works in the state of uttarakhand studied in 2019. all observations are limited to farm pond works alone. 2. policy push on farm ponds since the inception of mgnrega, farm ponds are an integral part of its water conservation related works. but a big push came into the programme ecosystem when a commitment was made by the prime minister in 2016 towards creating 500,000 farm ponds (varma, 2016). excavation and re-excavation of these water harvesting and storage structures were common works on private/individual lands in the initial 1 it is referred commonly as the manrega or the narega. but in published documents, including that by the ministry of rural development, government of india, it is written as the mgnrega 2the share of these individual land works out of total works has increased over time from 18.6% (out of the total 104.6 lakh works) in 2012-13 to 31.7% (out of the total 122.1 lakh works) in 2016-17. 3 cwds (2018) study had covered over 3000 mgnrega private land works, broadly categorized as category b works. these works were completed using mgnrega funds but their maintenance is the responsibility of the individual beneficiary household. beneficiaries who received completed income generating category b works from 2013-14 to 2015-16 fy as per the mgnrega mis (management information system) were selected in the sample. [121] dimple tresa abraham and neetha n years. but later re-excavation works were removed from the list of ‗eligible works on private lands‘ (owing to increasing number of ghost works and inability to identify re-excavations from new pond works) as is clear from directives issued by the ministry of rural development (goi, 2016). our research observed that policy on farm pond works and specifications related to size and other parameters varied across study states with mp and karnataka pushing for these works with a vision for water harvesting for agriculture and ground water recharge, while in west bengal its focus was to facilitate fish farming for home consumption and livelihoods. officials in-charge of mgnrega implementation across states championed for farm ponds works on private lands as these were labour intensive (over 90% of work expenditure was spent on labour/wage payments); hence helped to maintain the mandatory 60:40 labour to material ratio.4 for instance, in karnataka cattle/goat sheds were popular works among the beneficiaries. a ‗package of works‘ offer, to be completed within a 36 month time period (depending on number of applications received and budget for the year), was made to beneficiaries. there were three different packages, and in a popular option beneficiaries were provided with land development works (rs.10,000/acre), a cattle/goat shed (rs.35,000/unit) and farm pond works (rs.19,500/unit). this ‗package‘ was policy strategy to ensure targets5 for farm ponds and other ground water recharging works would also be achieved without much difficulty. however, policy changes were common and took place at frequent intervals. for instance, in the block of rajgarh in mp, farm pond construction (of a certain minimum dimension) was made as a supplementary work with dug wells for all new sanctions from 2017-18. this meant that a potential beneficiary had to possess sizable land area to ensure a farm pond was also constructed along with a dug well (with funding support from mgnrega), which in effect meant the beneficiary had to earmark about one-fifth of a hectare for the ‗well-farm pond combination‘ work. officials stated that this condition was added to ensure that at least some, if not all, of the ground water drawn from the well would be replenished through the farm pond (through rainwater harvesting and further ground water recharging). in addition, combination works also helped to ensure farm ponds were built and targets were achieved (goi, 2016), though this was never made in public statements. rather officials 4 inclusion of these works off-set material intensive works such as animal shelters and thus helped to maintain labour to material ratio at block level. 5 goi (2016) gives state-wise targets. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] maintained these works were critical to ecology. a personal communication from an official with regard to why farm ponds were made an accompaniment work with dug wells is given below: wells are like bank atms while ponds are equivalent to saving bank (sb) accounts. if you have no money in the sb account, then the atm will not dispense any cash. similarly, you should not be allowed to dig wells and draw upon ground water if you do not make farm ponds alongside. as only then you are contributing to recharging the ground water which you are drawing up from the well. 3. perception of people and farm ponds across the states, the initial years saw resistance towards farm pond works with only a few households applying for it. the general perception was that ‗precious land would be lost‘, and the loss was not commensurate with the gains from improved crop yields as people felt there would hardly be any increase in cash incomes. the only exception was the case of those who were keen to venture into commercial fish farming, as was the case of some beneficiaries in blocks of west bengal and uttarakhand. while it was possible to undertake commercial fish farming even if the farm ponds retained water only for 8-9 months a year, beneficiaries hoped to farm fish round the year. many of the beneficiaries in 24 parganas south and purba medinipur district of west bengal had farmed fish previously for home consumption, but with the new ponds they were able to grow fish for longer periods or about 9 months and earned higher incomes through fish sales. most of the beneficiaries here abided with natural availability of water and stopped fish farming from march/april until monsoons. but beneficiaries of farm ponds in dehradun and haridwar districts of uttarakhand, who incidentally were venturing into pisciculture for the first time, were keen to ensure availability of water round the year, for which they dug borewells alongside ponds. installing bore wells and pumping up water to fill farm ponds was ecologically adverse for overall water economy of the area but no one — villagers, officials or elected representatives — took note of this paradox. in west bengal, many households with farm ponds were raising fish for household consumption, while some were also earning regular income from sale of fish. farm pond works were at times jointly executed for 3-4 [123] dimple tresa abraham and neetha n beneficiaries in cases where individual land holdings were tiny6 in size and hence land pooling by beneficiaries who owned adjacent plots helped to excavate larger ponds. this improved the scope for commercial fish farming. beneficiaries in laksmijanardhanpur (pathar pratima block of 24 parganas south), t majee and m samal, who received farm ponds in 2015-16 were farming fish and earning rs.500-1000/month. but j bunia, a beneficiary who had ventured into betel leaf farming after completion of farm pond in 2013-14 had experienced manifold increase in income with the household earning close to rs.1,00,000 from sale of betel leaves (0.08 ha) in 2017. in all cases, beneficiaries also reported that the ponds ensured plenty of fish for their home consumption, a staple in bengali diet. in karnataka, across study districts of ramanagara and tumkur farm ponds were individually provided, as unlike west bengal, here average household land ownership was sizable. one aspect that was clear from discussions with officials and people was that the resistance towards excavation of farm ponds during initial years, had significantly reduced and many households were applying for these works as they were able to ‗witness‘ its benefit. in some of the villages in ramanagara, particularly, there were many ‗new‘ applications as villagers saw how sericulture incomes of their neighbours had risen owing to these works. in choodahalli gp, balaramu who had received a farm pond in 2015-16 was able to harvest 425 kg of cocoon compared to about 375-390 kg previously. in i gollahalli, another beneficiary, kulliah who had received a farm pond in 2015-16, had benefitted from higher mulberry leaf production from his 1 acre plantation, which in turn led to increased cocoon production of 290kg (earlier the average was not above 250kg). dairy farmer sannegowda, also from choodahalli, had always bought water spending close to rs.10, 000 during the summer season for raising napier grass for his cows. but construction of a farm pond on his land in 2015 had helped to harvest rainwater and store it to tide over the summer months. after the farm pond was built on his land, he had stopped purchasing water. 4. conclusion the positive impact of farm ponds is substantial and for many there was decipherable improvement in crop yields improving cash incomes or 6 the modal land class category was 0-0.1 ha with 46.6 per cent of beneficiary households having on an average 0.02 ha or 5 decimals of land ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] household food consumption or both. in case of beneficiaries who were only practicing subsistence agriculture, households were able to grow crops over longer duration, and reduce market dependence for grains and vegetables. but it was also observed that in many gps across the study states, there were beneficiaries whose farm ponds had shrunk in size and depth, owing to carelessness with regard to regular maintenance (periodic cleaning activities, including removal of accumulated silt). these beneficiaries hoped that some support would be extended towards maintaining the ponds to ensure sustainability over time. acknowledgements the notes from the field are mostly based on insights drawn from a multistate study titled ―mgnrega, asset creation and rural development: an evaluation of category b assets in selected states‖ conducted by centre for women‘s development studies, new delhi in 2017. observations are also drawn from another study on water conservation works completed in the state of uttarakhand in 2019. the authors acknowledge the funding support from national institute of rural development & panchayati raj (nird&pr) hyderabad. references bansal, swati. 2019. ―jal shakti abhiyan hits ground rolling as india ranks 13th most water-stressed country in the world.‖ indiawaterportal. accessed on august 8, 2019. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/jal-shakti-abhiyan-hits-ground-rolling-indiaranks-13th-most-water-stressed-country-world cwds. 2018. mgnrega, asset creation and rural developmentan evaluation of category b assets in selected states. nird&pr 2018. delhi: centre for women's development studies. accessed on august 8, 2019. https://www.panchayatgyan.gov.in/documents/30336/145321/mgnrega+asset+ creation+and+rural+development.pdf/a5c6bc36-5dee-40e8-98b0-3e816bc3a447 goi. 2016. government of india circular no-j-11060/2/2016-mgnrega-v. new delhi: ministry of rural development, department of rural development. http://rdd.bih.nic.in/circulars/294097.pdf ians. 2019. ―dear sarpanchji, namaskar: pm modi writes personal letter to village pradhans on saving rainwater.‖ india today, june 15. accessed on august 8, 2019. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-letter-village-pradhans-saving-rainwater1549314-2019-06-15 varma, gyan. 2016. ―govt to build 500,000 ponds in rural areas: narendra modi.‖ livemint, march 27. accessed on august 8, 2019. https://www.livemint.com/politics/ftiy2tidch6qkesx5wmu8i/govt-to-construct5-lakh-farming-pools-narendra-modi.html. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/jal-shakti-abhiyan-hits-ground-rolling-india-ranks-13th-most-water-stressed-country-world https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/jal-shakti-abhiyan-hits-ground-rolling-india-ranks-13th-most-water-stressed-country-world https://www.panchayatgyan.gov.in/documents/30336/145321/mgnrega+asset+creation+and+rural+development.pdf/a5c6bc36-5dee-40e8-98b0-3e816bc3a447 https://www.panchayatgyan.gov.in/documents/30336/145321/mgnrega+asset+creation+and+rural+development.pdf/a5c6bc36-5dee-40e8-98b0-3e816bc3a447 http://rdd.bih.nic.in/circulars/294097.pdf https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-letter-village-pradhans-saving-rainwater-1549314-2019-06-15 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-letter-village-pradhans-saving-rainwater-1549314-2019-06-15 https://www.livemint.com/politics/ftiy2tidch6qkesx5wmu8i/govt-to-construct-5-lakh-farming-pools-narendra-modi.html https://www.livemint.com/politics/ftiy2tidch6qkesx5wmu8i/govt-to-construct-5-lakh-farming-pools-narendra-modi.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 27–31, july 2020 commentary a call to redefine ‘the field’ in nature conservation studies in india madhuri ramesh  1. introduction nature conservation has undergone significant shifts since the early 2000s. to begin with, the international union for conservation of nature (iucn), the arm of the united nations that steers the global conservation agenda, has become an increasingly neoliberal institution—it has marginalized concerns regarding the impacts of capitalism and, instead, has promoted market-based tools for conservation and sought partnerships with a range of industries including mining corporations (macdonald 2010). a second change is that in some parts of the world, there is militarized management of protected areas (pas). the default assumption of the states/organizations involved is that poachers are linked to terrorist or drug-trafficking networks and thereby pose a major security threat (duffy 2014). similarly, some states favour the establishment of vast pas as an assertion of geopolitical power. this is commonly seen in the case of marine protected areas (mpas), which have a history of territorial dispute. such mpas may continue to be accessed or managed by military establishments (de santo 2020). finally, and in contrast to these top–down trends, there has been a surge in calls over the past few years to decolonize conservation by directly challenging the global north‘s fundamentally unjust and racist approach (mbaria and ogada 2016; aini and west 2018). these threads extend to india, too, as recent studies indicate that nature conservation here is closely linked to issues of neoliberalism (ramesh and rai 2017), national security (muralidharan and rai 2020), and social  azim premji university, pes campus, hosur road, electronic city, bengaluru, karnataka 560100, india; madhuri.ramesh@apu.edu.in. copyright © ramesh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.123 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.123 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] discrimination (kabra 2019). now more than ever, nature conservation is not just about saving biodiversity—it is a domain marked by economic, political, and social contestation. these realities raise an important question with respect to conservation research: what exactly do we mean by ‗the field‘ today? where do its boundaries lie? although we tend to treat this concept as self-evident, i propose here that we first need to acknowledge that the field is a constructed notion; second, recognizing the politics integral to its construction can help us redefine its boundaries in more progressive ways. i draw parallels between conservation science and anthropology because the latter began with a similarly narrow view of the field but has radically evolved over a few decades. 2. early connections anthropology has much in common with nature conservation with respect to the idea that doing research in ‗the field‘ is an integral part of the disciplinary identity. this is because around the late 1800s, anthropologists borrowed heavily from natural scientists who practised their craft outdoors—the latter chose a limited and distant area (the field) within which they carried out intensive, systematic, and direct observations (fieldwork). therefore, similar to primatologists of that period who studied animal communities in their ‗pristine‘ state, anthropologists took a naturalistic, albeit racist, approach to studying so-called primitive human communities in their ‗native‘ states. the anthropology of this period was simply an extension of natural history. however, by the late 1900s, anthropology underwent a metamorphosis. for example, it dispensed with the reductionist nature–culture dichotomy; became sensitive to how power relations between researchers and the researched influenced the production of knowledge; and revised the traditional idea of ‗the field‘ (as a culturally exotic and geographically distant place) to bring more european places, institutions, and communities under its analytical gaze. it even examined how institutional structures and funding trends a priori disqualified the work of most researchers from being recognized as ‗rigorous‘ because to meet this yardstick, one had to have the social capital of an athletic, white, middle-class male, or equivalent (gupta and ferguson 1997). [29] madhuri ramesh 3. the indian situation most conservation researchers in india appear to follow the orthodox standards of the nineteenth century. as one scientist said, for many of us, ―nature is simply where culture is not‖.1 therefore, we still maintain what gupta and ferguson (1997) describe as ―a hierarchy of purity‖ with respect to field sites: research carried out in human-inhabited areas of any kind— industrial or non-industrial—is not valued as much as research conducted in ‗wild‘ sites. for many of us conservation scientists, ‗real fieldwork‘ still involves spending long periods of time in a site that is as notable for the presence of flora or fauna as for the absence of any (obvious) human activity. if we cannot readily find such sites in today‘s world, we engage in discursive erasure: we describe them in our studies as though they were uninhabited or disconnected from modernity. but how relevant and ethical is such an understanding and treatment of the field, given the current changes occurring in the domain of conservation? i argue here that this traditional concept of the field is not an innocent one; it comes laden with colonial baggage and contributes to the social injustices perpetrated by hard-line conservation models. this is because such a narrow delimitation of the field as pristine nature confines the researcher‘s gaze to the proximate causes of degradation and perpetuates the ‗traditional‘ conservation narrative that local communities and practices pose the single greatest threat to nature. it forecloses the possibility of tracing the drain and damage caused by urbanization, industrialization, and elite ways of life, as these remain outside the boundaries of the field (as it is usually defined) and, therefore, are closed to academic scrutiny. this and the absence of reflexive writing in the natural sciences (which dominate conservation research in india) mean that as an academic community, we have little understanding of how our gender, caste, class, linguistic ability, etc. might influence our access to the field and, in the process, either limit or facilitate the production of conservation knowledge in the indian context. even our popular articles often unthinkingly reproduce the colonial ‗green hero‘ tone of narration and shed little light on lived experiences and dilemmas associated with doing fieldwork. 1 kartik shanker, 2013. he made this comment as a general observation and not as a statement of his own position. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] 4. recharting the field recognizing these pitfalls of typical conservation studies, some researchers look for ways ―to add a social component‖. however, with this we run the risk of tokenism and, worse, we find that our analytical frame continues to be impoverished. this is one reason why we still publish far more studies on the damaging effects of firewood, grazing, and non-timber forest produce (ntfp) collection in india than we do on mining, luxury tourism, or misguided corporate social responsibility projects. a second reason is that the neoliberal orientation of the iucn and other major conservation organizations limits the funding available to certain types of studies (a detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this article). nevertheless, i suggest that to make any significant change to the status quo, we need to need to take a leaf from the contemporary anthropologist‘s book and revise our ideas of the field. we need to accept it as a multidimensional, socially constructed space that has biodiversity, history, politics, culture, etc. even if our focus is on the former, we could at least acknowledge the existence of these other dimensions in our descriptions of study areas. fortunately, we do have some conservation studies in india that show us how an expansive notion of the field can enrich our efforts; for example, the well-known ―report of the western ghats ecology expert panel‖ (gadgil 2011) delves into the key ecological, economic, and social factors that make this a composite social-ecological landscape. it critiques the effect of ―conservation by exclusion‖ coupled with ―development by exclusion‖ and, instead, advocates an adaptive co-management approach for biodiverse areas, i.e., an approach that recognizes the existence and rights of people in ―wilderness‖ areas as well as the value of incremental, experiential learning in conservation practice (berkes and turner 2006). other examples, albeit on a limited scale, include conservation projects for turtles (sharma 2006), elephants (evanescence studios 2014), and leopards (ghosal and kjosavik 2015). it is only with such efforts that we can begin to truly do justice to the complexities of undertaking conservation, particularly in the global south. our training institutions also need to incorporate insights that the conservation community has acquired from hard-earned experience; for instance, a working knowledge of the stratifications in indian society, regional economies, and struggles around environmental justice would certainly give fresh researchers a sharper sense of reality and a more ethical orientation, which would preclude the need for them to reinvent the wheel with each study. we need to develop a more realistic sense of ‗the field‘ individually and institutionally so that we can chart a progressive vision for nature conservation in india. [31] madhuri ramesh references aini, john and paige west. 2018. ―communities matter: decolonizing conservation management.‖ last modified july 28, 2018. https://paigewest.com/2018/07/28/decolonizing-conservation/. berkes, fikret and nancy j. turner. 2006. ―knowledge, learning and the evolution of conservation practice for social-ecological system resilience.‖ human ecology 34 (4): 479–494. de santo, elizabeth m. 2020. ―militarized marine protected areas in overseas territories: conserving biodiversity, geopolitical positioning, and securing resources in the 21st century.‖ ocean & coastal management 184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.105006. duffy, rosaleen. 2014. ―war, by conservation.‖ geoforum 69: 238–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.09.014. evanescence studios. 2014. ―living with elephants.‖ last modified july 24, 2014. ht t ps :/ / y ou tu .be / m wc d m jv41 h o . gadgil, madhav, et al. 2011. ―report of the western ghats ecology expert panel – part i.‖ last modified april 2, 2016. https://archive.org/details/reportofthewesternghatsecologyexpertpanel/page /n129/mode/2up. ghosal, sunetro and darley kjosavik. 2015. ―living with leopards: negotiating morality and modernity in western india.‖ society & natural resources 28 (10): 1092–1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2015.1014597. gupta akhil and james ferguson. 1997. ―discipline and practice: ‗the field‘ as site, method and location in anthropology.‖ in anthropological locations: boundaries and grounds of a field science, edited by akhil gupta and james ferguson, 1–46. berkeley: university of california press. kabra, asmita. 2019. ―caste in stone? exploring caste and class dimensions of conservation displacement in india.‖ journal of contemporary asia. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1696877. macdonald, kenneth iain. 2010. ―business, biodiversity and new ‗fields‘ of conservation: the world conservation congress and the renegotiation of organisational order.‖ conservation and society 8 (4): 268–275. mbaria, john and ogada, mordecai. 2016. the big conservation lie. seattle: lens & pens publishing. muralidharan, rahul and nitin d. rai. 2020. ―violent maritime spaces: conservation and security in gulf of mannar marine national park, india.‖ political geography 80 (june): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102160. ramesh, madhuri and nitin d. rai. 2017. ―trading on conservation: a marine protected area as an ecological fix.‖ marine policy 82: 25–31. sharma, s.c. 2006. ―background and scope of the goi–undp sea turtle project.‖ in marine turtles of the indian subcontinent, edited by kartik shanker and b.c. choudhury, 22–29. hyderabad: universities press. https://paige-west.com/2018/07/28/decolonizing-conservation/ https://paige-west.com/2018/07/28/decolonizing-conservation/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.105006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.09.014 https://youtu.be/mwcdmjv41ho https://archive.org/details/reportofthewesternghatsecologyexpertpanel/page/n129/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/reportofthewesternghatsecologyexpertpanel/page/n129/mode/2up https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2015.1014597 https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1696877 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102160 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 19–25, july 2020 commentary india’s energy strategy for inclusive sustainable development kirit s. parikh  1. introduction while energy is critical for economic growth, it is also a crucial factor in improving the quality of human development. energy does not comprise only electricity; it also includes fuels used for cooking and mobility. energy use has led to much environmental and ecological degradation: air pollution from the use of fossil fuels, land degradation due to coal mining, and deforestation resulting from hydro development. moreover, burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change. india aspires to be a global economic power that balances inclusive growth for human development and the challenges of pollution and climate change. in view of the covid-19 pandemic, the need for inclusive growth has become even stronger. india’s energy strategy has to help fulfil these aspirations. 1.1. the current energy scene in 2018, the indian economy consumed a total of 809 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) and 1,547 billion-kilowatt hour (bkwh) of electricity. that same year, in per capita terms, china’s consumption of electricity was nearly five times that of india. india imports all major fossil fuels. in 2019–20, 87% of crude oil (227 million tonnes [mt]) used in the country was imported. however, the net export of petroleum products was 22 mt (ppac n.d.[a]). thus, nearly 80%  integrated research and action for development (irade), c-80, shivalik, malviya nagar, new delhi 110017, india; kparikh@irade.org. copyright © parikh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.185 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.185 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] of the country’s consumption of petroleum products comes from imported crude oil. in the case of natural gas, india imported nearly 50% of its domestic requirement. while india’s domestic oil and gas resources are limited, it has an abundance of coal. still, nearly 24% of the country’s total coal consumption was imported. the 2006 report of the expert group set up by the planning commission on integrated energy policy (iep) notes that extractable coal reserves in india will be exhausted in 35–40 years if coal consumption keeps growing, and, in the long term, india will have to shift to renewable resources such as wind and solar energy (parikh et al. 2006). as a consequence, and as a part of the national action plan for climate change (napcc) to promote solar power, the jawaharlal nehru national solar mission was launched in january 2010 with the aim of generating 20,000 megawatt (mw) of solar capacity by 2022. the government recognized that subsidies for solar power generation in the form of assured feed-in tariffs (fit) would have to be provided during the initial stages. however, to incentivize efficiency and cost reduction, competitive reverse bidding for the required fit was initiated. as a result, the required fit came down from ₹13.5/kwh in 2010 to around ₹2.5/kwh in 2017, and it has further come down to ₹2.36/kwh in june 2020. 1.2. energy use and local environmental pollution our current energy use patterns cause a great deal of local environmental pollution. coal mines degrade the land and cause deforestation. fossil fuel use causes severe air pollution in our cities. all mines are required to restore the land that they have adversely affected. all firms that cause deforestation are also required to carry out compensatory afforestation and contribute to the compensatory afforestation management and planning agency (campa) fund. unfortunately, however, the funds remain largely unutilized. unless the government is serious about it, afforestation is not implemented effectively. therefore, a better strategy would be to prevent deforestation. 2. energy policies for low-carbon inclusive sustainable development in recent years, concerns regarding the growing dependence on imports, climate change, and severe air pollution in cities across india, as well as the falling costs of solar photovoltaics (pv), have led to changes in energy policies in india. [21] kirit s. parikh 2.1. reducing greenhouse gas emissions even before the paris cop1 in 2015, india had declared its intentions to reduce its emissions intensity by 30–35% by 2030 (compared to 2005), and to increase the share of non-fossil power generation in the total installed capacity to 40% by 2030. the planning commission set up an expert group, which i chaired, to examine the low-carbon strategy for inclusive growth (lcsig). the lcsig reports (parikh, chawla, and pande 2011; parikh et al. 2014) suggest various measures to reach these goals: promoting energy efficiency in households, industry, transport, and buildings; emphasizing solar and wind; and substituting imported fuels with locally sourced ones. subsequently, the government has stepped up its goal to installing 175 gw (gigawatt) of renewable energy capacity consisting of small hydro projects, biomass gasifiers, biomass power, urban and industrial waste power, and solar and wind energy by 2022. at the end of march 2020, the share of renewable energy capacity was around 23.5% of the total generating capacity of 370 gw (ministry of power 2020). the share of renewable resources in the energy mix in 2018– 19 was less than 8.5%, as renewable resources such as solar and wind do not generate electricity round the clock. nevertheless, the growth of renewable capacity indicates that india will reach its target of 175 gw perhaps a year or two after 2022. india is also pushing for importing nuclear power. unfortunately, the construction of nuclear plants takes a long time and is, therefore, expensive. private foreign investments in nuclear plants also face issues of liability. 2.2. measures for inclusive growth the goal of inclusive growth is considered non-negotiable by india’s policymakers and many in the civil society, and thus it demands the highest priority. for this, a projected 1 kwh of electricity per day per household, six liquified petroleum gas (lpg) cylinders per year per household, 100% access to electricity and clean water, pucca (durable) houses, education, and health services for all are to be made available by 2030. this has been the goal of both the present and previous governments. using their top-down– bottom-up model, which maximizes private consumption and provides all these benefits by increasing government expenditure and supplementing income transfer, parikh et al. (2013) have shown that inclusive growth does not have to sacrifice economic growth. 1 conference of parties signatory to the un framework convention on climate change proposed at the earth summit in rio de janeiro in 1992. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] the government of india launched the rajiv gandhi grameen vidyutikaran yojana (rggvy) in april 2005 to provide electricity to rural households. the goal was to electrify 1.10 lakh unelectrified or deelectrified villages and provide free electricity connections to 2.3 crore below poverty line (bpl) households. by april 2012, 1.05 lakh villages had been electrified and free connections had been given to 1.95 crore bpl households. the modi government stepped up the programme under the name of deendayal upadhyaya gram jyoti yojana to connect all households and provide stable electricity supply to all by 2019. while nearly 100% of households are now connected, the quality of supply needs to be improved. along with access to electricity, clean cooking fuels are equally important for well-being. the use of dung, firewood, and agricultural waste as cooking fuel causes severe indoor air pollution, which cause millions of premature deaths annually in india. smith (2000) estimated that approximately 0.4– 0.55 million deaths resulted due to this cause in the late 1990s. the iep emphasized the importance of clean cooking fuel in its 2006 report. in 2001, only 11% of households used lpg (6% rural; 17% urban); this increased to 29% in 2011 (12% rural; 66% urban). the iep recommended the provision of six lpg cylinders per household per year and a subsidy through smart cards as direct benefit transfer (dbt)—this is now the accepted mode as the modi government has increased the ease of dbt through the expansion of jam (jan dhan, aadhar, mobile) (government of india 2016). lpg customers increased from 137 million in 2011–12 to 257 million in 2017–18 (ppac 2018). this rise has increased the import of lpg from 5.8 mt in 2011–12 to 13.2 mt in 2018–19. 2.3. measures for increasing energy efficiency and security increasing energy efficiency means using less energy to produce the same output. energy intensity in the indian economy has experienced an annual improvement of almost 3.25% over 2011–12 to 2018–19 (mospi 2020 table 6.3) with a gdp growth of 5.27%, giving energy efficiency of about 2% per year. in the household sector, the substitution of 40 w incandescent light bulbs for light emitting diode (led) bulbs that provide the same amount of light with electricity consumption of only 7 w can save energy. as of 31 march 2020, the ministry of power’s national ujala dashboard reported that more than 36.2 crore led bulbs had been distributed to households in the country, with estimated savings of 47 billion kwh per year and emissions of 38 mtco2 per year (ministry of power n.d.). the appliance labelling programme, under which appliances are rated with one (least efficient) to [23] kirit s. parikh five stars (most efficient) depending on their energy efficiency, has the potential to reduce energy consumption by 13–40% by 2030 (parikh and parikh 2016). to promote energy efficiency, the bureau of energy efficiency (bee) was set up within the ministry of power in 2002 under the energy conservation act of 2001. the perform, achieve, and trade (pat) scheme sets targets for energy reduction in specific industrial units of energy-intensive industries. the energy conservation building code (ecbc), launched by the ministry of power in may 2007 to make commercial buildings energy efficient, has been made compulsory for the building sector in many states. parikh et al. (2014) have projected a reduction of 131 mt of co2 emissions in 2030, which comprises 10% of emissions from commercial buildings. these savings are in addition to savings from energy-efficient equipment. energy use in the transport sector can also be reduced if a large share of freight traffic is shifted to the railway sector. to move one tonne over one kilometre, a truck consumes five to seven times the diesel a train would. moreover, railways have been losing their freight share, as trucks provide secure, on-time, and door-to-door service. to encourage freight movement by train, two dedicated freight train corridors are under construction: one between mumbai and delhi, and the other between punjab and west bengal. four others are still in the planning stage. train corridors such as these can replace freight movement by road while significantly reducing energy consumption. even for coal-based power, the government of india has mandated that all new power plants should be supercritical, which means that they should generate steam at a higher temperature and pressure and use 10–15% less coal per kwh compared to subcritical plants. 2.4. measures to increase energy security efforts to increase the domestic production of oil and gas have not been very successful; our domestic production of crude oil has ranged between 32–35.9 mt over the last 20 years (ppac n.d.[b]). thus, the best option at hand is to substitute petroleum products with domestic energy sources such as biofuels and/or electricity. the main thrust of government policies is the electrification of railways and the promotion of electric vehicles. due to the cost of batteries, electric vehicles are more expensive today than conventional internal combustion vehicles. based on what they consider realistic rates of the penetration of electric vehicles, parikh et al. (2016) estimate that the consumption of petroleum products for road transport in 2030 will decrease only marginally. increasing fuel efficiency norms for ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] vehicles would yield a much larger reduction. of course, the greater use of public transport and non-motorized transport such as cycling and walking could have an even larger impact. 3. the way ahead most projections show that the substantial use of coal will continue. we can curb the growth of coal consumption with a significant reduction in the cost of solar power and batteries for storing electricity. thus, we should have a technological mission: to bring down the costs of solar pv and batteries by 50%. this will render coal power economically obsolete and keep our co2 emissions within the 1.5ºc global warming target (parikh, parikh, and ghosh 2018) without any loss of economic growth. if coal has to be used, then to curtail air pollution, we should insist on the installation of modern electrostatic precipitators to trap 2.5 micron particulates in all new plants as well as the retrofitting of old plants. coal plants should have flue-gas desulphurization (fgd) and selective catalytic reduction that can substantially eliminate sox and nox pollution. they do, however, cost more, but the additional cost would be most likely less than the cost of the health impact of air pollution. the covid lockdowns have shown that air quality can improve. the use of electric vehicles, public transport, cycling and walking, clean bharat standard-6 fuel as well as increased vehicle fuel efficiency and can cut down air pollution in cities. we can indeed have an energy future that is clean and sustainable. references government of india. 2016. ―spreading jam across india’s economy.‖ in economic survey 2015–16, edited by arvind subramanian, 50–67. new delhi: government of india. ministry of power. 2020. ―national ujala dashboard.‖ accessed on march 31, 2020. http://www.ujala.gov.in/. mospi. 2020. energy statistics 2020. new delhi: ministry of statistics and programme implementation, government of india. http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/es_2020_24042 0m.pdf. parikh, jyoti k., probal ghosh, vinay saini, and rajat puri. 2016. ―modelling studies on greenhouse gas emissions and emissions intensity of indian economy.‖ national conference on “post paris climate action”. irade: new delhi. http://www.ujala.gov.in/ http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/es_2020_240420m.pdf http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/es_2020_240420m.pdf [25] kirit s. parikh parikh kirit s., arunish chawla, chandrajit banerjee, anshu bharadwaj, indrani chandrasekhran, rita roy choudhury, nitin desai, jamshyd n. godrej, pavan goenka, jagdish kishwan, s.s. krishnan, ajay mathur, et al. 2014. ―the final report of the expert group on low carbon strategies for inclusive growth.‖ new delhi: planning commission, government of india. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/low%20carbon%20final%20r eport.pdf. parikh, kirit s., arunish chawla, and varad pande. 2011. ―interim report of the expert group on low carbon strategies for inclusive growth.‖ new delhi: planning commission, government of india. https://www.reeep.org/sites/default/files/interim%20report%20of%20the%20e xpert%20group%20on%20low%20carbon%20strategies%20for%20inclusive%2 0growth.pdf. parikh, kirit s. and jyoti k. parikh. 2016. ―realizing potential savings of energy and emissions from efficient household appliances in india.‖ energy policy 97 (october): 102–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2016.07.005. parikh, kirit s., jyoti k. parikh, and probal p. ghosh. 2018. ―can india grow and live within a 1.5 degree co2 emissions budget?‖ energy policy 120 (september): 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.014. parikh, kirit s., jyoti k. parikh, probal p. ghosh, and gayatri khedkar. 2013. ―low carbon development pathways for a sustainable india.‖ new delhi: irade and wwf. parikh, kirit s., surya p. sethi, j.l. bajaj, pradeep chaturvedi, rangan banerjee, prodipto ghosh, h.c. gupta, anil kakodkar, ajit kapadia, amit mitra, et al. 2006. ―integrated energy policy: report of the expert committee.‖ new delhi: planning commission, government of india. petroleum planning & analysis cell (ppac). 2018. ―lpg profile (data on lpg marketing) as on 01.01.2018.‖ new delhi: ministry of petroleum and natural gas. http://www.ppac.org.in/writereaddata/reports/201802221141024777342lpg0 1jan2018.pdf. ppac. n.d.(a). ―import/export.‖ last modified may 25, 2020. https://www.ppac.gov.in/content/212_1_importexport.aspx. ppac. n.d.(b). ―production.‖ last modified may 25, 2020. https://www.ppac.gov.in/content/146_1_productionpetroleum.aspx. smith, kirk r. 2000. ―national burden of disease in india from indoor air pollution.‖ proceedings of the national academy of sciences 97 (24): 13286–13293. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.24.13286. 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https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.97.24.13286 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 113-120, july 2023 commentary emancipatory political ecology pedagogy in and out of the classroom simon batterbury* and denisse rodríguez abstract: in this brief commentary, we reflect on two aspects of contemporary political ecology scholarship: the first is a reflexive assessment of socio-political relational positionalities as a necessary condition, not only to challenge but also to act upon socio-ecological injustices. second, we examine the effective delivery of cross-cultural pedagogies of care that inform the development of self-reliant political ecology (pe) scholars and/or activists within the constraints of neoliberal education. we argue that both issues are relevant to position pe as an emancipatory pedagogy and praxis in a decolonizing world. 1. introduction as this special issue of ecology, economy and society notes, political ecology (pe) has sustained interest from students and critical scholars as a framework to interrogate intersecting injustices resulting from unequal access to resources, that is, the “relationships between environmental change and political, economic, and social processes” (meek and llorobidart 2017, 213). political ecology today has a much broader geographical and linguistic spread than in previous decades; it circles the globe— including south asia and latin america—and intermingles with other progressive frameworks and scholarly approaches that were not envisaged 30 years ago. it is an interdisciplinary field by nature, with roots in marxism and critical thinking in the social sciences. despite this, it does not ignore environmental processes. it tackles the injustices and power inequalities that lead to ecological and social inequities, along with challenging * associate professor, sgeas and melbourne climate futures, university of melbourne, australia. simonpjb@unimelb.edu.au  lecturer in development studies, ssps, university of melbourne, australia. denisse.rodriguezquinonez@unim elb.edu.au copyright © batterbury & rodríguez 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1011 mailto:simonpjb@unimelb.edu.au mailto:denisse.rodriguezquinonez@unim%20elb.edu.au https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1011 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] ‘apolitical’ explanations. political ecology has explanatory power, some of which is harnessed by social movements, critics of capitalism, and grassroots organizations. speaking “truth to power” and exposing injustice does not always receive a warm reception in more mainstream scholarly and policy environments. another challenge—especially in the search for adequate pedagogies—is that pe is difficult to pin down in terms of methodology. political ecology entails critical praxis, but there is no standardized way of “doing political ecology” (batterbury 2015). in this commentary, we discuss two issues that inspire us to think of the future of political ecology in a decolonizing world as a form of emancipatory pedagogy and praxis. we explore the relational positionalities emerging from practising political ecology, and the frictions unfolding from including political ecology pedagogies as decolonial praxis in a curriculum determined by the neoliberal university. we also discuss the affective labour of pedagogies of care that are capable of supporting students in this process. we conclude by highlighting how these pe pedagogies contribute to blurring the separation between teaching, research, and action through service or engagement, activism, advocacy, etc, as increasingly promoted by academic institutions or desired by scholars and students. we write as authors with different positionalities. both of us are based at the university of melbourne in australia. simon batterbury experienced the excitement of thinking with pe to understand the multi-scalar driving forces of land degradation in the tropics, as a british graduate student in a radical phd programme in the usa in the 1980s. he then conducted “classic” political ecology working with mossi farmers and a western development project in burkina faso, and later worked in niger, timorleste, and new caledonia-kanaky (batterbury 2018). he has been fortunate enough to have edited the journal of political ecology for 20 years. denisse rodríguez, an afro-ecuadorian early career researcher and political ecologist interested in post-extractive futures, is committed in her pedagogical role to decolonial approaches to teaching, in order to overcome the cognitive injustices reproduced by western and westernized neoliberaluniversities (grosfoguel 2013; santos 2008, 2018). 2. synthesizing political ecology of the north and south in emancipatory pedagogies rodríguez’s experience of learning and then teaching pe in two australian universities contrasts greatly with her initial experience studying pe at [115] batterbury & rodríguez instituto de estudios ecologistas del tercer mundo1 and assisting in the early stages of planning a new masters in political ecology and alternatives to development2 at universidad andina simón bolívar in ecuador. at the risk of generalizing, in western education institutions, it is common for pe to sensitize students to the struggles and inequalities experienced in the global south by exposing the prevailing power asymmetries that determine unequal access to resources, but the pe “from the south” is rather different, with an innate emancipatory purpose (leff 2015). it offers grounds for local people afflicted or potentially affected by socio-ecological conflicts to diagnose their issues and to mobilize and resist processes of dispossession, their marginalization from the governance of resources, and neglect of ontological differences (escobar 2016; meek 2020). so, the focus, frameworks, and methodologies diverge, but the pedagogical objectives in both regions challenge students, scholars, and activists to reflect upon and assess their socio-political positionalities and ontologies, which will determine how they interpret and engage with the conflicts and issues identified. this leads us to recognize the potential of pe as emancipatory pedagogy and praxis because a commitment to doing pe as a teacher, student, or practitioner entails an awareness of the relational positionalities developed in the process of studying, researching, and/or acting politically on socioecological injustices (crossa 2012). this was largely missing in the early political ecology taught three decades ago in western universities, where the focus was much more on scholarly analysis of complex problems, which was not guided by decolonial thinking. political ecology—viewed as emancipatory pedagogy and praxis—also entails a transformation of the role of the pedagogue, who, instead of instructing, encourages critical thought and self-reliance—letting students run free, through a pedagogy of care in and out of the classroom. she or he “would seek a less rigid, less hierarchical, more convivial, and more embodied teaching style” (dunlap et al. 2023, 11). the pedagogue also adopts an active role in subverting the geopolitics of knowledge (lander 2000; walsh 2010) by introducing students to diverse epistemologies, ontologies, and knowledge-holders. the main constraint to this pedagogical challenge, however, is that it conflicts with the priorities of neoliberal 1 an institute where ecological thought and praxis are developed by and for epistemologies of the south (santos 2016) with a greater focus on supporting socio-ecological resistance movements and their defense of nature and territories, according to their stated mission and actions over the years (see https://www.estudiosecologistas.org/). 2 the masters programme is currently running (see https://www.uasb.edu.ec/programa/ecologia-politica-y-alternativas-al-desarrollo/). https://www.estudiosecologistas.org/quienes-somos/ https://www.uasb.edu.ec/programa/ecologia-politica-y-alternativas-al-desarrollo/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] universities and sometimes with the precarity of their academic staff (pascoe et al. 2020). there is normally little incentive to guide students towards assuming a role in socio-ecological change themselves. on the one hand, universities “focus on immediately inserting into the labour market graduates who conform with the system, instead of aiming at transforming it” (rodríguez 2022, 116). on the other, there is an inherent prioritization of knowledge that discourages an engagement with diverse knowledge systems that challenge “incontestable” notions of progress and development (hall and tandon 2017). this is despite being at the expense of plundering resources and territories, and further marginalizing certain communities and their lifeways (rodríguez 2018). in consequence, a commitment to these pe pedagogies becomes a sort of unrecognized affective labour—as we will discuss in the following section—and shows a responsibility to decolonize education at the margins, subverting the marketization of graduates as individuals and the knowledge learned in a university environment. 3. pedagogies of care in and for a decolonizing world the divergent epistemologies and commitments behind pe pedagogy in western institutions and pe in the global south cannot easily be reconciled. nevertheless, we have proposed “pedagogies of care” as a potential bridge between them. one approach to a general pedagogy of care is to treat the university classroom as a garden, but not as an assiduously curated and managed one. political ecology students are nourished and encouraged to experiment, grow, and develop their symbiotic relationships based on mutual investigation and support. as a thought experiment, seeing a field of study like pe as a garden means helping its components to flourish interdependently. there are teams of gardeners for sure, diverse and with different positionalities, backgrounds, and experiences (mintz 2018). the “gardener”—the political ecologist or pedagogue—gains some satisfaction from the material and aesthetic qualities of a garden, but there is a commitment to see that the class of students continues to grow, evolve, and form its own networks. in parallel, the more common “seeding” metaphor in pe (robbins 2019; pitts et al 2022) has been used to refer to nourishing and supporting social movements and activism rather than pedagogical inquiry itself. to follow the analogy, we hope that “seeds” are cast well beyond the garden. pitts et al. (2021), reporting on their participation in a political ecology class at the university of alabama, say that “seed-work...can reveal pathways towards environmental justice and the dismantling of forms of structural oppression” (303), and they used their class to “imagine ways to create new spaces of resistance” (304). [117] batterbury & rodríguez the opposite of this approach to teaching is to preach, instruct, or fill students with knowledge in classic western university mode—about the evils of capitalism, transnational corporations, mining pollution, and so on (freire 2000). while an interrogative “hatchet” (robbins 2019) should be part of our teaching, to explore these processes, using it for ideological control should not (mintz, 2018). political ecologists need to deliberate, explore, and help create better-decolonized worlds and environments. this normative commitment is a critical challenge for our century as we engage with planetary crises in post-pandemic times. more concretely, while the components, sequences, and foci of our syllabi might diverge when presenting an overview of pe themes or narratives in class (robbins 2019), our main aim as “gardeners” is to encourage students to choose their own topic of interest and then explore it in greater depth through a research-based task. from our experience, open pe assignments like this balance “thinking” with engagement, as long as the pedagogical approach benefits from enough time and commitment on the part of the “gardener”. as a result, students are nurtured through the learning they obtain from independent study, but then they scatter, propagating new plants or forests autonomously or in collaboration with others. students from the global north and south leave the class and develop their own projects and ideas with better—but of course never complete—knowledge of the world they are stepping into, as evidenced in batterbury’s list of research students going back to the 1990s. they illustrate diverse pathways into activism, advocacy, further study, and professional success.3 4. conclusion political ecologists working in universities and colleges adopt a multifaceted role, commonly constrained by the neoliberal politics of education that prioritizes their personal research programmes over teaching and engagement activities. therefore, they partition their professional lives, setting clear boundaries between them, and in western universities, even belittling successes in activities other than research while measuring teaching by evaluation scoring, class numbers, and (in some systems) fee incomes. however, a commitment to doing political ecology in and out of academic institutions entails resisting these corporate practices (dunlap et al 2023). inevitably, politics is enacted through pedagogies (meek and llorobidart 2017), and for pe scholars, it is fundamental to teach, engage, stay agile, and resist. 3 see batterbury’s list of postgraduate and honours students supervised here; https://www.simonbatterbury.net/simonbatterburystudents.pdf https://www.simonbatterbury.net/simonbatterburystudents.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] our loose adoption of a gardening metaphor describes some ways in which teaching in pe may be envisaged, but there is of course more to do in order to defend against destructive resource governance and attacks on sustainable livelihoods and diverse lifeways. pe itself is a movement. it is lived and breathed. as one of us argued that we “...need to be participating in policy processes; keeping up our teaching; sharpening our media skills, and reaching out rather than inward. an affirmative political ecology requires agile activism; ethical scholarship; and partnership. not just ‘telling it and thinking it’, but also ‘speaking it and breathing it’.”4 (batterbury 2018, 127). ethics statement: this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references batterbury, simon. 2015. “doing political ecology inside and outside the academy.” in the international handbook of political ecology, edited by r bryant, 27– 43. edward elgar publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9780857936172.00010 batterbury, simon. 2018. “affirmative and engaged political ecology: practical applications and participatory development actions.” nordia geographical publications 47 (5): 111–131. crossa, veronica. 2012.“relational positionality: conceptualizing research, power, and the everyday politics of neoliberalization in mexico city”. acme: an international e-journal for critical geographies, 11 (1): 110–132. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084663-9 alexander, alejandro ruelas, lisa hammelbo, and søyland, eds. 2023. “editorial introduction: can the university be socio-ecologically sustainable?” in debates in post-development and degrowth: volume 2, 4–24. tvergastein. https://www.tvergastein.com/special-publications. escobar, arturo. 2016. “thinking-feeling with the earth: territorial struggles and the ontological dimension of the epistemologies of the south”. aibr, revista de antropología iberoamericana, 11 (1): 110–32. https://aries.aibr.org/storage/antropologia/netesp/numeros/1101/110102e. escobar, arturo, carlos frederico marés de souza filho, joão arriscado nunes, joão paulo borges coelho, laymert garcia dos santos, lino joão de oliveira 4 reference is to the words of an early bob dylan song: “and i’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it” – bob dylan – “a hard rain’s a gonna fall” (1962, issued 1963). https://doi.org/10.4337/9780857936172.00010 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084663-9 https://www.tvergastein.com/special-publications https://aries.aibr.org/storage/antropologia/netesp/numeros/1101/110102e [119] batterbury & rodríguez neves, luis carlos arenas, margarita flórez alonso, maria paula meneses, and mauricio pardo. 2020. another knowledge is possible: beyond northern epistemologies. verso books. freire, paulo. 2000. pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. new york: continuum. grosfoguel, ramón. “the structure of knowledge in westernised universities: epistemic 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a political ecology of education.” the journal of environmental education 48 (4): 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1340054. mintz, avi i. 2018. “the present, past, and future of the gardening metaphor in education.” oxford review of education 44(4): 414–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2017.1419948. pascoe, sophie, anna sanders, andrea rawluk, paula satizábal, and tessa toumbourou. 2020. “intervention – ‘holding space for alternative futures in academia and beyond.’” antipode online (blog). april 22, 2020. https://antipodeonline.org/2020/04/22/holding-space-for-alternative-futures-inacademia-and-beyond/ pitts, aoife k, trost, benjamin, trost, nathaniel, hand, ben, margulies, jared k. 2022. “learning with the seed bomb: on a classroom encounter with abolition ecology.” journal of political ecology 29 (1): 302–308. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.4715. robbins, paul. 2019. political ecology: a critical introduction. john wiley & sons. rodríguez, denisse. 2018. “neoextractivism in hydrosocial territories: the case of the páramo of kimsakocha, ecuador.” phd thesis, university of melbourne. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/220743. ———. 2022. “transdisciplinarity and epistemic communities: knowledge decolonisation through university extension programmes”. geographical research, 60 (1): 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12524. https://doi.org/10.18546/rfa.01.1.02 https://doi.org/10.22201/cela.24484946e.1999.12-13.52369 https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1340054 https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2017.1419948 https://antipodeonline.org/2020/04/22/holding-space-for-alternative-futures-in-academia-and-beyond/ https://antipodeonline.org/2020/04/22/holding-space-for-alternative-futures-in-academia-and-beyond/ https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.4715 http://hdl.handle.net/11343/220743 https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12524 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] sousa santos, boaventura de. 2015. epistemologies of the south: justice against epistemicide. routledge. ———. 2018. the end of the cognitive empire: the coming of age of epistemologies of the south. duke university press. walsh, catherine. 2010. “shifting the geopolitics of critical knowledge: decolonial thought and cultural studies ‘others’ in the andes.” in globalization and the decolonial option, edited by w mignolo and a escobar, 78–93. routledge. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 109–111, april 2018 book review radhika krishnan  jairam ramesh. 2017. indira gandhi: a life in nature. new delhi: simon & schuster; isbn: 978-81-93355-24-4 jairam ramesh, economist and member of parliament, has attempted to ‘paint a fresh portrait’ of indira gandhi. in penning a life in nature, ramesh seeks to uncover the naturalist in the politician and, more ambitiously, to trace an entire country’s tense tryst with ecological conservation through the lens of indira gandhi’s life and experiences. ramesh tells us, for instance, of a child slowly cultivating an interest in and a deep knowledge of insects, birds, and trees. he speaks of emerging social and political networks in independent india, as the young mrs. gandhi is introduced to familiar (and perhaps iconic) names in the country’s conservation history. in this rendering, the teen murti house in delhi is portrayed as a site where relationships were forged—between gandhi and her family and those who were to become her trusted aides—as she grappled with complex questions of development and the concomitant ecological repercussions. a crucial and fascinating part of a life in nature is ramesh’s account of the tumultuous 1970s and the early 1980s. embedded within ramesh’s narrative are telling snippets collected from unpublished letters, memos,  assistant professor, humanities, iiit gachibowli, hyderabad, telangana 500032, radhika.krishnan@iiit.ac.in copyright © krishnan 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.25 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.25 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] notes put on official files, and recordings of meetings. this, in fact, is a ringside view of multilayered deliberations and political calculations that often took place behind the scenes. in the process, we revisit some of the crucial milestones in india’s chequered ecological history. the massive sardar sarovar hydel project, the beleaguered and embattled refinery project in mathura, the iron ore mining project in kudremukh, and the silent valley dam in kerala, for instance, are posed to us as dilemmas confronting an individual with the unenviable task of balancing multiple regional, political, and economic interests. we see concerns for employment, infrastructure, and food security being deployed against ecological impacts—even as stubborn bureaucrats and political stakeholders are cajoled, threatened, and placated to set up policies and institutions to address ecological conservation. reading into the past is arguably fraught with tensions. how, indeed, does one access, recover, and (re)discover meanings and intent in actions and words long gone by? to begin with, the predilection to undermine crucial context has to be circumvented. as one sets out to examine events and responses in the past, using the handy lens of contemporary ideological discourse is hardly free from considerable risks. to complicate matters even further, multiple interpretations abound, as one tries to enter into the world of well-known political figures. ramesh does grapple with these methodological questions, as he delineates the pressing concerns of the 1960s and 1970s: the crippling food crisis and the deteriorating economic conditions, the somewhat frustrating back-and-forth between various states and the indian government on several matters, and the near-absence of institutional structures for addressing ecological concerns. indira gandhi’s multiple interventions are placed in precisely this context, as ramesh simultaneously traces the painstaking building of some of our best known environmental institutions and policy frameworks. at a time when the project of institution-building is often seen as passé, we are reminded of what its non-existence can result in. this apart, the question for us is: does ramesh help us to understand the dynamics between nature and power in independent india? as he admirably sifts through hitherto unknown and unaccessed sources, does he provide us with fresh insight into how trade-offs between ecology and equity are manoeuvred within the overarching paradigms of political power and economic ideologies? ramesh succeeds in convincing us that for indira gandhi the conflict was between conservation and ‘reckless’ exploitation and not necessarily between ‘progress’ and ecological values. one is nevertheless left a trifle disappointed with his treatment of the broader questions. a life in nature could have benefitted from a nuanced analysis of how gandhi dealt (if at all) with societal fractures around caste, ethnicity, [111] radhika krishnan and gender—and the implications thereof for the environmental question in india. given that adivasi and other identity-based movements were fast gaining ground in india during this period, this absence indeed seems curious. one hoped in vain, moreover, for a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes political manoeuvring that might have accompanied the green revolution, and the somewhat ignominious sidelining of r.h. richharia and his concerns, which surely had the potential of furthering our understanding of the fraught interplay between power, institutional autonomy, and transnational interests. in recounting (at great length) gandhi’s well-known speech at the first un conference on the human environment at stockholm in 1972, ramesh reminds us of her legacy in shaping our environmental policy vis-à-vis the global north. however, beyond referencing allegations of the association of the us central intelligence agency (cia) with a certain government-supported conservation programme, the book largely refrains from addressing a crucial debate over possibly unsavoury international influences in environmental governance and policymaking. again, ramesh leaves us no more illuminated on what a shift in indira gandhi’s later years from a socialist rhetoric to a probusiness attitude meant for the country’s ecological history. in this, one senses a missed opportunity for analysing the possible ecological ramifications of shifts in economic policy. that being said, ramesh’s account reveals the vexed processes of balancing diverging interests and the need for building enduring institutions for environmental conservation, and is an eminently readable one for those interested in india’s ecological history. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 253-260, july 2023 insights from the field bringing and being a ‘kaim-bride’: a note on marriage and migration in assam chars sampurna das* 1. introduction “i wanted a bride from the kaim [inland area] and got one. there are benefits of having a kaim-bride—unlike local women, they are healthy—not anaemic—and educated,” said zahidul. zahidul is the son of the char headman (locally called matbor) and my host. chars are low-lying river sandbars peculiar to the ganga-brahmaputra-meghna basin in eastern india (states of assam and west bengal) and bangladesh. they are formations made of silt sediments, which accumulate and disintegrate every year, subjecting their inhabitants to a repetitious cycle of losing and gaining land. in assam, chars cover around 5% of the total area of the state, housing 10% of the total population of assam, and are spread across 14 districts, 59 development blocks, and 2,251 villages (goa 2004). assam chars are home to the miya or the “bengali muslim”1 ethnic minority. kaims are the inland areas that are away from the river. kaim-brides, therefore, refer to women born and raised in the inland areas and married into chars. in the osthir char (name changed on request of my participants) of western assam’s barpeta region—where i was based in 2019–2021 for 15 months during my doctoral fieldwork—one-fourth of the women are kaim-brides originating from neighbouring rural areas. this note adds to the wider literature analysing the phenomenon of cross-regional marriage migration in * phd candidate. department of sociology. delhi school of economics, university of delhi. sampurnasoc@gmail.com copyright © das 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1035 1 from here onwards, i shall refer to the community as miya. while “bengali muslims” is the official nomenclature of the community, it is critically received, as the nomenclature has colonial and racial roots. moreover, this label flattens out the rich history of the miya community in assam (dutta, azad, and hussain 2021). mailto:sampurnasoc@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1035 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [254] india (kaur 2004; palriwala and uberoi 2008; blanchet, 2008; mazumdar et al 2013; ibrahim 2018) to highlight that kaim–char marriage is a unique crossregional marriage mediated by norms of social status, conjugality, and gender relations in a uniquely uncertain riverine ecology. in this note, i will examine the structure and process of kaim–char marriages: why do men bring brides from the kaim? why does a kaim-bride migrate to the char? is it only men of particular class groups and economic status who partake in this practice? what kinds of marriage payments and economy are associated with such marriages? how are migrant women received in char society and households? given the ecological and cultural differences between the natal kaim and marital char home, what kinds of negotiation and agency are shown by these women? to explore these concerns, i draw upon my interviews with the kaim-brides, the husbands and their families, the parents of the kaim-brides, and local women, who i thought may be able to reflect on the kaim–char marriages in osthir char. in the course of my research, i also surveyed landed men to get an estimate of the frequency of marrying kaim-brides. 2. bringing a kaim-bride as a social status enhancer the landed households in osthir char, which account for less than 20% of the entire char population, can marry a kaim-bride. these households control around 70% of the land in the char. the households of the matbor and his kin are included. although not every landed family has a kaim-bride, all aspire to this end. my genealogical analysis suggests that the generational frequency of kaimbrides is on the rise. interviews with the husbands of kaim-brides revealed that their preference for kaim-brides is linked to the growing awareness and adoption of family planning measures, following the launch of the asha (or accredited social health activist) programme in the char in 2010. initiated by the national rural health mission, the asha programme brought a new idea of prosperity to the chars—of having fewer children, since the dense population of the chars is widely stigmatised. thus, for the landed men, having fewer children became a sign of higher social status. this became what distinguished them from non-landed poorer families in the chars, who need more children as extra hands to cope with cyclical erosion and accretion. as per local beliefs, the way to have lesser children is to have a kaim-bride. zahidul reasoned that the local women are anaemic and bear weak children. as a result, more children are needed as replacements for children who are sick or may die. on the contrary, kaim-brides are known to be healthier, beget healthier offspring with higher survival chances, and, consequently, need to [255] das have fewer children. the “child survival hypothesis” makes kaim-brides preferable. secondly, it is easier for educated women to adopt family planning practices, hence increasing the demand for kaim-brides, who also tend to be educated. i was told by zahidul that community workers talk to the women about various contraceptive measures, but because most char women are illiterate, they are not able to understand and subsequently practise family planning measures. thus, for family planning, an educated wife is required, which is more likely if they belong to the kaim. in this manner, the burden of family planning is conveniently placed on women. zahidul further explained that local women remain uneducated as because of the flood and erosion, the only primary school in the char remains closed for months during and after floods…this disrupts the education of children in the char, especially girls because the boys may be sent to the kaim for education, which is unheard of for girls, and thereby most local women in chars remain illiterate. 3. being a kaim-bride and the marriage economy i was informed by akila, zahidul’s wife, that poverty and bride-price are the primary reasons kaim-brides marry into the char. kaim-brides belong to poorer miya families from the inland and only agree to marry into chars for better economic prospects. more often than not, kaim-brides are unable to compete in the local marriage market due to their economic status and are forced to look towards the char. their natal families make sure that an alliance is fixed with landed families, as life in a char is physically laborious and characterized by the constant shifting of homesteads driven by erosion and accretion—they do not want their daughters to perform hard labour without any economic benefits. the practical hardships of living in an uncertain char ecology underline that only men who have an established economic base in the region can take a kaim-bride. the element of bride-price (locally known as mahr) further characterizes the economics behind the kaim–char marriage. bride-price refers to the payment made by the groom’s family to the bride’s family in the form of money, livestock, or other valuables. as opposed to the system of dowry—a common form of marriage payment in assam, and india at large—the miya community of assam practices bride-price. miller (1981) and agrawal (2014) emphasize that bride-price is prevalent only among marginalized communities, particularly low-ranking castes and tribal groups in india. over the years, the bride-price for kaim-brides has risen. akila said that zahidul had to pay a hefty sum to fix their alliance. zahidul confirmed “the expensiveness” of his wife by narrating that the bride-price of 1,00,000 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [256] rupees was double what he had estimated. akila further explained the lucrativeness of a char alliance by enumerating the cost of a local wedding: if my father were to fix an alliance for me within the kaim, it would have resulted in a significant loss of the family’s resources, as the alliance would have been from a poorer family like us, and we would not get a high brideprice. the kaim-char alliance is an optimum situation for poor kaim families like akila’s. juxtaposing her marriage to her sisters, who were married in kaim, akila highlighted that while her sisters constantly need economic support from the natal family, she does not. furthermore, since akila has been married into a prosperous household, she is expected to support her natal house, into the future, be it in the form of money, food, or other valuable commodities. 4. local brides, kaim-brides, and the insider– outsider conundrum the local brides—those born and brought up in the chars—regard kaimbrides as frail outsider women. the ones i talked to told me that the kaimbrides are weak and unable to swiftly pack and unpack household items during floods and erosion and prefer to “run away” to their natal kaim family in these situations. it is important to note how the idea of health emerges across this region—local men see kaim-brides as healthy, while the local women see them as frail. health is a subjective experience, as castro (1995) points out, based on specific patterns of interaction between individuals. my conversations with local brides further revealed that the kaim-brides were not inclined to learn the culture and history of the osthir char and did not try to understand the shifting nature—rhythms of erosion and accretion—of the char landscape. for them, like the “outsider” people of the kaim, the kaimbrides see the char as a dangerous and uninhabitable place and wish to leave as soon as there is flood or erosion. however, the kaim-brides do not remain outsiders. there is a steady change in social status, which is brought about by pregnancy and motherhood, particularly if a kaim-bride bears a son. motherhood transforms a kaim-bride from an outsider to a relative insider. childbirth and motherhood are seen as rites of passage for the kaim-bride. this is true for most cultures, especially in south asia, where motherhood is highly idealized and gives women identifiable social status (lewis 1958; mandelbaum 1970; kakar 1981; dube 1997). in january 2021, akila was in the second trimester of her pregnancy. i observed how her neighbours, who were local brides, had become solicitous [257] das of her welfare, introducing her to midwives and soothsayers. gestures of acceptance and affection towards akila suddenly increased markedly. the growing feeling of acceptance was also reinforced by social customs. as a pregnant kaim-bride, akila was to continue staying in her in-law’s home unlike local brides, who may go to their natal home. this is believed to help the kaim-bride strengthen her and her child’s relationship with the char—a prerequisite for akila to be considered a relative insider. the roots of this relative insider status bestowed on the pregnant kaim-bride lie in a social and cultural belief that equates “woman” with “mother” and suggests that by giving birth to a child of the local man, “the kaim-ness in the kaim-bride dissolves” (“kaim bepar gulo ghula jai”). for the kaim-bride, motherhood is an event through which the char culture confirms her status as a renewer of the family line and grants her respect and consideration, which were not given to her as a mere wife. nonetheless, the improvement in social status is only partial. the kaim-bride is often reminded of her outsider position from time to time. in akila’s case, her request to see a gynaecologist during an episode of abdomen pain was not considered favourably. the local midwife, who was handling the situation, disappointedly remarked that such requests are never made by local women and are one of the reasons why kaim-brides can never fully become char women. 5. negotiation and agency within the kaim–char marriage another consequence of pregnancy is a change in the kaim-bride’s agency. i observed that kaim-brides who were mothers exerted power, which was not an option available to them before childbirth. using their newfound acceptance, these mother kaim-brides often rise to leadership positions in women’s cooperative societies. in all the 12 state-run women’s cooperative societies in osthir char, the secretaries and cashiers were kaim-brides. akila, a secretary herself, explained that as someone who was raised in the kaim and had attained secondary education, she was far more capable of undertaking organizational and planning tasks for official institutions such as the cooperative society than a char woman. akila underlined how, as a leader of a women’s cooperative, she plans the process of resurrecting homesteads affected by erosion. the kaim-brides re-signify these position with characteristics that can only be fulfilled by someone from a kaim. further, by agreeing to stay back in the kaim during pregnancy, the kaimbrides engage in personal discussions with their husband. although a charbased pregnancy is meant to teach them the ways of char life, kaim-brides use it to spend more time with their husbands, conversing with them and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [258] conveying their wants and needs to them. for instance, akila was able to talk to zahidul about seeing doctors rather than a midwife and saving money for their child’s higher education in the kaim. in a way, the kaim-brides, envision and negotiate an autonomous present and future for themselves in the char. the kaim-brides thus engage in non-ideal gender behaviours—they take charge of work, that too outside the domestic domain, and lay the groundwork to voice their concerns to their husbands, which proves invaluable in making a living in the char. further, akila emphasized that their agency is framed by the networks they forge using mothering roles, with help from senior kaim-bride mothers who pioneered this route. anchored in these networks, kaim-brides had social capital to imagine alternatives beyond surrendering to the ideals of a docile char woman. akila narrated how husbands are the main support system for the kaim-brides, as they “allow” them to invest time in organizing the cooperative society and “help” in childcare when they are visiting the kaim for the district-level meetings of women’s cooperatives. the kaim-brides’ commitment to asserting leadership illustrates that reasoning is a fundamental component of their personhood, embodied in the articulation of their distinctive “social capital” (bourdieu 1986). in doing so, the kaimbrides enhance the social capital of the husbands and their families, making them desirable to other local men. 6. conclusion this note examines the social situation of the brides who have migrated to the char from the rural inland areas of assam. it concludes that the reasons driving kaim–char marriages circle around poverty, lucrative marriage payments, and a quest for social status. the health and education status of the kaim-brides makes them objects of social capital, which can be accessed through the payment of a bride-price. the landed men have economic capital via land control, but they feel that they lack social capital. there is a contradiction between economic wealth and social status in the chars, and access to kaim-brides is an indicator of social status. by marrying kaim-brides, these men transform their economic capital into social capital and strengthen their social status. as for the kaimbrides, they agree to marry into a char only when the alliance is with a landed family which thereby ensures a strong economic status. a kaim-bride never agrees to take a peasant man from the char, who has little or no land control. this also signals the concerns of the natal families of the kaim-brides regarding conditions of ecological vulnerability and the possibility of the woman experiencing a suffering peculiar to the char landscape, which [259] das threatens reproduction and livelihoods on the char. in other words, kaim– char marriages signify an exchange of economic capital for social capital. further, despite facing difficulties in adjusting to floods, erosion, and conjugal and gendered norms, the kaim-brides are gradually incorporated into the marital household and char when they become mothers. the kaimbrides reconstruct their gendered selves by articulating their kaim subjectivities, improving communication with their husbands and building fruitful marriages, as well as building networks with other kaim-brides and developing strategies for living in the char. we also see that being a kaimbride complicates the construction and practise of marital, conjugal, and gender relations in the char. as shown in the note, much of the explanation of the structure and processes behind kaim–char marriages lies in understanding the complex social relations organising the life of the people in the char and their relation to the ever-shifting char ecology. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research is available in a repository and the hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. doi or accession number) are stated in the paper. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references agrawal, anuja. 2014. “situating marriage payments: bride-price and dowry among the bedias of north india.” contributions to indian sociology 48 (2): 223–247. 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"migration and gender in india." economic and political weekly 48 (10): 54-64. miller, barbara d. 1981. the endangered sex: neglect of female children in rural north india. ithaca: cornell university press. palriwala, rajni, and patricia uberoi. 2008. “exploring the links: gender issues in marriage and migration.” in marriage, migration and gender, edited by rajni palriwala and patricia uberoi, pp. 23–60. new delhi: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132100324.n1 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12545 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x16000810 https://doi.org/10.4135/9788132100324.n1 ecology, economy, and society–the insee journal 6(2): 237-252, july 2023 research paper political ecology of urban agricultural pollution: cultivating the yamuna floodplains in delhi rajat kumar* abstract: the yamuna khadar or the floodplains of the river yamuna in delhi is a deeply contested agrarian space. while thousands have been involved in farming these floodplains for decades, contestations over their legality, compensation, land use, displacement, and impact on the river, soil, and city have been significant public concerns over the last few decades. in this paper, i focus on one aspect of this agrarian landscape—the toxicity associated with river water due to the pesticides and fertilizers used in agriculture. i examine how toxicity is perceived, discursively constructed, and dealt with by differently located stakeholders in this landscape. the differently located stakeholders associated with the toxic agrarian landscape of yamuna khadar are not experiencing pollution as a homogenous community, i.e., neither all of them see themselves as suffering from pollution nor do they see themselves as contributing to the toxicity of the landscape in a similar way. keywords: toxicity, commercial agriculture, floodplain, uncertainty, lay epidemiology, urban ecologies. 1. introduction yamuna khadar or the floodplains of the river yamuna in delhi, a 22 km stretch passing through the city, has historically been cultivated by the agrarian castes residing in the villages along the river. with rapid urbanization, the site has undergone deagrarianization, i.e., close to 2000 hectares of agrarian land around the river has been acquired over the last 60 years for projects like roads, flyovers, metro rails, urban parks, temples, commonwealth games villages, compensatory afforestation drives, and biodiversity conservation projects. however, the acquisition of the land has * department of sociology, delhi school of economics, university of delhi, india. rajjat.kr@gmail.com. copyright © kumar 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1052 mailto:rajjat.kr@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1052 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [238] not led to the immediate dispossession of agrarian communities from the khadar. indeed, agrarian communities and poor migrant tenants have found ways to continue cultivating in the khadar even following the acquisition of land, although in a highly precarious manner. this phenomenon can be acknowledged as a case of “incremental dispossession” (oskarsson, lahiri‐ dutt, and wennström 2019), whereby dispossession is not a moment/event which is followed by crisis. instead, it is gradual, intermittent, and incremental, and it results in uncertainty and anxieties about dispossession among agrarian actors. the process reflects the changing nature of agriculture, the agrarian structure, property relations, conflictual claims to land, and speculation by agrarian actors. this kind of incremental dispossession, over the years, is legitimized via discourses of urbanization, development, encroachment by the poor, and (currently) under transnational discourses on environmentalism and the “world-class city1”, whereby cities of the global south are understood to be suffering from a crisis of underdevelopment, unsustainable urbanization, and ecological disorder (rademacher 2011). in order to overcome this crisis, infrastructural, environmental, and recreational projects, which are backed by experts and state agencies, take precedence over the land-based livelihood activities of agrarian communities and poor migrants (baviskar 2011; nagendra 2016). therefore, the yamuna khadar has become a deeply contested agrarian space. while thousands have been farming these floodplains for decades, contestations over legality, compensation, land use, displacement, the toxicity of the river and groundwater, the quality of vegetables, the soil, and the city have been significant topics of public concern in the last few decades. in this paper, i focus on only one aspect of this contested agrarian landscape: the discourse on the toxicity of the river water, pesticides, and fertilizers used in agriculture. to understand the contestations around toxicity in the khadar, i analyse the national green tribunal (ngt) ban2 (discussed in detail in the section 2.1 of this essay) on cultivation in this region and the reaction of the locals to this ban. this decision to ban cultivation is premised upon “expert 1 phrase taken from ghertner (2015). 2 this ban is discussed in detail later. in short, the ngt states that “unless the river is restored to its original health, the agricultural activity would result in seriously jeopardising the environment as well as human health. the period involved in the restoration (cleaning of river and floodplains) under the project approved by the tribunal is not very long. the prohibition of cultivation is not of [a] permanent nature but is only for a limited period of two and a half years” (44). the ban was for 2.5 years, but agriculture in the khadar has become more precarious since the ban. [239] kumar knowledge,” whose validity is contested by locals. in this paper, i first consider how the locals contest the “expert claims”, which are based on “scientific evidence” provided by agencies whose reports contradict ngt claims. second, i show how locals also invoke lay epidemiology, which is situated within a larger socio-political system based on unequal power relations (lora-wainwright 2013a). i demonstrate how locals’ experience (and definition) of toxicity is influenced by lay epidemiology, which factors in existing concerns around livelihood, lack of affordable housing, and so on. in doing so, i depart from the existing literature on toxic experiences and popular epidemiology (levine 1982; brown and mikkelsen 1990; cable and walsh 1991), which focuses on disputes wherein locals contest expert authorities who claim there is no toxicity. this paper highlights disputes in which expert authorities contest locals claiming that there is no toxicity. this paper examines how toxicity is socially perceived, discursively constructed, and dealt with by differently located stakeholders in the landscape. the experience of living with pollution is not homogenous across all stakeholders because neither do they all see themselves as suffering because of pollution, nor do they see themselves as contributing to it. the yamuna floodplains are not inert spaces. rather, these contesting communities are embedded in the khadar, historically, socially, and economically. this paper explores the multiple experiences of toxicity in three sections: experts versus cultivators; toxicity and social life; and lay epidemiology: uncertainties and toxicities. these sections are preceded by a discussion on the methodology, aims, and objectives of this study. 2. methodology between february 2019 and march 2020, i conducted an ethnographic study of agrarian communities in the yamuna khadar to understand how the agrarian landscape is produced and experienced in their lives, and how it is affected by their understanding of the river, riverine ecology, community relations, state politics, urbanization, and market integration. the techniques of data collection included participant observation, interviews, life histories, and surveys. i examine the changing nature of agriculture and agricultural practices, cultivators’ struggles and aspirations, the nature of ownership of land and labour relations, planting technologies, changing market demand, and the sociality that develops around the agrarian ecology of the khadar. my research began with a pilot study of 10 regions in the yamuna khadar. i conducted random surveys and interviews to explore practices of cultivation; relationships of cultivators with the land and river, and with local state ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [240] agencies/officers; the experiences accruing from the dirtiness of the river; the changing nature of agriculture; property tenurial arrangements, etc. i discovered that, firstly, cultivation in the khadar is regulated/facilitated via three property tenurial arrangements3 which influences the social ecology of this space and vice versa. secondly, rapid urbanization and the surge of migrants from uttar pradesh (primarily belonging to the murav caste),4 in recent years, have led to a shift from fodder crops to vegetable cultivation. thirdly, cultivators experience toxicity differently from “experts”. and lastly, the acquisition of land for infrastructural and development projects has not led to the disappearance of agriculture. rather, agrarian communities have found ways to co-exist with these new developments. for the purposes of clarity and rigour, i focus only on the saapla-ujjua5 area of the khadar, where all the aforementioned trends were observable. i surveyed saapla-ujjua for two months while also conducting interviews with migrants and landowners. my primary respondent was ganesh, a landowner who arranged a jhopdi (shack) on his farm for my stay, thereby facilitating my participation in community activities in the khadar. ganesh’s khet (agrarian field), which he rented from sunil, another landowner, was located along the river, and could only be irrigated using the toxic river water. ganesh introduced me to other migrants who had farms adjacent to his, and similarly used the toxic river water for irrigation. my interactions with ganesh, sunil, and other migrants allowed me to gain valuable qualitative insights into my field of study. transnational discourses on environmentalism and sustainability emphasize that biodiversity parks, clean rivers, afforestation drives, and walkways are essential to make cities “liveable”. but how and for whom are cities becoming liveable (gururani 2018)? by focusing on excluded communities, like the cultivators in the khadar, this paper highlights the problems of uneven development and exclusive urban ecologies. the ngt ban on cultivation— 3 there are three types of property tenurial arrangements. the first is dadalai zameen (ancestral property), which is privately owned land. another type is the land that was given on lease by the delhi development authority (dda) in 1949 to farmers of the delhi peasants cooperative multipurpose society; the leases are subject to renewal every 10 years. this society became a defaulter in 1966. after many years of judicial struggle, the supreme court of india asked the farmers to vacate the land on 31 april 2020. the other category is the private land which got acquired in 1992 for channelization of the yamuna river. the dda, however, never took possession of the land. meanwhile, the farmers got compensated for the land but are yet to be dispossessed and continue to cultivate. 4 classified as other backward classes in uttar pradesh, india, they are gardening castes and are excellent at vegetable cultivation. 5 in this paper, the names of people and places are pseudonyms. [241] kumar and the contestations that followed—allows us to explore these inequities in detail. spaces categorized as toxic by experts and environmentalists can be spaces of value for the poor and agrarian communities. therefore, many communities continue to inhabit “toxic” spaces. bans, of the kind imposed by the ngt, make the communities even more vulnerable and precarious. by highlighting the multiple experiences of toxicity and contestations around the ngt ban, i demonstrate the embeddedness of communities in toxic ecologies. to develop inclusive and just ecologies, environmentalist discourses must take such embeddedness into account. 2.1 experts versus cultivators large scale agricultural activity[,] on the river bank or floodplain, is one of the glaring examples of indirect impacts of environmental pollution. the vegetables grown in these areas, for which the direct source of irrigation is the ground water or water flowing in river yamuna, are bound to be contaminated. we have noticed in some detail the serious health hazards, including diseases like cancer and other serious diseases from which the persons consuming such products may suffer. thus, the agricultural activity needs to be stopped immediately to prevent further environmental and health hazards and in any case till the time yamuna is restored to its original status and carries only wholesome water or the water which can be used for irrigation purposes, without exposing the residents of delhi to serious diseases and health hazards…pesticides are being used and sprayed over the agricultural produce, which only makes them worse for human consumption in regard to the injury that they would cause to human health. (manoj misra & anr. vs. union of india & ors. original application no. 6 of 2012 and m.a. nos. 967/2013 & 275/2014, 43–4)6. “it is the polluted river which will become the reason for our displacement, and the irony is that we did not even dirty it. yamuna was the reason for the continuance of our agriculture in the city since no construction could take place around the river, but now it will become the reason for our displacement.” (farmer devki, interview with author, january 7, 2020) in manoj misra & anr. vs. union of india & ors (original application no. 6 of 2012 and m.a. nos. 967/2013 & 275/2014; popularly known as ngt judgement in khadar), in 2015, the ngt claimed that vegetables cultivated 6 available at https://nmcg.nic.in/writereaddata/fileupload/ngtmatters/ngt%20judgement%2013.01.15 .pdf. accessed on 14 april 2023. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [242] in the yamuna khadar were toxic. raj singh, an influential landowner in the khadar, questioned the report. during my interactions with him, raj regularly stressed that he had good educational credentials. “unlike other farmers who make emotional arguments, i collect facts which i can use in court to fight against unjust organizations like the ngt and [delhi development authority] dda”, he claimed. after the ngt ban, raj arranged for his vegetables to be tested at the indian agricultural research institute (icar, popularly known as pusa institute) and the groundwater to be tested at the central pollution control board (cpcb). he was determined to quash the rumours about khadar produce being toxic. in the reports, the toxicity levels of the vegetable and water samples were declared to be within the permissible limits. he argued that these reports could not be any less scientific than those used by the ngt to back its claims. indeed, the reports were from prestigious science-backed institutions in the country, thereby leading to a situation of conflictual claims on toxicity based on scientific testing. as raj’s farm was relatively far from the river, he did not use the river water for cultivation. “humara khet nadi se 1 km door hai, hum kaise lagayenge nadi ka paani. yeh sab afwaein hai [our farm is 1 km away from the river. how would we use the river water? it’s all rumours]” (farmer raj singh, interview with author, september 17, 2019). however, he argued that, while farmers who did not use the river water were not culpable, those using the toxic water should not be blamed either. moreover, because the yamuna khadar is categorised as a floodplain, no other activity other than cultivation is legally permissible there. in response to the ngt ban, devki, a member of the delhi peasants cooperative multipurpose society, claimed that farmers were being maligned by agencies like the ngt and dda. he was cultivating on 30 bighas of land in the yamuna khadar given to him on lease by the dda in 1949, under the arrangement of batai.7 he opined that it was not the chemicals used in agriculture that were toxifying the river, but rather the waste generated by city dwellers and industries. the ngt ban, in this sense, can be understood within a larger class framework, whereby the affluent get to deflect responsibility for pollution on to the poor. for devki, the use of chemicals was a regular practice in agrarian activities everywhere in the world that did 7 in this part of the yamuna khadar there are two types of land tenurial arrangements: batai (sharecropping) and jama (annual rent). in the case of batai, the landowner and the tenant, who is working on the land, share the input costs incurred during cultivation and the money made from selling the produce in a 50–50 arrangement. in the case of jama, the owner has no say in the type and process of cultivation. the owner is paid the rent annually, usually in two or three instalments each year. [243] kumar not pollute the river or land, rather it was the pollution from cars and waste of city dwellers that flowed directly into the river, which made the river dirty. nevertheless, he was not opposed to a shift in favour of organic farming, or other forms of nonchemical kheti (farming) in the floodplains, but only if the government facilitated it. like devki, sunil (whose profile is discussed later in the essay) also stressed the absence of incentives for taking up organic farming. he shared anxieties about his land getting acquired following the commonwealth games (cwg), which further deterred him from investing in organic farming. sunil also said that the reports about agriculture in the khadar polluting the yamuna were exaggerated. devki feared that the ngt judgement would strengthen discourses on ecological ruination and reinforce efforts aimed at grabbing cultivation land8 from farmers, leading to further precarity and dispossession. this kind of land grabbing results in an urban ecology which is often associated with markers like beautified parks rather than crops, fruits, and vegetables (baviskar 2011). indeed, nagendra (2016) argues that “infrastructure, regulatory and recreational ecosystem services take precedence over productive uses of ecosystems in the minds of the members of the urban public, media, and city administration”(15). such conceptions ignore the fact that elderly farmers in the yamuna khadar, for instance, have been embedded in urban agriculture for decades. these people have a deep attachment to the landscape, which is bound to their sense of identity and community. as such, displacement of these people would cause considerable trauma as well as economic hardship. in response to the recent evictions by the dda, devki emphasised that nobody listens to farmers in the city anymore. farmers have no voice in the urban economy. he claimed meanwhile that his kheti had protected the landscape from encroachers like sand mafias, land mafias, jhuggi-jhopri settlements, and other illegal residential localities. he not only safeguarded the space, but also made it productive, safe, and beautiful. the green plains of the khadar, according to devki, were rugged and uneven before the cultivators settled there. it is agricultural labour which made it even and productive. in addition, cultivators provide food and livelihood to the poor in the city. devki recalled that cultivation became precarious in 1966, when farmers’ leases were not renewed by the dda. but they continued cultivating, routinely negotiating with the sta. however, with the ngt ban 8 devki told me that land belonging to one of the cooperative society members rakesh singh was forcefully taken away in the name of a “public project” for the akarshdham mandir. he asked me, “how is akshardham a public project? it is no road or flyover”. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [244] on cultivation in 2015, cultivation is now near impossible. jcbs (joseph cyril bamford), popularly known as bulldozers in the khadar, reportedly ran over the standing crops, replacing the crops with plants and trees allotted for compensatory afforestation drives. devki, for his part, failed to see how trees enhance greenery but crops do not. while refusing to distinguish between crops and trees, with respect to their ecological role, devki made a distinction between the ecological impacts of individual farmers in the khadar. while discussing the toxicity of the river water, devki pushed me to differentiate between farmers who cultivated land adjacent to the river, and those whose land was further away from the river. the latter, according to devki, used borewell water while the former used the toxic river water for irrigation. as such, the experience of toxicity and the responsibility for toxicity, according to him, varied according to the location of the land in the yamuna khadar. therefore, the farmers were not one homogeneous unit that polluted the river together, but had conflicting claims even among themselves. similarly, the blame for pollution was deflected, not merely on to the rich and affluent, but also on to fellow farmers who happened to cultivate in greater proximity to the river. clearly, devki associated proximity to the river with culpability. in the forthcoming sections, i argue that along with contestations using scientific evidence, agrarian communities invoke lay epidemiology and experiences of toxicity in relation to other social problems. all these experiences and contestations are broadly influenced by class, caste, physical distance from the river, and occupation. 2.2 toxicity and social life “jamuna ka paani garam hai, sabzi ki growth achi hoti hai [the water of the yamuna is warm, which helps the vegetables grow fast]” (migrant tenant ramesh, interview with author, october 13, 2019). “bilkul cream jagah hai [the yamuna khadar is the best place for poor migrants like us to live in the city]” (migrant tenant udaylal, interview with author, november, 2, 2019). auyero and swistun (2009, as cited in lora-wainwright 2013a), argue that “to understand locals’ experiences of pollution and their attitudes to it, they should be examined vis-à-vis all the other pressing problems they face” (82), such as affordable housing, crime, safety of the locality, potential for finding employment, lack of schooling and medical facilities, the bureaucracy involved in accessing welfare, and so on. the authors emphasise that “despite their knowledge of pollution, locals have become slowly tied to the place, [245] kumar taking root in the neighbourhood through work, family, and friendship networks. therefore, they downplay the dangers they face” (auyero and swistun 2009, as cited in lora-wainwright 2013a, 86). this is what i attempt to do in this section. in late october 2019, ramesh was spreading methi beej (fenugreek seeds) in his khet, adjacent to the river, along with his mother and father. it was late in the evening. by then the place was full of mosquitoes and the yamuna had started to stink. this prompted me to probe ramesh about his notions about cleanliness and the environment. ramesh was relatively rich, owning a tractor and 30 bighas of land in his village. when asked why he did not move to the village or somewhere else, he stressed that village khetis were not profitable. “tubewell ke saath bhi moti fasal 9 mein sabzi jitna paisa nahin hai aur gaon mein sabzi ke liye market nahin hai [in the village there isn’t much money in moti fasal even with a tubewell, and there is no market for vegetables in the village]”, he claimed. according to him, one could sell large amounts of vegetables in the khadar due to the proximity to the upper/middle class localities in the city. green leafy vegetables have a short shelf life and hence proximity to these more affluent localities allowed farmers to sell the produce the same day it was harvested. evidently, livelihood opportunities accruing from this proximity to the toxic landscape tended to outweigh any potential desire to relocate. apart from livelihood opportunities, ramesh also found the yamuna water to be extremely conducive to the fast growth of crops. “garam paani sabzi ke liye complete diet hai [the warm water of the yamuna is a complete diet for the vegetables]”, he revealed. indeed, the yamuna water carries human and animal waste, which makes it “warm”. waste in the river water acts like khaad (manure). the river also has other nutrients like sodium and potassium. sunil, on whose land ramesh was cultivating, stressed that nutrients from ganda paani (dirty water)10 are better than the micronutrients applied externally because plants absorb the former better. as such, proximity to the polluted river made the large-scale use of pesticides and fertilizers unnecessary, rendering cultivation more cost effective. sunil had leased his farms on jama11 to ramesh and a few other migrant tenants. kachi/nanhi fasal,12 according to ramesh, it is labor intensive. hence, 9 moti fasal (also referred to as pakki fasal) refers to crops like wheat, rice, and maize. 10 yamuna water is also referred to as ganda paani. 11 explained in footnote 5. 12 green leafy vegetables like methi, bathua (lamb’s quarter), palak (spinach), saag (greens), and so on. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [246] the leasing of land to migrant tenants who work on batai or jama. tenants prefer to till land close to the river because the cost of cultivation is lower due to the aforementioned reasons. second, the river water is freely available for water-intensive vegetable cultivation. and, third, the river bank is more conducive to growing nanhi fasal quickly and several times a year. also, the drainage of soil near the river is good; this makes cultivation possible in monsoon months as excess water drains through the soil quickly. these factors encourage tenants to take jama land close to the river to grow nanhi fasal. therefore, proximity to the river determines tenurial arrangements between landlords and tenants, making toxic landscapes tolerable. cultivators like ramesh are well educated, having paid for their college education with earnings from cultivation. the village did not provide good opportunities for education. “shehar mein kheti ke sahare padh liye. abhi naukri nahi lagi hai issiliye kheti hi kar rahe hai [i studied in the city with the help of farming. i haven’t got a job yet. that’s why i am farming]”, he revealed. ramesh had failed thus far to get a government job but still took pride in his qualifications. he routinely visited a nearby private library to prepare for the upcoming government exams. he wanted his children to receive quality education in a government school located nearby, which further deterred him from relocating to the village or to another agrarian locality. thus, he experienced and perceived toxicity in relation to his own problems concerning livelihoods, unemployment, poverty, lack of clean and affordable housing in the city, and a scarcity of educational facilities in the village. udaylal, another migrant tenant from badaun, cultivated vegetables on batai with ganesh. while ramesh’s experience and tolerance of toxicity was determined by his proximity to the river, udaylal’s case revealed that ties with landowners, in addition to the riverine ecology, were also important to the toxic ecology of the khadar. for udaylal, ties to the landowners were vital to survival in the city. “bilkul cream jagah hai. hum bhai ke saath batai mein karte hai. humein jama paar suit nahi karta. bhai bure samay mein humara dhyan rakhte hai [we cultivate with ganesh under the arrangement of sharecropping. we do not like cultivating under the arrangement of annual rent. ganesh takes care of us in difficult times]”, he said. even after jcbs ran over his vegetables, following the ngt order in 2015, udaylal refused to leave. ganesh, through his contacts, negotiated with the dda chowkidars (a lower ranked dda official), which helped him resume cultivation after a few months. ganesh looked after udaypal and his family even when cultivation was not possible. occurrences like crop failure, untimely rain, and price fluctuation did not stop ganesh from extending help and support. his support was also crucial [247] kumar during weddings and medical emergencies. in this manner, ganesh became indispensable in the survival of udaylal and his family. while the toxic river “assisted” tenants who worked close to it, for others like udaypal, it was the landlord in the khadar who helped ensure a livelihood. the river, along with landowners, influenced cultivators’ experiences of toxicity. udaylal had been cultivating in delhi for more than two decades. he was not well educated and unlikely to find a well-paying job. “mere jaise anpad log shehar mein naukri ya kaam karke ₹8,000–10,000 se zyaada nahi kama sakte [illiterate people like me cannot earn more than ₹8,000–10,000 by doing work in the city]”, he confessed. a jhopdi on the farm in the khadar offered better prospects and security, compared to other urban poor localities in delhi. udaylal cultivated nanhi fasal, which is labour intensive, and employed his family as labourers to cultivate. a big house/space was required to accommodate his large family. he got this from the jhopdi on the farm with open space around it. it was sufficient for a big family to live together and carry out their daily chores. he said this kind of open space would cost a lot in the city. tenants like udaylal and ramesh told me that their living conditions, with no water logging, no choked drains, ample lighting and ventilation, were better than those of middle class and upper middle class localities. although there were no water and electricity connections in the floodplain zone, these people still felt they were better off than those living in dark, dingy, and cramped spaces in the city. also since they were doing vegetable cultivation they had to stay on the farm, or close to it, to look after their crops. in addition to tilling the land and rearing cattle, most migrant peasants sold vegetables in the nearby middle class residential localities. in the khadar, migrant tenants develop ties with members of landowning castes like the gujjars and chauhans, who help them access nearby schools and hospitals. with links and contacts with the bureaucracy, these landowning castes are able to help migrant tenants obtain aadhaar cards13 driving licences, and ration cards, which are crucial to their survival in the city and help them avail other benefits and opportunities for their children and families. landowners also facilitate borrowing seeds, pesticides, and other kinds of chemicals from local shopkeepers. a sense of community is apparent, growing in the vicinity of the toxic river. strong ties enhance a sense of safety, outweighing the hazards of living in a toxic landscape. 13 aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the unique identification authority of india on behalf of the government of india. the number serves as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in india” (uidai n.d.). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [248] migrant tenants’ experiences of toxicity are anchored to the local ecology of the yamuna khadar, i.e., in the social relationships with the landowners, river, soil, and the city. the nature of the landowner–tenant relationship in the two types of land tenurial arrangements, i.e., batai and jama, is different in the sense that the batai relationship exceeds its economic implications. the batai is an arrangement employed by migrant tenants for their own safety in case of crop failure and a lack of other kinds of livelihood support in the city. the nature of the relationship in the jama case is primarily economic; the landowner does not have much say in how the labour is employed in the kheti. as the case of ramesh suggests, some tenants are more dependent on the toxic river soil than others. but the negotiating power of the landowner, particularly during anti-encroachment drives and other emergencies, remains the common element. hence, deep ties with the city and the local ecology, along with landowners, drive contestation and negotiation of tenants with state agencies. tenants experience toxicity differently from tenants, based on their distance from the river, their type of property, tenurial arrangements, and the nature of their cultivation. 2.3 lay epidemiology: uncertainties and toxicities “shehar ke logon ko plate par choice chahiye [city dwellers want choice in their meals]” (migrant tenant aditya, interview with author, august 9, 2019). anna lora-wainwright (2013b) explores the issue of “uncertainty surrounding illness causation” (303) with the help of the concept of “lay epidemiology” (“perceptions of illness causation where pollution features alongside a range of other factors” [303]) in a heavily industrialized village in china, where the population of the village continues to work and live in a toxic environment. through this work she highlights that locals are concerned about pollution but uncertain about whether they can attribute particular symptoms or illnesses to it. this is because “the embeddedness of locals’” (306) environmental health consciousness within a wider lay epidemiology is at least partially a result of the communities’ dependence on the local ecology for livelihoods and on local power relations. in this section i explore lay epidemiology in relation to life in the yamuna khadar. aditya, a skilled technician who helped his family grow and sell crops, was selling bhindi (okra) at the mandi near the khadar at a time when prices had fallen drastically. i interacted with him during his visits to the market. there was considerable anger and despair among the migrant tenants due to low prices. excess supply was one of the causes of the fall in prices. “par market mein uthav nahi hai [there is no demand in the market]”, noted aditya. [249] kumar anticipation of upcoming winter crops was growing, and people in the cities were looking for alternatives to eat. aditya stressed that people in cities wanted “choice”. “ab batao kisaan kaise karega choice paida [how will the farmer create choice]?” aditya wondered. city dwellers quickly lose interest in seasonal vegetables like bhindi which sometimes forces cultivators to advance to sowing winter crops, for instance, in the late monsoon. this encourages farmers to use diammonium phosphate (popularly known as dap), urea, pesticides, micronutrients, and other chemicals. in doing so, cultivators provoke the ire of environmentally conscious city dwellers, the ngt, environmentalists, etc. still, the link between unpredictable consumer behaviour and toxic cultivation practices is generally ignored. livelihood precarities like high rents and the need for non-stop cultivation render farmers susceptible to the pressures of changing consumer demands. like devki, aditya also highlighted that farmers should not be held culpable for polluting the river because, while chemicals and pesticides are used by farmers everywhere, the rivers are not similarly polluted in other places. while the ngt indicates that vegetables grown in the khadar are toxic, aditya denied these claims. cultivators and their families have been consuming these crops for decades. aditya stressed that no one in the khadar had ever developed any ailment from consuming these crops. while i interacted with aditya at the mandi, we were joined by a group of cultivators. they clarified the reason for their good health: “kyunki hum shudh hawa lete hai, shoodh pain peete hai, shoodh sabzi khaate hai aur paseena bahate hai [because we breathe pure air, drink pure water, eat pure vegetables, and sweat it out in the fields]”, they stressed. aditya agreed with them. he emphasized that illnesses like cancer, which the ngt claims are caused by the consumption of toxic vegetables, have multiple causes and a direct correlation between toxic crops and cancer is impossible. raj singh, who had challenged the ngt facts on toxicity stated in the ngt judgement, had a unique technique for testing the purity of the water. while he claimed that the groundwater in khadar was not polluted, residents of the khadar regularly lined up to take drinking water from delhi jal board (djb) tankers. raj singh shared that water samples collected from hand pumps and borewells in the khadar were left in plastic bottles for three months. he claimed that if the water did not turn yellow, it was not polluted. sunil, on the other hand, claimed that he could test the pollution level in the water just by tasting it. he even identified a specific hand pump in the khadar which delivered water of “high quality” and even increased his immunity. sunil encouraged others to drink water only from that hand pump. he had a deep ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [250] distrust of packaged mineral water, because it apparently did not have the “appropriate” taste and was not good for one’s immunity. because at least one hand pump had healthy tasting water, according to sunil, ngt claims could be deemed false. such informal strategies would be discounted by experts as unscientific and therefore unreliable. but limited access to formal, scientific testing has prompted khadar cultivators to adopt strategies deviating from, and to call for an expansion of, definitions of scientific evidence and citizen knowledge. formally recognizing such knowledge and strategies may be crucial to ensuring social justice (lora-wainwright 2013a; 2013b). unlike the general trend in epidemiological studies, in which local people expose toxicity while state agencies deny its presence (levine 1982; brown and mikkelsen 1990; cable and walsh 1991), we see here a case of state agencies claiming toxicity while the locals deny its existence. agrarian communities in the khadar are tied to land-based livelihood activities because opportunities for them in other sectors of the urban economy are limited, and their income from non-agrarian ventures is not enough for them to live in a dignified way in a city. these conditions of dependency and limited opportunities influence the agrarian communities’ uncertainty when it comes to attributing illness or poor health to pollution. 3. conclusion in this paper, i highlight that communities experience the polluted urban ecology of the yamuna khadar in multiple ways. the various communities associated with the toxic agrarian landscape of the yamuna khadar do not experience pollution in a homogenous way, i.e., neither do they all see themselves as suffering from pollution, nor do they all contribute to the toxicity of the landscape in the same way. my study focuses on the contesting claims about, and multiple experiences of, toxicity, not merely between the ngt and cultivators, but also between city dwellers and cultivators, and among the cultivators themselves. i highlight that cultivators feel they are being wrongly blamed for a problem created by rich and upper middle class citizens and, in this case, the non-agrarian urban poor whose locality pollutes the river. for some, pollution provides an opportunity to make a living and find a foothold in the city for themselves and their families. others experience it in relation to problems like unemployment, with a sense of loss, displacement, and antagonism. the experiences of toxicity are embedded in the social, political, and economic context of the urban ecology of the yamuna khadar. for instance, migrant tenants cultivating on jama react [251] kumar to/experience toxicity differently from migrant tenants working on batai, as discussed in the case of ramesh (jama) and udaylal (batai). their embeddedness in the toxic ecology is part of the domination and compulsion that agrarian communities face. firstly, migrant tenants do not have any other choice but to farm in toxic urban ecologies, as other employment opportunities do not give them enough to survive in the city. secondly, migrant tenants cannot but accept the exploitative nature of high rents imposed on them by the landowners. thirdly, farmers and landowners bribe or negotiate with officials to continue with cultivation. lastly, unequal power relations, dependence on the land-based livelihood in a city, and the toxic effects of their cultivation practices make cultivators susceptible to displacement in favour of big capital projects like metro rails, flyovers, premium residential buildings, and biodiversity parks. toxicity and the nature of contestations around it provide a means for mapping large-scale struggles around space, livelihood, knowledge systems, and materiality. these struggles intersect along the lines of class, caste, location, and occupation, highlighting that toxicity is not merely a medical or scientific fact (as advocated by “experts”) but a social one that influences, and is embedded in, a community members’ manners of acting, thinking, and feeling. acknowledgements i am thankful to julien-françois gerber for the useful suggestions and comments; asmita kabra and sudha vasan for their valuable feedback on my initial draft, and chitralekha manohar and the clean copy for her careful copy editing. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is available in a repository and the hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. doi or accession number) are stated in the paper. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references auyero, javier, and débora alejandra swistun. 2009. flammable: environmental suffering in an argentine shantytown. new york: oxford university press. baviskar, amita. 2011. “what the eye does not see: the yamuna in the imagination of delhi.” 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https://www.uidai.gov.in/en/16-english-uk/aapka-aadhaar/14-what-is-aadhaar.html#:~:text=aadhaar%20is%20a%2012%20digit%20individual%20identification%20number%20issued%20by,and%20address%2c%20anywhere%20in%20india https://www.uidai.gov.in/en/16-english-uk/aapka-aadhaar/14-what-is-aadhaar.html#:~:text=aadhaar%20is%20a%2012%20digit%20individual%20identification%20number%20issued%20by,and%20address%2c%20anywhere%20in%20india https://www.uidai.gov.in/en/16-english-uk/aapka-aadhaar/14-what-is-aadhaar.html#:~:text=aadhaar%20is%20a%2012%20digit%20individual%20identification%20number%20issued%20by,and%20address%2c%20anywhere%20in%20india https://www.uidai.gov.in/en/16-english-uk/aapka-aadhaar/14-what-is-aadhaar.html#:~:text=aadhaar%20is%20a%2012%20digit%20individual%20identification%20number%20issued%20by,and%20address%2c%20anywhere%20in%20india ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 129–133, january 2021 notes from the field the impact of exposure to air pollutants among traffic police in bihar: an excerpt from the field barun kumar thakur,  tamali chakraborty,  ashok kumar ghosh  1. air pollution and national clean air programme in india in january 2019, the government of india (goi), after consulting with all the relevant stakeholders, launched the national clean air programme (ncap) to combat the increasing air pollution in india. the goal of this five-year programme is to reduce the concentration levels of particulate matter (pm), i.e., pm2.5 and pm10, by 20–30% before 2024, using 2017 as the base year (moefcc 2019). in reply to the question on ncap, prakash javadekar, hon'ble minister of moefcc, responded in the lok sabha, ncap is a pan india, medium-term five-year national-level strategy to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country. at present, 779 manual and 170 real-time air quality monitoring stations are installed across the country covering 339 cities in 29 states and 6 union territories with a budget of inr 300 crore for two years. (moefcc 2019) previous studies suggest that air pollution is the primary killer among pollutants. it impacts both morbidity and mortality, and the health and wellbeing of the affected inhabitants, both directly and indirectly (hajat et al.  department of economics, flame university, gat no. 1270, lavale, off. pune bangalore highway, pune 412115, india; barunsandilya@gmail.com.   department of economics and business environment, indian institute of management bodh gaya, uruvela, prabandh vihar, bodh gaya 824234, india; tamali.c@iimbg.ac.in.  bihar pollution control board, parivesh bhawan, plot no. ns-b/2, patliputra industrial area, patliputra, patna 800010, india; ashok.ghosh51@gmail.com. copyright © thakur, chakraborty, ghosh 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.112 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.112 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] 2016; health effects institute 2019). the global burden of disease report (2017) estimated that india has a population-weighted mean of 89.9µg/m3 pm2.5 due to air pollution, which exceeds the 40 µg/m3 world health organization (who) standard. further, the study estimated that air pollution in india is linked to one out of every eight deaths and reduces life expectancy by 1.7 years compared to regions with safe levels of pollution (balakrishnan et al. 2019). the study also shows that states with an overall lower socio-demographic status suffer more. as previous studies suggest, air pollution–induced health issues and various socio-economic disparities are evident in exposed populations (hajat et al. 2016; jiao, xu, and liu 2018). the ncap’s overall objective is to undertake comprehensive mitigation actions for the prevention, control, and abatement of air pollution, and to augment the air quality monitoring network across the country by strengthening awareness and capacity. air pollution leads to higher morbidity and mortality; it is among the top five risk factors of the latter globally (health effects institute 2019). the present paper has two objectives: (a) to understand levels of awareness among traffic police to facilitate reducing their exposure; and (b) to see whether police can effectively implement a law to curb air pollution, in particular, by fining polluting vehicles on the road. we observed from the pilot study that health is a predominant factor that must be emphasized in awareness drives. therefore, if an awareness programme can be implemented, it will reduce the negative impact of air pollution on human health and improve states’ socio-economic status in various ways. 2. insights from a survey administered to police personnel from may 2019 to february 2020, we engaged in a project to assess the health costs of air pollution among traffic police personnel across four districts in bihar, namely patna, muzaffarpur, gaya, and darbhanga. three of these districts (patna, muzaffarpur, and gaya) are also part of an ambitious move to implement the clean air action plan in 102 cities (moefcc 2019). involving local stakeholders and multi-stakeholder views is essential to designing measures for reducing human-induced pollution. the purpose of the present study was to collect primary data from traffic police about the economic and health costs of air and vehicular pollution through a questionnaire-based survey conducted from may 2019 to february 2020. the questionnaire was divided into five sections: (a) demographic details; [131] barun kumar thakur, tamali chakraborty, ashok kumar ghosh (b) air pollution–related details; (c) the number of days of illness; (d) cost of hospitalization; and (e) other details. surprisingly, we found that out of 65 respondents, only 11 were aware of the ncap and its initiative to tackle air pollution. awareness can help people take appropriate steps to avert or mitigate negative externalities due to pollutants (thakur and gupta 2019). only 16% of respondents agreed that such an awareness drive against air pollution in the past year was useful, and among those, only five (8% of all respondents) revealed knowledge of any community action or initiative to curb air pollution. we asked three main questions: (1) what would you do to stop air pollution? (2) what should the government do to stop air pollution? (3) do you have any other suggestions for how to reduce or stop air pollution? on analysing the responses, we found that the majority fell into the following five categories: (1) manage traffic and fine any polluting vehicle; (2) monitor and stop old government vehicles, especially municipal corporation ones; (3) encourage the use of compressed natural gas (cng) or other environment-friendly vehicles; (4) take concrete steps against testing centres responsible for providing fake “pollution-free” certificates to vehicles; and (5) stop generator use in households. there were mixed responses to the question of how traffic police or the government can help reduce or stop air pollution. one respondent suggested that the yellow buses, which corporations use, be strictly banned (as they contribute to roughly 70% of the emissions). additionally, there should be a reduction in the waste that corporations generate. five main suggestions emerged from the field survey: (1) there should be strict provisions for checking the vehicular pollution of private and government vehicles; (2) more trees must be planted wherever possible; (3) vehicles which are more than 10 years old should be banned and vehicles violating these norms fined; ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] (4) more awareness drives must be conducted at continuous intervals to engage various stakeholders; (5) precise mechanisms should be used to effectively combat air pollution. after interviewing the police personnel, we found that health issues such as blood pressure, asthma, coughing in the morning, and chest pain accompanied by coughing were prevalent among the respondents. around 13% of the respondents whom we surveyed had skin infections, followed by fever (11%), stress (9%), eye irritation (7%), and other health issues. interestingly, around 30% of respondents did not wear a mask while on duty. 3. data issues and further insights besides our survey and discussions with various government organizations and individual stakeholders in bihar, getting data on air pollution was challenging. the survey data, including various ambient air pollution parameters, helped validate the respondents’ perception-based responses. if there were more air pollution monitoring stations with various ambient parameters, health effects could be better correlated. at the time of our survey, there were only three stations in the entire state of bihar and, to our surprise, the collected data were not being analysed. we found that the health effects among traffic personnel were greater at higher pollution levels. therefore, there was a positive correlation between crowded signals with more pollution and ill health. we used sensors to monitor the air quality at two different traffic points, but it would have been interesting to establish a correlation between air pollution and health impacts among traffic police personnel using more air pollution data. 4. conclusions while conducting the survey, we interacted with traffic police personnel to understand their exposure to vehicular air pollution and their awareness of and concerns associated with the ncap. while traffic personnel knew about air pollution, most were unaware of the ncap. despite data constraints, this survey shows that if the government uses awareness drives to educate people and implementing agencies, the adverse health impacts and socio-economic issues associated with air pollution can be drastically reduced. finally, the government should make a strict policy to curb vehicular pollution by imposing fines on polluting vehicles. [133] barun kumar thakur, tamali chakraborty, ashok kumar ghosh acknowledgements the research was funded by flame university, pune. we are thankful to the bihar state pollution control board, patna, and the superintendents of police of the patna (traffic), gaya, and muzaffarpur districts of bihar for helping us interview traffic police personnel despite their busy schedules. references balakrishnan, k., s. dey, t. gupta, r. s. dhaliwal, m. brauer, a. j. cohen, j. d. stanaway, et al. 2019. “the impact of air pollution on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy across the states of india: the global burden of disease study 2017.” the lancet planetary health 3 (1): e26–e39. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(18)30261-4. hajat, a., c. hsia, and m. s. o’neill. 2016. “socioeconomic disparities and air pollution exposure: a global review.” current environmental health reports 2 (4): 440–450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0069-5. health effects institute. 2019. “state of global air 2019: a special report on global exposure to air pollution and its disease burden.” boston, ma: health effects institute. https://www.stateofglobalair.org/sites/default/files/soga_2019_report.pdf. jiao, k., m. xu, and m. liu. 2018. “health status and air pollution related socioeconomic concerns in china.” international journal for equity in health 17 (18). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0719-y. ministry of environment, forest and climate change. 2019. “national clean air programme: response of question 15a.” new delhi, india: lok sabha 21.06.2019, government of india. http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/questions/qresult15.aspx?qref=196&lsno=17. thakur, b. k., and v. gupta. 2019. “valuing health damages due to groundwater arsenic contamination in bihar, india.” economics and human biology 35: 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.06.005. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(18)30261-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0069-5 https://www.stateofglobalair.org/sites/default/files/soga_2019_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0719-y http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/questions/qresult15.aspx?qref=196&lsno=17 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.06.005 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 197–201, july 2020 book review revisiting environmental economics: concepts, methods, and policies ramprasad sengupta  dodo j. thampapillai and matthius ruth. 2019. environmental economics: concepts, methods and policies. london: earthscan. isbn: 978-1-138-06005-0, pp. 324, gbp 34.99 (pb). humans constitute one of the innumerable species inhabiting earth, particularly its biospheric segment. like other species, humans have developed a relationship with their natural environment, comprising both living organisms as well as their abiotic environment. however, the relationship between humans and nature has changed vastly over time, resulting in major changes in the biosphere, with climate change and biodiversity loss being two major consequences. the main concern of economic science has been the development of human material wellbeing, which depends on the production, consumption, and  professor emeritus, centre for economic studies and planning, school of social sciences, jawaharlal nehru university; upohar luxury housing complex, tower 8, flat 601, panchasayar, new garia, kolkata 700094, india; rps0302@gmail.com. copyright © sengupta 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.214 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.214 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [198] distribution of resources among individuals in society. in the process of production, a variety of material and energy resources are drawn from ecosystems and are converted through chemical, biological, and physical transformations into products and ultimately into waste at the end of the economic life cycle. in the process of humans rearranging matter through conversions of resources into waste, the molecular structure of resource systems is disordered, raising their level of entropy (or the degree of disorder). this results in a loss of efficiency in their ability to effect similar conversions that ensure the well-being of human society. if the waste flows exceed the absorptive capacity of nature, the unabsorbed wastes accumulate as pollutants and contaminants in the ecosystem, generating adverse health effects for humans as well as the ecosystem. we may define environmental capital as the total stock and fluxes of all resources of ecosystems, including their waste absorptive capacity. for long, economists have neglected the role of entropy and other ecological laws in economic processes and the specific role of environmental capital in the process of economic development. conventional environmental economics addresses the problems arising from the loss of environmental capital as a consequence of market failure due to the public good and non-tradable nature of many of the ecoservices as well as the externalities caused by the residuals of material resources. the latter arise as waste at the various stages of production, transportation, and use of the products thereafter. at the microeconomic level, the analytical framework used for these issues has essentially been one of applied welfare economics. on the other hand, at the macroeconomic level, environmental economics has focussed mostly on the sustainable accounting of national income and its growth. these microand macro-level analyses do not, however, factor in the role of environmental capital explicitly, nor do they articulate methods of analysis that consider environmental issues as derivatives of the role of environmental capital. the book environmental economics: concepts, methods and policies by dodo j. thampapillai and mathias ruth (2019) fills this gap in the construction of an analytical framework of environmental economics. the book provides an understanding of the connection between environmental capital and the allocation of resources at the micro level and the growth of income and capital accumulation at the macro level; here, capital is redefined to include all stocks of resources, natural or human-made. [199] ramprasad sengupta the book is divided into the following five parts: (1) the environment and economy: this part shows how environmental capital operates in the circular flow of values among households, firms, and governments while revealing the connections with the external sector of trade as well. (2) microeconomics and the environment: this part is concerned with issues relating to consumer demand, the economics of renewable and non-renewable resources, production, costs and supply at the firm level and, finally, market organization in the context of allocation of resources, including environmental capital and human-made capital and labour. (3) macroeconomics and the environment: this part discusses the adaptation of both short-run and long-run macroeconomics for the explicit incorporation of the role of environmental capital—its depreciation as well as investments in capital and associated technologies. finally, this part contextualizes environmental capital in the analysis of the trade policies and globalization. (4) theory of valuation and estimation of environmental capital: a framework to assess the sustainability of an economic system that interacts with ecosystems and to derive policies based on this. (5) environmental policies: finally, the book discusses environmental policies aimed at the sustenance of environmental capital by reducing its damage as well as investment policies for abating damages and restoring environmental capital. the book is lucidly and elegantly written, making it an extremely useful reference text on environmental economics. i would, in addition, like to highlight a few novel features in the analysis in the context of issues that arise while adapting the standard economic theory for environmental effects. 1. at the level of microeconomic analysis, the adaptation of the standard theory of consumer behaviour for environmental effects has shown how the endowment effect of consumption due to a price change may cause a shift in the preference structure (indifference map) involving a choice between environmental and non-environmental goods and services. this may help to explain the difference between the result of a price change and that of its reversal. such analytics also helps us to explain the divergence between the willingness to pay and the willingness to accept a change in the environmental endowment and that of a reversal of such change. the concerned chapter (chapter 7) also shows how the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [200] environmental attributes of consumer goods, along with income and other factors like advertisement spending, can influence market demands along with the elasticity of the environmental quality of the consumption good. 2. the chapters covering production, costs, and supply show how an increase in the use of labour and human-made capital leads to an increasing use of environmental capital (kn—the notation used in the book), resulting in its increasing fragility due to a rise in entropy. the latter is shown to set a limit on the maximum output yielded by a production function, which in turn would shift downwards with the shrinking kn. capital is defined in the book as inclusive of both human-made and natural capital, with such choice of their respective numeraires that they are additive. such a redefinition of capital yields a production function that points to the overstatement of output (in a comparative sense) by the conventional production function, which considers capital only as human-made or manufactured. the concerned chapters show the implication of the absolute bounds on the achievable output and the sharp rise in marginal cost as the output rises up to the limit set by the entropy law. the adaptation of isoquants and cost curves in such an analysis is shown to have important implications regarding the firm-level equilibrium and expansion path of output with changes in firm-level budgetary conditions. the concerned chapters point out the important implications of the short-run and long-run planning of a firm for the scale of production, resource use, and costs. finally, at the micro level of analysis, the impact of environmental capital’s use on the market equilibrium supply and unwanted emissions is discussed both under the conditions of perfect competition and monopoly and are compared with the benchmark of the sustainability condition. the analysis is insightful in showing the conditions under which the perfectly competitive market equilibrium is a better benchmark than a monopoly within the context of sustainability, which is defined with reference to the absorptive limit of the ecosystems. 3. the treatment of the role of environmental capital in short-term and long-term macroeconomics has, in my opinion, been the most significant contribution of this book. it elegantly presents how the analysis of aggregate demand and aggregate supply, as functions of price level, can be adapted to the limitation of productive capacity due to the limit of environmental capital. it discusses the possibility of incorporating the impact of the depreciation of environmental capital on the one hand and of investment in kn on the other in short-term equilibrium income, employment and price level, etc. the implication of [201] ramprasad sengupta such equilibrium is also compared with the benchmark of fullemployment equilibrium in cases of both linear and non-linear depreciation of kn with the rise in production. the book further reworks the analytical framework of environmental macroeconomics to consider both the waste absorptive role of environmental capital and the impact of its entropic depreciation on income and output. the implications of the results are important for ecological sustainability, full employment, and the stabilization of economic fluctuations. it is also important to examine if such varying objectives would have any conflicting considerations with regard to the choice of policies. 4. the long-run macro analysis in the book has shown how the standard versions of harrod, solow-swan, romer, and other endogenous growth models can be adjusted to incorporate the role of environmental capital as distinct from that of human-made capital and their joint implications with respect to a steady state solution. the models recognize the role of the productivity of the kn service and also incorporate the feedback effect of depreciation of kn on growth rate and on the character of its steady state solution. the chapters have also illustrated the results of both shortand long-term macroeconomic indicators as well as those of long-term growth for australian and south korean economies, respectively. before concluding the book, the authors deal with trade, the valuation of environmental capital, and environmental policies, extending the same consistent framework of adapting economic analysis to accommodate environmental capital. taking an overview of the various chapters, one can conclude that the book provides a highly useful alternative text for environmental economics, which is firmly rooted in ecological principles and entropy law, the latter being the source of resource scarcity and a limitation to economic scale or growth. the book fulfils the interdisciplinary purpose of integrating ecological laws into the models of functioning of an economy at both the micro and macro level. a reader will be able to discern how interdisciplinary considerations relating to ecological limits can be built into economic theory with appropriate adaptations. such theoretical reformulations that adapt to environmental concerns will be helpful for both understanding and interpreting the economic consequences of the environmental crises of today as well as for developing the appropriate policy insights for achieving sustainable development in the future. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 209–213, july 2020 book review can the twain ever meet? environmental jurisprudence and justice in india manshi asher  shibani ghosh, ed. 2019. indian environmental law: key concepts and principles. new delhi: orient blackswan. isbn: 978-9-352-87579-5, pp. 360, ₹925 (hb). indian environmental law key concepts and principles (2019), a collection of essays edited by shibani ghosh, discusses the evolution and application of various conceptual frameworks for understanding environmental jurisprudence in india. in the first two chapters, lovleen bhullar and shibani ghosh, respectively, draw out the constitutional basis and procedural rights that govern people‘s ―right to environment‖ in india today. in the subsequent chapters (3 to 6), the evolution and current usage of key legal principles that are considered critical to the making of environmental rules are subject to searching scrutiny. notably, these  himdhara environment research and action collective, village kandwari, palampur, kangra 176061, himachal pradesh, india; manshi.asher@gmail.com. copyright © asher 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.216 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.216 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [210] chapters bring into focus the debates and implications in the legal rendering of principles such as sustainable development (saptarishi bandhopadhyay), the polluter pays principle (lovleen bhullar), the precautionary principle (lavanya rajamani), and the public trust doctrine (shibani ghosh). these four essays help trace the origins of these legal doctrines in the indian courts and focus, in particular, on how environmental decision-making gets inserted into case law. in chapter 7, which is the final one, dhvani mehta carries out a detailed review of how compliance with judicial orders and their enforcement and effectiveness in terms of implementation play out on the ground. in essence, this book debates and discusses the interpretation, reinterpretation, distortion, and dilution of these various legal principles when applied in court cases. it questions the robustness of the concepts that currently inform existing environmental laws in india and debates whether they rest on sound legal premises, claims, and practices. given that the themes covered by the collection are vast in scope, this brief review will comment on what the reader could take away from this book with regard to environmental jurisprudence and its implications for environmental justice in contemporary india. since the 1980s, judicial activism in india has, in fact, often been lauded for contributing to environmental policy and governance. as bhullar shows in the first chapter, domestic jurisprudence has clearly linked the ―right to environment‖ with article 21 (right to life) of the indian constitution, among other articles (47, 48a, and 51a(g)), and indian courts have played a critical role in this process. however, as this and the following essays in the book suggest, this right becomes difficult to realize due to the ―varied‖ and ―flexible‖ application of concepts by the judiciary in environmental decision-making. shibani ghosh, in the following chapter, while laying out the various laws and rules that guarantee procedural rights—the right to information, the right to public participation, and the right to access to justice—argues that these procedural environmental rights are on ―firmer legal foundations‖ (103) than substantive environmental rights in india. however, given the systematic onslaught on procedural rights (especially in the last few years) with the dilution of the right to information act (rti) and the environmental impact assessment (eia) notification 1994 (ghosal 2018), a careful reassessment of the stability of procedural rights is called for. delving into the narmada case, bandhopadhyay comments on the instrumental use of ―sustainable development‖ as a principle by indian courts. he critiques the ―pick and choose‖ approach of the judiciary, [211] manshi asher particularly how the latter treats the notion of sustainability as a handmaiden of the interests of urban citizens, with their modernist vision of the future (150). bhullar‘s essay highlights how the term ―polluter pays‖ has not been interpreted as a preventive measure. instead, domestic courts have focussed on its curative rather than justice dimension. while reviewing its evolution, one misses the critical assessment that at their very core, concepts like ―polluter pays‖ were intended to only ―manage‖ the environmental impact of neo-liberal economic development directed at higher growth (and thus more corporate profit), without ever having to compromise on or question the idea of ―growth‖ and its inherent ecologically destructive or socially exploitative character (lohman 2019). interestingly, lavanya rajamani‘s essay observes how the ―precautionary principle‖ has not come of age in environmental law in india, due to the courts‘ balancing of environmental concerns with those of ―sustainable development‖. her commentary also speaks about the overreach of the judiciary and courts. the starkest evidence of this elite bias is in judicial decisions in the domain of forest conservation that is particularly made evident in the godavarman case (mate 2015). while discussing the public trust doctrine, ghosh walks us through how indian courts have relied on this principle in cases involving various natural resources, since its use in the kamal nath judgment of 1996. she argues that for the doctrine to be effective, it must be interpreted or defined more sharply and put in application by the executive rather than the judiciary alone. given the changing nature of the state and the increasing privatization of public resources, there is a need to review how this doctrine is being rendered irrelevant. dhvani mehta in the final chapter critically analyses the issues around mechanisms set up by the court (like the central empowered committee) and existing executive regulatory bodies (like the state pollution control boards) in ensuring compliance with law and court orders. acknowledging that a variety of social, political, and economic factors influence the functioning of these agencies, she cautions against the creation of newer authorities in the name of ―institutional reforms‖. we cannot ignore that india has suffered a 36-point drop in its global environment performance index (epi) as of 2018. india is now in the bottom 5 of 180 countries (pti 2019). india was cited as the fourth-most dangerous country in the world for environmental activists in 2016 by a uk-based watchdog group, global witness. this book cites several instances of environmental crises in which indian courts have intervened, but fails to meaningfully explain why project-affected communities ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [212] continue to lose their access to natural ecosystems. the indian judiciary is arguably undergoing a severe internal crisis and its credibility is questionable as constitutional democracy weakens and incidents of political interference in judicial decision-making are repeatedly flagged (bhatia 2014). specifically, the highly acclaimed instrument of access to environmental justice—india‘s decade-old national green tribunal—is now being increasingly divested of its powers to enforce and prevent environmental destruction (dutta 2019). environmental governance in india, inside and outside of judicial territory, is increasingly revolving around techno-managerial solutions that further push for monetary valuation and commoditization of nature. it is apparent that collective access to and ownership of natural habitats/territories by marginal communities (like adivasi people) and their right to conserve ecological spaces remains at the periphery of the environmental discourse, even today. the challenge lies before the active community of researchers, lawyers, practitioners, and activists to adopt a more multidisciplinary, holistic, and radical critique of the existing enviro-legal order in india and to work together towards realizing environmental justice. reference ahmed omair. 2018. ―rights without institutions are no rights at all.‖ the third pole, july 26. https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/07/26/rights-withoutinstitutions-are-no-rights-at-all/. benjamin, vipin mathew. 2010. has the judiciary abandoned the environment? new delhi: human rights law network. bhatia, gautam. 2014. ―book review: ‗the shifting scales of justice: the supreme court in neo-liberal india.‘‖ indian constitutional law and philosophy, february 23. https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/book-review-the-shiftingscales-of-justice-the-supreme-court-in-neo-liberal-india/. dutta, ritwick. 2019. ―woes of the national green tribunal: are the recent appointments unconstitutional?‖ bar and bench, october 9. https://barandbench.com/new-appointments-national-green-tribunalunconstitutional-judicialindependence/?_branch_match_id=709144027720293519. ghosh, shibani, ed. 2019. indian environmental law key concepts and principles. hyderabad: orient black swan. ghosal aniruddha. 2018. ―four environmental rules diluted in 2018 that will have an impact next year and beyond.‖ news 18, december 26. https://www.news18.com/news/india/four-environmental-rules-diluted-in-2018that-will-have-an-impact-next-year-and-beyond-1984047.html. pti. 2019. ―india ranks 177 out of 180 in environmental performance index.‖ the hindu, january 24. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-andhttps://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/07/26/rights-without-institutions-are-no-rights-at-all/ https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2018/07/26/rights-without-institutions-are-no-rights-at-all/ https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/book-review-the-shifting-scales-of-justice-the-supreme-court-in-neo-liberal-india/ https://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/book-review-the-shifting-scales-of-justice-the-supreme-court-in-neo-liberal-india/ https://barandbench.com/new-appointments-national-green-tribunal-unconstitutional-judicial-independence/?_branch_match_id=709144027720293519 https://barandbench.com/new-appointments-national-green-tribunal-unconstitutional-judicial-independence/?_branch_match_id=709144027720293519 https://barandbench.com/new-appointments-national-green-tribunal-unconstitutional-judicial-independence/?_branch_match_id=709144027720293519 https://www.news18.com/news/india/four-environmental-rules-diluted-in-2018-that-will-have-an-impact-next-year-and-beyond-1984047.html https://www.news18.com/news/india/four-environmental-rules-diluted-in-2018-that-will-have-an-impact-next-year-and-beyond-1984047.html https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/india-ranks-177-out-of-180-in-environmental-performance-index/article22513016.ece [213] manshi asher environment/india-ranks-177-out-of-180-in-environmental-performanceindex/article22513016.ece. lohman, larry. 2019. ―neoliberalism, law and nature.‖ in research handbook on law, environment, edited by philippe cullet and sujith koonan, 32–63. united kingdom: edward elgar publications. mate, manoj. 2015. ―the rise of judicial governance in the supreme court of india.‖ boston university international law journal 33: 169. pal, sumedha. 2019. ―niyamgiri anti-mining struggle: brutal repression by odisha govt continues.‖ newsclick, august 21. https://www.newsclick.in/niyamgiri-antimining-struggle-activists-arrest-vedanta-odisha-government. roy brototi. 2019. ―environmental rights have been denuded.‖ the hindu businessline, november 6. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/environmental-rightshave-been-denuded/article29890867.ece. thayyil, naveen. 2009. ―judicial fiats and contemporary enclosures.‖ conservation and society 7 (4): 268–282. https://www.newsclick.in/niyamgiri-anti-mining-struggle-activists-arrest-vedanta-odisha-government https://www.newsclick.in/niyamgiri-anti-mining-struggle-activists-arrest-vedanta-odisha-government https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/environmental-rights-have-been-denuded/article29890867.ece https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/environmental-rights-have-been-denuded/article29890867.ece ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 1–2, july 2018 editorial analysing human–nature interactions: allowing for multiple agents and power structures kanchan chopra  in the second issue of the journal, we address a range of issues and methodological approaches, continuing with the perspective of a transdisciplinary, pluralistic approach to interactions between society and nature. we begin with a focus on environmental issues (other than climate change) that have captured media attention in the recent past. given our vantage point of south asia, so-called ‘local’ issues such as air pollution and water governance as well as issues related to urban conglomerations seem to be in the forefront. in the ‘conversations’ section, experts reflect on different approaches to the first two, air and water. how did academics of different persuasions seek policy solutions to these? we were proffered a range of solutions for air pollution, ranging from those based on technology to those involving paradigm changes in models of development and convergence between different governing entities. in the case of water, the call is again for integration of ecological perspectives into water governance and for a reshaping of the ossified structures of governance at both the national and global level. better convergence among science, policy, and governance structures is called for to tackle effectively these pressing local issues. urban conglomerations and the manner of their evolution is the topic of a thematic essay as well as of one of the ‘notes from the field’. these contributions highlight the lack of convergence between social and ecological imperatives. in the spirit of ‘political ecology’, these contributions seek to analyse and throw light on, rather than guide, policy. the picture  coordinating editor (2017–18). former director and professor, institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007; choprakanchan14@gmail.com. copyright © chopra 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.30 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.30 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] that emerges is one of changing landscapes in a scenario driven by power, both political and economic. and a course correction would need to address these levers of change. the ‘commentary’ and ‘research papers’ sections elucidate methodological issues in the context of future and present research. perrings and kinzig investigate the link between biological conservation and economic theory, illustrating how early formulations of the conservation problem in economic theory deepened the understanding of the aims and objectives of conservation biology. in his commentary, liu holds that a ‘metacoupling’ between human and natural factors (with due understanding of ‘agents, causes, and effects’) both locally and across space holds the key to progress in understanding economy–human relationships. it will also enable the achieving of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) of the united nations by clarifying the nature of association between ecosystems and people—both those adjacent and those far removed in space. interestingly, the research paper included in this issue also examines interrelationships between an ecosystem and the people living within it, using scenario analysis with a system dynamics approach. the rapid growth of an invasive species in an ecosystem alters its dynamics; and the paper examines how alternative policy scenarios, such as removal of the invasive species, impact it. another evocative contribution comes from critical analysis of the deliberations of two conferences, both presenting a spectrum of issues and concerns. in sum, this issue of ecology, economy and society–the journal of insee presents alternative ways of looking at the human–nature link. some contributions introduce unequal distribution of power and wealth and outdated governance structures into the picture. it is a heady mix, which we hope will encourage further analytical thinking and research on these issues—across different kinds of ecosystems, located within diverse political and social systems. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 117–120, april 2018 report the duke kunshan conference on environmental justice and sustainable citizenship, 22–24 may 2017 amita baviskar  in the past decade, the environmental humanities have emerged as an exciting new rubric for examining relations between nature and culture. in large part, this development stems from the consolidation of the idea of the anthropocene as an unprecedented epoch that demands new ways of thinking. it is widely agreed that the anthropocene collapses the conventional separation of humans from their environment, and that its crisis of climate change calls for new forms of interdisciplinary work. due to this epistemological emphasis, the environmental humanities have come into their own as a field that brings together the natural sciences, philosophy, literary criticism, history, geography, anthropology, and art in an attempt to integrate discussions that have hitherto occurred in largely separate spheres. so far, discussions organized under the banner of the environmental humanities have generally occurred in north america and europe, geographical loci that have shaped the character of the conversation as well. recognizing the limits of a eurocentric dialogue, even across disciplines, the university of cape town in south africa has started an environmental humanities programme that tries to include perspectives from the global south. however, scholars of asian societies, and those based in asia, have been slow to follow this lead even though this large continent, with its rich and varied ecologies and cultures, is fertile ground for delving into the subject.  institute of economic growth, delhi university enclave, delhi 110007, amita.baviskar@gmail.com copyright © baviskar 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.27 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.27 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] to address this gap, the global asia initiative at duke university, together with duke kunshan university, held a conference on environmental justice and sustainable citizenship in may 2017. the meeting brought together scholars and practitioners who work on environmental questions in china and india from a variety of disciplinary perspectives for three days of informative and stimulating discussion. the conference aimed at starting a dialogue on comparable and connected issues regarding the environment in china and india, asia’s largest nation-states on the highway of economic growth, whose ecological footprints will have an overwhelming impact on the future of the anthropocene. prasenjeet duara conceptualized and designed the conference. in keeping with the commitment to highlight asian concerns as well as conceptual frames, duara focused on ‘sustainable citizenship’, arguing that human welfare, or the right of citizens to develop their capabilities to the fullest, still constitutes the unfinished agenda of public action in the continent. unlike the global north—where levels of affluence enable most citizens to lead lives of relative comfort, dignity, and freedom—china and india still struggle to achieve social and economic well-being for many of their citizens. both countries contend with extreme inequalities within their populations and ever-larger ecological burdens that are disproportionately borne by the underclass. ‘ecological justice’, thus, emerges as a critical theme with which sustainable citizenship must be coupled. since political and epistemological differences sometimes make it difficult to directly engage with either ‘sustainable citizenship’ or ‘environmental justice’ across asia, the conference was careful to include a range of voices and vocabularies to address these themes. at the same time, the conference organizers recognized that the articulation of the problem in terms of citizenship and justice—concepts that transnational academic discourses usually derive from western political philosophy—needs to be critically examined from the perspectives afforded by different philosophical traditions and political histories. the conference began by focusing on contemporary urbanization in china and india, a process that encapsulates the pursuit of economic growth and prosperity and the persistent inequalities and ecological problems associated with it. in his overview of urbanization, michael douglass inserted climate change into the picture, complicating conventional analytical frames about environment and development. ka-ming wu and amita baviskar examined urban ecologies from the perspectives of migrant workers in beijing and delhi. they considered those displaced from rural areas and the systemic biases they encounter in cities—denied their civic rights while compelled to labour in insecure, ill-paid, jobs as waste recyclers, rickshaw pullers, vendors, and domestic workers. environmental injustice in rural china was [119] amita baviskar the subject of ralph litzinger’s paper on coal mining and its burden of disease and death, aspects that are not considered when discussing energy choices in the context of climate change. climate change has altered the conversation not only around cities but also around water. now that dynamic hydraulic processes seem even more uncertain, efforts to capture and control water have accelerated. in a paper that resonated with indian experiences, pichamon yeophantong looked at chinese dam-building in cambodia and myanmar, its environmental and social impacts, and the counter-strategies used by anti-dam campaigns. arupjyoti saikia described the changing landscape of the brahmaputra basin and its current challenges. chris courtney focused on the industrialization of the farm-fisheries complex in the yangtze wetlands and the catastrophic advance of an invasive crayfish species. how human interventions create new opportunities and vulnerabilities for animals and plants was also the subject of jeffrey nicolaisen’s paper on the galluscene (the age of the domestic fowl), which discussed the environmental humanities injunction to replace human-centric analytical frames with multispecies ethnography. pradip krishen traced the career of prosopis juliflora, a hardy tree from central america that has taken over large parts of arid and semi-arid india, and described his work as an ecological gardener struggling to restore indigenous flora in degraded landscapes. yuan-chih lung addressed the threats faced by giant pandas due to natural events such as gregarious bamboo flowering and human-led habitat destruction. rapid and uncontrollable ecological change can evoke a range of responses. robert weller showed how the destruction of village temples and graves on the urban periphery has shaken the spiritual ecosystem, leading to pioneering species of religious practices that seek to establish themselves on disturbed ground. chris coggins described the revival of village-managed fengshui forests, sacred groves whose belief systems had been suppressed during the maoist period, while jianhua ayoe wang showed how sacred landscapes coincided with more recently constituted nature reserves. sam geall discussed the rise of environmental journalism in china and the negotiation of new partnerships between the state, corporations, and ngos. erika weinthal explored the motivations of ‘citizen-scientists’, or local volunteers mapping human-wildlife conflicts in rajasthan. kathinka fürst outlined how air pollution in china has provoked artists and filmmakers. william schaefer presented the work of chinese photographers zhang jin and zhang kechun, whose techniques and artistic tactics mirror the altered states of nature on which they focus. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] among other topics discussed at the conference were the philosophical roots of animal activism (papers by chia-ju chang and haiyan lee); colonialism and the climate change debate (rohan d’souza); the insertion of dalits into environmentalist narratives (mukul sharma); and the relationship between the material properties of wood and its social and cultural life (meena khandelwal). as the first attempt to chart the diverse elements that may be combined to constitute the environmental humanities in asia, this was a remarkable endeavour that, wisely, did not end by attempting to tie everything together. instead, it concluded with a visit to the historic water town of suzhou where the multiple threads of conversations from the conference could be continued over dinner. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 141–146, january 2020 book review interdisciplinarity and the challenges of environmental sensemaking ramya k tella  a elliott, j cullis and v damodaran, eds. 2017. climate change and the humanities: historical, philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches to the contemporary environmental crisis. london: palgrave macmillan. isbn: 978-1137-55123-8, pp. 271 + xii, inr 7602 (hardbound). climate change has been described as the archetypal ―wicked problem‖ — as one that ―does not lend itself to a solution‖ (hulme 2009, 334, 359). in several ways, the phenomenon of climate change, in fact, reflects in an intense and unprecedented manner the socio-cultural (hulme 2015) and moral (gardiner 2006) dilemmas of the present. climate change and the humanities: historical, philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches to the contemporary environmental crisis published subsequent to a momentous event — the signing of the paris agreement (2016) — makes a powerful case for recantering the criticality of the humanities in the debates over climate change and global warming.  phd candidate, department of geography, king‘s college london, bush house, 30 aldwych, london, uk, wc2b 4bg; ramya.tella@kcl.ac.uk copyright © tella 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.100 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.100 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] the organisation of the chapters in this volume reinforces the significance of knowing the environment through the overlapping frames of the past, present and future: the discussions presented by the contributors emphasise the plurality of human experience while drawing attention to the contradictions and perils of the homogenous discourses on climate change. through its investigations into the historical, moral, cultural, political and philosophical underpinnings of knowing climate, the volume consciously sets itself apart from the echo chamber of solution-oriented discourses of ―‗actionable‘ knowledge‖ (p. 9). the volume illustrates that there is ample evidence from history that situates the environment within the realm of the literary and philosophical imaginations, among other fields. for example, this is borne out in accounts of the relationships that are forged between nature and culture in literature and in the political tensions these denote, as groom convincingly argues in a chapter titled, ‗plastic daffodils: the pastoral, the picturesque, and cultural environmentalism‘. by referring to the specific cases of william wordsworth‘s poem, ‗i wandered lonely as a cloud‘, and james thomson‘s ‗the seasons‘, the author offers an illustrative account of the cultural construction of environments and the weather. groom even shows that these poems were designed to bring about a shift in the type of literary pleasure that readers derived — from a vicarious experiencing of landscapes to a search for physical immersion. yet, as the author suggests, a critical examination of the literature is incomplete without an acknowledgment of the prevalent socio-economic and political forces of the time — the landed class in 18th century england — that shaped how landscapes were ultimately represented in both the pastoral and picturesque strands of english poetry. notably, processes of enclosure for instance, were neglected by the poets, who instead leaned towards a romanticisation of the ―deserted landscape‖ as the poetic norm (p. 125). while the appeal of idyllic desertion occupied the imaginations of literary figures past, the contemporary genre of cli-fi (short for climate fiction), as ryle shows in ‗cli-fi? literature, ecocriticism, history‘, relies on methods of socio-cultural and historical distantiation to interesting effects — of a sense of awe and rapture that is similar to what might be experienced in evocations of a sublime nature. ryle‘s critique of the cli-fi genre is located in a consideration of environmental history and the global politics of development, where the author indicates that the framing of climate change as a future event obscures the marginalised geographies of the global present. through a strong sub-thematic emphasis on the temporal politics of environmental citizenship, the author offers insights on margaret [143] ramya k tella atwood‘s ‗oryx and crake‘ (2004), a notable work of speculative fiction, and ian mcewan‘s fictional work, ‗solar‘ (2010). literature, as an arena for creative conversation on climate change, is closely interlinked with questions of ethics and philosophy. atwood‘s work, as ryle shows, engages with this through a problematisation of consumerism and the capitalist mode of production. this chapter is complemented by calder‘s investigation of the philosophies of climate, davies‘ work on futures, and mulgan‘s evaluation of the ‗broken world‘ scenario through a rawlsian framework. calder makes a central ―distinction between philosophy applied to the environment and environmental philosophy‖ (p. 170), and provides a direction for further research in the area by revisiting some key scholarly contributions to questions of nature and culture. viewed in relation to the need for ―situatedness‖ in understandings of environment (bäckstrand 2004, 706), the foundations for comprehensive climate philosophies may be expanded by revisiting critiques of modernity and institutionalised discourses through the frameworks of non-western norms, philosophical traditions and imaginations. these areas of philosophy and ethics in climate discourses also intersect with conversations on aesthetics — a point that brady persuasively makes in ‗climate change and future aesthetics‘, in order to draw attention to the temporal implications of climate change and its linkages to perceptions of diverse landscapes. most pertinently, the author argues that climate change need not result in a devaluation of aesthetics, but could rather be viewed as ushering in a shift in the aesthetic calculus of societies, in ways that support ideas of both loss and gain. formulations of loss and gain, as too of environmental aesthetics, are informed by broader historical narratives which prompt an examination of the epistemic politics of climate change. in ‗the importance of the humanities to the climate change debate‘, elliott and cullis observe that the emergence of interest in climate is not a recent phenomenon — on the contrary, they show that accounts of it are found distributed across the annals of history. early philosophical writings, designs for colonial expansion and narratives of environmental determinism are all part of a historical corpus of imaginings about the climate. the authors illustrate that the dominant discourse of climate change, with its focus on the universality and objectivity of scientific knowledge, has led to the erasure of other situated, and equally legitimate, epistemic domains. they show that the persistence of a dichotomous categorisation of knowledge into ―utilitarian‖ and ―esoteric‖ strands (p. 21), as pertaining to science and the humanities respectively, impacts on any project for the diversification of climate change ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [144] discourse, and as this chapter shows, reflects the hegemonic undertow of global politics. the chapters in this volume offer nuanced and detailed perspectives on the challenges of knowing and representing climate change. they reveal that a far more complex rendering of climate can be achieved by engaging with the humanities than any story that is exclusively generated by science. in ‗understanding climate change historically‘, staley shows how a critical approach to the politics of knowledge production is germane to a wider discussion on the relevance of historical analysis in scientific research. the anthropocene constitutes an important frame within this debate, where the historian of science occupies a unique position — as a narrator who is able to address ―scientists‘ histories‖ while contributing to ―historians‘ histories‖ (p.46). what this chapter, and the others in the volume collectively emphasize, are questions of who, what, where, when, how and why, in the languages of climate change. these questions also pervade the sphere of climate change communication, where happer, in ‗belief in change: the role of media and communications in driving action on climate change‘, explains how climate skepticism is given monetary encouragement by american and british corporations with vested interests. a considerable part of the current discourse on climate change in the western media points to the complexities of navigating campaigns of disinformation. happer‘s chapter, in particular, captures the subtleties of these discourses through primary data. in a striking exploration of the why aspect of skepticism, the author shows, through the accounts of a set of research respondents, that their stances have more to do with a lack of faith in political actors and democratic procedure, than with a repudiation of the phenomenon of climate change itself. the core arguments made by the author about the ―circuit of communication‖ (p. 191) on climate change, may also be useful to revisit in the light of recent global civic mobilisation against climate change inaction and the need for a historical contextualisation of environmental concern. one important example of the history of environmental concern (and alarm) is to be found in grove‘s account of early environmental legislation on the island of st. vincent in the caribbean. in ‗the culture of islands and the history of environmental concern‘, the author shows how the passage of the kings hill forest act (1791) was situated in a climatic theory of sustainability, which subsequently shaped colonial era legislations particularly in island states through an emphasis on ―desiccationism‖ (p. 72). this form of environmentalism was supported by a tripartite structure of knowledge production and circulation that comprised: the [145] ramya k tella ―professionalisation of science‖ through the identification of experts; the formation of global information networks, such as in the field of botany; and, the collection of experiential information on degradation in the island states (p. 72). in critical ways, the contributions to this volume collectively emphasise the need for the humanities to engage with the idea of climate across scales in a historical context. imaginings of climate gain ―persuasive power‖ (jasanoff 2010, 236) from their ability to attend to the discursive and material particularities of heterogeneous locales. in ‗the locality in the anthropocene: perspectives on the environmental history of eastern india‘, damodaran articulates this idea in a compelling way through an investigation of locality and indigenous subjectivity in eastern india. the key sites in this chapter —jharkhand and orissa, both states marked by high levels of poverty — contain natural resources and minerals that have been the focus of extractive multi-national corporations. these are also sites that continue to bear witness to state violence against adivasi and peasant communities, alongside the intensification of armed struggle by naxalites. damodaran‘s account of the environmental history of this region raises important questions about the construction of indigenous identities in the present, historical claims to space, state responsibility and the institutionalisation of violence. by travelling between the concepts of locality and landscape, the author also implicitly offers a distinctive theoretical direction to negotiations of space and place in environmental history, with possibilities for creative theorisation in future research. climate change and the humanities has come at a crucial global moment that appears increasingly to be folding into a lexicon of ―deadline-ism‖ (hulme 2019, 2). the contributions to this volume reassert the centrality of viewing climate change historically, of engaging the humanities in accounts of representative knowledge, and of situating peoples and socio-economic and political undercurrents in narratives of past, present and future. together, they provide an extensive overview of a set of cross-temporal environmental themes and make a forceful case for interdisciplinary conversations on climate change. references bäckstrand, k. 2004. ―scientisation vs. civic expertise in environmental governance: eco-feminist, eco-modern and post-modern responses.‖ environmental politics 13 (4): 695-714. https://doi.org/10.1080/0964401042000274322 https://doi.org/10.1080/0964401042000274322 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] gardiner, s.m. 2006. ―a perfect moral storm: climate change, intergenerational ethics and the problem of moral corruption.‖ environmental values 15 (3): 397-413. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327106778226293 hulme, m. 2009. why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. new york: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511841200 hulme, m. 2015. ―climate and its changes: a cultural appraisal.‖ geo: geography and environment 2 (1): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.5 hulme, m. 2019. is it too late (to stop dangerous climate change)? an editorial. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: climate change, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.619 jasanoff, s. 2010. ―a new climate for society.‖ theory, culture & society 27 (2-3): 233-253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409361497 https://doi.org/10.3197/096327106778226293 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511841200 https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.5 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.619 https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409361497 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 121–123, april 2018 report field notes from the conference of the european society for ecological economics (esee), budapest, hungary, 20–23 june 2017 julien-françois gerber  after a few years in south asia, i was able to attend the conference of the european society for ecological economics (esee) in budapest, hungary, 20–23 june 2017, and to reconnect with some of my european colleagues in the field of ecological economics. what follows are best described as personal ‘field notes’ and cannot pretend to be ‘objective’ or comprehensive. among the regional societies for ecological economics, the esee is often seen as the one most closely sticking to the original heterodox roots of ecological economics. clive spash, for example, has convincingly argued that there are noticeable differences between the european and american schools of ecological economics, which are also reflected in their conference programmes. i was thus very curious to see whether the critical spirit of the esee was still alive. before the conference, a summer school was held for junior researchers. after the opening ceremony with esee president irene ring and the subsequent general reception on tuesday evening, the next three days of the conference were intense. there were several morning keynotes, parallel panel sessions, poster presentations, and then afternoon keynotes and additional parallel panel sessions. it was, thus, a constant struggle to decide—between nine simultaneous panels—which had the most interesting and relevant presentations.  international institute of social studies (iss), the hague, the netherlands; gerber@iss.nl copyright © gerber 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.28 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.28 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] overall, the conference presented a few salient features. first, it was very interdisciplinary. this point was emphasized in the conference’s introductory text: ‘academic and practitioner communities must enact meaningful participative and mutually empowering activities across disciplines and different knowledge systems.’ accordingly, individual presentations ranged from quantitative models of energy transitions to the role of emotions in ecological economics, and included several presentations on social movements, and even one on the neglected treatment of prisons in ecological economics. as a response to this thematic variety, no less than eight parallel panel sessions dealt with the problems of interdisciplinarity. ecological economics as ‘the science of sustainability’ (r. costanza) has to be at the forefront of interdisciplinary thinking. secondly, the conference sought to have an impact in promoting critical policies. the introductory text of the conference specified that ‘ecological economics can contribute to generating inclusive and reflective research in a number of ways: as transformative science; as advocacy for non-human beings and future generations; [and] as advocacy for environmental and social justice.’ this emphasis on advocacy was palpable throughout the conference. the organizers explicitly defined ecological economics as being transformative not only at the social level but also, interestingly, at the individual level (its insights ‘aim to encourage pathways to individual, collective and institutional change’). this welcoming attitude towards psychological and relational insights was observable in several presentations. third, the conference remained firmly heterodox in its outlook. the programme did not include any presentation framed along the standard standpoint of (neoclassical) environmental economics with its monodisciplinary focus on general equilibrium models with external costs. in europe, authors working along this line share their work at the conferences of the european association of environmental and resource economists (eaere), not at the esee. in this way, it would not be wrong to say that the esee maintains aspects of the non-orthodox spirit of the founding fathers like n. georgescu-roegen, k.w. kapp, k. boulding, c.s. holling, and e.f. schumacher. the ‘hot topics’ at the esee this year were related to (1) fundamental reflections on the identity of ‘socio-ecological economics’ as an interdisciplinary field of inquiry (as mentioned above); (2) the quest for degrowth alternatives; (3) socio-metabolic analyses; (4) energy transitions; and (5) payments for ecosystem services. this last topic—payment for ecosystem services—has always been an area of scientific and ethical contention within esee members and, of course, [123] julien-françois gerber among ecological economists worldwide. some ecological economists are sceptical about the possibility and soundness of commodifying ecosystem services, but others pragmatically embrace the idea. this opposition was exemplified this year in the diverging keynote lectures of erik gómezbaggethun, who was generally critical of payments for ecosystem services, and unai pascual, who was in favour of some of them. i was surprised, and pleased, to see the remarkable scientific and policy effort mobilized by european ecological economists towards clarifying and seeking ways of implementing a de-growth project. there were no less than twelve parallel panel sessions dealing with different aspects of de-growth or post-growth, such as the possible effects on employment, the role of technologies, public opinion about it, or the link with environmental justice movements. it really is the hot topic! besides the well-known critique of gdp as a useful indicator, there are today three main post-growth currents in ecological economics: de-growth, a-growth, and steady-state economics. de-growth promotes a ‘civilizational change’ towards a society with a smaller metabolism but, more importantly, towards a society with a metabolism that has a different structure and serves new functions. these new structure and functions are aimed at enhancing localized, democratic, and equitable economies, where material accumulation no longer holds a prime position in the population’s value systems. a-growth, for its part, is agnostic about growth: welfare and sustainable targets should be carefully defined, and whether these targets require growth is simply irrelevant. and steady-state economics promotes nongrowing societies based on a stable material and energy throughput and a stable population. european ecological economists work mostly on degrowth, often around joan martinez-alier and, to a lesser extent, on agrowth while american ecological economists are more interested in steadystate economics, frequently around herman daly. but the three approaches can be seen as complementary. this significant momentum of growth-critical approaches is not restricted to western ecological economics; it is triggering debates also in latin america and asia, as exemplified in our forthcoming volume post-growth thinking in india (co-edited by j.-f. gerber and rajeswari s. raina, orient blackswan). at the end, i was relieved that the esee conferences seem to remain vibrant arenas of debates over some of the most pressing sustainability questions of our time. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 105–111, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india editorial: setting the context jenia mukherjee  the anthropocene and the ―nine planetary boundaries‖ framework have informed, and in turn have been informed by, rigorous quantitative models and in-depth qualitative studies across global, regional, and local units of analyses.1 contemporary water research, by critically revisiting existing ontologies and epistemologies with the agenda of addressing ―wicked problems‖, is an advancement in this direction.2 wesslink, kooy, and warner (2017) point out that the motivation to combine disciplinary methodologies and study water from both the natural science and social science perspectives was driven by the need to collectively understand complex and interdependent water-related societal challenges. this has led to the emergence of fields such as socio-hydrology and hydrosocial research, which can be considered epistemological departures, as they perceive ―water—and the systems within which it flows—as both social and natural‖ (wesslink, kooy, and warner 2017, 2). however, socio-hydrology and hydrosocial research differ in their methodological designs and applications—the outcomes of their different disciplinary orientations and ideological affiliations. to contextualize hydrological science, socio  guest editor and coordinator for this special section. department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india; jenia@hss.iitkgp.ac.in. copyright © mukherjee 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.221 1 the nine planetary boundaries include: climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading, biogeochemical flows: interference with p and n cycles, global freshwater use, land-system change, rate of biodiversity loss and chemical pollution (rockström et al. 2009). 2 problems are ―wicked‖ when they are multi-layered, interconnected, difficult to define or delineate, cannot be solved with quick fixes or technical solutions, and keep reappearing time and again unless perceived as a composite whole and addressed at their roots (rittel and webber 1973). https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.221 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] hydrology often relies on quantitative or mathematical modelling to represent the water–human relationship. on the other hand, hydrosocial analysis aims to reveal how power operates in water–society connections, and how water shapes and is shaped by society (lafaye de micheaux and mukherjee, forthcoming). however, despite the methodological and political challenges of transdisciplinarity (wesselink, kooy, and wagner 2017), through which socio-hydrologists and hydrosocial researchers can actually come up with shared research designs and courses of action, water researchers are now ascribing value to ―disciplinary trespassing‖ (rusca and baldassarre 2019). drawing on their own research experience and expertise, rusca and baldassarre (2019) demonstrate the multiple ways in which different natural science and social science water research frameworks can converge and become compatible and complementary to each other. reflecting on the significance of ―reciprocal learning‖ for water researchers, evers et al. (2017) have conceptualized a ―pluralistic water research‖ approach that is ―integrative and interdisciplinary‖ and which aims to ―coherently and comprehensively integrate human-water dimensions‖. the south asian water scene is huge and diverse, leading to the exploration and analysis of complex problems using natural science and social science approaches, such as socio-hydrology, environmental history, and political ecology (including hydrosocial studies).3 while transdisciplinarity is yet to emerge in india (with the exception of very recent large-scale projects that have brought hydrologists and social scientists together—for example, atcha and equip), contemporary social science-based water research is limited to the analysis of power relations among multiple actors, much like the mainstream political ecology of water (mukherjee 2020).4 this is problematic, as there is ―something distinct to water, to water experiences and water knowledges in asia‖ (baghel, stepan, and hill 2017, 2). this special section advances alternative new epistemologies of water (new) within the south asian—and particularly the indian context. in the opening article, ―knowledge others, others‘ knowledge‖, lahiridutt clearly explains why new is imperative for the global south. she 3 the socio-hydrological framework is still novel in the indian context, with very few case studies to date (wescoat 2013; srinivasan 2015; nüsser et al. 2019). a detailed historiography on water social science paradigms is available in mukherjee (2018). 4 the atcha project (https://www6.inrae.fr/atcha/presentation) combines an integrated biophysical model with a participatory approach that aims to help farming systems adapt to climate change in a network of experimental watersheds in karnataka, india. the eu-india sponsored equip project (2019–2022), which aims to analyse ―fluid governance‖ paradigms in the rhone and ganga deltas, comprises an interdisciplinary, international team of geomorphologists, political ecologists, historians, cultural studies researchers, and critical physical geographers. https://www6.inrae.fr/atcha/presentation https://www6.inrae.fr/atcha/presentation [107] jenia mukherjee critically interrogates the hegemony of western epistemology, where water is commodified into ―modern water‖ (linton 2010) or ―normal water‖ (schmidt 2017), abstracted from social, political, and cultural dimensions. the author talks about the need to transcend a singular ―way of knowing‖ water by recognizing alternative forms, and thus postulates ―an antihegemonic ecology of knowledges‖ (p. 121). based on her study of the lives of islanders ―dancing with rivers‖ in bengal, lahiri-dutt evolves her theoretical conviction, which finds strong manifestation in her arguments. with her expertise and strong grasp of ethno-theoretical discourse, lahiridutt discusses the need for, and potential of, feminist epistemologies using examples from global projects—such as the sustainable development investment portfolio (sdip) at the commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation (csiro), australia—to provide directions through which gender can be integrated into the study of rivers and riverine communities. moreover, spatial diversities and specificities (like tropical-deltaic materialities), coupled with rich customary practices and traditions, underlie socio–water enmeshings that need to be unveiled, understood, documented, and analysed for both academic and policy interventions as well as the intersections between the two. mukherjee and ghosh apply the ―hydrosocial‖ lens to the chars (riverine islands) of the lower ganga basin in the malda and murshidabad districts, west bengal, to capture the microrealities of everyday life and livelihood dynamics in the ―muddyscapes‖. they question western knowledge of ―solid‖ (land) and ―liquid‖ (flowing waters) to formulate a ―fluid epistemology‖ and enrich the ―hydrosocial‖ through the proposition of the ―hydro(sediment)social‖ that incorporates complex interactions between water, society, and mud. the article advances why and how it is imperative to rethink sediment beyond their physicalgeomorphological existence and as social sites of interaction. it activates the agency of sediment by not only understanding it as an emblem of uncertainties and volatilities, but also as a zone of opportunity and possibility bestowed with rich ecosystem services and the collective resilience of the choruas (islanders; people inhabiting chars). sen, unnikrishnan, and nagendra‘s article on ―imperilled waterscapes‖ uses history and political ecology to provide a long-term narrative of social and ecological change in bengaluru‘s lake system, with a particular focus on bellandur lake, the largest lake in the city. the major systemic change that the article discusses is a rupture in the connectivity between lakes, which has caused a reversal in both the imagination and reality of the lake from a ―flowing‖ to a ―static‖ network of water. using historical sources such as inscriptions, archival records, historical maps, oral history interviews, and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] primary fieldwork spanning the past six years, the authors document urban waters and identify rapid urbanization as the main cause that led to these water bodies losing their connectivity and the reason for their physical transformation into stagnant, isolated pools of water in different parts of bengaluru. the article familiarizes readers with ancient stories, myths, legends, and practices surrounding bellandur lake, and re-contextualizes water within social and cultural systems. modern infrastructure, like piped water and sewage disposal systems, not only led to the drying up of these lakes and their transformation into sewage-filled water bodies, but also altered the cultural practices associated with them. the authors lament that protest and petition drives remain sporadic; isolated and compartmentalized attempts to restore particular lakes have failed as the significance of lakes as an interconnected system has already lost ground, leading to ―a lack of systemic engagement with the dynamics of this complex social-ecological system‖ (p. 132). by making ―invisible epistemologies of water visible again‖ (p. 133) through historical and ethnographic narratives, the authors emphasize the role of lakes as ―systems‖ in augmenting urban environmental resilience. new not only acknowledges the need to broaden and enrich the vista of indian water research by unravelling multi-layered and interdependent historical and political complexities and cultural specificities, but it also introduces integrated frameworks through which this can be scientifically done. combining political ecology and mésologie, lafaye de micheaux and kull imagine a new ―environmental geography of rivers‖ to capture how both the ideas and materialities of rivers operate in the contemporary social order. the article chronicles diverse ways of knowing rivers across historical conjectures, from antiquity through the renaissance and to contemporary times. the authors demonstrate how post-modernist approaches emerging since the 1980s are a departure from the long-lasting modernist perspective. post-modern scholars have revisited and reconceptualized the complex relations between objects and subjects and humans and non-humans, focussing on hybrids instead, with binaries and boundaries becoming dysfunctional. the post-modern moment facilitated ―non-modern‖ ontological and epistemological ruptures, evident in contemporary water research frameworks like political ecology (more specifically the ―hydrosocial‖) and mésologie. while the political ecological perspective enables researchers to account for the dialectical and internal relation between water and society, mésologie, propounded by the french geo-philosopher augustin berque, focuses on the ―milieu‖, which is simultaneously physical, ecological, and based on human interpretation (berque 2014). the authors argue that by integrating these two frameworks, emotions and attachments [109] jenia mukherjee towards rivers can be understood as embedded within the strategic field of power relations. they discuss the significance of applying ―hydrocosmological‖ and ―mesopolitical‖ lenses, draw our attention to case studies, and explain why and how indian rivers—like the ganga—offer the most appropriate context for analysis along these lines. new also brings hydroculturality to the fore in an empirical manner through field realities and shows how the indic perspective shapes our ―pre-modern‖ (non-western) water perceptions. dasgupta‘s article on the sundarbans deploys the water culture lens to underline the evolution of human history through the propulsion of religious water customs. dasgupta reflects on water-centric quotidian actualities through nuanced readings of oral histories collected from the field and examines their relation to the local religious literature. by analysing regional narratives and customary practices in relation to the local religious culture, as evident in the folklore and traditions of the sundarbans delta, the article explores cultural and historical imaginations surrounding water that influence—and, in turn, are determined by—the island archipelagos and their inhabitants. the application of the ―hydrocultural‖ framework enables us to know and understand the multiple ways through which water and cultural practices have shaped each other historically; this provides an opportunity to rethink the aqua-centrism of communities at the margins of social development. mukhopadhyay and choudry‘s article on ―indic hydro-epistemologies‖ explores the sacrality (and secrecy) of things revealed by water, i.e., visible, tangible gifts and assets, and things hidden in water, such as tactile experiences. it deliberately focuses on those sacred functions of water in the indic traditions ―that often escape our critical gaze‖ (p. 168). the authors analyse the limits of western theoretical frameworks, like eliade‘s ―hierophany‖ or taylor‘s ―sea spirituality‖, to capture the complexity of indic religious cultures, as ―the spectrum of the sacred is bafflingly wide and all-pervasive‖ (p. 163). by drawing attention to the array of sacred things in indic cultures that are both revealed by water and hidden in it— like the conch shell, bana linga, svarnamukhi shila, shaligrama shila, and petrified body parts of goddess sati—the authors contribute to the hydroepistemology of sacred things, where water does not remain restricted as an object of worship, but engages in an active play with the very epistemes of sacrality. 5 5 bana linga, also known as svayambhu (i.e. self-born) linga, is an ellipsoid stone worshipped by hindus. the stone symbolizes lord shiva, the supreme god of power in the hindu trinity (brahma-vishnu-maheshwar). the stone is commonly found in the bed of the narmada river in madhya pradesh, india. svarnamukhi shila is the natural divine stone obtained from the swarnamukhi river in andhra pradesh. and, shaligrama shila, collected https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ellipsoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/narmada_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/madhya_pradesh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/india ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] new in india aims to transcend the political to reach and move towards the plural by making invisible feedback loops—which are embedded in our rituals, belief systems, coping practices, and power hierarchies—visible. these short articles are appetizers and avenues, provoking fresh empirical investigations and methodological innovations that lead towards larger theoretical frameworks that can be applied at scale. new is also ambitious and politically committed to advancing theoretical understandings on water beyond academia through reciprocal and mutual learning among academic and ―non-academic‖ sectors (like policy circles, civil society, user groups, and others) towards a just, democratic, and resilient transformation along challenging yet possible lines of transition from epistemology (or epistemic pluralities) to (multiple) axiology. references baghel, ravi, lea stepan, and joseph k. w. hill. 2017. water, knowledge and the environment in asia: epistemologies, practices and locales. london: earthscan. berque, augustin. 2014. la mésologie, pourquoi et pour quoi faire ? nanterre: presses universitaires de paris ouest. evers, mariele, britta höllermann, adrian delos santos almoradie, glenda garcia santos, and linda taft. 2017. ―the pluralistic water research concept: a new human-water system research approach.‖ water 9: 933. https://doi.org/10.3390/w9120933. jr. wescoat, james l. 2013. ―reconstructing the duty of water: a study of emergent norms in socio-hydrology.‖ hydrology and earth system sciences 17 (12): 4759–4768. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-4759-2013. lafaye de micheaux, flore, and jenia mukherjee. forthcoming: 2021. ―groundwater and society: enmeshed issues, interdisciplinary approaches.‖ in global groundwater: source, scarcity, sustainability, security and solutions, edited by a. mukherjee, b. scanlon, a. aureli, s. langan, h. guo, and a. mckenzie. usa: elsevier. linton, jamie. 2010. what is water? the history of a modern abstraction. vancouver: ubc press. mukherjee, jenia. 2018. ―from hydrology to hydrsosocial: historiography of waters in india.‖ in routledge handbook of the history of sustainability, edited by j. l. caradonna, 254–72. oxon, uk: routledge. mukherjee, jenia. 2020. blue infrastructures: natural history, political ecology and urban development in india. singapore: springer. from river-beds, refers to a fossilized shell worshipped by the adherents of the vaishnava cult, the devotees of the lord vishnu. https://doi.org/10.3390/w9120933 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-4759-2013 [111] jenia mukherjee nüsser, marcus, juliane dame, benjamin kraus, ravi baghel, and susanne schmidt. 2019. ―socio-hydrology of ‗artificial glaciers‘ in ladakh, india: assessing adaptive strategies in a changing cryosphere.‖ regional environmental change 19: 1327–1337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1372-0. rittel, horst j. w., and melvin m. webber. 1973. ―dilemmas in a general theory of planning.‖ policy sciences 4: 155–169. rockström, johan, will steffen, kevin noone, asa persson, f. stuart iii chapin et al. 2009. ―planetary boundaries: exploring the safe operating space for humanity.‖ ecology and society 14 (2): 32. rusca, maria, and guiliano di baldassarre. 2019. ―interdisciplinary critical geographies of water: capturing the mutual shaping of society and hydrological flows.‖ water 11 (10): 1973. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101973. schmidt, jeremy j. 2017. water: abundance, scarcity and security in the age of humanity. new york: new york university press. srinivasan, veena. 2015. ―reimagining the past – use of counterfactual trajectories in socio-hydrological modelling: the case of chennai, india.‖ hydrology and earth system sciences 19: 785–801. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19785-2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1372-0 https://doi.org/10.3390/w11101973 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-785-2015 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-785-2015 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 197-204, july 2023 insights from the field environmental racism and the global political ecology of industrial disasters mukul kumar* 1. introduction ruby martin’s son, christopher martin colorant, worked in a toxic mercury thermometer factory in the verdant forests of kodaikanal, located in the western ghats of southern india. ruby recalls, “my son started work in 1986. he soon started experiencing blurring of vision, headaches, nausea, and breathlessness. he would hardly eat any food and would often tell me that there were no safety precautions at work” (ipt 2003: 9). at the factory, workers distilled mercury and crushed mercury-contaminated glass, often without being provided adequate protection. when distilled mercury evaporates, it produces a colourless, odourless vapour that disrupts the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. christopher’s work at the factory involved checking toxic thermometers, and his health had worsened by 1989. doctors concluded that christopher’s medical conditions—body swelling and weakness, fainting spells, back pain, vomiting blood, and kidney and lung damage—were due to mercury exposure at the factory. he died at the age of 33. christopher was one of more than 30 workers who died prematurely due to exposure to toxic mercury at the kodaikanal mercury factory, which employed hundreds of fulland part-time workers from 1983 to 2001. the factory’s 25 exhausts also emitted toxic mercury into the atmosphere adjacent to the ecologically sensitive pambar shola forest reserve. as cases of toxic poisoning and fatalities rose, workers and environmental activists campaigned against the factory—at the time owned by unilever, an anglodutch multinational corporation—which, they pointed out, had been illegally dumping mercury in kodaikanal. in response, the tamil nadu pollution control board closed the factory in 2001. yet, to this day, the * assistant professor, urban planning and public policy, university of california, irvine, usa. mukulk@uci.edu copyright © kumar 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1043 mailto:mukulk@uci.edu https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1043 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [198] neurotoxin mercury continues to circulate unevenly within the nervous systems of factory workers as well as in forests through rivers, wildlife, and food chains. ruby’s courageous testimony on behalf of her late son is part of an ongoing struggle to hold unilever accountable. by following the struggles of workers and frontline communities from the forests of kodaikanal to the shareholder meetings of global corporations, i track the ways in which workers, environmental justice organizations, and people’s science movements are challenging the interconnected logics of global capitalism and environmental racism. as activists have demonstrated, unilever’s proposed remediation of kodaikanal failed to follow the more stringent environmental standards of the united kingdom and netherlands, where the company is headquartered. drawing upon community-based analyses of mercury contamination in the factories and forests of kodaikanal, i argue that peoples’ grassroots science—including sampling lichen, moss, water, and sediments—is integral to contesting racialized toxicities and hierarchies. 2. toxic racism environmental racism within the context of kodaikanal does not just refer to the disproportionate impacts of toxic mercury on racial and ethnic minorities, but rather to the foundational role of environmental racism in the political, economic, and social structures that make possible the “global political ecology” of toxic mercury (peet, robbins, and watts 2011). environmental racism—the shifting of toxic waste to the global south and the siting of hazardous industries on the lands of indigenous and frontline communities—is integral to what gill (2021) calls “the political ecology of racial capitalism”. toxic racism is not epiphenomenal to global capitalism but constitutive of contemporary regimes of capital accumulation and dispossession. indeed, the siting of the unilever factory in kodaikanal is part of a long history of shifting toxic burdens to the global south. during the 1980s, as environmental standards improved in the global north, toxic factories and waste were increasingly shifted towards the global south (pellow 2007). in response to this global trend, in 1983, a mercury thermometer factory owned by chesebrough pond, which was originally based in watertown, new york, shifted its production to kodaikanal as a consequence of the promulgation of more stringent environmental standards in the united states. unilever, a multinational company known for its consumer products such as lifebuoy and fair & lovely, acquired the kodaikanal thermometer factory in 1998. much like union carbide’s industrial disaster in bhopal, kodaikanal is a site of what rajan (2001: 384–389) calls “corporate [199] kumar violence”, where unilever has constantly denied its role in harming workers’ health and the environment. yet, a detailed report by the ministry of labour and employment (2011: 127) concluded that workers and their newborn children have suffered a range of illnesses: skin problems, tremors and knee pain, loss of memory and teeth, irregular menstrual periods, infertility, and premature births, among others. racial and ethnic minorities in kodaikanal, including adivasi and dalit communities, have been disproportionately exposed to illness, disability, and death. although unilever denied that women worked in the factory’s mercury section, women were indeed employed in the packing area as sweepers and cleaners, including in mercury areas (ministry of labour and employment 2011: 213). environmental racism and the “embodied urban political ecology” (doshi 2017) of mercury are deeply gendered: women confronted not only toxic pollution at the factory but also social discrimination. as shweta narayan (shadaan 2017: 39), a legal researcher involved in the kodaikanal struggle, emphasizes, a lot of women have reported repeated miscarriages, abortions, or children born with severe disability. we have documented cases where women—because they had repeated miscarriages—were abandoned by their husband, or divorced because they could not bear children. there have also been cases where in the event of a child with a disability, the responsibility of the care was primarily on the woman, or cases where the woman and the child with a disability were abandoned and basically turned away from the husband’s family. the case of unilever’s toxic racism in kodaikanal requires an analysis of what ranganathan (2022: 259) calls “environmental unfreedoms in india” and the ways in which “they are sustained along caste, class, and gender lines, and that not infrequently, are death-dealing.” 1 in response to unilever’s environmental racism, activists planned regional and global advocacy campaigns to “build pressure” on unilever’s shareholders and the tamil nadu pollution control board (chennai solidarity group 2018). workers staged peaceful protests outside unilever’s shareholder meeting in mumbai and held up placards exclaiming, “dear unilever shareholders, we made you rich and your company poisoned us!” (the new indian express 2015). after 15 years of struggle, workers and activists announced in 2016 that unilever had settled with 591 former 1 see also guru and sarukkai (2019) and sharma (2022). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [200] mercury workers.2 community-based organizations—the chennai solidarity group, jhatkaa.org, greenpeace, and the other media—spearheaded campaigns that involved not only grassroots protests but also litigation, advocacy reports, and a viral video campaign featuring the tamil rapper, sofia ashraf.3 although unilever has compensated its workers, the campaign is not over: unilever has failed to clean up kodaikanal. “the company’s proposed clean-up”, according to the chennai solidarity group (2018), “will leave behind 20 times more mercury in the soil than is considered safe in the united kingdom, and 66 times more than levels considered safe for soil, plant, and animal life in the netherlands.” unilever’s failed remediation of kodaikanal, which falls woefully short of the standards employed in the united kingdom or the netherlands, is yet another instance of how the global political ecology of toxic mercury is shaped by the logic of environmental racism. 3. people’s science according to unilever’s estimate, 1.2 tonnes of toxic mercury have been discharged into kodaikanal—the home of ecologically sensitive forests and endangered species such as the white-bellied sholakili bird. mercury threatens to seep into the food cycle of the sholakili, which subsist on shield-tailed snakes and cicadas (kumar 2021). yet, there is no publicly available data on how mercury has impacted the food chain. the writer and activist nityanand jayaraman, who has been active in the kodaikanal campaign since 2001, argues, “[a]ny policy for remediation of contaminated sites should be based on sound science. and science is sound when scientists and their work are subject to public scrutiny” (jayaraman 2015). environmental regulators, including the tamil nadu pollution control board, have refused to carry out an independent assessment of the ongoing mercury contamination in kodaikanal. people’s science rooted in place-based knowledges demonstrates how mercury continues to circulate through forests, waterbodies, and villages in the hills and plains through the pambar and varaha rivers. in 2015, community environmental monitoring (cem)—a community-based organization that has also been involved in legal campaigns to hold unilever accountable for its role in the kodaikanal disaster—collected 14 samples of lichen, moss, water, and sediment from 4 locations outside of the factory. conducted according to the guidelines of the bhabha atomic research 2 for an analysis of the limits of legal settlements within the context of industrial disasters, see fortun’s (2001) advocacy after bhopal. 3 see rolling stone india’s (2015) “watch: mumbai-based rapper sofia ashraf’s kodaikanal won’t”. [201] kumar centre in hyderabad, the study indicates high levels of mercury in the moss, sediment, and lichen samples. the cem report is an exemplar of what osborne (2015: 843) calls “public political ecology”—a praxis of community-based knowledge production and earth stewardship—at a “moment of ecological crisis.” while it is difficult to measure the extent of mercury contamination in the air, lichens serve as a measure of atmospheric mercury concentration. lichens do not have roots; they absorb wet and dry matter from the atmosphere, including mercury. the cem (2015: 4) study reveals that lichen sampled in the pambar shola reserve forest contained as much as 53 mg/kg of mercury, which exceeds the threshold of 1 mg/kg, and indicates above-normal mercury background levels. the study also reports that sediment samples—collected from a stream that flowed out of the factory site—contained 1.52 mg/kg of mercury and thus exceeds the higher range of norms used by the us environmental protection agency. once mercury is deposited into waterbodies, it bioaccumulates in flora and fauna across the food chain. the high levels of mercury in sediment samples from the pambar shola suggest that mercury continues to contaminate the shola watershed through the pambar river that “runs through several villages to join the varaha river” (cem 2015: 5). the pambar shola forests are not empty wilderness but an anthropogenic landscape that has long been a source of livelihood, history, and culture for indigenous communities in the western ghats (morrison and lycett, 2014: 159–160). while mercury has now accumulated in the vibrant green and white tissues of the lichens of the pambar shola forest, these lichens have been, and continue to be, integral to the livelihoods of the palaiyar adivasi (indigenous) community who depend upon the sholas. the palaiyar collect edible lichen (kalpasi) growing on rocks and trees, which is used in masala powders for cooking. collecting lichen in forests requires a deep knowledge of the forests and their dangers: from leopards, elephants, and snakes to the risks associated with climbing trees during monsoons. all of this work is done with deep reverence for the forests that make life in kodaikanal possible. as the palaiyar writer, murugeshwari (2022), observes, to collect lichen, the palaiyars use a small chisel (‘uli’ in tamil) to get it off the rocks and trees. when they go into the forest, those who lead the way break and drop small twigs or large leaves to show the way for those who follow. they all gather together and pray to their gods of the forests—asking that they remain safe and also that no damage is done to the forest by them. they are very particular that no harm comes to the sholas and to the animals and birds living in them. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [202] the struggle against unilever’s toxic racism continues. in 2020, unilever clear-felled 425 trees in kodaikanal, which, as ecologists and environmentalists have pointed out, enabled toxic mercury to circulate unevenly across the region (kumar 2021). environmental racism deems particular lives and lands to be worthy of “environmental protection”, while indigenous and frontline communities like the palaiyar adivasis are exposed to toxic mercury. in the words of the chennai solidarity group (2018)— which continues to fight unilever’s use of double standards—kodaikanal remains a site of “unilever’s unending racism”. in kodaikanal, people’s science and place-based knowledges demonstrate how the dangerous accumulation of mercury in lichens—a vital ingredient in the lands, histories, and cultures of the palaiyars—perpetuates interlinked structures of global capitalism and environmental racism, decades after unilever’s thermometer factory closed. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research is available in a repository and the hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. doi or accession number) are stated in the paper. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references chennai solidarity group. 2018. “music video spotlights unilever’s double standards in mercury cleanup.” kodai mercury, june 29, 2018. https://kodaimercury.org/press-release-music-video-spotlights-unilevers-doublestandards-mercury-cleanup/ . community environmental monitoring. 2015. report of lichen, moss and sediment sampling around the premises of hindustan unilever’s mercury thermometer factory in kodaikanal. chennai: the other media. doshi, sapna. 2017. “embodied urban political ecology: five propositions.” area 49(1): 125–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12293 . fortun, kim. 2001. advocacy after bhopal: environmentalism, disaster, and new global orders. chicago: university of chicago 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https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2022.130106 https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2015/jun/30/mercury-pollution-hit-kodai-unilever-ex-workers-protest-at-firms-mumbai-hq-776794.html https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2015/jun/30/mercury-pollution-hit-kodai-unilever-ex-workers-protest-at-firms-mumbai-hq-776794.html https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2015/jun/30/mercury-pollution-hit-kodai-unilever-ex-workers-protest-at-firms-mumbai-hq-776794.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 83–104, july 2020 research paper flood mitigation, climate change adaptation, and technological lock-in in assam robert wasson,  arupjyoti saikia,  priya bansal,  and chong joon chuah  abstract: climate change adaptation requires communities and policymakers to be flexible in order to cope with high levels of uncertainty in climate projections, particularly of precipitation, flood magnitude and frequency, and changing human exposure and vulnerability to floods—which are even less predictable than the climate. most of the world’s major rivers are embanked to ―protect‖ communities from floods. embankments—which represent a significant investment largely of public funds—are a manifestation of the professionalism of engineers and hydrologists. they are also the result of professional and political entrapment and a technological frame that grows in strength (probably non-linearly) by positive feedback to produce technological lock-in. this results in inertia in large sociotechnological systems, with little incentive to adopt more adaptive and flexible solutions, including non-structural measures—such as land-use zoning—even in the face of evidence that structural measures do not always reduce damage and, in some cases, actually make it worse. where embankment breaches are common, damage is likely to increase as climate change induces larger floods, and lock-in and path dependence increase risk. therefore, there is an urgent need for the mitigation of floods through non-structural measures that complement embankments. while  college of science and engineering, james cook university, smithfield; 4878 queensland, australia; fenner school of environment and society, australian national university, canberra 0200, australia; wasson.robertj@gmail.com.   department of humanities and social sciences, iit guwahati, 781039, india; arupjyotisaikia@gmail.com.  competition commission of india, ministry of corporate affairs, 9th floor, office block – 1, kidwai nagar (east), new delhi 110023, india; bansalpriya1994@gmail.com.  tembusu college, national university of singapore, 138598, singapore; joon@nus.edu.sg. copyright © wasson, saikia, bansal, chuah 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the authors. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.150 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.150 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] the phenomena we describe in this paper are common in many countries, as well as in many states in india, it will focus on data from the brahmaputra river catchment in assam. keywords: flood damage, assam, embankments, technological lock-in 1. introduction even before independence, india’s main flood mitigation policy intervention has been the construction of embankments. while there are other flood mitigation strategies, including issuing warnings; providing refuges; creating rescue plans and emergency medical facilities; river dredging; and facilitating education, embankments are widespread and appear to dominate the thinking of decision-makers—if the speeches made by politicians after floods are any guide. the dominance of embankments appears to be an example of technological lock-in, whereby one solution gains ground and others are marginalized. lock-ins produce inflexibility in decision-making, which, we argue, reduces the region’s adaptive capacity given both current circumstances and future climatic conditions that may produce larger floods. climate change is likely to be accompanied by more intense rainfall and higher flood peaks in many of india’s rivers (kumar et al. 2013), but the uncertainties attached to climate projections make it unpredictable. this problem prompted kumar et al. (2013) to comment that adaptation strategies should be both robust and flexible. in other words, keep your options open—which is the opposite of a lock-in, where options can be extremely limited. before proceeding to a case study of embankment construction in assam, we will make a foray into the key concepts of technological lock-in. while embankments are not particularly high-tech, we will show that the analysis of high-tech industries and activities can be applied to flood mitigation to generate useful findings. we suggest that the conceptual framework applied to high-tech industries and environmental management may have wider applications. 2. key concepts 2.1. technological lock-in and system dynamics most studies of technological lock-in have been in the realm of manufacturing, particularly the production of high-tech goods. but some have also paid attention to examples in environmental management (kline 2001), such as the lock-in of pesticide use for pest management and in [85] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon hydrocarbon-intensive industries (arthur 1996; unruh 2002). while they differ from the case of embankments as a form of technological lock-in, studies of high-tech manufacturers nonetheless provide useful guidance and analogues for key concepts that help explain historical trends in flood mitigation policies. they also identify ways to unlock the locked. there are two general explanations of lock-in. the first is the idea that lockin reflects what nelson and winter (1977) describe as ―technological regimes‖ (or epistemic communities), whereby rules, heuristics, or principles define the boundaries of thought and action, particularly those of technocrats such as engineers. this leads to specific directions of development that build on past experience, becoming very powerful means that exclude other solutions (dosi 1982). second is the idea of increasing returns (or benefits). this involves positive feedback, whereby the attractiveness of a particular technology increases the more it is adopted (david 1985; arthur 1989). positive feedback (also known as reinforcing feedback or ―success to the successful‖) is a system dynamics (sd) concept according to which the direction of change is reinforced (meadows 2008). that is, if variable a increases (or decreases) then variable b will increase (or decrease), all else being equal. but variable b can also affect variable a, thereby forming a positive feedback loop. in different words, a feedback process (or loop) involves at least two coupled variables, where an initial change (or perturbation) of one (a) causes a change in the other (b), which causes further change in the first (a). for more insights into these processes in relation to floods, see barendrecht, viglione, and blöschl (2017), srinivasan et al. (2017), and newell and wasson (2002). 2.2 socio-technological realms, techno-politics, technological frames, and political and professional entrapment the variables in sd are usually represented as stocks, that is, accumulations of materials, information, or ideas in a system over time (meadows 2008). the feedback between stocks is conceptualized as flows that change their size. in relation to the problem of technological lock-in concerning flood mitigation, it is useful to refer to the idea of technological regimes, whereby a set of ideas (and methods) among engineers, bureaucrats, and politicians shape the development of policy and its implementation in a sociotechnological realm (colven 2017) where society is moulded by technology and vice versa—creating another set of feedbacks. but in the words of bijker (2007), dikes (also known as embankments, levees, or bunds) and dams are thick with politics (with a lower case ―p‖, so not only the politics of politicians). that is, they are not just a technical matter that need design and implementation. this idea can also be constructed as a form of technoecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] politics, where technology, politics, and society are co-produced, and a techno-political network formed, bringing together political-economic interests, globalized expertise (consultants in particular), and flows of capital (sneddon 2015), all by the medium of positive feedback. kaika (2006) goes further to argue that large water infrastructure projects are central to statebuilding, developmentalist agendas and the pursuit of modernity, and symbolize the control of nature. while positive feedback is in place, the system will head in a particular direction. but the construction of embankments will eventually lead to the development of a negative feedback loop as, for example, the cost of maintenance increases. a negative feedback loop is one in which as variable a increases (or decreases), variable b decreases (or increases) and then feeds back to variable a. this is a stabilizing loop. though some believe there is a trend toward softer approaches to flood mitigation to complement (or even replace) hard engineering solutions— which have dominated in the so-called ―hydraulic age‖, most notably in the netherlands (rijke et al. 2012)—the creation of technological regimes, socio-technological realms, and techno-politics, all with strong positive feedback, have created, in many countries, obdurate practices and value systems. as bijker (2007) sees it, people deeply engaged in these technological frames have difficulty imagining other ways of dealing with risk. a good example of this is the us army corps of engineers, whose only solution to flooding for many decades was the construction of levees. the ―hydraulic age‖ is not over, as we can see in indonesia, india, china, australia, and elsewhere. in fact, it never went away, as evidenced by the recent upsurge in the construction of large dams (merme et al. 2014). for brown, ashley, and farrelly (2011), these technological frames represent political and professional entrapment where there is political risk in moving in a different direction or not taking action after a flood—for example, by promising more (visible) protective infrastructure, fearfulness on the part of professionals in government agencies to speak their minds and therefore challenge the agency’s position. there is also a fear among professional government agencies of losing their power if a broader set of mitigation strategies is contemplated, especially if there is to be a hybrid governance system that involves wide participation. obdurate institutional arrangements, technological frames, and political and professional entrapment maintain and enhance the status quo, whatever it may be. to this rich mix, we can add the financialization of infrastructure (loftus and march 2015). investment in infrastructure is considered a way of mopping up over-accumulated capital in the over-developed world. analogous to the [87] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon case of the london desalination plant (whose main objective, according to loftus and march (2015), was ensuring inflation-protected returns for institutional investors rather than the provision of clean water), embankment construction in many less developed countries appears to be about securing profits for construction companies, kickbacks to elites, and political power. many countries do not emulate the objectives of the dutch, who build dikes to keep the water out at all costs. by contrast, in the united states, the government accepts flooding, even in the presence of dikes, and places more reliance on insurance and warnings based on predictions (bijker 2007). both countries, of course, have a very different set of experiences of floods, and in the netherlands, flood protection is an existential issue. in india, the objectives are the protection of lives, property, and revenues to the state by the total exclusion of floods from areas beyond embanked rivers. 2.3. historical triggers the brahmaputra river in northeast india rises in tibet and flows through the tsangpo gorge to become the siang river. then, after being joined by many tributaries, it becomes the brahmaputra, and leaves india at the bangladesh border (figure 1). in assam, the floodplains of the brahmaputra and its tributaries are extremely flood-prone, having experienced a total economic damage of ₹20,772.76 crore (107) to crops, housing, and public utilities between 1953 and 2011 and an average annual economic damage of ₹352.08 crore (in 2017 prices), according to data made available by the central water commission (cwc). the range of annual total flood damage in assam is enormous, from an estimated minimum of zero (which is of uncertain veracity) to ₹3,394.84 crore. the people of assam would be better off with more effective flood mitigation. but first the government would need to reduce its reliance on embankments and help overcome technological lock-in. as we have already explained, technological lock-in is a result of positive feedback that produces path dependence—continued adherence to a product or idea because of the historical trajectories of ideas and decisions, even in the presence of better products and ideas (liebowitz and margolis 1995). these trajectories may start from small beginnings or triggering events. this suggests that history matters in lock-in, an idea brought to the fore by arthur (1989) in the case of competing technologies. for positive feedback systems, it is worth quoting arthur (1989): insignificant circumstances become magnified by positive feedbacks to ―tip‖ the system into the actual outcome ―selected‖. the small events of history ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] figure 1: a map of the brahmaputra river and its catchment from tibet to bangladesh source: shukla acharjee, dibrugarh university become important. where we observe the predominance of one technology or one economic outcome over its competitors, we should be cautious of any exercise that seeks the means by which the winner’s innate ―superiority‖ came to be translated into adoption. (127) in other words, that a particular technology, such as embankments, has won the race does not make it superior to its alternatives. the superiority of any technology needs to be demonstrated independent of the path by which it came to dominate the field. the disproportionate response to a ―small event‖ (in this case, a flood)— the building of many hundreds of kilometres of embankments—shows that the positive feedback is non-linear. the quantitative nature of this relationship is unlikely to be exponential or super-exponential, because each of these functions implies increasing resourcing at an accelerating rate. the most commonly used function to describe the diffusion of innovation, including infrastructure, is the logistic curve: )xx(k e/l)x(f 01   [89] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon figure 2: length of embankments and normalized total economic flood-related economic damages in assam from 1953 to 2012 source: partha jyoti das, pers. comm. 2018 for embankment data and central water commission for the damage data. where e is the natural logarithmic base, 0x is the x -value of the sigmoid’s midpoint, l is the curve’s maximum value, and k is the steepness of the curve. the curve is s-shaped, rising to the midpoint; then it increases at a decreasing rate. this function has been used to model the spread of innovation, with an initial exponential spurt of activity and then a slowdown, as competitors become more effective (grübler 1990). data from assam (partha jyoti das, pers. comm., 2018) suggest a variant of the standard logistic curve, with a rapid increase in cumulative embankment length, which increases at a decreasing rate until the rate of change drops to zero from the early 1990s (figure 2). the initial increase is a result of the early effects of positive feedback with high levels of enthusiasm, expectations, and resourcing. the slowdown may be a result of decreasing opportunities for construction, rising costs of maintenance, and a slowing of revenue injections as other priorities take over. we would require a detailed history of embankment construction and associated costs to test these explanations of the curve in figure 2. however, the comptroller and auditor general of india (2017) provides some insights into the possible reasons for the slowdown: delays and shortfalls in the sanctioning of funds; ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] the diversion of funds sanctioned for flood control to unapproved work; major delays in work; poor design and implementation, leading to embankment failure; and weak technical skills in the states responsible for flood protection. all of these factors can slow the development of flood mitigation infrastructure. figure 2 is an example of an external-influence logistic function, the basic model for which is )]t(nnt[a dt )t(dn  where )t(n is the cumulative number of adopters at time t , tn is the total number of potential adopters at time t , dt )t(dn is the rate of diffusion at time t , and the constant a is a change agent that is equal to the coefficient of diffusion (kumar 2015). for application to the problem of embankment construction, adopters and potential adopters are assumed to be equivalent to the length of embankments. the key difference between this equation and others presented by kumar (2015) for cases where there are external influences, and mixtures of external and internal influences, is the inclusion of the constant a , a change agent. when influence comes from outside the wider society, decision-making is directed from the top, and communication is strongly hierarchical (kijek and kijek 2010; kumar 2015). in assam, the change agent is the politico-bureaucratic system. the best least squares fit for the trajectory of cumulative embankment length in assam (figure 2) is a four-parameter logistic curve: 0675101961 101 43117644 4311 .)x(log )..( .y     where y is cumulative length (100s of km), x is calendar date, the halfway point is 1961, and the r2 is 0.99, but with only six data points. 2.4. unlocking the locked the obvious way to unlock the locked is to initiate negative feedback. according to arthur (1989), small historical events, such as small-scale trials of non-structural mitigation, will have no effect on this type of system, and history will be the carrier or deliverer of the inevitable. but a major flood that devastates an area where alternatives to embankments have been trialled could tip the system back into its former state of positive feedback, leading to the construction of more embankments. [91] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon there is, however, a larger problem. as we have seen, technological frames, professional and political entrapment, and lock-in are highly resistant to change. an easy exit from a locked-in trajectory is unlikely because of significant sunk construction costs, the development and application of particular kinds of expertise, the political capital expenditure a change would entail, and reputational risk if a decades-long policy is suddenly reversed. for example, revenues to construction companies in the case of large infrastructure projects and kickbacks to elites will also be at risk if a major policy change is instituted. nevertheless, according to islas (1997), hybridization can allow marginalized solutions to emerge beside the dominant one, but only in niches not occupied by the dominant solution. 2.5. summary of key concepts a technological lock-in results from technological frames—stocks of ideas developed by professionals and decision-makers—that limit the range of solutions considered during policy formulation. locked-in solutions are not necessarily superior just because they have been overwhelmingly adopted. we must determine superiority independently. there are many elements to technological frames, including socio-technological realms, politicaltechnological networks, and professional and political entrapment. a system’s trajectory will be unidirectional if positive feedback is in play once a historical event triggers a trajectory—and therefore path dependence— that favours one technology or solution. as adoption increases, positive feedback in response to the ideas in the technological frame increases its power and acceptance, and more resources may become available, driving a non-linear response. in this process, other solutions are swept aside in the battle of ideas and the struggle for resources. there could be a slowing in the rate of adoption of embankments as space for easy construction reduces. enthusiasm may also wane, especially in light of the damage created by breaches; and maintenance costs may increase along with other calls on the public purse. the result is a positive feedback function in assam, which is a variant of a logistic curve that denotes external influences on the construction of embankments. it may be possible to unlock the locked by creating a negative feedback system, a prospect that is extremely difficult to achieve if the lock-in is obdurate. a path more likely to succeed would involve the development of a hybridized set of solutions, where we can find alternatives to the dominant solution in niches that it does not necessarily deal with well—or we could find solutions that complement the dominant one. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] 3. the historical development of a technological frame in assam colven (2017) notes that to understand the allure of big infrastructure, ―we need to trace the emergence and evolution of the geographically and historically contingent techno-political networks through which such projects emerge‖ (261). this section attempts for assam what colven suggests, and is based mainly on saikia (2019, chapters 2, 7, and 11). as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, embankments (also known as alis in assam) were constructed to protect small areas from floods, and for many years, farmers used low-level bunds to reduce the impact of floods but also to allow water and sediment to reach fields. this resulted in localized and moderate benefits. by the first few years of the twentieth century, there were only 180 km of high embankments in assam. a committee established by j. b. fuller, the chief commissioner of assam under the british raj, investigated the possibility that embankments could allow larger areas to be cultivated and damage to crops reduced. it examined additional questions that are still pertinent today, many of which have not been answered satisfactorily, such as: what would be the consequences of depriving land of silt and its natural fertilizing role? peasants interviewed by the committee raised this issue; they also raised issues of waterlogging behind embankments, pointing out their failure. in addition, they asked if riverbeds would rise relative to floodplains because of sediment accumulation between embankments and due to sediment starvation on the floodplains behind embankments. the committee also wanted to know if larger areas of cultivation would increase revenue, a key concern for the british raj. the fuller committee received varying opinions about the wisdom of embankment construction, ranging from views that embankments were not necessary for the protection of agriculture—as there was plenty of cultivable land—to beliefs that riverbeds may either rise by sediment accumulation (relative to floodplains) or decline because of erosion by highvelocity flood flows trapped between embankments, and concerns that the revenue increase from protected land would be much smaller than the cost of constructing and maintaining embankments. however, the committee found evidence in favour of embankments, and in 1903, received approval for the construction of new embankments on two tributaries of the brahmaputra, followed by increased land revenue assessment. but the debate about the wisdom of embankments continued, largely revolving around concerns regarding the lack of natural fertilization and the problem of waterlogging, as embankments prevented the drainage of [93] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon floodwater and presumably ponded rainwater (hart 1906). in the past, during particularly wet seasons, peasants would relocate to drier land, but this became difficult when property laws became less flexible and the population and the area of settled agriculture increased during the british period, thereby making the relinquishment of land almost impossible. for some people, waterlogging became an intractable problem. the agricultural chemist and soil scientist, a. a. meggitt, supported the peasants’ view that natural fertilizing was essential, and suggested the installation of flood sluice gates to enable this process (chief secretary 1909). lechmere-oertel (1918), an engineer with the public works department, argued against embankments on the same grounds as meggitt. additionally, spring (1903), the chief engineer of india’s public works department, wrote in praise of the traditional method of living with floods, whereby people moved their meagre possessions to higher ground in family boats. to this contentious milieu was added the construction of railway lines on embankments from 1903 onward, most of which were built on floodplains by 1930 (public works department 1929–30). these embankments disturbed lowland drainage paths and therefore blocked the drainage of floodwaters, rendering some low-lying areas unfit for cultivation and causing havoc when they breached (the times of india 1934). an investigative committee formed after the 1929 flood found conflicting views among peasants, depending on whether they lived ―inside‖ or ―outside‖ a railway embankment (lines 1930). those ―outside‖ the embankments were content, while those ―inside‖ were not. by the mid-1930s, flooding in assam was gaining more attention from both the government and the international press (e.g., western argus 1934) with widespread destruction of crops, houses, and livestock (wall street journal 1934). for the colonial government, the impact on revenue of the destruction of jute crop was particularly important, as the brahmaputra valley had become the principal jute-growing area in south asia by the 1930s. this widespread cultivation of jute followed debates about the wisdom of using land that the local people did not cultivate because of flooding, except for temporary mustard and vegetable crops during the winter and some summer rice, although jute was believed capable of withstanding floods (saikia 2015). but the influx of peasants, mainly from east bengal (now bangladesh), mostly to grow jute, was well underway, making the debate almost pointless. between the censuses of 1911 and 1951, 1–1.5 million migrants had moved into assam, constituting between one-tenth and one-sixth of the total population. the cropped area approximately doubled, areas of settlement increased, and the cultivation of jute, sugarcane, mustard, and winter and autumn rice increased in the areas ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] occupied by these hard-working migrants (doullah 2003; goswami 1994; chakraborty 2012). this transformation of agriculture in assam was not only aided by the construction of embankments—embankments were themselves necessary for the maintenance of increased revenue flow to the government’s coffers. after the flood of 1934, shaw (1935), an engineer with the public works department, prepared a report in which he noted that the area was prone to some of the heaviest rainfall in the world and, when combined with largescale reclamation of land for jute cultivation, much of the lower valley was at risk of economically damaging floods. shaw also argued against embankments, writing that they ―constitute a gross interference with the natural regime of the river‖ (8). he listed solutions such as relief payments to peasants, remission of land revenue, and new land grants, some of which were enacted (saikia 2014). in addition, he found that the new migrants who arrived to grow jute did not grow food, so they became vulnerable to flood-induced food shortages. the 1946 flood in assam spawned yet another report, this time by s. c. majumdar, an engineer with considerable experience of floods in bengal. majumdar (1948, 1956) concluded inter alia that embankments defy nature and should only be used on rivers that are relatively stable, and that embankments can cause disasters by raising the intensity with which floods reach floodplains, because of sedimentation within channels between embankments, thereby causing more damage than would occur without embankments and also resulting in the need for higher and stronger embankments until they provide no protection. he added that embankments should not be viewed as permanent solutions, and the old embankments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ce created vast swamps at a lower level than the surrounding land, which continued to receive sediment. majumdar made the obvious remark that floods are shallower and less dangerous if allowed to spread across floodplains rather than being pent up behind embankments that can easily breach. the bureaucrats of assam continued to oppose embankments, so that by 1947, there were only 11 km of new embankments (rba 1980). the government of india declared embankments unsuccessful as flood protection devices (ministry of information and broadcasting 1949); after the 1950 earthquake and floods, the technocrat g. c. garg and kumud bhushan ray (special officer for rivers in assam’s public works department) advised against embankments. ray (1954) concluded that embankments were costly and non-remunerative, and did not provide protection against large floods. [95] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon prior to 1954, there was no unified technological frame in favour of embankments in assam. many bureaucrats and engineers were not convinced of the efficacy of embankments. they cited the unintended consequences of waterlogging, sand deposition on agricultural land during breaching, and reduced natural fertilization of fields through sedimentation. by this time, there had been many flood events (the ―small events‖ referenced in arthur [1989]) that could have triggered the consolidation of a technological frame in support of embankments, particularly in 1929, the mid-1930s (especially 1934), 1946, and 1950, each of which was followed by a government investigation. but none of these events triggered this consolidation. the 1950 earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.6, devastated assam, and was followed in 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1955 by severe floods that damaged crops worth ₹13.5 crore in 1953–1955 (₹520 crore and us$2.1 million in 2017 prices; there are no data for 1952) and destroyed 65% of the paddy and 53% of the jute. it was claimed that inundation covered 31,000 sq km (an implausible 40% of the state), and affected about 1.2 million people (assam government 1956). these floods eroded riverbanks and swept away agricultural land, villages, and lives, depositing sand on land that had once been cultivable. some towns vanished while others faced massive erosion. the town of dibrugarh had begun serious attempts at riverbank protection in 1935 after the 1934 flood, with anchored trees, brushwood screens, tree branch revetments, and anchored floating bamboo cages. some 450 m of a planned 6 km stone revetment was finished before the monsoon of 1954 struck, and floodwaters outflanked the entire structure. the situation was so serious that the then prime minister, pundit jawaharlal nehru, took charge and paid a visit, entrusting to the central water and power commission (cpwc) with the responsibility of protecting the town from further floods (ray 1956; singh et al. 2004). the flood of 1954 not only swept away lives—it also swept away apprehensions about embankments, at least in government offices. a simplified version of the assam embankment and drainage act 1941, enacted in 1954, enabled embankment construction. about 855 km of embankments were completed swiftly (verghese 1954). an indian delegation to china reinforced the value of embankments (sain 1954) and reddy (1954) provided a glowing report on china’s use of embankments to control floods. engineers of the cpwc began arriving in assam, training in surveying and construction methods was arranged, and labour for embankment construction recruited (verghese 1854). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] the flood of 1954 was the ―small event‖ in arthur’s (1989) conceptualization of how positive feedback is triggered by a seemingly insignificant event and leads to an outcome that is disproportionally large. as a result, one option gets locked-in, and path dependence begins. these small events of history are important, and although the residents of assam who lost their property and loved ones may not see the floods of the 1950s as ―small events‖, they appear to meet the requirements of arthur’s model. but why did the earlier floods not create the same path dependence? the answer may lie in the personal intervention of india’s first prime minister and the institutionalization of a response in the cpwc. whatever the answer, it is clear that the 1954 flood turned the tide of government opinion—and thus path dependence began. the most visible protection works were in the town of dibrugarh, which had suffered serious flood damage. embankments built in 1954–1956 were raised and strengthened in 1963–1966, 1977, and 1980, and again after flood damage in 1988, and to this day continue to be refurbished, partly as a result of the heightened level of floods resulting from the increasing channel bed level (un-habitat 2002; adb 2009). other ideas were proffered to mitigate floods, such as cleaning drainage channels, digging a deeper channel for the brahmaputra (which has now been trialled), beginning reforestation of the catchment to slow storm runoff, raising villages, and constructing storage reservoirs (kingdon-ward 1950; the times of india 1954; ray 1956). but the push for embankments was well underway, along with the restoration of some abandoned channels to promote drainage, the digging of new drains, and the promotion of sedimentation in some areas to raise land levels (rba 1980). although some still doubted the efficacy of embankments in the face of mighty natural forces, by 1978, a total of 4,000 km of embankments had been constructed in assam, along with at least 700 km of drainage channels. breaches had occurred in some new embankments within a year of construction, and some caused conflicts with villagers, but construction continued, as those in favour of the policy continued to accrue political and economic benefits. by the end of the twentieth century, about 1,000 km of embankments had been constructed along the brahmaputra, measuring about two-thirds the total length of the river. since then, embankments have been further extended along tributaries. rivers in about 50% of assam’s total flood-prone area were embanked about a decade ago (asian development bank 2010). our field observations and informal discussions with villagers and government officials in upper assam show that many people have now [97] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon become dependent on embankments for refuge during the worst floods. some have replaced their traditional stilt houses with concrete constructions on the ground. similarly, they have also built schools and meeting halls near embankments; and they are now using previously uncultivated land just behind embankments. hazarika et al. (2016) found from surveys in dhemaji district that the construction of embankments has attracted several people to live and cultivate the land near the rivers, and that the occurrence of floods, in the minds of local people, is synonymous with breaching of embankments. according to their study, even though embankments are refuges, breaches do more damage than floods in places where there are no embankments. many factors have produced the current, embankment-dominated flood policy in assam. the most important ones appear to be a need to protect valuable assets such as towns and cultivated areas; increase the area of cultivation; and protect and increase government revenue from cash crops, the most important of which was jute. this process has a history of more than a century, with the establishment of jute and the importation of migrants from east bengal to grow the jute, both initiated by the colonial government. the path dependence of increasing embankments resulted from positive feedback between the maintenance and protection of cash crops and revenues, and from technological entrapment and a growing technological frame. the historical trigger for this path dependence was the flood of 1954, even though there had been earlier floods of similar magnitude with similar destructive outcomes. political involvement and institutionalized responses appear to have tipped the balance in favour of embankments, and the technological frame established was able to sideline differing views about the efficacy of embankments. 4. the fitness of embankments fitness is a concept that analysts of high-technology products use to decide whether path dependence produces the most fit goods—or something that is sub-optimal. while arthur (1989) argued that sub-optimal outcomes are common, later researchers criticized this conclusion (e.g., islas 1997). while a full exposition of ongoing research by the authors into this important topic is not possible here, we have analysed data from the cwc for trends in death and economic damage, normalized by total population and gdp/capita, respectively. using the non-parametric mann-kendall tau (b) test for all-india data, we have found an increasing trend in adjusted ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] damage from 1953 to 2011 (p<0.01), but no trend in adjusted deaths. however, from 1982 to 2011, when embankments were much more extensive than earlier, normalized deaths decreased (p<0.01), but there is no trend in normalized damage. the area affected by floods also declined between 1982 and 2011 (p<0.01), confounding any simple explanation of these results, although the smaller area of flood-affected land may explain the reduced deaths. this complication notwithstanding, figure 2 shows that normalized total economic damage was at its highest between 1986 and 1989, when the length of embankments was almost at its greatest extent. it is not at all clear whether embankments make a large difference to deaths and damage because breaches occur during large floods, or because embankments are outflanked when incomplete—a result consistent with the modelling results of barendrecht et al. (2017). 5. river linking: another powerful technological frame the long-standing technological frame created by engineers, hydrologists, bureaucrats, and politicians lives on in india, exemplified by the river linking plan (alley 2004; rao 2003). this ambitious plan to link india’s major rivers aims to provide irrigation water to drought-prone areas, generate additional hydroelectric power, and reduce the extent of flooding. the scheme calls for the construction of a great many dams and canals. it is not at all clear how the plan will alleviate floods, except possibly by building large dams to absorb flood flows—an uncertain option if the dams are mainly intended for the supply of irrigation water and the generation of hydroelectricity. simultaneously meeting these three objectives is not easy. rao (2003) notes that the likely transfer from the ganga to the cauvery river, for example, will amount to only 2.5% of the maximum flood flow in the ganga, a figure too small to have any effect on floods in the ganga. but there do not appear to have been any publicly available analyses of the ways in which the plan may alleviate flooding. alley (2004) argues that scientific data and detailed plans for the scheme are deliberately withheld from public scrutiny, leaving non-government experts and members of ngos no option but to polarize the debate and reject the scheme, given that its risks cannot be analysed independently and appear large in the absence of other information. the solution to big water problems in india continues to be big infrastructure projects, where a strong technological frame sidelines all objections and alternatives. the creation of a broad-based and knowledgeable epistemic community is not possible, so aspects of the [99] robert wasson, arupjyoti saikia, priya bansal and chuah chong joon scheme that should be assessed outside its formative technological frame are not assessed, and serious problems may emerge. for example, about 34% of the gross erosion of indian soils is deposited in reservoirs, with a resulting annual average water storage loss of 1.04% and an upper value of 0.8% per annum in large reservoirs (51>1000 mm3 capacity) (sharda and ojasvi 2016). is this loss of storage capacity, and the attendant loss of flood absorption, being considered in government planning for river linking? further, the state has prepared emergency action plans for only 7% of the existing large dams in india and operating manuals for only 5% (comptroller and auditor general of india 2017). if the river linking scheme is to generate many more large dams, how will it ensure their safety, given the slow development of preparedness to date? 6. concluding remarks from the analysis presented here, it appears that there has been lock-in of embankments in assam as the main flood mitigation strategy. this is a region characterized by an extraordinarily volatile and fluid landscape, and it appears that lock-in may also have occurred in other indian states as well (see d’souza 2006). an analysis of death and damage data shows that though embankments have had some effect, they have certainly not solved the problem. in some cases, they have exacerbated deaths and damage when they have breached or have been outflanked. so lock-in has produced a sub-optimal result, but one that has nonetheless had some benefits, such as acting as a refuge and protecting some land and villages. a major shift in indian flood mitigation policy away from embankments appears to be unlikely, since it is driven by a top–down approach. we have seen this in the external influence logistic descriptor of the history of embankment construction in assam and the prevailing strong and obdurate technological frame, exemplified by the river linking project. it is more likely that policies that complement embankments will succeed only if they fill a niche not already occupied by embankments. such policies are floodplain planning and the enforcement of zoning; better warnings; implementation of the building code; insurance; relief schemes tailored to levels of risk, so that those who choose to live or rebuild in high-risk areas get little or no flood relief apart from humanitarian aid during and immediately after a flood; and relocation of highly exposed and vulnerable populations. these solutions may be applicable where embankments have not been built, and in the long run, they could demonstrate an approach that will replace embankments. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] we require a more flexible and holistic set of flood mitigation policies in the face of climate change, given that rainfall intensities and flood peaks are likely to get larger. embankments alone are insufficient, and at times, even dangerous. acknowledgements we thank two anonymous referees for their comments, shukla acharjee of dibrugarh university for figure 1, the national university of singapore for funding, and partha jyoti das of aaranyak for the embankment length 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1954. ―400-mile embankments to control brahmaputra: people may be told to help in project.‖ the times of india, august 27. wall street journal. 1934. ―200 dead in indian floods.‖ june 29, 1934: 4. https://www.wsj.com/news/archive/20200402. western argus. 1934. ―floods in india: worst in living memory.‖ western argus, july 3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/100. figure 4: descriptive statistics on survey statements designed to quantify fisherfolk’s opinions about the mnp source: authors note: we measured responses to statements on a five-point likert scale and subsequently reduced it to a three-point likert scale: disagree (d), neutral/neith er agree nor disagree (n), and agree (a). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0301-4215(00)00070-7.� https://www.wsj.com/news/archive/20200402 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/title/100 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 153–156, january 2021 report a report on the national workshop on “strengthening national capacity to meet the enhanced transparency framework of the paris agreement in bangladesh” md. arfanuzzaman  and md. shaheduzzaman  one of the key outcomes of the paris agreement was the establishment of an enhanced transparency framework (etf) for tracking and reporting the progress of countries on existing and future climate action commitments, with built-in flexibility for non-annex i parties. the capacity-building initiative for transparency (cbit) was created at the request of non-annex 1 parties to strengthen their institutional and technical capacities to meet the etf requirements defined in article 13 of the paris agreement. till 2019, a total of 58 projects were approved by the global environment facility (gef) secretariat including the bangladesh project. the major objective of bangladesh’s cbit project is to strengthen institutional and human capacities in bangladesh to meet the requirements of the etf and to track progress against priority mitigation and adaptation actions identified in the nationally determined contributions (ndc), focusing on the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (afolu); energy; industrial processes and product use (ippu); and waste sectors.  climate change mrv expert, food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao), house # 37; road #08, dhanmondi r/a, dhaka-1205, bangladesh; thisisarfan@gmail.com.   senior environmental advisor, food and agriculture organization of the united nations (fao), house # 37; road #08, dhanmondi r/a, dhaka-1205, bangladesh; md.shaheduzzaman@fao.org. the views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the food and agriculture organization (fao) of the united nations. copyright © arfanuzzaman and shaheduzzaman 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.299 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.299 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] to meet its etf requirements, bangladesh needs to report inventories of emissions sources and sinks derived from credible and transparent data sources, which will enable the government of bangladesh (gob) to track progress against priority actions identified in bangladesh’s ndc. but the limited institutional capacity for sectoral greenhouse gas (ghg) data monitoring and reporting, absence of metadata and quality-control protocols, and inadequate data sharing / archiving frameworks and policies obstruct bangladesh’s effort to meet the etf requirements, as noted in its third national communication to the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfccc). in this context, the ministry of environment forest and climate change (moefcc), with technical support from the food and agriculture organization (fao) of the united nations, organized a national workshop on 12 march 2020 at dhaka under a gef-supported cbit project with a view to i) strengthen stakeholders’ awareness of etf requirements; ii) discuss sectoral ghg data collection and sharing arrangements; iii) conduct gap assessment for the monitoring of ndc priority adaptation and mitigation activities. a total of 83 participants from different ministries and departments, united nations agencies, development partners, universities, think tanks, and non-government organizations as well as national and international environmental experts participated in the workshop. of the 83 participants, 25% were female and 75% were male. the workshop solicited inputs from different stakeholders on past/ongoing projects and activities related to ghg emissions and adaptation, existing procedures, and institutional mechanisms for mitigation and adaptation-related data collection and sharing. in the inaugural session, mirza shawkat ali, director (climate change & international convention) of the department of environment (doe), moefcc, specified that as a signatory to the paris agreement, bangladesh is committed to using specified protocols for monitoring, reporting, and verification (mrv) and tracking progress against the ndcs. however, bangladesh has critical data gaps in the afolu and waste sectors as well as the energy and ippu sectors, and this is where the cbit project will play a crucial role in establishing an interoperable, transparent, and verifiable data collection, analysis, reporting, and archiving system. then, mathieu van rijn, forestry officer, fao regional office for asiapacific, gave a presentation on “etf & fao-led cbit projects in asia and the pacific”. he mentioned that the afolu sector is the most frequently included sector in developing countries’ ndcs. he articulated that the key guiding principle of the adopted modalities, procedures, and guidelines (mpgs) for the transparency framework in cop 24 is to (i) maintain frequency and quality of reporting, and (ii) improve reporting and transparency over time. while describing the initial experiences and lessons [155] md. arfanuzzaman and md. shaheduzzaman from other cbit projects, he mentioned that papua new guinea has prepared an afolu action plan and mongolia has established an ndc forum that addresses the need for well-structured institutional arrangements and transparent ghg data collection and reporting. while speaking as a special guest, robert d simpson, fao representative in bangladesh, stressed the importance of a well-designed policy for achieving the sustainable development goals (sdgs), which must include a rigorous effort to address environmental and climate change issues. he stated that the global response to climate change today will determine how we feed future generations tomorrow. agriculture, including forestry, crops, fisheries, and livestock production, generates around a fifth of the world's ghg emissions. this must be significantly reduced by 2030 to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degree celsius. a. shamim al razi, additional secretary (development), moefcc, mentioned that strengthening individual and institutional capacities in bangladesh is essential to meet the etf requirements. he noted that bangladesh has a huge data deficit with regards the environment and natural resource sector, where special attention is required to enhance environmental governance. ziaul hasan, secretary, moefcc, in his remarks as chief guest, emphasized the need to strengthen the technical capacities of bangladesh to meet the etf requirements of the paris agreement. he urged the project administration to set up a common and user-friendly platform for ghg data sharing and coordination to comply with the tccca (transparent, consistent, comparable, complete, and accurate) reporting principles. ziaul hasan assured that the moefcc will take the lead in addressing the environmental issues of the country. following the inaugural session, nearly 50 participants from different organizations engaged in a group discussion. in general, there was a high degree of support from the participants for a formal memorandum of understanding (mou) between the doe and the respective entities on ghg data collection. participants also noted that universities, which conduct research on emissions factors and activities for various sectors, are not always linked to line ministries and departments. doe / moefcc could form a panel of experts to review of the biennial update report (bur) and biennial transparency report (btr) and recognize them officially for their contribution in the reports. group discussants also expressed interest in technical capacity-building workshops, since many data providers are not entirely familiar with unfccc or etf / mrv related requirements. discussants noted that the waste sector will require focused capacity-building efforts since city corporations and municipalities often lack record-keeping, despite waste management policies and projects. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] in their evaluations of the workshop, most of the participants recommended the development of a unified data collection template (including meta-data standards) and indicated that this should be followed by training. participants also proposed the formation of a technical working group to check the accuracy and quality of the ghg emissions data of bangladesh. participants urged that to close capacity gaps, bangladesh needs to have an intensive focus on the following aspects: (i) institutional arrangements to support the transition to etf; (ii) technical capacities for mitigation-related mrv; and (iii) capacities for adaptation-related monitoring and reporting. finally, in addition to the efforts towards meeting the etf requirements, bangladesh as well as other developing countries need to pay sufficient attention to environmental equality enhancement and green economy advancement. to attain this, strong political commitment, as well as institutional arrangements and capacity-building, a robust ndc implementation strategy, private-sector engagement, technological innovation, and law and enforcement, need to be strengthened. nevertheless, there is no alternative for awareness-raising on transparent ghg emission measurement, monitoring, and reporting, and effective mitigation action. acknowledgment the authors are grateful to the editor of the journal and the anonymous reviewers for providing useful comments and suggestion to further improve the paper. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 95-117, july 2021 research paper adoption of soil conservation measures: evidence from rain-fed watershed areas of telangana dayakar peddi1, kavi kumar ks2 abstract: land degradation resulting from soil erosion is a major problem in rainfed agricultural areas in india. this study analyses the key determinants of farmers’ decisions to adopt on-farm soil and water conservation (swc) measures in the rain-fed watershed areas of siddipet district in telangana. here, swc measures have been undertaken by the government and ngos at the subwatershed/community level and by individual farmers at the farm level. the study is based on a primary survey of over 400 farmers conducted in january–march 2018. in addition to estimating the influence of biophysical and market access variables on farmers’ decisions to undertake swc practices, the study includes a logistic model that found a complementarity between community and individual plot-level interventions to improve soil health. the findings also highlight the influence of conservation measures practised in the neighbourhood on farmers’ decisions to implement swc measures. key words: land degradation; soil and water conservation; sub-watershed; telangana, india. jel classification: c11, c13, 21, q2 1 assistant professor, centre for economic and social studies, nizamiah observatory campus begumpet, hyderabad, telangana state – 500016; dayakar@cess.ac.in. 2 professor, madras school of economics, gandhi mandapam rd, behind government data center, surya nagar, kotturpuram, chennai, tamil nadu – 600025; kavi@mse.ac.in. copyright © peddi and kavi kumar 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.273 mailto:dayakar@cess.ac.in mailto:kavi@mse.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.273 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] 1. introduction the backbone of rural livelihoods in developing countries is the land ecosystem. unsustainable land management practices have led to extensive land degradation across the world over the last few decades (millennium ecosystem assessment panel 2005; brevik et al. 2015). in terms of on-site impacts, it is widely acknowledged that soil erosion leads to reduced agricultural yield and productivity (mbaga-semgalawe and folmer 2000; bravo-ureta et al. 2006; kumar et al. 2019). moreover, beyond a certain threshold, soil erosion can make soil cover regeneration difficult and can adversely affect future livelihoods. therefore, the link between on-farm soil erosion and agricultural productivity has both intra-generational and intergenerational implications. soil degradation affects other natural resources as well—for instance, a reduction in crop yields may force farmers to intensify deforestation (lopez 2002). soil erosion also leads to significant negative externalities such as water pollution, reduction in soil water-carrying capacity, and disturbances in hydrological cycles (somanathan 1991; mbaga-semgalawe and folmer 2000). most of these concerns have also been expressed in the context of indian agriculture (kerr 2002; reddy and syme 2019). the issues caused by soil erosion can be minimized or limited through adequate on-site and off-site soil conservation practices. over the past four decades, the indian government has been undertaking soil and water conservation (swc) measures 3 at the community level to prevent land degradation. a growing body of literature suggests that farmers are the main stakeholders and undertake on-site swc measures based on the perceived level of soil erosion on their plots. these measures include terracing, contour practices, fallow practices, land drainage, crop mixture, bunding, slope levelling, agroforestry, and crop residue management, which are common practices to reduce soil erosion around the world 4 (scherr 1999). these swc measures provide benefits ranging from the local (crop yield improvements) and regional (flood control) to the global level (carbon 3 the literature on farm-level conservation measures adopted by farmers to prevent soil erosion refers to such measures interchangeably as “soil conservation measures” and “soil and water conservation measures” given the close linkages between conservation of soil and water resources. accordingly, this study refers to farm-level conservation measures as swc measures. 4 recent literature has argued that small and marginal farmers adopt some of these measures to increase their resilience to climate variability and climate change (tambo and mockshell 2018; makate et al. 2019). therefore, swc measures and conservational agricultural measures often overlap, and the benefits accruing from such interventions have multiple and overlapping benefits. [97] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks sequestration) and can be both short term and long term in nature (lal rattan 2001; bouma, van soest, and bulte 2007; singha 2019). the right combination of on-site swc measures adopted by individual farmers and communities can prevent soil erosion to a great extent (pattanayak 2004). the swc practices undertaken by farmers are primarily based on the costs and benefits realized from avoiding soil erosion losses (lutz, pagiola, and reiche 1994). empirical studies have identified a wide range of predominant factors, including plot-level and household characteristics, which influence farmers’ implementation of swc measures (adimassu, langan, and johnston 2016). some predominant socioeconomic factors include membership in farmers’ organizations, formal education of the household head (sidibe 2005), spouse’s education, household wealth, labour availability, market accessibility, access to extension services (teklewold et al. 2013), crop mix under cultivation, perceived level of soil erosion in the plot, farm size (feder and slade 1985; mbaga-semgalawa and folmer 2000), and existence of formal credit markets (wossen, berger, and di falco 2015). the literature also suggests that farm characteristics such as soil type, depth of soil, and slope of the land (teklewold et al. 2013) significantly influence farmers’ decisions to implement swc measures. there have also been assessments of the role of institutional interventions (such as the integrated water management programme [iwmp] in india) in influencing farmers to adopt new technologies in agriculture and practise swc measures (feder and slade 1985; mbaga-semgalawa and folmer 2000). despite the continuous prevention efforts of the government under various programmes, the problems of soil erosion and land degradation persist in india. the poor uptake of programmes and policy interventions at the field level is attributed to the top-down approach often adopted by the government and the absence of demonstration of programme benefits at the ground level. for instance, palanisami et al. (2015) argue that only 22% of water management technologies developed by research networks and promoted by government agencies have been adopted by farmers. a few recent studies have explored the influence of neighbourhood conservational practices on farmers’ decision-making regarding the same. battaglini, nunnari, and palfrey (2012) showed that there can be strategic substitutability (free-riding) or strategic complementarities among neighbours while investing in public goods like soil conservation. the logic is provided in tobler’s formula—“everything is related to everything else, however, closer things are more related than distant things” (drukker 2009, 4). there are two main strands of literature on the adoption of technologies or swc measures that attempt to incorporate the interdependence of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] decision-making at the plot level. the first strand includes models of networks and social learning that explicitly account for the influence of neighbours (mbaga-semgalawa and folmer 2000; conley and udry 2010; bandiera and rasul 2006; moser and barret 2006; teklewold et al. 2014). these models are rooted in manski’s 1993 law, “the propensity of an individual to behave in certain way changes with the behaviour of the individual’s social group” (cited in läpple and kelley 2015, 3). the second strand of literature attempts to capture the role of interactions on the decision to adopt a given technology using spatial econometrics techniques to model “spatial dependence either in the outcome variable (adoption) or in the error term, or both” (singha 2019, 18). the spatial dependence framework is suitable for analysing the determinants of adopting swc measures for many reasons. first, soil conservation practices in one farm can assist or constrain the implementation of such practices on adjacent farms. the assumption is that farmers with fields located next to each other exhibit similar behaviours (holloway and lapar 2007). factors such as flow of inter-farm information and neighbourhood competition or cooperation can encourage similar adoption behaviours among farmers (abdulai and hoffman 2005). second, soil conservation practices can be location-specific, with some swc practices being suitable for particular types of land. agricultural productivity also depends on various localized factors including soil type, soil quality, soil moisture, and land topography (colney 1999). similarities in these factors may lead to similarities in farming and conservation practices (pattanayak and butry 2005). empirical studies have analysed the influence of practices in the neighbourhood on farmers undertaking swc measures using a spatial probit model (holloway and lapar 2007; wang, iglesias, and wooldridge 2013; läpple and kelly, 2015; singha, 2017). the construction of a weight matrix is necessary to analyse spatial dependence. the literature suggests that there are six possible ways of constructing a matrix including euclidean distance, competition along streets, a combination of the first two, nearest neighbours along streets, nearest neighbours in euclidean distance, and neighbours that share a common boundary (pinkse and slade 1998). ideally, to construct metrics, a common boundary that minimizes the bias of the result is appropriate. however, due to the lack of data availability and practical difficulties, empirical studies based on plot-level data use the euclidean distance and nearest neighbours in euclidean distance criteria to construct the spatial weight matrix to account for spatial interaction among farmers adopting new technologies or soil conservation measures (holloway and lapar 2007; läpple and kelly 2015). despite the apparent [99] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks objectivity in the construction of spatial matrices, the definition of “neighbourhood” is based on the researcher’s subjective understanding. taking all the above factors and the limitations posed by the data collection process (discussed in the next section) into consideration, the present study attempts to account for the association between conservation practices followed in a neighbourhood and the farmer’s decision to implement swc measures. thus, the present study does not undertake a comprehensive spatial econometric analysis. taking a cue from the literature discussed above, this study analyses fieldlevel data collected from siddipet district in telangana to understand the role of socio-economic variables and farm-level characteristics in prompting farmers in telangana to implement swc measures. further, the analysis attempts to address two relevant issues concerning the adoption of swc measures: 1) the complementarity between communityand watershed-level swc activities and adoption of individual, plot-level swc measures; and 2) the association between the swc practices followed in the neighbourhood and the conservation practices adopted by farmers. the rest of the paper is organized as follows: section 2 describes the methodology followed in the study and discusses insights from the primary survey on conservation practices undertaken by the farmers. section 3 discusses the results obtained. section 4 provides the conclusion. 2. data collection and methodology the analysis presented in this study is based on field-level data collected from siddipet district in telangana, india.5 telangana is one of the states worst-affected by land degradation, especially water erosion, in the country (sac 2016). the desertification and land degradation atlas of india (sac 2016) reveals that in telangana, close to 3 million hectares of cropland area alone were degraded as of 2011–13. as per the atlas, telangana ranks fourth among the major indian states, with 31.34% of the total geographic area in the state classified as degraded. biswas et al. (2015) highlight that in telangana, 37% of the total geographical area has degraded with a moderate rate of erosion (5–10 tonnes ha-1 yr-1), while about 20% is susceptible to an excessive rate of soil erosion at 10 tonnes ha-1 yr-1. rain-fed agriculture is the dominant mode of cultivation in the state and is considered highly vulnerable to soil erosion and subsequently declining agricultural 5 more details on the study area and data collection process are provided in dayakar and kavi kumar (2020). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] productivity. adoption of proper swc measures can halt top-soil erosion and arrest the land degradation process. 2.1 study area and data collection the study was undertaken in two mandals of siddipet district in telangana, which lies approximately 130 km north of hyderabad, the state capital. the selected area is located in a region highly vulnerable to drought, with an annual average rainfall of 650 mm, over 80% of which is received during the monsoon months of june–september (got 2015). the area lies in the godavari river basin and has low and moderate levels of soil erosion, as assessed through satellite data. a purposive sampling method was followed to select the study area and village while accounting for wide variations across villages in terms of swc technology experience, state of soil erosion, and socio-economic heterogeneity. twelve villages were selected from the chinnakodur and dubbak mandals for the field study, of which six are located in the dubbak and chinnakodur sub-watershed areas and are part of the iwmp. under the iwmp, numerous activities are undertaken to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving, and developing degraded natural sources such as soil, vegetation cover, and water. the other six villages are also located in the same sub-watershed areas but are not covered by the iwmp programme. the biophysical, topographical, and hydrological conditions of the selected villages are broadly similar. these villages predominantly have red loamy, red sand loamy, saline, and black soils. paddy, maize, cotton, red gram, and vegetables are the major crops cultivated in the area. soil erosion leads to nutrient loss, which ultimately reduces agricultural productivity and yield. therefore, farmers traditionally practise swc measures to control the perceived level of soil erosion (kumar et al. 2015). the data used in the study were obtained from a detailed householdand plot-level survey of 400 farmers in the two mandals. the survey was conducted during january–march 2018. the number of households selected for the survey in each village was based on the proportion of households in that village to the aggregate number of households across all the selected villages. thus, the total number of households sampled in each village ranged between 13 and 67. in each village, the list of households was compiled from revenue and agricultural departmental data sets (got, 2015). once the number of households was finalized, the specific households to be surveyed were selected from the complete list of households in the village following the simple random sampling approach. the final sample consisted of 206 households from iwmp villages and 197 households from non-iwmp villages. across the entire sample, about 85% [101] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks of households had adopted at least one soil conservation measure in their plots. 2.2 insights on swc measures group discussions and the pilot survey revealed that the farmers in the study area practise several swc measures, with the most common ones being silt application, construction of grass and stone bunds, slope levelling, planting woody perennials, and digging stream trenches and farm ponds. table 1: description of swc measures practised in the study area swc measure description silt application farmers apply silt to improve soil quality, especially in eroded lands. construction of grass and stone bunds farmers construct grass and stone bunds against the slope of the farmland to prevent soil erosion. slope levelling farmers use tools to reduce the slope of the land to prevent soil erosion. planting woody perennials farmers plant woody perennials along the borders to control soil erosion. digging stream trenches and farm ponds farmers dig stream trenches and farm ponds as swc measures. source: data based on field study across all the villages surveyed, around 23% of farmers were found to practise swc measures. while several farmers have adopted measures such as slope levelling, stream trenching, silt application, planting woody perennials, and farm pond construction, a smaller percentage has undertaken measures such as constructing grass and stone bunds (figure 1). around 30% of farmers in iwmp villages have adopted at least one swc measure, whereas only 15% of farmers from the non-iwmp villages have adopted one or more swc measures. further, the primary data shows that farmers from iwmp villages were willing to implement swc measures that are long-lasting, such as constructing stone bunds, slope levelling, planting woody perennials, and digging farm ponds, compared to their counterparts in the non-iwmp villages. the levels of soil erosion severity and resource availability play an important role in determining the swc measures adopted by farmers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] figure 1: category-wise adoption of soil conservation measures across survey villages (in percentages) source: data based on field study farmers often undertake multiple swc measures, with a higher number of measures being adopted in relatively conducive environments. figure 2 shows the percentage of farmers undertaking different numbers of soil conservation measures under conditions of “low” and “high” levels of soil erosion. clearly, there is a tendency to implement more swc measures if they perceive the severity of soil erosion to be high. further, plot-level soil conservation measures are often considered supplemental to the measures implemented on common/private lands by governmental/nongovernmental agencies under the iwmp. farmers belonging to iwmp villages have undertaken a larger number of swc measures than their counterparts in non-iwmp villages. as shown in figure 2, a larger percentage of farmers in iwmp villages have undertaken more than three soil conservation measures compared to the farmers in the non-iwmp villages, suggesting that there is a complementarity between farm-level soil conservation measures and sub-watershed-level interventions to prevent soil erosion. [103] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks figure 2: distribution of soil conservation measures across different levels of soil erosion severity (in percentages) source: data based on field study 2.3 empirical specification the random utility model provides the basis for adoption choices between alternative swc practices. it has been extensively used in the empirical literature to study farmers’ decisions to adopt swc measures. both logit and probit methods are well-established approaches in analysing the adoption of swc measures. the choice of which models to use is a matter of computational convenience (greene 2008). this study uses the logistic regression model to analyse the determinants of farmers’ swc adoption decisions. the parameters estimated using logistic regression can be interpreted easily in terms of the odds ratio. the odds ratio shows the strength of association between a predictor and the outcome of interest. the dependent variable in the model is the logarithm of the odds that a given farmer adopts swc measures. the model is specified as follows (gujarati 2009): 𝑃i = (𝑌=1|𝑋i) = (1|1+𝑒−zi) …… (1) thus, the odds ratio in favour of adoption can be specified as: (𝑃i|1−𝑃i) = i ……….………. (2) where pi is the probability of adopting swc measures by the ith farmer; 1−𝑃i = (1|1+𝑒−zi) is non-adoption by the ith farmer; zi is a linear function of explanatory variables (x), including socio-economic, institutional, and plot-specific variables and village-level factors. in the estimation of factors affecting the adoption of swc measures, the dependent variable is coded as 1 when the farmer implements one or more than one swc measure and 0 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] otherwise. 6 the explanatory variables used are as follows: (a) plot-level characteristics such as area of the plot, the extent of soil erosion as assessed by the farmer, irrigation status, adoption of swc measures by neighbouring farmers, and crop diversity (i.e., the herfindahl index [hhi)]7); (b) socioeconomic characteristics including age, sex, and educational status of the household head, size of the household, and social status of the household; (c) connectivity factors including the distance between the plot and the dwelling, road connectivity, and the distance between the plot and the market; (d) village characteristics such as community-level swc measures implemented through the iwmp and whether the plot has benefited directly from iwmp interventions. the parameters of the logit were estimated using the maximum likelihood procedure in stata software using the logit user-written command. 2.4 summary statistics the definitions of the explanatory variables, the hypothesized direction of their influence, and their descriptive statistical properties are presented in table 2. to assess the association of on-site swc measures undertaken by other farmers in the neighbourhood with the soil conservation practices adopted by the surveyed farmers, detailed information about swc activities in all the neighbouring plots (for each of the farmers/plots surveyed) was collected through the primary survey. a farmer’s neighbours were defined as those whose plots share a boundary with their plot. if more than 50% of neighbouring plots have adopted a specific swc measure, then the neighbours of the respondent are considered to have adopted that measure (coded as 1), and, otherwise, they are considered to have not adopted it (coded as 0). the summary statistics suggest that the average area under 6 since farmers adopt more than one swc measure, the literature suggests that the dependent variable becomes multinomial, and, therefore, the ideal model becomes multinomial logit/probit models. however, in this study, the results are estimated using the simple logit regression model. since we have defined the dependent variable as 1 when the farmer implements more than one swc measure and ‘0’ otherwise, the estimated model can capture more numbers of swc measures adopted. this specification is considered relevant since most of the conservation measures are determined by similar factors. thus, the focus here is on identifying overall factors that influence the decision to adopt swc measures in general, and not on the factors that influence the adoption of a certain number of swc measures. we have also estimated the multinomial model and report the results in appendix tables a.1 and a.2. 7 the herfindahl index (hhi) represents “crop diversification and is estimated as the summation of all squared area shares occupied by crops in total cropped area. the value of this index varies from zero to one. it takes the value of one when there is full specialization and approaches to zero when there is full diversification” (datta, 2015). [105] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks cultivation is 3.37 acres per plot, while the average total area of the surveyed households is 4.60 acres. table 2: summary statistics and description of the variables used in the analysis variable definition of the variable h1sign mean std. dev. plot-level characteristics area of the plot cultivated area (in acres) +/3.37 2.48 erosion farmers’ perceived erosion (1 = yes; 0 = no) + 0.45 0.50 irrigation irrigation status (1 = yes; 0 = no) +/0.81 0.39 crop diversity crop diversity index + 0.49 0.23 neighbours’ adoption % of adjacent neighbours having adopted swc + 0.04 0.21 socio-economic variables age age of the household head (in years) +/49.45 14.10 sex gender of the household head (1 = male; 0 = female) +/0.89 0.32 caste social status (1 = socially forward class; 0 = socially backward classes) +/0.23 0.42 education years of education of the household head (in years) +/5.29 5.57 household size size of the household (members) +/4.52 1.93 market access variables distance distance to dwelling (in km) +/1.46 1.35 road road connectivity of the plot (1 = yes; 0 = no) + 0.32 0.47 distance to market distance to the market from the plot (in km) 8.16 9.46 village-level characteristics iwmp intervention iwmp intervention covered in the village (1 = yes; 0 = no) + 0.51 050 source: author’s own calculations based on primary survey data. the respondents thus own multiple plots and have a basis for comparison across the plots they own while responding to the survey questions. crop diversity, as measured through hhi, had a sample mean value of 0.49, suggesting a low level of diversity in the study area. across the villages, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] around 23% of farmers practised swc measures. the average age of the respondents was 49 years with about five years of formal education. the average household size was close to five members with low variability across the sample. the average distance from the dwelling to the plot was 1.46 km and, on average, the plots had poor road connectivity. around 50% of sampled farmers belonged to iwmp villages. 4. estimated results and discussion a logistic regression model was estimated to identify factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt swc measures. the model estimates suggest that out of the 14 variables that are hypothesized to influence the adoption of swc measures, 6 are significant—soil erosion, crop diversity index, irrigation facility, neighbours’ adoption of conservation measures, distance to dwelling, and presence of iwmp interventions. the logistic regression can be interpreted in terms of marginal effects and odds ratio. the odds ratio shows the strength of association between a predictor and the outcome of interest. in the present study, the predicted probabilities of the parameters are interpreted in terms of the odds ratio. it may be noted that some of the characteristics of a plot, such as the extent of soil erosion, are assessed in the present study based on farmers’ perceptions. while a more objective measurement of such characteristics is desirable, it is not uncommon in the literature to analyse swc adoption based on farmers’ perceptions of several characteristics like slope, soil depth, and soil quality (e.g., tesfaye et al. 2014). to limit potential endogeneity problems that can arise due to the inclusion of variables based on farmers’ perceptions, the present study incorporates only the extent of soil erosion as assessed by farmers as a binary variable. table 3 reports the coefficients and odds ratios estimated based on the logistic regression. in table 3, the coefficients and odds ratios are reported for two separate model specifications that differ in terms of the inclusion of conservation measures (model 2) undertaken by farmers in the neighbourhood of surveyed plots. [107] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks t a b le 3 : f ac to rs i n fl u e n ci n g c h o ic e o f s w c p ra ct ic es : e st im at e s b as ed o n l o g is ti c r e g re ss io n v a ri a b le s m o d e l 1 m o d e l 2 c o ef p > | z | o d d s ra ti o p > | z | c o ef p > | z | o d d s ra ti o p > | z | p lo tle v e l c h a ra c te ri st ic s a re a o f th e p lo t 0 .0 6 6 0 .3 4 1 .0 6 8 0 .3 4 0 .0 5 2 0 .4 7 1 .0 5 3 0 .4 7 s o il e ro si o n 1 .0 0 4 * * * 0 .0 0 2 .7 3 0 * * * 0 .0 0 0 .9 9 9 * * * 0 .0 0 2 .7 1 5 * * * 0 .0 0 c ro p d iv er si ty i n d ex 2 .2 3 0 * * * 0 .0 0 9 .2 9 9 * * * 0 .0 0 1 .9 9 5 * * * 0 .0 0 7 .3 4 9 * * * 0 .0 0 ir ri g at io n 0 .7 6 6 * * 0 .0 4 2 .1 5 0 * * 0 .0 4 0 .7 3 8 * * 0 .0 5 2 .0 9 2 * * 0 .0 5 n e ig h b o u rs ’ a d o p ti o n 0 .0 1 6 * * * 0 .0 0 1 .0 1 6 * * * 0 .0 0 s o ci o -e co n o m ic v ar ia b le s s e x o f th e h o u se h o ld h e ad 0 .3 5 0 0 .4 2 1 .4 1 9 0 .4 2 0 .3 1 5 0 .4 7 1 .3 7 0 0 .4 7 a g e o f th e h o u se h o ld h e ad -0 .0 0 2 0 .8 6 0 .9 9 8 0 .8 6 0 .0 0 9 0 .9 4 1 .0 0 1 0 .9 4 y ea rs o f fo rm al e d u ca ti o n o f th e h o u se h o ld h ea d -0 .0 5 1 * 0 .0 7 0 .9 5 0 * 0 .0 7 -0 .0 4 1 0 .1 4 0 .9 6 0 0 .1 4 h o u se h o ld s iz e -0 .0 5 5 0 .4 9 0 .9 4 6 0 .4 9 -0 .0 8 7 0 .2 3 0 .9 1 7 0 .2 3 c as te o f th e h o u se h o ld 0 .0 0 9 0 .9 8 1 .0 0 9 0 .9 8 -0 .2 7 2 0 .4 5 5 0 .7 6 2 0 .4 5 m a rk e t a c c e ss v a ri a b le s r o ad c o n n ec ti v it y o f th e p lo t 0 .2 0 0 0 .5 1 1 .2 2 1 0 .5 1 0 .2 7 2 0 .3 8 1 .3 1 2 0 .3 8 p lo t d is ta n ce t o d w el li n g -0 .1 8 1 * * 0 .0 2 0 .8 3 5 * * 0 .0 2 -0 .2 2 4 * * * 0 .0 1 0 .8 0 0 * * * 0 .0 1 p lo t d is ta n ce t o t h e m ar k et 0 .0 0 9 0 .6 5 1 .0 0 9 0 .6 5 0 .0 0 8 0 .6 8 1 .0 0 8 0 .6 8 v il la g e -l e v e l c h a ra c te ri st ic s v il la g e u n d er i w m p 0 .9 0 2 * * * 0 .0 0 2 .4 6 5 * * * 0 .0 0 0 .7 8 9 * * * 0 .0 1 2 .2 0 1 * * * 0 .0 1 o b se rv at io n s 4 0 3 4 0 3 p se u d o r 2 0 .1 7 2 0 .2 2 4 ch i2 6 1 .6 9 6 0 .7 5 p 0 .0 0 0 .0 0 s o u rc e : a u th o r’ s es ti m at io n s b as e d o n p ri m ar y s u rv ey d at a ; n o te : * * * , * * , * i n d ic at e s ig n if ic an ce a t th e 1 % , 5 % , an d 1 0 % p ro b ab il it y le v el s, r e sp ec ti v el y ; m o d el 1 s p ec if ic at io n d o es n o t in cl u d e th e n ei g h b o u rh o o d d u m m y; m o d el 2 s p ec if ic at io n i n cl u d es t h e n e ig h b o u rh o o d d u m m y. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] if farmers perceive that their plots suffer from soil erosion, they are 2.72 times more likely to adopt swc measures compared to those who do not perceive soil erosion to be a major issue on their plots. this result is in line with similar studies conducted across the world, which have found a positive relationship between farmers’ perceptions and adoption of soil conservation measures (shiferaw and holden 1998; asrat, belay, and hamito 2004; tesfaye et al. 2014). similarly, the model results show that farmers are 2.09 times more likely to undertake swc measures if they have access to an irrigation facility. the possible explanation for this is that farmers’ willingness to invest more in sustainable land management activities is dependent on their access to irrigation facilities. this result is also in line with other similar studies (knowler and bradshaw 2007). the literature suggests that diversified cultivation improves farmers’ incomes and plays a significant role in sustaining agriculture and agriculturebased livelihoods (jayne et al. 2010; bigsten and tengstam 2011; birthal, roy, and negi 2015). the results from the present study suggest that farmers are 7.34 times more likely to practise swc measures if they practise diversified cultivation in their plots. diversified agriculture may yield higher profits to farmers, which may encourage them to invest more in swc measures. the literature suggests a strong and negative association between the distance from the farmer’s dwelling to the plot and the probability of implementing swc measures (knowler and bradshaw 2007). concurring with this, the results from the present study show that farmers are less likely to adopt swc measures if the agricultural plot is far from their dwelling. as highlighted above, swc can be location-specific, with certain swc practices being more suitable for particular types of land. land is spatially contiguous, and the conservation practices suitable for one plot could also be suitable for nearby plots. hence, these factors may lead to similarities in conservation and farm practices (pattanayak and butry 2005). empirical studies suggest that neighbourhood activities have a positive influence on farmers’ decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies as well as swc measures (holloway and lapar 2007; wang et al. 2013; lapple and kelly 2015; palanisami et al. 2015, singha 2019). spatially contiguous information is required to rigorously analyse the neighbourhood impact on a farmer’s decision to adopt swc practices. in the present study, a full-fledged spatial econometric analysis could not be undertaken due to data constraints. instead, there has been an attempt to capture the influence of conservation practices in the neighbourhood on a farmer’s individual swc practices. model 2 in table 2 accounts for neighbours’ influence through the introduction of a dummy, which takes the value 1 when a majority of the neighbouring plots implement swc and 0 otherwise. the significant and [109] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks positive coefficient estimated for the neighbourhood dummy suggests an association between conservation practices in the farmer’s plot and the neighbourhood plots. the estimated coefficient values of most variables are lower in model 2 compared to those in model 1, suggesting that the inclusion of the neighbourhood dummy in the model specification avoids omitted variable bias. the study also explored the role of neighbours in farmers’ adoption decisions of different swc measures (results reported in appendices). farmers are more likely to adopt stream trenches, slope levelling, stone bunds, woody perennials, and farm ponds if their neighbours adopted these swc measures, keeping other exogenous variables constant. however, there is no significant association between farmers’ adoption of grass bunds, silt application, and other measures and their implementation by neighbours (see appendix table a.3 and a.4). among other things, the relatively low rate of adoption of these swc measures among the farmers in the sample could be one of the reasons for the insignificant association. as expected, the results show that there is a strong and positive relationship between community-level swc activities and individual farm-level adoption of swc measures. the results suggest that farmers are more likely to undertake swc measures if they belong to iwmp villages compared to farmers from non-iwmp villages. the odds ratio suggests that farmers are 2.20 times more likely to adopt swc measures if they belong to iwmp villages compared to their counterparts in non-iwmp villages, keeping all other variables constant. there is mixed evidence in the literature on linkages between community-level conservation practices and farm-level practices. for instance, feder and slade (1985) suggest that there is a complementarity between community-level swc practices and individual plot-level swc measures. similarly, palanisami et al. (2015) argue that the neighbours’ adoption of water conservation measures positively influences farmers’ decisions to adopt similar conservation measures. on the other hand, singha (2017) finds no relationship between community and farmlevel conservation practices given that one of the main objectives of programmes like iwmp is to demonstrate the effectiveness of conservation measures to farmers; the evidence from the present study provides support to such a claim. finally, the literature offers mixed results on the relationship between socioeconomic variables and the adoption of swc measures (adimassu, langan, and johnston 2016). in the present study, variables such as area of the plot, sex of the household head, age of the household head, household size, formal education of the household head, road connectivity of the plot, and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] plot distance to the market were found to have no significant relationship with the adoption of swc measures by the farmers. 5. conclusion this study focused on assessing the main factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt swc measures in the rain-fed watershed areas of telangana, india. the data were collected through a primary survey of 400 farmers from two watershed areas and were analysed using a logistic regression model. the results suggest that plot-level variables, including the level of soil erosion, crop diversity, and availability of irrigation facilities, significantly influence farmers’ decisions to undertake swc measures. further, farmers’ perception of the extent of soil erosion on their plots positively and significantly influences this decision. similarly, farmers are more likely to undertake on-site swc measures if they have access to irrigation facilities. the farmers are also more likely to adopt swc measures if they cultivate more diverse crops. the results also indicate that farmers are more likely to undertake on-site conservation measures if their neighbours undertake swc measures. as expected, community-level swc activities were found to have a strong influence on the farm-level swc measures undertaken by farmers, thus highlighting their complementarity. these findings, particularly that of the associative influence of neighbourhood conservation practices on farmers’ decisions to implement swc measures, and the synergetic relationship between community and farm-level soil conservation practices, can provide crucial inputs for the formulation of effective government policies to promote soil conservation. the integration of local knowledge in swc planning could help in overcoming behavioural constraints faced while advocating for conservation measures in countries such as india, which is dominated by rain-fed cultivation. future studies could explore such extensions. acknowledgements the paper is part of the doctoral thesis of mr dayakar peddi submitted to central university of tamil nadu. the authors express gratitude to prof l venkatachalam and prof brinda viswanathan for their valuable comments and guidance throughout the work. the assistance provided by mr srinivas during the data collection process is gratefully acknowledged. the authors thank indian council of social science research (icssr) for their financial support. earlier versions of the paper were presented at the indian society for ecological economics (insee) (2019); australian agricultural and resource economics society (aares) (2021); and south asian economic development (2021) conferences, and the authors would like to thank the [111] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks participants for their valuable inputs. the authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments. the standard disclaimer of assuming responsibility for all errors applies. references bdulai, awudu, and wallace e huffman. 2005. 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"social capital, risk preference and adoption of improved farm land management practices in ethiopia." agricultural economics 46(1): 81-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12142 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.1998.tb00502.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2004.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x19000226 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4397242 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12011 https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2187 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2012.08.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12142 [115] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks appendix table a.1: factors influencing choice of swc practices multinomial logit model estimates explanatory variables moderate-level adoption high-level adoption coef p>|z| coef p>|z| base category low plot-level characteristics area of the plot 0.052 0.34 0.173* 0.10 soil erosion 0.459* 0.07 0.342 0.51 crop diversity index 1.960 *** 0.00 4.593*** 0.01 irrigation 0.183 0.59 0.962 0.35 neighbours’ adoption 0.009*** 0.00 0.023*** 0.00 socio-economic variables sex of the household head 0.374 0.34 0.986 0.40 age of the household head -0.003 0.78 -0.011 0.56 years of formal education of the household head -0.039 0.12 0.026 0.62 household size 0.086 0.18 0.010 0.95 caste of the household -0.326 0.31 -1.186* 0.07 market access variables road connectivity of the plot -0.080 0.77 -0.481 0.38 plot distance to dwelling 0.030 0.75 0.063 0.70 plot distance to market -0.005 0.66 -0.031 0.36 village-level characteristics village under iwmp 1.723*** 0.00 4.494 *** 0.00 diagnostics observations 403 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] lr chi2 184.59 prob > chi2 0.0000 pseudo r2 0.2544 ***, **, * indicate significance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% probability level, respectively. note: if the farmer adopts less than or equal to 1 swc measure, then she is treated as having a “low” level of adoption; if she practices less than or equal to 3 swc measures, then she is treated as having a “moderate” level of adoption, and if she practices more than 3 swc measures a “high” level of adoption. [117] dayakar peddi and kavi kumar ks table a.2: marginal effects: multinomial logit model explanatory variables lowlevel adoption moderatelevel adoption highlevel adoption marginal effects p>|z| marginal effects p>|z| marginal effects p>|z| plot-level characteristics area of the plot -0.010 0.23 0.004 0.69 0.006 0.20 soil erosion -0.078* 0.07 0.079 * 0.09 -0.001 0.97 crop diversity index -0.366*** 0.00 0.218* 0.07 0.148** 0.04 irrigation -0.040 0.50 -0.000 1.00 0.040 0.40 neighbours’ adoption -0.002*** 0.00 0.001* 0.07 0.001*** 0.00 socio-economic variables sex of the household head -0.071 0.28 0.037 0.63 0.034 0.52 age of the household head 0.001 0.73 -0.000 0.95 -0.000 0.57 years of formal education of the household head 0.006 0.16 -0.009** 0.05 0.003 0.13 household size -0.014 0.16 0.017 0.16 -0.003 0.72 caste of the household 0.065 0.23 -0.020 0.73 -0.045* 0.09 market access variables road connectivity of the plot 0.018 0.69 0.002 0.96 -0.020 0.40 plot distance to dwelling -0.005 0.67 0.004 0.80 0.002 0.72 plot distance to market 0.001 0.59 0.000 0.96 -0.001 0.19 village-level characteristics village under iwmp -0.326*** 0.00 0.174*** 0.00 0.152*** 0.00 notes: ***, **, * denote significant at 1%, 5%, and 10% respectively. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 33–58, july 2020 research paper revisiting the economic costs of arsenicosis: a psm approach sanjana chakraborty  and vivekananda mukherjee  abstract: the present paper uses the propensity score matching (psm) method to calculate the economic loss of arsenicosis-affected households. in contrast to prior studies, whose estimates of income loss were limited to labour-market sources, the psm method controls for labour market and other sources of income, as well as demographic and educational factors, to identify losses from social discrimination. it first establishes that arsenicosis-affected households are subject to social discrimination, and then shows that this leads to a significant loss of expenditure. second, it proves that overlooking social discrimination leads to an underestimation of income loss. the results have important implications, both for understanding the plight of arsenicosis-affected households and for cost–benefit calculations in the adoption of policies for fighting arsenic contamination. keywords: arsenicosis, economic cost, propensity score matching, social discrimination 1. introduction arsenic is a metalloid that is found throughout the earth’s crust and in soil, sediments, water, air, and living organisms. the estimated global prevalence of arsenic in soil is 5 µg/kg (microgram per kilogram), but concentrations may vary considerably in different geological regions; the variations range from 0.1 to 4,000 µg/kg. across different countries, arsenic is used as a drug as well as a poison.  department of economics, jadavpur university, kolkata 700032, india; sanjanadrc@yahoo.co.in.  department of economics, jadavpur university, kolkata 700032, india; mukherjeevivek@hotmail.com.  copyright © chakraborty and mukherjee 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.134 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.134 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] arsenic can enter the human body directly through the consumption of contaminated drinking water and indirectly through the food chain, if arsenic-contaminated groundwater is used in agricultural production. arsenic consumption leads to health hazards such as skin, lung, liver, bladder, and kidney cancer. it can harm the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as the heart and blood vessels. it may also cause birth defects and problems in the reproductive system. arsenic-related health hazards may be classified into two types: (i) acute: including gastrointestinal discomfort, vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions, coma, and ultimately death; (ii) chronic: including skin lesions (arsenicosis or arsenical dermatitis) that are characterized by hyper-pigmentation, hyperkeratosis, and hypopigmentation. acute toxicity, however, is infrequent. arsenic’s effects on the victim are not immediately perceptible. gradual arsenic poisoning from drinking tainted water can take years to ravage the body, producing pigment patches and scaly skin; swollen limbs and joints; and tumorous growths on limbs and feet. by the time even early symptoms are visible, the person is often riddled with cancer. thus, arsenic has a cumulative toxic effect that destroys the human body, leading to inevitable death. since rural areas, especially in developing countries, are seldomly supplied with treated surface water, people living there face a much higher threat of developing arsenicosis. while arsenic contamination has been reported in 38 countries in the world (chakraborti et al. 2009), asian countries have been affected more than others. globally, the countries most affected by arsenic contamination are all from asia: india, bangladesh, china, and taiwan, with india having the highest and taiwan having the lowest incidence. the ganga–meghna– brahmaputra (gmb) plain of india and bangladesh is the worst affected area in the world, giving cause for alarm. more than 500 million people living in the gmb plain may potentially be at risk from groundwater arsenic contamination (nahar, hossain, and hossain 2008; bgs and dphe 2001). arsenicosis affects the health and well-being of both the affected individuals and their families (hanchett 2004; roy 2008). the people affected by arsenic poisoning suffer from symptoms like gradual loss of energy, physical weakness, loss of appetite, lethargy, sleeplessness, diminishing ability to work, gastrointestinal distress, burning sensations, and gradually progressive debilitation, which lead to an inability to work, and loss in income. it also leads to strained relations within the family and social stress. when the symptoms of arsenicosis become more evident, various agonizing social issues often arise, such as affected persons being fired from their jobs, children being debarred from their schools, girls being denied marriage, and married women facing marital problems and even divorce. [35] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee the affected people are often socially boycotted and ostracized from social functions as they are mistakenly considered to be contagious. these social barriers create economic challenges for the affected people and their families (becker 1971).1 although arsenicosis cannot be cured, it can be adapted to and mitigated. the medical expenditures borne by affected households to treat arsenicosis are an example of adaptation. there are mitigation approaches that the affected persons can take as well: (i) using arsenic-safe water sources such as dugwells and deep tubewells that are regularly monitored for arsenic, piped water projects, etc., and (ii) improving one’s nutritional status by adopting a healthy diet with plenty of vitamins such as a, c, and e (quamruzzaman et al. 2003; milton 2003).2 the government may undertake policies to promote and complement these mitigation efforts. for example, it may spread awareness about arsenic-safe sources of drinking water and nutritional foods to combat arsenicosis. it may also undertake piped water projects and mark arsenic-safe tubewells.3 the economic impact of arsenicosis on a household, therefore, depends on the adaptation and mitigation efforts of the household as well as various social and policy parameters. while several studies have investigated arsenic contamination, most of them have explored its geological aspects, the related health problems, and technologies for its removal. studies like mandal et al. (1996), chowdhury et al. (1999), chowdhury et al. (2000), chakraborti et al. (2002, 2003, 2009), and ahmed et al. (2006) have mapped the spatial spread of arsenic risk zones in west bengal, india, and in bangladesh. these studies have also evaluated the scale of the problem in terms of the at-risk population. the geological aspects of groundwater arsenic contamination have been studied by harvey et al. (2002, 2005), akai et al. (2004), acharyya and shah (2007), biswas et al. (2012), and planer-friedrich et al. (2012). studies on epidemiological issues and adverse health effects related to chronic arsenic toxicity include datta (1976), milton (2003), chakraborti et al. (2004), kapaj (2006), ghosh (2008), vahter (2009), and rahman et al. (2009). substantial literature is also available on mitigation strategies and technologies for arsenic removal (misbahuddin and fariduddin 2002; hossain et al. 2006). as mentioned before, besides its chronic effects, groundwater arsenic 1 a publication by the world health organization points out that the social problems arising from groundwater arsenic contamination increase the pressure on the economies of the affected areas (curry et al. 2000). 2 malnutrition slows down the elimination of toxic arsenic from the body and aggravates arsenicosis. 3 arsenic-safe tubewells are coloured green and unsafe tubewells are coloured red. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] contamination creates widespread social and psychological problems for the affected people and their families. over the last decade, a number of studies, mostly in bangladesh, have highlighted the social, socio-cultural, socio-economic, psychosocial, and mental health effects of arsenic poisoning (curry et al. 2000; barkat 2004; hadi and parveen 2004; hanchett 2004; hassan et al. 2005; ahmad et al. 2007; nahar, hossain, and hossain 2008; brinkel et al. 2009; sarker 2010; mahmood and halder 2011; sultana et al. 2012; syed et al. 2012). however, there is a dearth of such valuable studies that examine the social dimension of arsenic contamination in the indian context. studies evaluating the economic cost of arsenic contamination are limited, but designing any arsenic mitigation programme would require cost estimates. this study attempts to derive such an estimate of the costs involved. studies like khan (2007), roy (2008), mahanta et al. (2016), and thakur et al. (2019) have measured the arsenic-affected households’ willingness to pay for mitigation projects by estimating their losses from labour market participation and remedial medical expenditures. additionally, affected households also experience losses due to the social discrimination they face. the methodologies adopted by khan (2007), roy (2008), mahanta et al. (2016), and thakur et al. (2019) overlook this dimension of income loss. the present paper attempts to fill this gap. this paper accounts for the income loss of arsenic-affected households from reduced labour market participation as well as social discrimination. first, it shows that calculating the economic cost based on the labour market alone would lead to underestimation, as such calculations will not account for losses caused by social discrimination. then, it estimates the labour supply behaviour and spending behaviour of the households facing social discrimination. it shows that in the presence of sufficiently strong social discrimination, households may work more, and when the labour market effects are controlled, such households spend less than other households. this theory is supported by survey data collected in 2005–06 from arsenicaffected and unaffected households in kolsur village in north 24 parganas district, west bengal, india. our estimation of the economic cost compares the incomes of arsenic-affected households and observationally similar households which differ only in terms of the presence of arsenicosis. the observational match has been found using the propensity score matching [37] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee (psm) method pioneered by rosenbaum and rubin (1985).4 with psm, we control for the labour market and other sources of earning like working on their own land or on land owned by others, the household’s per capita working days per month in different seasons (summer, winter, and monsoon), adaptive expenditure to avoid labour market loss, and a host of other demographic and educational factors. we show that social discrimination exists and estimate the income loss that it creates. the results show that the measure of income loss per capita derived by roy (2008) based on labour market outcomes alone, in a similar geographical region and during a similar time period, is an underestimation.5 the paper contributes to the literature by providing a broader measure of the economic costs of arsenicosis by including the costs of the social discrimination faced by arsenic-affected households. it argues that the economic costs are greater than any estimate generated based on labour market outcomes alone. the results of the paper are important from a policy point of view, as the suggested method of economic cost calculation may make viable several arsenic removal programmes that are stalled due to unfavourable cost–benefit calculations. the paper also highlights the importance of policies in eliminating the social discrimination against arsenic-affected households, as it leads to significant economic losses for them. the paper is organized as follows: section 2 presents a theoretical model to illustrate the way arsenicosis affects a household’s labour supply, income, and expenditure. it also shows that considering only labour market effects underestimates the welfare loss of arsenic-affected households and why a technique like psm is required for this purpose. sections 3 and 4 describe the methodology and data collection, respectively. section 5 analyses the data and discusses the results. section 6 presents the conclusions. 2. theoretical foundations consider a representative arsenic-affected household that derives its utility from the consumption of commodities and leisure. the expenditure on commodities is represented by x . the time endowment of the household is represented by )a(t hours, out of which l hours is consumed as leisure. 4 see caliendo and kopeinig (2008), imbens and wooldridge (2009), heinrich et al. (2010), and kassie et al. (2010) for recent reviews of the literature. 5 our result is not directly comparable to those of either mahanta et al. (2016) or thakur et al. (2019) due to geographic and temporal dissimilarities. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] the utility function of the household is: )l,x(uu  , which is maximized by the choice of }l,x{ subject to the budget constraint: )a(m)l)a(t(wx  (1) in equation (1), w stands for the market wage rate and )a(m stands for the non-labour income of the household. in our model, 0a is an index of the severity of arsenicosis in the household. a high value of a implies a high severity of arsenicosis. we assume that 0 )a(t that is, the more severely a household is affected with arsenicosis, the less time it has both for work and leisure. we also assume that 0 )a(m , that is, the greater the severity of arsenicosis in a household, the lower the non-labour income of the household. we treat )a(m as an indicator of the social capital enjoyed by the household. we assume that the lower non-labour income of an affected household reflects the social discrimination it faces. assuming the existence of an interior solution }l)a(t,x{ ** 00  to the household’s utility maximization problem, the equilibrium amount of labour supply and the equilibrium expenditure of the household are written as: )]a(m),a(t,w[l)a(tl **  (2) and )a(mwlx **  (3) respectively. since leisure is a normal good, by income effect it follows that 0   t l * , 0   m l * and 0      )a(t t l a l ** . substituting }l)a(t,x{ ** 00  in the utility function above, the indirect utility function of the household is defined as: )]a(l),a(x[u)a(v **  (4) proposition 1: the welfare loss of households due to arsenicosis calculated based only on labour market outcomes leads to underestimation. proof: applying the first-order conditions of the household’s utility maximization problem from equations (3) and (4), we derive: )]a(m)a(tw[ x u a v       (5) [39] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee the first term of the rhs of equation (5) captures the loss in welfare due to the labour market effect, and the second term captures the loss due to lack of social capital, which is due to social discrimination. from the assumptions of the model, we know 0   x u , 0w , 0 )a(t and 0 )a(m . therefore, the rhs of equation (5) is negative. hence, the statement of the proposition follows. proposition 1 justifies the use of the psm method for estimating the welfare loss of a representative arsenic-affected household. the method also captures the loss of income that arises due to the erosion of the social capital of such households, which previous studies have failed to capture. proposition 2: (a) a l *   ≥ or < 0 if and only if )a(t ≥ or < ] m l )a(m t l )a(t[ **       ; (b) (i) if ] m l )a(m t l )a(t[)a(t **       , 0   a x * (ii) if ] m l )a(m t l )a(t[)a(t **       , a x *   ≥ or < 0 if and only if a l w *   ≥ or < )]a(m[  . proof: from (2) we obtain: ] m l )a(m t l )[a(t)a(t a l ***         ; and from (3) we obtain: )a(m a l w a x **       the statement of the proposition follows. as the incidence of arsenicosis escalates in a household, the endowment of time and social capital shrinks. in terms of labour supply, this evokes two kinds of reactions from the household. first, a direct effect of the reduction of time endowment )a(t through which its supply of labour falls. second, an indirect effect ] m l )a(m t l )a(t[ * * *       through which the change in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] income causes a decline in consumption and leisure but an increase in labour supply. the household’s supply of labour falls if the direct effect dominates the indirect effect. for such households, consumption expenditure falls as well. however, if the indirect effect dominates, the labour supply rises, i.e., the household works more. if social discrimination is strong, i.e., )a(m has a large magnitude, the indirect effect would also be strong. if it is strong enough, as proposition 2 suggests, it is perfectly possible that an arsenic-affected household works more than an arsenicunaffected household, and its consumption expenditure is more than that of an arsenic-unaffected household. however, if the labour supply remains unchanged or rises, social discrimination would imply a fall in the consumption expenditure of arsenic-affected households. earlier studies like khan (2007), roy (2008), mahanta et al. (2016), and thakur et al. (2019), which do not consider the theoretical possibility of social discrimination and do not apply the psm method as their empirical methodology, found that the labour supply and, consequently, the welfare of affected households, declined due to arsenicosis. the data and the methodology applied in this paper yielded a different result, which we explain at the end of section 4. 3. empirics: methodology impact evaluations (causal inferences) are fundamentally based on randomized experiments. in the case of successful randomization, the treated or affected group and the untreated or control group are identical with respect to all observed and unobserved characteristics except the treatment status. the two groups are thus totally interchangeable. although a perfectly randomized experiment is considered a theoretically ideal, in practice, randomization is mostly infeasible, specifically in social science experiments or social behavioural research studies. under such circumstances, non-experimental methods are used. but the non-random observational studies or non-experimental methods usually suffer from a selection bias (a bias in the sample selection). techniques like multivariate regression analysis, instrumental variable method, quasi-experimental method, and psm are used to minimize the selection bias. in this paper, we use the psm method. the propensity score )}x(p{ is defined as the probability of participating in a programme given the observed set of variables x. unlike with randomization, in psm, the two groups are identical only in their observed characteristics. dealing with multiple covariates, confounding background [41] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee covariates, and observed background characteristics is too troublesome due to both computational and data problems. so, rosenbaum and rubin (1985) suggested the use of a propensity score, which acts as a balancing score. when the set of variables to match is large, the applied matching procedure based on this unidimensional balancing score is known as psm. in other words, psm refers to the pairing of the treatment and control or comparison units with similar values on the propensity score, possibly discarding all unmatched units (rubin 2001). 3.1. evaluation framework and matching basics inferences about the impact of the treatment on the outcome of an individual involves speculation about how this individual would have performed without the treatment. the standard framework to discuss this problem is the potential outcome approach or roy-rubin model (or rubin causal model). in the case of a dichotomous/binary treatment, the treatment indicator 1id if an individual i receives the treatment or is affected and zero otherwise. the framework assumes that there are two potential outcomes 1y and 0y corresponding with ( 1id ) and ( 0id ). importantly, a unit i can only be in one state (either 1id or 0id ) at one point of time, so only one of the two outcomes ( 1y or 0y ) is observed. if, say, 1y is observed, the unobserved outcome 0y is taken as the “missing link”. the unobservable outcome of this framework is termed as “counterfactual” since it is counter to fact (winship and morgan 1999), i.e., what the outcome would be without the programme at the same point of time. hence, we need a comparison group that will allow us to attribute any change in the treatment group to the programme to gauge causality properly. the psm method matches the treatment and the comparison/control group based on their observed characteristics and investigates the impact of the treatment. in the present study, we consider the incidence of arsenicosis as the treatment. the outcome variables are per capita monthly household income and per capita monthly household expenditure. the use of the psm method ensures that any selection bias is minimized with regard to observable characteristics. in applying psm, we adopt the three-step analytic process described by guo and fraser (2010). the steps are as follows: ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] step 1: selection of background covariates the first is to search for and select the best background covariates that could be causing an imbalance between the treated and control groups. the treatment group (arsenic-affected group) and the control group (arsenicunaffected group) are compulsorily made to share a similar set of background covariates. step 2: calculation of propensity scores the propensity scores are calculated for each household using binary logistic regression or a binary discrete choice model (gujarati and sangeetha 2007). denoting the binary treatment condition as id , we define 1id if a household is in the treatment condition (arsenic-affected) and 0id if a household is in the control condition (arsenic-unaffected). the vector of the conditioning variables is denoted as ix and the vector of the regression parameters is denoted as i . the binary logistic regression depicts the conditional probability of receiving the treatment as follows: iiii ii xx x iii ee e )d(e)x|d(p       1 1 1 (6) note that this is a nonlinear model, as id is not a linear function of the vector of conditioning variables ix . but the transformed equation through the logit function (i.e., the natural logarithm of odds or ] )d(p )di(p log[ i1 becomes a linear function of ix . the logit model being estimated is specified as:6 iiei x) p p (logl    1 (7) where p denotes )d(p i . the propensity score is the estimated value of ip = )d(p i . as psm is applied for the comparison of the outcomes of the two groups, the two assumptions mentioned below need to be satisfied. assumption 1: id s are independent over all i . the non-randomized data of this study ensure that assumption 1 holds. 6 alternatively, a probit model or a discriminating analysis can be used for the same purpose. [43] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee assumption 2: conditional independence assumption (cia): x|d)(y),(y 10 . assumption 2 implies that given a set of observable covariates x , which are not affected by the treatment, potential outcomes are independent of the treatment status. that is, it is assumed that the outcomes )(y),(y 10 are independent of the treatment status conditional on x . in this study, we assume that the cia holds. as we have considered several background covariates, there is a problem of multidimensionality. to reduce this multidimensionality, the propensity scores are estimated. the background covariates are described in section 4. the questionnaire based on which the data on the selected background or confounding covariates was collected is given in appendix 1. after the propensity scores are calculated, we use them to match the two groups. step 3: matching after the propensity score estimation, the psm is implemented. we construct matched pairs between the two types of households, i.e., the arsenic-affected households (treatment group) and the arsenic-unaffected households (control group) based on the maximum closeness of their propensity scores. before matching, we must satisfy the following assumption. assumption 3: common support or overlap condition: 110  )x|d(p . to identify the common support region, we adopt the “minima and maxima criterion” approach, which eliminates all observations whose propensity scores are smaller than the minimum and larger than the maximum in the opposite group. observations that lie outside the described region are discarded from the analysis. in the present study, we applied the most straightforward, traditional pairwise matching method (rubin 1973), nearest neighbour (nn) matching, where households from the comparison group are chosen as a matching partner for the treated household that is closest in terms of the propensity score. nn matching is of two types: “with replacement” and “without replacement”. in the former case, an untreated/control household can be used more than once as a match, whereas in the latter case, it is considered only once (i.e., once a treated case is matched to a non-treated case, both cases are removed from the pool). in the present study, the sample size of the control group is large, so we use nn matching without replacement. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] formally, if ip and jp represent the respective propensity scores of the treated and control participants, and if 1i and 0i represent the respective sets of treated and control participants, a neighbourhood )p(c i contains a control participant j (i.e., 0ij ) as a match for the treated participant i (i.e., 1ii  ) if the absolute difference in propensity scores is the smallest among all possible pairs of propensity scores between i and j , as: 0ij||,pp||min)p(c jii  once j matches to i , j is removed from 0i without replacement. if for each i there is only a single j found to fall into )p(c i , then the nn matching is 1-to-1 matching. if for each i there are n participants found to fall into )p(c i , then the nn matching is 1-ton matching. note that here we are not imposing any kind of restriction on the distance between ip and jp as long as j is the nn to i in terms of the estimated propensity score. even if ||pp|| ji  is large (i.e., j ’s propensity score is vastly different from i ’s), j would still be considered a match to i . to overcome this problem, the following condition is derived, where the absolute distance between the propensity scores of the two participants will be less than the pre-specified tolerance for matching or a calliper (  ) satisfying: 0ij,||pp|| ji  (8) rosenbaum and rubin (1985) suggest that the size of the calliper be 0.25 of the standard deviation of the sample estimated propensity scores ( p )(i.e., p.  250 ). this variety of nn matching, which has been adopted in the present study, is known as calliper matching. here, we are using nn matching without replacement within a calliper. by adopting this method, we get a subsample of the control participants and treated participants whose propensity scores have been matched. step 4: post-matching analysis after the matched treatment and control groups are formed, we compare the average of the outcome variables for the two groups and check if they are significantly different or not. the questionnaire about the outcome variables is presented in appendix 1. [45] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee table 1: descriptive statistics and comparison of the outcome variables of arsenicaffected households and arsenic-unaffected households outcome variables arsenic-affected (no. of observations = 374) arsenic-unaffected (no. of observations = 392) mean difference mean min max mean min max per capita monthly household income (inr) 1,475.52 (495.15) 500 4,000 2,187.11 (832.20) 833 6,000 -711.59* per capita monthly household expenditure (inr) 1,300.81 (277.97) 677 3,725 1,730.33 (555.28) 677 5,033 -429.52* note: standard deviations are in parentheses and *, **, *** denote a 1%, 5%, and 10% level of significance, respectively. 4. data the data used in the empirical analysis are drawn from a household database created by school of environmental studies, jadavpur university (soes, ju), using a primary survey during 2005–2006 in the arsenicaffected village of kolsur located in deganga block, north 24 parganas district (west bengal, india). the database was a complete enumeration of 1,000 households in the village. of these, 374 households were arsenicosis affected, and the rest (i.e., 626 households) were unaffected. in our study, we included all the 374 affected households in the treatment group. the control group was constituted by unaffected households living within a radius of 6–9m from each of the affected households. selected in this way, there were 392 households in the control group. both the treatment and control households were deliberately chosen from the same geographical area so that they did not differ much in terms of socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and the unobserved heterogeneity of the households was not too vast. all the households in both the groups had the same source of drinking water, which was arsenic-affected. we have collected household data on two outcome variables: per capita monthly income and per capita monthly expenditure (both in indian national rupee [inr]).7 the descriptive statistics and the comparison of the outcome variables are presented in the table 1. 7 inr 1 = $0.02 on 4 may 2005. see pound sterling live (2005). roy (2008) also uses the same exchange rate. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] in both the outcome variables, on average, the control group performs better than the treatment group (table 1). they earn more and spend more. they differ significantly in terms of their per capita monthly income and per capita monthly expenditure. on average, the arsenic-affected households and the arsenic-unaffected households earn ₹1,475.52 and ₹2,187.11 per month per capita, respectively, and spend ₹1,300.81 and ₹1,730.33 per month per capita, respectively (see table 1). the standard deviations of both the income and expenditure variables are high, with income showing more variation than expenditure. we consider three different sets of background covariates for our study. the first set relates to the demographic characteristics of the households and contains variables like religion, percentage of male and female members, and percentage of people of working age (15–64 years old) in the household. the second set relates to the income as well as medical expenditure of the households. this includes whether the household earns farm or non-farm income. under farm income, whether the income is earned by working on one’s own land or on land owned by others is considered. other variables included are the household’s per capita working days per month in different seasons (summer, winter, and monsoon) and the household’s per capita monthly medical expenditure (inr), which we use to approximate the adaptive measures taken by the household to avoid possible labour market loss. the third set includes variables that capture the level of educational attainment in the households. this includes the percentage of household members having attained middle-school education (passed class 8), higher-secondary education (passed class 12), and graduate education, and the percentage of household members who are literate. land being the major asset in rural areas, we also include the per capita land ownership of households in terms of katha8 to record the wealth of the households.9 we describe the data on the background covariates in table 2. there are more female members in arsenic-unaffected households compared to arsenic-affected households (significant at 5% level). among the income as well as medical expenditure–related variables, the treatment group and the control group are significantly different on three counts. 8 1 katha = 0.017 acre. 9 we have not included the source of drinking water as a background covariate since in our sample, as arsenic-contaminated ground water is consumed both by the treatment (arsenicaffected) households and the control (arsenic-unaffected) households. therefore, it is not a source of variation in explaining the observed incidence of arsenicosis. we thank one of the referees for bringing up this issue. [47] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee table 2: descriptive statistics and comparison of the background covariates of arsenic-affected households and arsenic-unaffected households background variables arsenic-affected (no. of observations = 374) arsenic-unaffected (no. of observations = 392) mean difference mean min max mean min max religion dummy (hindu = 1, muslim = 0) 0.40 (0.49) 0 1 0.48 (0.50) 0 1 -0.08 % of males in the household 36.07 (14.13) 0 75 37.61 (12.83) 0 66.67 -1.54 % of females in the household 33.70 (12.86) 0 75 36.87 (12.97) 0 66.67 -3.17** % of household members of working age (15–64 years) 74.75 (20.55) 33.33 100 75.73 (22.37) 0 100 -0.98 working on own land * 0.47 (0.50) 0 1 0.48 (0.50) 0 1 -0.01* working on others’ land * 0.23 (0.42) 0 1 0.19 (0.39) 0 1 0.04*** other source of income (non-farm) 0.60 (0.49) 0 1 0.53 (0.50) 0 1 0.07 per capita working days p.m. in summer 9.70 (3.42) 3.33 30 9.76 (3.20) 4.33 15 -0.06 per capita working days p.m. in winter 9.71 (3.44) 3.33 30 9.76 (3.20) 4.33 15 -0.05 per capita working days p.m. in monsoon 9.53 (3.51) 0 30 9.66 (3.21) 3.7 5 15 -0.13 per capita monthly household medical expenditure (inr) 24.02 (21.16) 10 225 13.56 (6.54) 4 50 10.46* middle school (up to class 8) (%) 75.64 (24.39) 0 100 77.44 (24.42) 0 100 -1.8 higher secondary (%) 1.85 (7.34) 0 50 1.90 (7.80) 0 50 -0.05 graduate (%) 1.01 (5.32) 0 50 0.76 (4.70) 0 50 0.25 literate persons (%) 72.96 (23.55) 0 100 75.24 (24.19) 0 100 -2.28 per capita land ownership (in katha) 6.87 (7.36) 0.5 55.5 5.78 (5.73) 0.67 40 1.09* note 1: standard deviations are in parentheses and *, **, *** denote a 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance, respectively). note 2: * implies yes = 1, no = 0. note 3: p.m. = per month. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] there are more households in the control group who work on their own land compared to the treatment group (at a 1% level of significance). but there are more households in the treatment group who work on others’ land compared to the control group (significant at a 10% level). again, the per capita monthly medical expenditure of the arsenic-affected households is more compared to that of the arsenic-unaffected households (significant at a 1% level), which confirms our apprehension that the per capita monthly medical expenditure essentially reflects the adaptive expenditure of the arsenic-affected households from possible labour market loss. the two groups are not significantly different in any other aspect except that the treatment group has more per capita ownership of land than the control group (significant at a 1% level). the similarity in the number of per capita working days across the groups shows (proposition 1) that the direct and indirect effects of arsenicosis almost balance each other out, which indicates the social discrimination of the arsenic-affected group. 5. analysis and results we performed the psm analysis using the stata 12 software. through psm, we first paired the households in the treatment group with the households in the control group who observationally possess similar characteristics. to do this, we identified the common support region between the treatment and control groups in terms of their propensity scores. psm can be performed only on the observations in the common support region between the two groups. from the propensity score calculations, we found 329 households of the treatment group (i.e., arsenic-affected group) and 392 households of the control group (i.e., arsenic-unaffected group) in the common support region. the rest (45 households) of the treatment group were out of the common support region. the 329 households (on support) of the treatment group were matched with exactly 329 households (on support) of the control group. according to the methodology described above, we used the standard deviation of the propensity scores (estimated as 0.26) to calculate the value of the calliper as 0.0656. the differences in the mean outcomes of the matched pairs were interpreted as the impact of the treatment, i.e., the economic loss suffered due to arsenicosis. table 3 describes the results of the comparison of the outcome variables of the two groups. from table 3, it can be observed that the mean of the monthly household per capita income of the 329 households of the treatment group is obtained as ₹1,485.98 per month per capita, while for the 329 households of the control group it is ₹2,174.17 per [49] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee table 3: comparison of the outcome variables of matched households (no. of observations = 329) outcome variables arsenic-affected arsenic-unaffected mean difference s.e. t-stat mean min max mean min max per capita monthly household income (inr) 1,485.98 (515.64) 640 4,000 2,174.17 (888.33) 1,000 6,000 -688.20* 70.38 -9.78 per capita monthly household expenditure (inr) 1,309.06 (309.42) 677 3,725 1,751.85 (596.65) 765 5,033 -442.78* 46.05 -9.61 note: standard deviations are in parentheses and *, **, *** denote a 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance, respectively). month per capita. the former is lower than the latter by ₹688.20 (equivalent to $13.76) per month per capita, which turns out to be significant at a 1% level. we can take this figure as a measure of welfare loss per capita due to arsenicosis on account of social discrimination.10 note that this figure is more than the income loss figure calculated by roy (2008), which stands at ₹350 (equivalent to $7).the difference arises because while roy (2008)11 calculates the income loss which arises only due to adverse labour market outcomes, our figure captures the income loss from non-labour sources like social discrimination as well. therefore, the empirical findings of the paper confirm that the figures provided by roy (2008) underestimate the economic loss due to arsenicosis as claimed in proposition 1 stated in section 2. we have also compared the per capita average monthly household expenditure for both the treatment and control groups. while the mean of the per capita monthly household expenditure of the treatment (arsenicaffected) group was ₹1,309.06, the same for the control (arsenic-unaffected) group was ₹1,751.85; this is a difference of ₹442.78 (equivalent to $8.86) per month per capita, which is significant at a 1% level. since we have controlled for the labour market effects (and other kinds of wealth effects 10 the treatment and control groups of our study are matched in terms of their hours of labour supply in different seasons of the year and their adaptive medical expenditure. this controls for labour market effects on the household income. 11 more recently, mahanta et al. (2016) and thakur et al. (2019) as well. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] like land holding) in our empirical study, according to proposition 2 derived in section 2, this can happen only if social discrimination against arsenicaffected households exists.12 6. conclusions the present paper proves two points. first, social discrimination exists against arsenicosis-affected households and, consequently, these households suffer from significant economic losses, both in terms of per capita income and per capita consumption. second, the existence of social discrimination leads to an underestimation of income loss when calculated only based on labour market sources. the results have important implications for cost– benefit calculations in the adoption of policies tackling the problem of arsenicosis. while prior studies that estimate economic loss due to arsenicosis concentrate only on loss of labour income due to illness, the present paper constructs a theoretical model to argue that such a method underestimates the true economic loss of these households as they also face social discrimination. we argue that the psm method, when applied properly, offers a way to estimate the loss from non-labour market sources like social discrimination. in this study, we apply the method on a dataset collected from a household survey in an arsenic-affected village in west bengal, india, to estimate the income and consumption loss due to social discrimination. we then compare the estimates with a previous study by roy (2008) during a similar time period to show the extent of possible underestimation. on a policy front, the paper highlights two aspects. first, since the paper shows that social discrimination against arsenic-affected households exists and causes them significant losses in income and expenditure, there should be policies to build awareness against the social discrimination faced by such households. second, the cost–benefit analysis conducted for projects aimed at solving the arsenic problem should take into account the losses from social discrimination, which are significantly high, as we show in this paper. projects that were previous considered 12 this argument follows from the fact that the differences in labour supply between the treatment and control households across all seasons were not significantly different (statistically) from zero (table 2), and that there is no evidence in our survey that there exists more than one wage rate in the market (the labour supply on one’s own land also fetches the market wage rate [in the sense of opportunity cost]). moreover, our psm study with per capita working days per month in the three seasons as an outcome variable showed that the treatment households supplied significantly more labour compared to their matched control households in the sample. we report the results in appendix 2 of the paper. [51] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee unviable because of an unfavourable cost–benefit analysis may become viable in this new method. the study suffers from an important limitation. social discrimination is an unobserved factor in this study, which causes significant per capita income and expenditure differences between the treatment and control group households. a direct measure of social discrimination would have made the results robust. the present study faces data limitations on this count. this work can be updated with a more recent and comprehensive database. the impact of various policy interventions on the arsenic-affected households can also be studied. these remain as future research agenda. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. references acharyya, subhrangsu k., and babar a. shah. 2007. “groundwater arsenic contamination affecting different geologic domains in india – a review: influence of 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https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508141102. winship, christopher, and stephen l. morgan. 1999. “the estimation of causal effects from observational data.” annual review of sociology 25: 659–706. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.659. https://doi.org/10.23953/cloud.ijanhs.156 https://doi.org/10.3329/jhpn.v30i3.12289 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2019.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508-141102 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-080508-141102 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.659 [57] sanjana chakraborty and vivekananda mukherjee appendix 1 table a.1: the questionnaire name of the head of the family family size male female total religion dummy hindu (1) muslim (0) no. of literate persons percentage of literate persons percentage of males in the household percentage of females in the household working in own land working on others land other source of income (nonfarm) yes (1) no (0) yes (1) no (0) yes (1) no (0) household members education level education level (in %) age (years) percentage of household of working age range middle school (up to class 8) (1) higher secondary (2) graduate (3) (1) (2) (3) 1. 2. 3. 4. total land ownership of the household (katha) per capita land ownership of the household (katha) total monthly household income (₹) per capita monthly household income (₹) household working days per month in different seasons summer winter monsoon household per capita working days per month in different seasons summer winter monsoon total monthly household expenditure (₹) per capita monthly household expenditure (₹) total monthly household medical expenditure (₹) per capita monthly household medical expenditure (₹) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] appendix 2 table a.2: comparison of labour supply of matched households (no. of observations = 329) outcome variables arsenic-affected arsenic-unaffected mean difference s.e. tstat mean min max mean min max per capita working days per month in summer 9.76 (3.49) 3.33 30 9.21 (2.95) 4.33 15 0.55** 0.25 2.19 per capita working days per month in winter 9.77 (3.50) 3.33 30 9.21 (2.94) 4.33 15 0.57** 0.25 2.24 per capita working days per month in monsoon 9.59 (3.58) 0 30 9.10 (2.94) 3.75 15 0.49 0.26 1.94 note: standard deviations are in parentheses and *, **, *** denote a 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance, respectively. ecology, economy, and society–the insee journal 6(2): 147-170, july 2023 research paper “our people can’t hold the line!” – extractive capital, fragile ecologies and politics of dispossession and accumulation in eastern india minati dash abstract: a protracted movement emerged in kashipur in southern odisha in 1993 that stalled a bauxite mining project for over 18 years. it went through fragmentations and eventually petered out by the early 2010s. this paper aims to understand how and why the processes of capital accumulation through dispossession cause fragmentation of social movements and their eventual petering out. i analyse the collective strikes that the villagers engaged in during 2008–2010, paralyzing the company’s incipient construction work over a tumultuous nine months. critically engaging with david harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” (abd) and kalyan sanyal’s concept of “jobless growth”, i argue that abd processes entail protracted interaction of extractive capital, bureaucratic structures, ecology, and the movements of subaltern communities with existing divisions. dispossession processes generate new fissures in which ownership of land or lack of it due to land acquisition becomes the central axis of cleavage, shaping the politics and outcomes of dispossession. i further reveal that ‘jobless growth’ is unachievable for a company that can push ahead only through the provision of precarious employment and such promises. it is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2010–2012. methodologically, it follows burawoy’s (2000) call to “construct perspectives on globalisation from below” through “ethnographic grounding”. keywords: strikes; dispossession; accumulation by dispossession; jobless growth; political society; dalit-adivasi; bureaucracy; commodity cycles 1. introduction on several occasions during 2008–2010, the villagers in kashipur, southern odisha, differentially dispossessed by a bauxite mining project in the region, paralysed its incipient construction work through strikes. the strikes  associate professor, jindal school of art and architecture, sonipat, haryana. minatidash@gmail.com copyright © dash 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1061 mailto:minatidash@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1061 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] challenged land acquisition and dispossession terms, making several demands on the company relating to compensation, employability, and employment. for a tumultuous nine months, these strikes pushed the project into a state of uncertainty. this period also coincided with the engendering of a dynamics that created intractable differences between villagers, fragmented the collective struggle against mining, and deepened the mining company’s presence in the area. this paper explores how a closer reading of the engagements between the key actors in an extractive frontier can help in understanding the processes of accumulation, dispossession, and transformation underway in india. more specifically, it seeks to analyse how and why processes of capital accumulation through dispossession cause fragmentation and, eventually, the petering out of social movements. this paper is primarily an ethnographic contribution concerning an area of acute extractive conflict. a protracted movement emerged against mining in kashipur in the villages around the proposed bauxite refinery of utkal alumina private limited (uail) in 1993. uail is a 100 per cent subsidiary of hindalco industries limited, a metals flagship brand of aditya birla group. it is one of the world’s cheapest and biggest greenfield mining projects. the villagers organized under the banner of prakrutika sampada suraksha parishad (pssp or council for protection of natural resources). pssp was led by local adivasi and dalit leaders with mass participation from the villagers. for over 18 years, it stalled the project. during this period, the movement underwent a series of fragmentations and shifts and eventually died down by the early 2010s. this study shows that processes of accumulation through dispossession are essentially political, protracted, and contentious and lead to the fragmentation of collective action. to demonstrate this, i analyse the specific forms of engagements that occurred among the villagers, between the villagers and the mining company, and between the villagers and the state during the period of strikes, and the outcomes for stakeholders. firstly, i show that the dynamics of the strikes engendered tensions between different groups, which the mining company exploited to deepen its presence in the area. during the strikes, deep fissures emerged between those displaced and those who had retained their farmlands, indicating a kind of structural disarticulation between a still-existing peasantry and a proletarianized workforce that discouraged villagers from participating in collective action and fractured the movement. secondly, i connect the localized struggles to the bureaucratic structures that drive land-intensive capital investment in contemporary india. high-ranking bureaucrats intervened in the strikes by engaging with the villagers directly and promising to address their grievances. [149] dash however, such promises and the opportunities for precarious employment created by uail, in turn, generated wedges between the strikers. thirdly, i show that these projects of dispossession in unexplored resource frontiers are spurred by commodity supercycles in metals. a commodity supercycle refers to a general global upward trend in prices in particular sectors. subsequent sections discuss it in detail. fourthly, the impact of a severe drought in the region in 2008–2009 also accelerated the project of dispossession in unexpected ways. an ecological crisis motivated this project of dispossession. this paper presents david harvey’s framework of “accumulation by dispossession” (abd) (2003) and kalyan sanyal’s “jobless growth” (2007) as two primary referents for understanding the conceptual relevance of the case. it reworks harvey’s concept of abd and compares the same with sanyal’s findings. as it stands today, abd largely obscures the political processes and dynamics that accumulation and dispossession unleash on the ground as they interact with heterogeneous communities. it also does not fully explain the global context in which abd processes have accelerated at an unprecedented rate since the late 1990s. similarly, sanyal’s findings are primarily a description of an economic process. ethnographic findings in kashipur reveal that “jobless growth” is not a passive economic description but a political field. rather, it is not jobless at all. it produces precarious employment and promises more of such employment. therefore, the question of precarious employment becomes the terrain on which the politics of dispossession unfolds as livelihoods are lost and villagers stare at uncertain futures. this paper, thus, depicts the interactions and relationships between extractive capital, global markets, bureaucratic structures, ecology, the politics of dispossession, and dynamics of collective action through the complexities of the case study at hand. it highlights the fundamental difficulties in sustaining collective action in contexts wherein dispossession processes create new fissures in communities and mining and state actors carefully manoeuvre their strategies to deepen accumulation processes. 2. methodology the ethnographic fieldwork for this paper was conducted over eight months between 2010 and 2012 in villages around the bauxite refinery of uail in kashipur. detailed interviews and participant observations were conducted with mining company officials, district administrators, pssp leaders, strike leaders, and villagers from ramibeda, kendukhunti, dwimundi, kucheipadar, and d karol. documents and archival resources were obtained from uail, the district administration, and pssp. my familiarity with the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] highly inflected dialects that are spoken locally was useful in obtaining insightful information from the village participants. by the time the fieldwork began in november 2010, the strikes were over (see table 1). yet, it was an important milestone and participants were able to describe their experiences vividly and provide rich details. methodologically, the paper seeks to “construct perspectives on globalisation from below, i.e., grounded globalisations… through ethnographic grounding” (burawoy 2000, 339–341). such a construction demands robust ethnographic insights into the interaction of the forces of accumulation and local actors, who continuously act upon each other and shape one another’s politics. 3. accumulation, dispossession, and politics david harvey’s concept of accumulation by dispossession is a theoretical advancement of marx’s concept of “primitive accumulation” or “original accumulation”, which is part of his theory of neoliberalism (2003, see marx 1867 [1977]). accumulation by dispossession is framed as an outcome of the over-accumulation of capital in the core western countries, which is resolved by finding new territories to be opened up. while marx considered the concept as the starting point of capitalism or as a one-time phenomenon, harvey articulates abd as “the continuation and proliferation of accumulation practices” (2003, 159). by doing so, harvey centres the role of dispossession in the context of neoliberal accumulation. it entails diverse processes, including the commodification and privatization of land and forceful expulsion of farmers; privatization of common property resources; intellectual property rights; commodification of labour; and usury. including discrete processes under the same umbrella helps us fathom the breadth of arenas in which capitalist accumulation occurs. however, as levien correctly observes, “harvey is vague about the mechanisms of land dispossession. …a high level of abstraction prevents him from capturing the diverse and unequal consequences of dispossession for rural people and the conditions under which they organize to prevent it. ... (it) prevents him from the sociological specificity of land dispossession” (2018, 15–16). as it were, the concept does not illuminate our understanding of the opposition that accumulation practices face and how dispossession is accomplished on the ground in terms of the interactions between unequal actors in terms of power, class, identity, and politics. these entanglements are particularly complex as communities are not monoliths. subaltern communities are not “bounded entities” (crehan 2002). studies show that there is heterogeneity among the local actors and a diversity of economic and political interests in the social field of resistance (nielsen 2009; nilsen 2010; wolford 2010). however, we know very little regarding the shifting of [151] dash positions of subaltern groups in the context of land dispossession dynamics, something that this paper discusses. peluso and lund (2011) argue that the politics of land constitutes a key aspect in the dynamics of accumulation by dispossession in the context of land grabs. the findings of this paper also support this. it shows that the forces of accumulation and dispossession exploit existing rifts between communities and create new fissures between groups, in which ownership of land or lack of it due to land acquisition emerges as the primary axis of fissure that undermines collective action to the point of collapse. besides, harvey’s analysis, which subsumes abd under the notion of overaccumulation, does not explain the role of commodity supercycles1 at the global level, vis-à-vis the acceleration and intensification of extraction and dispossession in the global south between the late 1990s and 2000s. this period was considered particularly “transformative” for metal prices— particularly aluminium, iron, and copper—which experienced a tectonic demand boost from industrialization and urbanization in emerging nations, including india, china, and brazil (goldman sachs 2020; sawyer and gomez 2012; nappi 2013; pwc 2011; world bank 2008). the upward trend in prices was interrupted briefly in 2007 and 2008 due to the global financial crisis; however, it continued immediately thereafter. this reinforced the dominant industry narrative and the expectations of investors, corporates, and governments that the supercycle will continue for decades (bowman et al 2021; humphreys 2015). for an industry defined by successive cycles of boom and bust, these expectations encouraged the expansion of mining into resource frontiers primarily inhabited by indigenous communities in africa and asia (ballard and banks 2003; humphreys 2015; nappi 2013; singh and bourgouin 2013). this implies that the supply gap in emerging countries spurred this zeal for extraction rather than over-accumulation. the concept of abd also does not tell us how crises of livelihoods in marginal communities living in fragile ecologies might steer these processes. this paper expands the concept of abd by showing that the state, through its senior bureaucrats and mining capital, worked in tandem with the commodity supercycle and engaged variously with communities to animate the politics of dispossession on the ground. 1 there have been four broad-based commodity price supercycles since the early 1900s. one of the potential drivers of these supercycles is the interaction of unexpectedly large demand shocks and slow-moving supply responses (büyükşahin, mo, and zmitrowicz 2016). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] in post-colonial economies, including india, it is argued that processes of abd have led to “jobless growth” and the creation of surplus labour, as capital is unable to subsume the dispossessed within its ambit (sanyal 2007; see also bardhan 2015; chatterjee 2008; d’costa and chakraborty 2017). sanyal (2007) discusses this transition in the context of the trajectory of postcolonial capitalist development. based on the dispossession of marginal communities, this transition does not absorb the population as capitalist wage workers as classical marxist theory would have it (see marx 1867 [1977]). rather, it creates a redundant, uncommodified, and surplus labour power that is extraneous to capital and the processes of capital accumulation (sanyal 2007, 58–59). in the process, the post-colonial economies exhibit a process of “jobless growth… the phenomenon of exclusion of a significant part of the population from the growth process” (245). the result of primitive accumulation is a wasteland where the surplus population is economically rehabilitated as the need economy. the need economy, sanyal notes, emerges due to the compelling discourses of development and human rights that states must adhere to and is based on non-capitalist economic activities that enable subsistence (60). sanyal thus articulates “jobless growth” as a description of an economic process and leaves some of the political specifications to partha chatterjee (2008) under the “political society” framework. bracketing this surplus population under the political society, chatterjee notes the bulk of the population in india lives outside the orderly zones of proper civil society. it is in political society that they have to be fed and clothed and given work, if only to ensure the long-term and relatively peaceful well-being of civil society. that is the difficult and innovative process of politics on which the future of passive revolution under conditions of democracy depends. (2008, 62) this conceptualization also marks out “marginal groups” who are so powerless that they cannot even mobilize electorally to make demands on the state. these groups are the adivasi and dalit communities, “who are unable to gain access to the mechanisms of political society” (61) or make “effective claims on governmentality” (ibid). according to chatterjee, they comprise “an outside beyond the boundaries of political society” (ibid, 61). however, rejecting the dichotomies set by chatterjee, baviskar and sundar (2008) observe that, far from being a benign actor, states have mostly come down militarily on subaltern groups—whom chatterjee refers to as “political society or even non-society/marginal groups” (ibid, 87)—struggling against dispossession. these groups, rather than being passive subjects of neoliberal welfarist governmentality to whom rights are automatically granted by the state, have engaged in sustained and powerful campaigns against the state to [153] dash make rightful claims on the state (ibid, 87–88). adivasis, as well as dalits, have led some of the longest and strongest political movements against dispossession and for the assertion of rights against corporate take-over of land (baviskar 1997 equations 2007; karlsson 2013; see padhi and sadangi 2020; dash 2017; see also, rajan and baral 2020 for contemporary histories of dalit assertions against extraction and dispossession in the postcolonial period in odisha). 4. accelerated extraction, mining-led development, and dispossession in odisha in 1993, india announced its first national mineral policy (nmp), thus opening the mining sector to private investors from across the world. nmp mandated the acceleration of the process of extraction through corporate mining. uail was the first private-sector bauxite mining project to be set up in india following this announcement. this period coincides with the global commodities supercycle in metals that began in the late 1990s. buoyed by the optimism generated by this supercycle, india witnessed an accelerated mineral boom in the 2000s (padel and das 2010; sawyer and gomez 2012). during this period, states undertook an inordinately large role in governing mineral extraction (ballard and banks 2003; humphreys 2015). it is likely that a fresh national mineral policy was implemented in 2008 to facilitate large-scale corporate mining and reap the benefits of the supercycle, as it was believed that “the needs of economic development (make) the extraction of the nation’s mineral resources an important priority” (goi 2008). odisha contains nearly a quarter of india’s mineral wealth, including over 55% of its bauxite.2 economic growth in orissa has been led by expansion in the mining sector with private investment, particularly after 2002–2003 (world bank 2008, 17). investments in mining picked up in 2005–2006, leading to “mega-mining” (mishra 2010), which is evident in the increased production of minerals that rose five-fold between 1993 and 2010. from one bauxite mining lease in 1993—that was operational since the 1960s—odisha advanced to 11 major bauxite mining leases in 2010 (goo 2010) and, overall, 128 working mining leases covering an area of 98,438 thousand hectares in 2011–2012 (goo 2013). there is no exact data to convey the quantum of displacement in odisha due to mining projects during this period.3 however, 2 odisha contains 95% chromite, 92% nickel ore, 55% bauxite, 33% iron ore (hematite), etc. (it is) the leading producer of chromite with a share of 99.8%, iron ore 47% and bauxite 36% in the total production of respective mineral in the country (goi 2015). 3 one estimate suggests that over 0.3 million persons have been displaced in odisha between 1960 and 1995 due to mining (fernandes and asif 2007). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] if the scale of investment roughly provides a sense of its extent, it must be mentioned that between august 1991 and march 2014, odisha topped all other states as the most attractive investment destination—a leader in mining and mining-related industries (goi 2014). this extractive industry is so central to the state’s economic growth that naveen patnaik, the chief minister of odisha, thundered in the odisha state assembly in 2004 that “no one, i repeat, no one would be allowed to come between mining and development”—he was responding to concerns about human rights violations in the mining areas in south odisha (pssp 2005). this also informs the larger context in which the kashipur movement emerged, as well as the shape of community-state-miner engagements on the ground. 5. kashipur and the adivasi and dalit movement against mining in the mid-1990s, the adivasi and dalit villagers of kashipur organized themselves under pssp to oppose the uail mining project. initially a consortium of three multinational companies—norsk hydro (norwegian mining company), indal (indian subsidiary of the aluminium company of canada), and tata iron and steel company (tisco)—uail became a wholly owned subsidiary of aditya birla’s metals flagship company, hindalco group, in 2007. the project proposed mining the baphlimali hills in kashipur and establishing its refinery in ramibeda valley, which became the locus of the kashipur struggle (map 1). the region has a fragile resource base with mountainous terrain. only a quarter of the total geographical area is available for farming (senapati and sahu 1966). livelihoods are based on agriculture and wage labour. in the 1990s, less than 30% of the villagers were food-secure (taru 1996). in 2010–2011, over 85% of farmers were small and marginal farmers, with an average landholding of 1.19 acres (agricultural census of kashipur 2010/2011). jhodia (also called paraja or jhodia paraja) and kondh adivasis dominate the area—60% of the population—along with dalits— 21% of the population (census commissioner 2011). since the inception of the project, the villagers attacked uail-related works. on a few occasions, the people involved were taken hostage. soon, social activists from the state got involved. the collective struggle faced severe repression—its leaders and participants were routinely beaten up by local policemen and company-hired goons. in the summer of 1996, landed dalits from the dwimundi village accepted a meagre compensation of ₹21,000 per acre against land acquisition following threats from the administration, even as the struggle continued. facing local protests, tisco withdrew from the [155] dash project in 1997. after three adivasis were shot dead in an unprovoked police fire in the maikanch village in 2000, the project was put on ice. attempts were made to revive the project in 2004–2006. by this time, other uail partners had also withdrawn from the project after selling their stake to hindalco. in december 2004, a large police outpost was set up amid huge opposition next to the proposed refinery site, and paramilitary forces swarmed the area for a year. active police repression and low-intensity paramilitary repression paralyzed the movement’s attempts at mass mobilization. pssp leaders were arrested, preventing local mobility, and the area was sealed off to outsiders. between 2004 and 2006, two villages (kendukhunti, a dalit village, and ramibeda, an adivasi village) were displaced at gunpoint and relocated to a rehabilitation and resettlement colony to make way for the refinery. residents of d. karol (lower colony)—comprising landless dalits—were also declared displaced. figure 1: mobilization area of pssp source: author it is important to mention that participation of the dalit and adivasi groups together was not always explicit; their positions regarding the movement changed over time. as such, there were clear differences between adivasi and dalits along caste/tribe identity, and they were also internally divided.4 this 4 structural markers of difference in terms of land ownership between adivasis and dalits also present a complex picture. marginality among both groups increased during 2000–2011. it became far worse among the dalits, when the proportion of marginal farmers in the population increased from 46% in 2000–2001 to 73% in 2010–2011. however, more than 50% of the overall adivasi-dalit population comprised marginal and small farmers and an equal number were still landless (agricultural census of kashipur 2000/2001, 2010/2011). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] made organising these disparate groups for collective action difficult. the mining project had also deepened the fissures between them. for instance, the landless dalits joined the company as “communicators” (persons working at the behest of the company for a pittance) in the mid-1990s. landed dalits were the first to accept compensation in 1995. groups of the more powerful dalit farmers also sought special packages from the administration for their lands that were acquired by uail (rpdac 2005). all of these instances caused resentment among the adivasi villagers, as the dalits were seen as working against the movement. in a few cases, the communicators were also physically targeted by pssp members. in contrast, pssp was largely seen as an adivasi organization by the dalits, even though a few pssp leaders were dalits. some landed adivasi men also worked as communicators, but they were never targeted. at the same time, a large section of landed and landless dalits supported the pssp vehemently during 1999–2007. the adivasi-dalit dynamics are important to understand these contexts [see dash 2017, 2020, 2024 (forthcoming)]. however, it is not the central line of fracture in the context of strikes, as i show in subsequent sections. after displacement, new dynamics came into play. the displaced persons (dps) had turned into wage labourers. throughout 2005–2006, they clashed with the mining officials and occasionally stopped work at different construction sites, including the refinery, demanding wages and work (uail 2010). in 2007, the displaced villagers and pssp came together to launch strikes. strikes were considered “the only and last option” (“aau upaaya kana”) to put pressure on uail and make effective collective demands. beginning in 2008, these strikes paralyzed the company’s construction work and threw the project into a fresh state of uncertainty. the strikes continued for over two years. however, by the end of 2010, the kashipur struggle lay in a state of decline. 6. kashipur strikes: displacement and new solidarities landlessness was pervasive and the resource base was fragile. the adivasis-dalits interrelations were also multifaceted. they had pronounced differences, for instance, in terms of linguistic abilities—adivasi men’s inability to speak odia and dalit men’s proficiency in it— dalits calling adivasis “dumb”, and adivasis referring to dalits as “thieves”. yet, they interacted in their daily lives—inter-marriages between kondh adivasi women and dalit men were not rare and did not result in physical violation against the groom, they spoke of “collective destiny”. at the same time, their orientation to the movement shifted over time (see dash 2017, 2020, 2024). [157] dash the project hit the ground by displacing two villages and a colony and turning them into wage labourers who worked on the construction sites. they did not receive wages regularly and, at times, had to beg for food from other villages. the house deeds of the resettled quarters were not given to them as well. in 2006, uail constituted a displaced persons committee (dpc) by handpicking people from these villages. every displaced person was economically vulnerable, as they had spent the compensation and the exgratia amount of ₹80,000 per acre given to them in 2005 (fieldnotes 2011). the displaced villagers had frequent heated quarrels with mining officials as well as dpc members, as day-to-day survival had become difficult for them due to the absence of assured daily wages. however, no one articulated or addressed their grievances. in 2007, leaders of the displaced villages reached out to pssp for support, apologizing for “acting smart and consequently eating shit” (“chalaki hai ki guha khailu”). following a series of village-level meetings, pssp extended its support to them for a long-drawn struggle to obtain substantial long-term benefits for their collective future. towards the end of 2007, a new committee, basachyuta, khyatigrasta o prabhabita committee (displaced persons, land-losers, and affected people’s committee [dlapc]; hereafter, committee), replaced the dpc. the committee had one member each from all the 26 villages that refinery operations would impact adversely. a charter of demands with 38 points was drawn up. the key demands included: raising compensation amount to ₹1 millionper acre; withdrawing all the criminal cases filed against over 1,000 villagers for opposing the mining company; permanent employment to all those displaced and those who had lost land to the project; provision of technical training for young men; dp status to five more villages that lay close to the refinery and tailing pond sites, and development of education infrastructure in the area. table 1: strikes during 2008–2010 year period of strikes days 2008 20 february–26 june (126 days) 150 8 december–31 december (24 days) 2009 22 february–7 march (16 days) 74 3 june–30 july (58 days) 2010 10 january–5 february (27 days) 27 total number of strike days 251 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [158] the strikes were launched by the villagers by locking the company gates and its offices. company-related construction work was halted. displaced persons left their jobs and sat on strikes. over 10,000 people from over 26 villages participated in these strikes in front of the refinery gates. the demand charter was submitted to uail and state government departments, including the tribal development department and the department of steel and mines. section 6.1 discusses the villagers’ longest strike, which began in february 2008 and lasted for over four months. the dynamics of the strikes—including existing differences between the villagers in terms of land ownership and identity, engagement of bureaucrats, and promises and opportunities of employment—engendered tensions between various groups. most notably, an irreversible rift emerged between those who were displaced and those who had retained their homes and/or farms, indicating a kind of structural disarticulation between the proletarianized workforce and the still-existing peasantry. the severe drought conditions of 2009 in this region further caused widespread food insecurity and hunger. this crisis accelerated the project of dispossession causing fragmentation in the movement. 6.1 committee leaders, bureaucrats, and the deepening of structural disarticulation between villager groups strikes began by daybreak on 20 february 2008. within hours, the local police and uail officials arrived and warned the leaders and protestors from the displaced villages of dire consequences. they were told that if they stopped company work, the company would not take responsibility for their welfare. dlapc members came forward as the representatives of the 26 dispossessed villages. two months went by without any formal dialogue with the company or state administration. however, unbeknownst to the villagers, frantic negotiations were taking place in rayagada between the district administration and select committee members. ram naik, an ex-president of the committee, spoke to me about these meetings, when we closed the gates, we—just some of us, the “main people”—were called to rayagada for discussions. the collector and other officials repeatedly urged us to end the protests. we remained firm on not opening the gates until our demands were met. the collector said that they could not agree to all our demands as the resettlement and rehabilitation plan was finalized long back, but we did not budge from our position. (personal interview, march 30, 2011) in contrast to his assertion in his statements, i learned that the villagers had forced him to step down from the committee in 2008 following allegations of [159] dash corruption. chitta naik, committee coordinator (2009–2010), bemoaned such betrayal in these words, on the ground, people were suffering, sitting in the sun and starving themselves for a future in famine conditions, and in rayagada, persons like ram naik were negotiating with the company and administration to open the gates. ram got a construction contract of ₹0.6 million from the company and an assurance from the collector that criminal cases against him would be dropped. hundreds of our brothers have police cases against them, but all he thought about was himself. (personal interview, april 4, 2011) despite such negotiations in rayagada, the strike continued, effectively paralyzing the company’s work. alongside these negotiations, senior bureaucrats were mobilized to engage and negotiate with the villagers, which created new dynamics. in may 2008, in response to the strike pressure, one of the most senior state officials, the revenue divisional commissioner (rdc) [berhampur division], met the committee members in rayagada. he assured them that “their demands would be fulfilled”. soon after, another senior-most state bureaucrat—the secretary of the board of revenue, odisha—visited the site of the strikes in june 2008. he spoke to the protesters for over two hours, agreeing that “they were wronged”. he promised that their demands of employment would be considered at the “highest level” and their grievances would be addressed at the earliest. he urged the villagers to open the gates so that the company could resume work. biju majhi, a pssp leader, spoke sarcastically about the practical challenges of working with disparate groups: he (the revenue secretary) came and, after hearing us, urged the villagers to “open the gates”, and, immediately, some persons began to push open the gates. but there was no discussion among the villagers regarding ending strikes or opening the gates. some villagers, mostly the displaced villagers, supported the decision to open the gates. suddenly, out of nowhere, a bunch of people brought garlands, some got musical instruments, the revenue secretary was garlanded—as if all our demands had been accepted—and before we could make sense of anything, the gates were opened! raji and ram were leading the group. loud chants in the name of the secretary accompanied the drumbeats as if we had won a war. months of the suffering of the strikers came to nought…what did we get? the deadline passed, and not a single demand was met. (personal interview, december 13, 2010) the engagement of some of these bureaucrats with the protestors implied that the odisha government considered resolving the kashipur impasse critical. the state had deep stakes in mining, given the commodity supercycle in aluminium. this partly explains the continual presence of senior ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [160] bureaucrats on the ground in attempts to address the deadlock. however, it cannot be said that these officials had any alliance with the miners, as several studies on mining projects have shown (adduci 2013; bharadwaj 2009; sawyer and gomez 2102; lahiri-dutt 2014). many villagers that i spoke to during my fieldwork asserted that when a “big official came down from the capital to meet and speak to us patiently, how could we not believe him?” (fieldnotes, 2011). such a popular perception is more likely to draw from an understanding of “higher officials seen as providing redressals for grievances” (gupta 1995, 390). throughout strikes during these years, there were rumours that committee leaders had taken money from uail to break strikes. charged by the villagers of “eating money”, more than five presidents of the committee—including both dalits and adivasis—had to step down between 2008 and 2009. the accusations had a ring of truth. uail documents reveal that construction contracts of up to ₹77.6 million and monetary offers worth ₹0.5 million were given to several committee leaders by mid-2008. raji naik, for example, received contracts worth ₹7.7 million, while gajendra majhi, an adivasi committee representative, received contracts worth ₹4.3 million (uail 2011). the total quantum of contracts given to these leaders rose to ₹150 million by the end of 2008. it further increased to ₹181 million in 2009 and was at ₹201 million in 2010 (ibid). uail, as well as the district administration, cultivated some of the leaders as “strike-breakers”. the strike-breakers were most likely persuaded to do the deed through material incentives and/or guarantees on withdrawal of criminal cases that had been filed against them for participating in the movement or squabbling with the company officials. interestingly, these leaders had been either active supporters or antagonists of the company in the past. of the six key strike-breakers, four were displaced dalits and two were landed adivasis who had lost parts of their lands for the project. this group was similar to the figure of an intermediary or brokers who are crucial actors in land deals and in sinking the interests of the corporations into the local community (levien 2018; sud 2014; welker 2014). these shock troopers for the company were very effective. they were members of the local communities, so they could engage more closely with the villages without drawing much attention to themselves. the villagers knew most of these strike-breakers as “kompany dalals” who worked to further company interests in the area. of these strikebreakers, the dalit ones were also on the committee. on the other hand, the adivasi strike-breakers were landed persons who were disgruntled with pssp leadership. dalit strike-breakers were on the committee because they were also dps, and the committee drew from leaders from all 26 villages. in the [161] dash context of displacement, pssp and villagers erroneously believed that these dalals would work towards obtaining long-term benefits rather than serving company interests. instead, they took money from the company and worked towards breaking the strikes. during the fieldwork, villagers often regretted trusting the strike-breakers and said, “chhoro ku jagial kolu, bhool helu” (“it was a mistake to trust the thieves as watchmen”). yet, the opening of the gates on 26 june after the revenue secretary had promised to fulfil their demands implies that a far more complex set of forces and factors were at work—the involvement of persons such as ram naik and raji naik in exhorting others and opening the gates was for their gain. however, which forces swayed the villagers to agree to open the gates? we now turn to understand this. 6.2 deepening sense of structural disarticulation the visit and promises made by the revenue secretary brought existing contradictions between the two major groups to the surface. the role of strike-breakers in fanning these contradictions was critical too. they frequently did so by emphasizing the dps were a precarious labour force that was dependent on the company for everyday survival, in sharp contrast to other villagers who still owned homes/lands and had “no imminent fear of dispossession”. usa, a displaced dalit woman from the erstwhile kendukhunti village, spoke about the role of strike-breakers in creating a charged environment on the site of strikes: in the evening, dalals like raji and ghana would come and sit down with our menfolk. they would talk about our misery and tell us that pssp did not care for us. sometimes, upon hearing all this, our menfolk would get agitated. (personal interview, september 24, 2011) as it is, the displaced persons framed each day spent at the strikes without any tangible outcome as a “loss of wages for the day”. the movement leaders had to deal with the economic contradictions between different groups constantly. each time after the strikes, the displaced villagers, both adivasi and dalits, entered into arguments with other villagers over their suffering due to the strikes. they accused the other protestors of “enjoying their troubles” and pssp of pursuing its agenda of “no plant, no mining” and being more interested in stalling the project rather than solving their problems. it is difficult to say how much of this was merely instigation by the strike-breakers. those displaced and the rest of the villagers were united in their understanding that short-term gains would have to be sacrificed to achieve substantial long-term benefits from the company. yet, “surviving without wages or hope for any solution” (“bhutti bi milu nai, samadhan bi heu nai”) and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] living like squatters without land deeds was becoming an inescapable grim reality for them. here, one can see parallels with the industrial strikes. chandavarkar, in his compelling work on striking millworkers in bombay cloth mills, suggests that “complex calculations occurred everyday” as workers decided if they would take part in the strike. he notes, workers would appear at the mill gates on the morning of the strike to check whether the general tendency favoured a stoppage… at every stage of a strike, the commitment to industrial action imposed complex calculations upon the workforce. they had to consider not only their immediate chances of success but also the extent to which their … resources would enable them to bear the costs of industrial action. at the same time, to obtain concessions from the employers… it was imperative for the workers that the strike be complete. (2009, 137) it is likely that this contradiction around land—that those who still had land could afford to be more patient as compared to the dps who depended on the company for everyday survival—caused an increasing rift between these groups. they vacillated between hope and despair in the context of their everyday vulnerabilities and associated anxieties. ordinary dps clashed with other striking villagers and pssp leaders on several occasions, telling them to “either pay us wages or else open the gates” (fieldnotes 2010). their tone became increasingly bitter as they blamed the pssp leaders and other villagers for a continued deadlock in the strikes. this also vitiated the already tense environment, further widening the rift between dps and the rest and generating a sense of betrayal among groups of the existing peasantry for trusting the dps to lead a long-term fight. linking how the strike-breakers provoked the villagers by exploiting their economic vulnerabilities and interests, an upset chitta naik continued, on what basis could the displaced persons ask us to give them jobs or money? the dalals would take a group of displaced people to a corner and say, “look, pssp is making you fools; they want uail to leave the area. otherwise, why are they not ending the strikes now?” do villagers not know how the struggle is done? one must sacrifice to get something valuable. what to do? our people are not good; they can’t hold the line. (personal interview, april 4, 2011) throughout this period, displaced villagers frequently clashed with mining officials and corporate contractors over wages, and committee members and dalals quarrelled with officials to obtain petty construction contracts. criminal cases of dacoity and attempt to murder were registered against them (police files 2009). following a squabble over wages in early 2009, their discontent [163] dash erupted in a riotous incident in which the company sites of refinery and other construction were vandalized. eighteen corporate construction contractors of uail, including gannon dunkerley & co. ltd and larsen & toubro, withdrew, leaving the company in a fresh state of uncertainty. such an incident heightened the dps’ sense of immediate economic insecurity. at the same time, it put the government on edge. throughout 2009, a series of highlevel meetings were held at the district to discuss the situation in kashipur, including compensation, a special package for select land losers, and rehabilitation plans (rpdac 2009). these meetings were attended by at least one state under-secretary, rdc (berhampur division), and district administrators, implying the urgency of resolving the deadlock that had marred the project. 6.3 fragile ecologies: accelerating the mining project in unexpected ways in 2007, over 350 cases of deaths due to cholera and a lack of food and potable water were reported in kashipur (das 2007). entire cattle had perished. as the region was still reeling from the drought conditions of 2008 and 2009, there was a lot of anger among the villagers against the administration for its inaction. pssp galvanized the striking villagers to picket the local administration at kashipur block over issues of malnutrition deaths, crop failure, and hunger. over 2,000 villagers moved from the site of the strike to picket the block in mid-2009. they locked the sub-district offices, petitioned for compensation against cattle heads lost, crop failure, and compensation for the families of the deceased, and urged the administration to take measures towards food security. since the 1980s, this ecologically sensitive region has been in the spotlight for malnutrition deaths. in 1987, 400 deaths were reported due to malnutrition and there have been instances of sale of children due to distress (ahmed 1987; currie 2000). in dasmantpur and kashipur, 21, 350, and 14 deaths were reported in 2002, 2007, and 2009, respectively, due to starvation and cholera (das 2007; see dash 2017, 86–87 for details). after a week of picketing, the administration responded by providing food rations in all the drought-affected villages with promises of strengthening food security schemes and provision of ₹5,000 per acre per family. around the same time, uail and the state administration responded to the strikes by increasing compensation to ₹0.344 million by 2010. speaking of a possible link between the summer months and the company’s disbursal of the compensation and arrears, paban misra, a pssp activist, told me, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] as monsoons approach (in the villages), the food is exhausted, and soup becomes watery with less and less ragi. is it a mere coincidence that the compensation amount, the arrears, and employment offers…are all made during a period when hunger stalks? (personal interview, november 8, 2010) uail began to issue housing deeds and employment letters to dps towards the end of 2008. it also started giving a monthly allowance of ₹2,000 to each displaced family. the outstanding wages to the villagers were also cleared. according to chitta naik, by the end of 2008, each time the gates were locked, the dps got into fights with the other villagers over the opening of gates, accusing them of “envying that uail had given them jobs”. although, these were either precarious jobs as gardeners and security guards or jobs in which they needed to show up once a month to collect their salary without doing any work whatsoever. by the end of 2009, many of the villagers from the 26 villages stopped participating in the strikes. near the end of 2010, no collective action had taken place. pssp formally withdrew from the strikes in early 2010,. the hope that they could work together to achieve long-term benefits for everyone in the area died. 7. conclusion this paper shows that the kashipur strikes successfully mobilized and organized disparate groups envisioning a collective destiny around livelihoods. the strikes became a formidable force and achieved many successes. yet, collective action also became a site of explosive interactions and collapsed by mid-2010. this paper is illustrative of how local struggles were shaped by larger bureaucratic structures at play in the context of commodity supercycles in metals and minerals. it depicts globalization grounded in and generated by complex interactions and entanglements of local struggles, bureaucratic structures, mining capital, and global markets. the movement eventually became disarticulated due to the fracture that emerged between the displaced persons who had become precarious wage labourers and the existing peasantry, who still owned small parcels of land. these differences were exacerbated due to false promises made by the bureaucrats and localized strategies of the miners involving strike-breakers. the efforts of the leaders of the collective struggle to sustain collective action were severely undermined, as many dpc leaders were charged with corruption, and a large section of protestors grew tired of the frequent breaking of the strikes without any substantial gains. [165] dash the role of the commodity supercycle in animating these dynamics is crucial. the optimism demonstrated by the dominant industry narratives fuelled the expansion of mining into new territories such as kashipur. an enormous opportunity was envisaged by state actors in leveraging the windfall from mining to fuel the state’s economic development. however, the mining supercycle did not automatically lead to the engagement of state and mining actors with the communities. it was realized through localized accumulation strategies of mining capital in which the state actors (bureaucrats) played an important role. these were strategies of divide and rule, accomplished through false promises and amplification of existing contradictions between groups through strike-breakers. contrary to chatterjee’s slotting of adivasidalit groups in the category of marginal groups, who cannot make “effective claims on governmentality” (2008, 61), one finds that the kashipur struggle started in the 1990s as a movement against corporate penetration and governmentality through its anti-mining stance. it changed orientation following the displacement of the villages towards obtaining better compensation and rehabilitation packages as well as pressing claims of governmentality through a language of rights and assertions by demanding access to education, health, and nutritional security; technical training for the young men and allowances for the elderly persons; agricultural development, and comprehensive area development. these processes of claim-making, however, led to the fragmentation of the movement. this fragmentation was accompanied by a parallel process of displaced persons increasingly engaging with the processes of a narrow version of development as survival through precarious employment opportunities. this ultimately led to the collapse of the movement. this also brings into terrain the concept of sanyal’s “jobless growth”. if the company is, per the final analysis, dependent upon the generation of consent from local communities for dispossession to ensure the smooth functioning of everyday refinery operations, “jobless growth” is ultimately unachievable for the company. as land and mining-based accumulation processes gather pace across eastern india, these dynamics provide important lessons. local politics after dispossession is shaped significantly by precarious jobs and promises, exacerbating existing contradictions and fracturing the tenuous solidarity achieved between different groups. accumulation processes advance by carefully undermining and fragmenting collective action both from inside and outside, implying that there is nothing really “contingent or haphazard about its (abd’s) modus operandi” (harvey 2003, 149; author’s emphasis). so, how do social movements deal with such an onslaught both from inside and outside? it is an open-ended question that i leave all of us with. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [166] acknowledgments i would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and editors at ees for their detailed feedback helped to improve this paper greatly for conceptual clarity. thanks are due to chitralekha and her team at the clean copy for painstakingly editing the paper. i would also like to express my thanks to nandini sundar for her support. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is not provided in a repository as the data is obtained from the mining company’s officials and is part of the company’s internal records. other reports from the district administration are also not available for public scrutiny. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references adduci, matilde. 2013. “mining governance in india: questioning the 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my return to tell him about this office. on hearing my nepali translation of icimod’s vision of ‘enhancing livelihoods, equity, and social and environmental security for all mountain people[s]’, he was deeply perplexed. why was he, a resident of that very city, unaware of this kathmandu-based institution and its worthy intentions? i am afraid i failed, despite my best efforts, to assure him of how he gains from icimod's objectives. in a similar vein, gyawali and thompson (2016) write, ‘ask any nepali villager about the millennium [now sustainable] development goals (m/ sdg) and you will be met with a confused shrug.’ the term ‘millennium development goals’ makes for a ‘confusing mouthful’ when translated into nepali and, as the authors note, ‘global concerns (sic) on the urgency to meeting these goals are poorly aligned with the everyday life challenges of ordinary nepali citizens’. both in the text (2016) and in personal communications (2017) gyawali and thompson argue that 'to put it briefly  conventry university, priory street coventry, united kingdom cv1 5fb; ac3771@coventry.ac.uk copyright © joshi 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.23 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.23 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] and bluntly, the architects of the sdgs have much to learn on what "sustainable", "development" or for that matter, what a "goal" is.' . ‘environment and the himalayas’ has been a global, developmental concern for a generation. yet, the everyday challenges experienced by the dispersed and widely heterogenous himalayan community lie at some distance—to put it mildly—from the world of environmental policies, strategies, interventions, and research. this note speaks to this disjuncture—to the politics and practice of environmental policies and strategies, and how these policies and strategies relate (or do not relate) to ‘views from below’ (maathai 1995). in this case, i focus on the darjeeling himalaya region and compare contemporary ‘productions’ of environmental challenges here to everyday local realities. i draw attention to three developments which— although interconnected, and demanding more holistic framings—are selectively addressed (or not) as environmental challenges: 1. scientific claims on the urgency of climate change, which facilitate, ill-matched climate adaptation and mitigation programmes, including hydropower development projects, the latter identified as climate mitigating, i.e. generating clean energy; 2. researcher/ civil society critique on the re-emergence of large dams (for hydropower) which, although well intentioned, pays little attention to; 3. the everyday challenge of water supply, which has been a persisting and unresolved local reality, aggravated by both climate impacts as well as climate interventions. eckholm’s ‘theory of himalayan environmental degradation’, which spoke of the inevitable and alarming ecological crisis in the himalayan region in the 1970s, is long considered debunked (guthman 1997). but the politics of environmental crises, or what agarwal (2005) notes as the political production[s] of the ‘environment’, has persisted in relation to the himalayas. across the years, different environmental issues have been identified, aggregated, and positioned as grave and urgent challenges—but nonetheless resolvable by (mostly externally predetermined) technocratic solutions. such theorizing reduces the ‘environment’ to an entirely abstract entity. in the process, it disassociates what ‘environment’ means locally, in the sense of the multiple, everyday challenges faced by local communities— the complexity of which is furthered by diverse ecological and uniquely local sociopolitical and economic contexts. nonetheless, a selective imagery of the himalayas in science, policy, and research is skillfully positioned in development as stories from below. writing about the scalar politics of climate change in rural nepal, yates (2012) points to how narratives of [99] deepa joshi climate change that will fit with predetermined developmental solutions are first constructed, and then reproduced, as ‘local’ manifestations of climate change. it is inevitable that such ‘normative frameworks of development [prescribing to] “desirable states” of socio-ecological systems’ are deeply contingent on ‘unstated assumptions and belief systems’ (yates 2012, 537). the ‘consensual presentation and mainstreaming of the global problem of climate change’ (swyngedouw 2012, 213), thrown in with the disproportionate power that statistics and numbers generate in environmental science, has helped make an overwhelming cause of climate alarm in the himalayan context. climate science is particularly symptomatic of aggregate assumptions and selective imagery. pomeranz (2009) notes that ‘glaciers, which almost never used to make the news, are now generating plenty of worrisome headlines’. thus, a climate crisis in the himalayas is highlighted even though data on climate-induced changes in the vast and scattered realms of what makes for the himalayas is acknowledged to be sparse, uneven, and mostly unknown. what follows as disparate climate interventions speak of the age-old practice of a politico-environmental construction of local himalayan landscapes. this is not to say that the himalayas are not a specific geophysical landscape or, for that matter, are not—as popularly described—a ‘climate hotspot’. indeed, as pomeranz (2009, 5) notes, ‘for almost half the world’s population, water-related dreams and fears intersect in the himalayas and on the tibetan plateau.’ the ‘himalayan water towers’ is indeed real; what such imagery of water abundance masks is the reality that local communities scattered across the mountain region rely not so much on the region’s perennial rivers but on groundwater that becomes available through natural springs (tambe et al. 2012). for multiple reasons, and in many areas, the water in these natural springs has been drying up, but this reality has received comparatively little attention; and how diverse local communities cope with declining water sources has been even less researched. in relation to recent climate interventions, i raise attention here to the paradox in policy prescriptions. the himalayas are considered highly vulnerable to climate change and, therefore, are the focus of numerous climate adaptation plans. they are, ironically, also the target of ambitious hydropower development plans, positioned globally as a climate mitigation (clean energy) strategy. to that extent, there has been little consideration of how global climate strategies intersect with the local effects of climate. it is worth noting here that in national plans and policies, hydropower development is not pursued essentially to mitigate climate change but rather to meet objectives of sustained economic growth and energy demand. this ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] anomaly is evident in the deregulation of india’s environment and energy policies and in interventions to speed up hydropower development. it is evident also in the conscious, careful delinking of national and state policies, strategies, and interventions on climate, water, and energy even though, fundamentally, climate change and climate mitigation—especially in the himalayan region— requires making these intersections visible and deliberate, rather than ignoring them. it is another matter that while hydropower might be comparatively green—although this is a contested discourse—the environmental and social implications of large dams in the high-altitude, high seismic-activity regions of the eastern himalayas leave much to worry about (ahlers et al. 2015). the current development of hydropower in the region has, thus, been far from consensual, and the process has sparked critique, conflicts, and contestations. these developments have drawn the attention of diverse groups of civil society actors, including researchers, who question the dam construction activities in the climate-vulnerable eastern himalayan waterscape and their skewed human-environment implications, and the procedural and distributional injustices in the dam development process. this speaks to the second issue of focus—whether and how these metaphors (languages) and ontologies (discourses) of environmental injustices represent local realities. here, i relate to forsyth’s (2014, 230) analysis that ‘environmental politics does not consider deeply enough how or with whose concerns’ discourses are framed and applied. in the darjeeling region, the well-intentioned researcher and civil societyled critique of large dams is as distanced from complex ground realities of latent old water injustice as climate policies and interventions are from ground realities. specifically, the focus on dams—and not on the unique ways in which water flows and is available or not to local populations— completely overlooks the uneven economics of investments in large dams. this is especially true in comparison to severe under-investments in meeting the supply requirement of domestic and irrigation water supply (joshi 2015) even though for the locals ‘the water supply crisis is synonymous with the image of [the region’s] town[s]’ (rai 2016, 48). although data is unreliable and anecdotal, it is said that in towns like darjeeling less than 50 per cent of urban households are connected to the municipal water supply (chettri and tamang 2013). a lucrative private water market operates here, and permeates community and official interventions in water management. these hybrid arrangements of water delivery nested in entrenched political, social, economic injustices and are symptomatic of a democracy deficit evident in the wider political, social, [101] deepa joshi and economic setting (joshi 2015). local politicians point to the enduring urban water supply crisis as a key marker of the politico-spatial injustice: … in terms of infrastructure, … nothing has been added (by the current west bengal government) to … the water supply … [to] whatever the british had planned [then] for 3,000 people in darjeeling town, [even though the population] is over 3 lakhs [300,000] (wenner 2013, 209). however, it is another reality that the everyday water supply injustice is obscured by other, competing political priorities and interests, including those of local actors. this persisting injustice relating to ‘everyday water’ has been disproportionately ignored by researchers. many researchers, including me, are driven in no small degree by current flows of climate funding to write and speak about dams, which present a far more attractive, contemporary issue in relation to environmental [in] justice. my ongoing research around the politics of hydropower projects in the region often provokes ridicule and anger among friends and family who live here, who have often asked: what is the problem with large dams? isn’t that for development, for the economic upliftment of our backwardness? what about looking into the ‘real water [supply] problems’ we face here? or is that not a good-enough topic for researchers like you? (joshi 2015). and yet, as the locals know very well, the problem is not just about water supply or dams. a participant at a workshop organised in kalimpong in 2012 noted, ‘the problem is not water—water is only one manifest of everything else that is wrong here. solutions need to emerge here locally and they need to go beyond water.’ if we are to ‘critically interrogate the universalizing and globalizing tendencies in asserting and invocating environment and related injustices’ (sikor and newell 2014, 155), we must look beyond narrow development conceptualizations of the ‘environment’ guided mostly by funding and policy instruments. such a practice often legitimizes the construction of ‘local problems’—in this case, of climate change—so that they can be apolitically slotted into predetermined categories of environmental interventions. among other things, such processes also tend to lump diverse groups of ‘mountain people’ ‘as an already constituted and coherent group’ (tamang 2002, 317). such rhetoric completely disregards the complex, historical, as well as evolving weave of social relations that determines how diverse groups of ‘mountain people’ in spatially unique contexts interact with what constitutes their ‘environment’. this is the unfortunate divide between ‘eagle’s eye science and toad’s eye science’ (gyawali and thompson 2016), but what the authors argue for—a fundamental rethinking of development, so that it is aligned with the everyday realities of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] local communities—is easier said than done. this is especially so given the politics of scientific scholarship—although it is claimed to be highly objective, it is hardly ‘neutral, [rather it] is unavoidably partial, unavoidably political, and has unavoidably ethical consequences’ (smith 2004; 504). thus, locals, like the taxi driver in kathmandu, remain excluded from discussions of “their” environment unless, of course, they are subjects of “scientific” research. toadeye or citizen science has long been cast aside as not-good-enough science, and remains fundamentally disassociated from the high horse nexus of the eagle-eye science of environmental policy, research, and academia. this is testament in the unfortunate disjuncture of the economics and politics of water in science, policy and research, and in everyday lives of the locals in the ecologically and socio-politically diverse himalayas. acknowledgements the findings presented in this paper are drawn from the author's field work in the darjeeling region that has been facilitated by the following grants: i) an individual researcher grant cofunded by the netherlands organisation for scientific research (nwo) and the indian council of social science research icssr) (2011-12); and ii) the nwo conflict and cooperation in the management of climate change (ccmcc) initiative, for research on the topic, ‘hydropower development in the context of climate change: exploring conflicts and 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economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 171-196, july 2023 research paper defending nature: transformation of the space through grassroots activism against the threat of extractivism büsra üner abstract: despite the violence of law enforcement forces in turkey, both urban and rural communities are protesting environmental injustices, including the ecological destruction, human rights violations, health problems, and displacement that the extractive industry causes. despite the recent increase in discussions on the topic, the extractive industry and environmental protests are not recent debates in turkish politics. since the military coup of 1980, changes in mining codes have led communities to organize environmental protests to defend their livelihoods, place, and culture. for four decades, many communities have organized successful protests that have helped develop the environmental movement in turkey. however, while some environmental movements have been ongoing for many years through grassroots activism, others have failed to create a collective identity that enables the entire community to come together. hence, in this paper, i comparatively analyse the anti-mining environmental struggles of two communities. in doing so, i show how local inhabitants have been able to organize an environmental movement against extractivism to defend their livelihoods and space under an umbrella organization. i argue that as these local inhabitants organized an environmental movement as a place-based struggle to defend the place “where they lived in and acted” (escobar 2008), a sustainable movement is more likely to arise from the grassroots activism of the community. keywords: anti-mining movements, extractivism, turkey, ecological conflicts, environmental justice. 1. introduction despite a surge in recent times, debates over the extractive industry and environmental protests are not new in turkey. since the 1980 military coup, changes in mining codes have led both urban and rural communities to  ph.d. candidate, universität bayreuth, germany. buesra.uener@uni-bayreuth.de copyright © üner 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1037 mailto:buesra.uener@uni-bayreuth.de https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1037 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [172] protest against environmental injustices to defend their livelihoods, place, and culture. for four decades, many communities have organized successful protests that have contributed to the environmental movement in turkey. however, while some environmental movements have lasted for many years through grassroots activism, others have failed to create a collective identity that enables the entire community to come together. hence, in this paper, i comparatively analyse the anti-mining environmental struggles of two communities, addressing the question of how local inhabitants can create an environmental movement against extractivism to defend their livelihoods and space under an umbrella organization. how/why could the community in çanakkale—a north-western province of turkey—not create a collective identity to sustain an environmental movement against common threats, while the community in artvin—a north-eastern province of turkey—has been successful in creating joint action wherein residents of the entire city have participated? given the role of place as an element that shapes community life, i vehemently defend the view that the organizational success of anti-mining environmental movements, at least in turkey, depends on the social relationships that community members develop in their city. figure 1: location of artvin source: wikipedia. 2023b. “artvin in turkey.” in turkey, the military coup on 12 september 1980 was a critical juncture in the state’s environmental and economic policies. the new regime introduced a neoliberal agenda and, accordingly, amendments were made in the legislation to meet the demands of the new economic framework. in 1985, the amendment to mining law no 3213 was a turning point for the environment and economy of turkey, as it granted international private corporations the right to get mining licenses for their projects (arsel 2013; erensü 2020). subsequently, the cerattepe (artvin) anti-mining movement [173] üner arose to resist a canadian gold mining company, making it one of the first environmental protests in turkey at this time. since the mid-1990s, the artvin community has been defending its place against the mining threat under the banner of a local civil society organization, the green artvin association (yad). the community has succeeded in bringing all residents together to defend their space, livelihoods, and culture, irrespective of political and ideological views. it succeeded in casting two canadian gold mining companies, cominco inc and inmet mining, out of its territory. yet, the third company, cengiz holding, supported by turkey’s majority party, the justice and development party (akp), has been continuing copper mining activity in the cerattepe region of artvin since 2017—after the vigil protests of the community were violently suppressed. 1 yet, the community continued to struggle for their city, defending not only artvin, but also the city periphery, against increasing threats of mining in the current political atmosphere of turkey. figure 2: location of çanakkale source: wikipedia. 2023d. “çanakkale in turkey.” in 2019, the kirazli (canakkale) anti-mining movement arose against a canadian gold mining company, alamos gold (ejolt 2015).2 at the 1 the planned mining operations were the cyanide-gold mining projects in artvin. after a mass demonstration by the community through a vigil protest in 2016, the cyanide-gold mining project was transformed to a copper mining operation, to convince the community to allow them to continue mining operations because copper mining is less harmful than cyanide-gold mining. however, cyanide-gold mining projects are still on the agenda of the current corporation in artvin. further information for the planned gold mining projects in artvin can be found in mining maven (2019) and mining technology (2023). 2 before the local community kept vigil to defend their livelihoods in kirazlı village in çanakkale, the community was not unfamiliar with environmental threats and environmental demonstrations. since the beginning of the 2000s, environmental protests against mining projects have been ongoing in canakkale. however, what ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [174] beginning of the protests, the çanakkale residents and those living in other cities in turkey started to keep a vigil in kirazlı village (çanakkale), where the company aimed to construct its mining operations, to defend the place and stop the company. however, the vigil protest of the community did not last, and conflicts arose among the actors of this environmental movement due to their different understandings of environmentalism, politics, and ways of organization and mobilization. hence, each actor founded its own platform, group, or association to sustain the environmental movement in çanakkale. although there have been many environmental movements against extractivism3 in turkey, in recent years, the cerattepe and kirazlı cases have become popular by adapting the same mobilization strategies—vigil protests. however, the actors in both movements are differently organized. therefore, research on these cases is crucial to identify the characteristics and transformation of environmental movements in the current atmosphere, where the extractive sector grows day by day and the violence against environmental defenders by law enforcement forces and corporations has been increasing. for this comparative research, i have conducted a month-long fieldwork in both cities. during my fieldwork, i carried out semi-structured interviews with city residents and the active participants of environmental protests, including members of local civil society organizations, lawyers, teachers, journalists, members of municipalities, and shopkeepers. additionally, i had unofficial and daily conversations with city residents as well as observed their daily lives. the comparison between these movements demonstrates that the artvin community could act together to defend their livelihoods and resist lawenforcement officers who violently suppressed the vigil protest in 2017. i argue that the active presence of the local environmental organization, yad, which locals identify as a supra-political body, contributed to the continuity of the environmental movement through the establishment of common ground among the inhabitants of artvin. bearing the cerattepe (artvin) example in mind, i assert that strong alliances forged firstly among makes the vigil protest that took place in 2019 significant is that both the local community and people all around the country come to kirazlı village to protest the actions of the corporation. 3 in this study, i define extractivism as all projects that destroy human and non-human lives to accumulate capital, leading to distributional and participatory injustices. given the growth of extractive industries over the last two decades, mining, hydroelectric power plants, and thermal power plants are the most common industries in turkey. following these industries, other industries—including geothermal power plants, wind energy systems, and nuclear power plants—are mushrooming. for further information on extractive industries in turkey. [175] üner local community members play a decisive role in furthering alliances with other groups, including but not limited to environmentalists, civil society organizations, and activists at the national scale. however, when alliances with environmental organizations, activists, and environmentalists at the national scale are prioritized, they are less likely to engender environmental justice movements. there are other factors, such as local differences, which we need to analyse to have a better understanding of the sustainability of environmental movements as well as of the alliances among diverse actors and organizations. place is an important element to study geographical, historical, and cultural differences and their effects on the organization of local resistances (escobar 2008). i argue that when local inhabitants organize an environmental movement as a place-based struggle to defend the place “where they lived in and acted” (escobar 2008), a sustained movement is more likely to arise. in artvin, the local community defends its livelihoods with an emphasis on cerattepe as a place where they live, act, and breathe. additionally, i realized that the history of the city contributed to maintaining the environmental movement under an umbrella environmental association with democratic and participatory decisionmaking processes. after the military coup in 1980 depoliticized leftist groups in artvin, these groups used their experience of organization for anti-mining mobilization. in this vein, that community members depoliticized by the military coup see environmental issues as a new field of struggle plays an important role in maintaining the grassroots environmental movement in artvin (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2015). 2. an outline of the cerattepe and kirazli antimining environmental movements the cerattepe anti-mining movement has been continuing for over two decades in artvin and has significantly shaped the daily lives of local communities and the relationships among them. on the other hand, the kirazlı anti-mining environmental movement emerged as a result of grassroots activism in çanakkale, but it quickly attracted the attention of many actors in other cities in turkey in august 2019. although this antimining movement has been active with protests and involves various environmental organizations, environmentalists, ecologists, and ngos, grassroots activism could not be maintained because of disagreements among community members. in 1989, cominco inc from canada acquired licences for cyanide-gold mining in artivin from the ministry of energy and natural resources. by 1995, local inhabitants had founded yad. in 2002, cominco inc stopped ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [176] the project but transferred its licenses to another canadian company, inmet mining. the court cancelled the mining licence of the company in 2008, marking a significant success for the community in terms of realizing environmental justice. again, in 2011, the ministry of energy and natural resources announced that within the scope of the new mining law, they were going to contract away 1,343 mining sites in turkey, including cerattepe and genya mounts in artvin. in 2012, eti bakır corporation, a subsidiary company of cengiz holding,4 received a mining licence. this triggered a new period of legal action and vigil protests. yet, in february 2016, law enforcement officers violently crushed the vigil and prohibited people from travelling to the city to support the local community and the protests.5 after the july 15 coup attempt in turkey, the copper mining operation started in artvin. taking advantage of the coup-related state of emergency, the governor of the city banned protests for two years. in 2017, yad filed a lawsuit in the constitutional court to bring a stop to the environmental injustices caused by mining activities; this time, there were 708 complainants. additionally, yad worked hard to create networks with other environmental movements mushrooming in different regions in the country in alliance with the umbrella ecological organization, the ecology union (eu), which operated at a national scale. one of the ecological struggles that the artvin community relentlessly monitored and supported was the kirazlı anti-mining movement, which emerged in august 2019. after mass protests flared up in kirazlı village, yad went to çanakkale to support the resistance of the community, which was protesting gold mining projects in kirazlı by keeping watch for the company’s entry into the region. however, the artvin community emphasized that in the kirazlı movement, organizational strategies and decision-making processes were completely different from that of the cerattepe movement. therefore, it is important to compare the organization of the cerattepe movement with the kirazlı movement to understand the conditions that are conducive to the success of grassroots environmental movements. similar to artvin, çanakkale is under threat of planned mining projects, especially because of its mineral resources. in 2010, alamos gold bought the kirazlı cyanide-gold mining project from teck resources ltd and frontier development group. in 2012, the company gained a positive environmental impact assessment (eia) report. in july 2019, drone images 4 a company that has close relationships with the justice and development party (akp) government: https://www.cengizholding.com.tr/. 5 the law enforcement forces used pepper gas on protestors, and the state filed a penal suit upon those attending the demonstrations. for the further information, see nilay (2016). https://www.cengizholding.com.tr/ [177] üner of devastated areas in kirazlı were displayed on social media by turkish foundation for combating soil erosion for reforestation and for protection of natural habitats (tema), leading to massive public opposition immediately. the members of the ida solidarity association, the city council, and the çanakkale municipality established a committee, namely, water and conscience, to organize a vigil against the proposed project in the area and announced that all activists and supporters would be invited to come with their tents and join the protests. hence, protests rapidly erupted with the participation of diverse actors from çanakkale as well as other cities. after the mass protests against the proposed mining project in august 2019, the water and conscience committee decided to move the vigil protest to the city centre and abandon the project area in kirazlı village. yet, others continued to stay in the area until law enforcement violently expelled them in september 2020. overall, unlike the cerattepe anti-mining movement in artvin, the kirazlı movement did not continue with alliances under an umbrella local organization in çanakkale. on the contrary, both movements mobilized diverse actors through various ways of protesting, especially by having held a vigil in the project area. i argue that the use of the same mobilization strategies was the result of the sharing of experiences among distinct local ecological movements for many years. yet, even if local ecological conflicts learn from each other through experience sharing, use the same mobilization strategies, and try to create alliances, a question remains as to how grassroots activism can continue by mobilizing the whole community with a common purpose to defend their living space against ecological threats. i think that the kirazlı and cerattepe movements are two crucial cases for understanding how different organizational strategies and historical and geographical differences impact the emergence and sustainability of grassroots environmental activism. 3. a new era of mineral development the neoliberalization of the global economy has significantly affected the mining sector and states’ relations with capital. studies on the mining industry and anti-mining conflicts show that since the 1980s, the global economy has entered “a new era of mineral development” through structural shifts in the role of states, and in the relationships among corporations, states, and communities, as well as changes in material needs for extraction (ballard and banks 2003; bridge 2004; jacka 2018; yaşın 2019). focusing on the reasons for the structural shifts in global extractivism, these studies examine the characteristics of the new mineral economy, the links between communities and their space and environment, asymmetrical power relations, political and ecological struggles among ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [178] communities and corporations, and mining code reforms (martinez-alier 2002; ballard and banks 2003; escobar 2008). the increased social metabolism of a capitalist economy is one of the reasons for the emergence of a new mineral economy (martinez-alier 2002; yaşın 2019). with the growth of the global population, the need for material extraction has risen from the late 1970s to the 2000s (bridge 2004; yaşın 2019). so, this capital economy has shaped the characteristics of a new era of mineral development. firstly, the erosion of legal compliance is one of the key characteristics of the new mineral development era (bridge 2004; jacka 2018). faced with pressures from international financial institutions such as the world bank, states—mostly in the global south—have changed their mineral codes so as to make natural, coastal, and agricultural regions more easily commodified than ever before (çoban, özlüer, and erensü 2015; jacka 2018). secondly, not only have ngos, lawyers, academics, and local communities been involved with the extractive sector since the introduction of neoliberal reforms, but also corporations and new actors that shape social, political, and economic spheres (ballard and banks 2003; bridge 2004). thirdly, following the neoliberalization and deregulation of the mining sector, environmental concerns became more visible, and key issues were discussed globally (bridge 2004). on the one hand, local communities resist planned or ongoing extractivist projects. on the other, new measures are taken to supposedly “protect the environment and achieve sustainable development” by states and corporations trying to curb local communities’ mobilization (ballard and banks 2003; bridge 2004; jacka 2018). this historical transformation of the global mining industry has reconfigured the relationship between the state, capital, and the environment in turkey following the spatial and material expansion of mining frontiers (yaşın 2019). material extraction and consumption has expanded in turkey over the last two decades (yaşın 2019). following universal debates on environmental protection and sustainability and global changes in the mining industry, the erosion of laws, emerging actors, and increasing environmental concerns define the characteristics of the mining industry. on the one hand, debates on sustainability and environmental protection have opened up new channels for interacting with international actors through environmental ngos, bringing forth new policies supporting the actions of the economic market for environmental protection coupled with modernization and development (adaman and arsel 2005). on the other hand, changes in mining laws facilitated foreign private mining corporations to emerge as new actors in turkey’s economy, leading natural areas to be used for drilling works by corporations, two of [179] üner which are the cerattepe and kirazlı gold mining projects.6 however, local communities—the other new actors of this era—have organized protests and environmental movements to curb the drilling works and mining projects of these corporations through demands for justice, stemming from the asymmetrical relationships among corporations, the government, and local communities regarding the use of resources (bridge 2004). after the 12 september 1980 military coup, a new constitution was created in 1982. the post-coup consensus between the state and capital led to neoliberal reforms. the state adopted economic policies that would more rapidly commodify nature than ever (çoban, özlüer, and erensü 2015).7 the amendment to mining law no 3213, which granted international private corporations the right to get mining licences for their projects (arsel 2013; erensü 2020), was a turning point for the environment and economy of turkey. following this amendment, a wave of projects was rapidly declared—the bergama (i̇zmir) cyanide-gold mining project in the early 1990s, the cerattepe (artvin) cyanide-gold mining project in the early 1990s, and the kışladağ (uşak) cyanide-gold mining project in the late 1990s. the state substantially readapted mining law no. 3213 in 2004, and, accordingly, the mining activities operated by corporations expanded (erensü 2020). at the same time, omnibus bill no 5177 allowed legally protected areas to be used for mining in 2004 (çoban 2018). çoban, özlüer, and erensü (2015) argue that the state enacted legal and institutional deregulation through constitutional changes to facilitate the expansion of the market without considering environmental burdens and risks. relatedly, especially in the 2000s, lands, forests, pastures, and coasts belonging to the state’s treasury rapidly became commodified for market investment and construction projects, industrial agriculture, mining activities, and energy projects that caused/will cause various sorts of 6 before these planned mining projects, mining activities continued in order to achieve economic development. however, these were state-led initiatives that were operating the mine fields rather than private corporations. 7 from the foundation of the new republic in 1923 till the 1950s, economic policies supported the development of agriculture through protectionist control over foreign trade and exchange (pamuk 2010; adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2021). the protectionist policies of the state led to the nationalization of existing companies in this time (pamuk 2010). in the 1950s, industrialization and urbanization shifted state policies away from taking care of agriculture and the countryside—yet, agriculture was still a main area for development (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2021). in the 1960s and 70s, the private sector started to take over state-led industries. in the 1980s, the role of rural players declined in the economy while international players like the imf and world bank and market ideology became powerful (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2021). during the akp era, neoliberalization of the economy deepened through policies supporting the deagrarianisation of the countryside, which opened the way for an unprecedented extractive drive (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2021). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [180] ecological destruction all around the country (çoban, özlüer, and erensü 2015). overall, the expansion of the neoliberal market economy in turkey has aggravated environmental problems, and thus, opened up a space for civic interventions and resistance against its hazardous impacts (aydın 2005). civil society actors replaced the role of the state in shaping environmental policies against the ecological destruction caused by the mushrooming neoliberal actors and policies all around the country. however, many civil society organizations mobilizing to impede ecological destruction in alliance with local communities were limited in capacity in terms of confronting neoliberal market relations. nevertheless, i argue that civil society organizations substantially contributed to the mobilization of local communities in these ecological struggles and created alliances with them against environmental degradation. as the following sections outline, the results of this contribution, however, were yet to come. 4. the rise of environmental justice movements and place-based struggles in a globalizing and neoliberalizing world that facilitates the onset of a new mineral era, local communities have increasingly begun to take action to defend their livelihoods, place, and environment. networks established among different localities around the world help local environmental movements share experiences about forms of mobilization and organization strategies (martinez-alier et al 2016). explaining anti-mining environmental movements through two concepts, ecological distribution conflicts and place-based struggles, studies on environmental justice and social movements focus on the historical evolution of environmental justice demands, the rise of ecological conflicts, and diverse kinds of environmentalism. environmental justice is a concept that refers to historic conflicts on sulfur dioxide, the chipko and chico mendes cases, current conflicts on the use of carbon sinks, conflicts about dams, cases pertaining to the preservation of rainforests for livelihoods, and many other cases around the world (martinez-alier 2002). from the 1980s onwards, early studies on environmental justice paid attention to the uneven distribution of environmental burdens and risks on disadvantaged communities—which were unequally distributed due to their choice of location (bullard 1990; agyeman et al 2016). addressing environmental racism against black and latino communities, scholars used the lens of environmental justice to analyse urban-based environmental movements in the us (temper, del bene, and martinez-alier 2015; scheidel et al 2018). these works, however, [181] üner neglected the different claims of environmentalism and rural conflicts in the global south (martinez-alier 2002; martinez-alier et al 2016). following the emergence of questions on what kinds of values and visions matter, and who is involved in decision-making processes and how, environmental justice frameworks, in recent studies, combine the environmental justice discourses of the global north with the environmentalism of the global south through claims of recognition and participation as well as distributive approaches (temper et al 2015; özkaynak and rodriguez-labajos 2017). conflicts related to ecological distribution centre on struggles surrounding valuation processes in terms of which values are deemed relevant for decision-making—such as market and monetary values, livelihood values, territorial rights, and ecological values (martinez-alier 2002). resisting extraction that would contaminate their environment in favour of state and corporate profit, and defending livelihoods in ecological distribution conflicts such as mining conflicts, are identified as environmentalism of the poor (martinez-alier 2002; scheidel et al 2018). despite the different motivations and values of these people, their primary reason to create an environmental movement is to protest market relations (martinez-alier 2002). in a globalizing world, protests against market relations have become more networked, such that a global environmental justice movement has become possible. in other words, the local community’s alignments with other actors, coalitions, and networks at the international scale make mining and environmental issues global (çoban 2004; walder 2009). thus, the protests of different local movements contribute to a larger purpose, not only in opposing and sometimes transforming the unsustainable use of resources, but also by encouraging political debates on the commodification of the environment and renegotiating public values about sustainability (scheidel et al 2018). on the contrary, other environmental justice and social movement studies criticize the constitution of a global environmental justice movement. cultural and historical differences are important for a community to develop a collective identity in the development of a social movement. however, the idea of a global environmental justice movement could sometimes neglect these differences (escobar 2008). a social movement identity is the extent to which both groups and individuals feel part of a collectivity and are able to identify common elements in their past, present, and future experiences (della porta and diani 2006, 2015). so, identitybuilding in a social movement gives the community a sense of belonging and collectivity that is maintained even after a particular protest has ended (della porta and diani 2006, 2015). in different localities, communities create their collective identity through their attachment to the place and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [182] fight for their place—a constitutive space where they live and act. these communities maintain their grassroots activism through local networks and place-based solidarities, allying with one another through common feelings and values and by encouraging people to participate in the movement (escobar 2008; nicholls 2009). accordingly, the cases that i comparatively study in this research prove the critique of a global environmental justice movement. in the environmental history of turkey, the military coup on 12 september 1980 is a critical point to explain the rise of environmental movements. not surprisingly, the suppression during and following the military coup led to the curious rise of ecological struggles, especially because many environmental organizations started to call their activities non-political (erensü et al 2016). since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the growing role of environmental organizations was revealed in the increasing organizational capacity of local inhabitants to defend their livelihoods in alliance with actors from different levels. some environmental movements in the aftermath of the 1980s benefitted from the pre-1980 era’s organizational strategies and were more likely to ally with socialist and leftist groups and the green party (adem 2005; erensü et al 2016). thus, turkey’s post-1980s atmosphere enabled people to come together to expand their personal and political freedoms through environmental activism (turhan, aydın, and özkaynak 2019). in this context, adaman, arsel, and akbulut (2015) demonstrate the importance of local differences of place in the creation of an environmental movement through the concept of environmentalism of the malcontent. according to them, the concept of environmentalism of the poor defines those who defend their livelihoods against market relations, which, in other parts of the world, may fail as a definition of the characteristics of environmental movements. after the military coup in 1980, these people organized movements in the depoliticized atmosphere of the era by capitalizing on their experiences of mobilization, and environmental activism replaced the severely suppressed leftist and socialist groups (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2015). in recent years, ecological struggles have been more rapidly emerging all around the country as the state expands the extraction industry by deregulating the related laws. since the 2010s, the extraction industry has become a vital factor in reshaping environmental policies during the akp period through the central government’s authority and decisions over land use (çoban 2018). in this era, centralized decisions about land use, especially in the countryside, have been taken without the participation of local actors in decision-making processes (özkaynak et al 2015). however, despite the rapid rise of environmental movements all around the country, [183] üner particularly after the 2010s, only a few have managed to sustain grassroots environmental activism, while many environmental movements were either dissolved by their own local communities or continue through other actors like civil-society initiatives. in this context, to understand the reasons for the failure of grassroots activism and alliances among diverse actors, it is critical to comparatively study the environmental movements of turkey. thus, i argue that we need to fully analyse how local communities may be able to sustain their grassroots activism through strong alliances at a local scale because these alliances among community members contribute to creating networks with other environmental organizations and diverse actors at the national and international scales, like in the case of the cerattepe anti-mining environmental movement. 5. the place-based environmental movement in artvin artvin is a provincial city located in the northeastern black sea region of turkey with a population of 170,875 people, sharing its border with georgia and far from major cities like istanbul and ankara. its ecology is characterized by enormous biodiversity, including endemic species and oldgrowth forests along the harsh geography extending across the karçal mountains. the çoruh river, which flows in the city and throughout the çoruh basin, is particularly significant for the city’s ecology. these ecological fields are significant places where community members breathe, spend their time, earn their livelihoods, and shape their memories. in addition, artvin, historically, is an important city in which leftist political groups organized and were severely suppressed in the 12 september 1980 military coup. a group of inhabitants participated in the cerattepe environmental movement due to their prior or existing affiliations with the leftist culture and following the traumas of the military coup. given the ecological and historical characteristics of artvin, the inhabitants have been protesting mining projects here under an umbrella environmental organization, yad, since the mid-1990s. one of the important reasons for why the community has been able to achieve a long-duration environmental movement is its supra-political character—not politicizing environmental issues but rather emphasizing the commonality of mining hazards and risks to the whole community. by becoming supra-political, yad emphasized the struggle for city, space, and environment in order to locally organize the whole community. it was able to create alliances with political parties and bureaucratic actors to make the problems nationally visible, raising the issue in assemblies in ankara, the capital city, to demand environmental justice. thus, yad created an important space where the whole community could collect, share, and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [184] disseminate information concerning the proposed projects, not only within their own community, but also with potential stakeholders and partners. to understand why cerattepe is a significant place in people’s daily lives, it is crucial to focus on its geographical location—on top of the mountains just above the city. since cerattepe is very close to the urban centre, the community can monitor environmental degradation easily. one of the interviewees underlined that the mining activity violates their lifestyle while undermining the place they act daily. due to the mining activity, they could not go to the kafkasör and cerattepe areas for leisure time activities with their children (interview 2). the mining activity, in other words, breaks the community’s daily routines. at the same time, while complaining about environmental threats in the city, community members usually refer to the destruction caused by the murgul mining operation,8 47 km away from the city, as well as the deriner dam and hepp project constructed on the çoruh river in 2012. both these projects are the main reasons why the community has been protesting the cerattepe mining operation. in other words, the community is already familiar with how a mining project pollutes the environment and the city and threatens the livelihoods of its people. one of the interviewees who previously lived in murgul mentioned their memories of how the home in which they had lived throughout their childhood had been destroyed during the mining blasts (interview 13). another interviewee who lived in murgul for several years also stated how agricultural products could not be grown anymore because of air pollution (interview 4). the shared history engraved in their minds, and the threat posed to the very livelihoods of these people, created a common ground on which this all-encompassing, supra-political environmental movement flourished. additionally, the historical character of the city contributed to the organization of an environmental movement under an umbrella organization. even if community members identify this movement as supra-political, for those who share the traumas of the military coup, environmentalism has become a new field of politics. by using their previous experiences of organizing to create an environmental movement, “environmentalism of the malcontent” (adaman, arsel, and akbulut 2015) has mobilized people to defend their livelihoods and has reversed the repressed past by creating a new field of activism (interview 3). hence, despite having different motivations and ideologies, the community has found common ground under a supra-political environmental 8 it has been operating in murgukl district in artvin, destroying an entire city, its ecology, and human health. [185] üner organization in artvin. this common ground is rooted in a defence of place, memories, livelihoods, and daily routines as well as a close attachment to the city, trustful relations among people, cultural values, and improved relations with the environment. in this context, the supra-political character of the movement is critical in thinking about the characteristics of environmental movements in turkey. as i have demonstrated before, the supra-political character contributed to creating a place-based environmental movement (escobar 2008) by combining different political ideologies. so, yad, an essential organization at the local and regional scales, makes the voices of the artvin people heard within the city centre and surrounding villages. 6. struggles among community members: environmental issues as a part of politics? çanakkale is a city located in the biga peninsula in the northwestern aegean region of turkey with a population of 5,41,548 people. mount ida is the highest mountain in the region and extends through the southeast of the biga peninsula within the borders of the çanakkale and balıkesir provinces (tema 2020). the region is geographically characterized by its strategic location, close to istanbul and dardanelles, and is surrounded by many holiday destinations, making this area a transition point for travellers from istanbul and other cities in the thrace region to the aegean region. also, districts such as küçükkuyu and bayramiç are popular places where people have settled to escape from the difficulties of urban life and to create a lifestyle more engaged with ecological and cultural activities (aynalı 2020). in this region, thermal power plants and the proposed mining projects pose severe threats to biodiversity, culture, agriculture, and the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the region. currently, 76% of the mount ida region is licensed for extractive activities by the proposed mining projects (tema 2020). in the kirazlı environmental movement, one of the reasons for opposing the proposed project is water contamination. if the mining project had commenced operations, the atikhisar dam, a main water resource of the çanakkale province, would be polluted by mining activity. the protestors, who came from different regions across the country, opposed the project due to the risk of environmental degradation, ecological destruction, air pollution, water contamination, soil erosion, and undemocratic decisionmaking by the current government. at the regional scale, the çanakkale municipality assumed a leading role in initiating a water and conscience watch in balabanlı hill in 2019. in organizing this protest, the municipality ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [186] cooperated with the ida solidarity association9 and the union of chambers of turkish engineers and architects (tmmob) and created a water and conscience committee. when environmental issues mainly occupied the agenda of the inhabitants in çanakkale, the ida solidarity association aimed to mobilize all inhabitants under an umbrella organization. yet, it could not bring the whole community together against a common environmental threat in the city because of different approaches to environmentalism. in çanakkale, the local community also involves people living in küçükkuyu—a small district in çanakkale—villagers, ecologists, and people from the ecotourism industry. the locals consist of people who migrated from i̇stanbul, who have been actively organizing environmental struggles against mining and thermal power plant projects since the beginning of the 2000s. these people are organized under an association, namely, the kazdağı association for the preservation of natural and cultural resources, founded in 2012. at the same time, others established a platform, namely, the brotherhood of kazdağları, to debate the environmental problems of the mount ida region (interview 26). the kazdağı association for the preservation of natural and cultural resources allied with the brotherhood of kazdağları during the kirazlı environmental mobilization and those who came from istanbul to support the environmental protests that occurred in çanakkale. they also formed a group, namely, kazdağları i̇stanbul solidarity. these people, mostly collegegraduated, migrated to çanakkale at the beginning of the 2000s and then in the 2010s to escape urban life and recognized the importance of environmental issues and mining threats immediately. they linked environmental issues with politics when environmental issues started threatening their lifestyle in their new living place. they saw the environmental movement as a politicized process and believed in the importance of establishing alliances with other environmental activists all around the country. they maintained a watch-keeping protest in kirazlı in 2019 after the water and conscience watch was ended by the municipality together with some local ngos. this group saw the environmental movement as a way to protest present governmental policies and aimed to radicalize environmental activism by unmasking the relations between environmental issues and politics (interviews 21, 26, and 27). on the other hand, the people organized under the ida solidarity association and allied with the municipality and other local ngos tended 9 ida solidarity association is an organization that was founded in 2015 to achieve environmental and social justice in çanakkale and allied with the çanakkale municipality and local ngos in çanakkale to organize the environmental movement in the city. [187] üner to exclude those who migrated to çanakkale from istanbul. they were unwilling to politicize environmental issues, and, instead, identified environmental problems as a problem of livelihood and a non-political issue. in other words, they emphasized that the vigil in kirazlı village aimed to defend water resources because the atikhisar dam met the water demand of çanakkale. thus, they opposed those who politicized environmental issues. two interviewees explained that the people who came from istanbul had identified their environmental mobilization as political, and these migrants or those who came from i̇stanbul to support their movement should not be allowed to participate in decision-making processes (interviews 19 and 20). they added that although displaying political flags on balabanlı hill during the vigil had been banned, the people from istanbul had unfurled political flags (interviews 19 and 20). thus, one of the most important reasons why the çanakkale community could not sustain the supra-political organization, and instead, different environmental groups had mushroomed, is the geographical character of the city. in the organization and mobilization of the kirazlı environmental movement, a collective identity, based on the place where the protestors live and act, could not be created because of the city’s geographical location, and because it functioned as a transition and migration point. the environmental mobilization continued with the support of diverse actors that joined this movement to show their opposition to the current oppressive policies of the government rather than seeing this movement as a place-based struggle. at the same time, because kirazlı’s location is far away from the city centre, this place does not significantly shape the daily lives of citizens, unlike artvin. lastly, the lack of a supra-political umbrella organization with democratic and participatory decision-making mechanisms adversely impacted the organizational strategy by hindering the protestors from reaching a common ground based on the defence of place in çanakkale. 7. discussion in this part, i compare the roles of the actors and their place in the rise of environmental movements. in this comparison, i argue that when local inhabitants organize an environmental movement as a place-based struggle to defend the place where they live and act, they are more likely to ally with each other under an umbrella environmental organization against the mining threat by ignoring differences in political views. although i am referring to a place, i emphasize the historical and geographical attributes of cities. because these attributes have an impact on social relations among community members, people’s relations with the environment, as well as their approaches to environmentalism, i try to understand how a place is an ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [188] important factor in the organization and mobilization of the local community in an environmental movement. because of artvin’s unique location with enormous mountains surrounding the area, which contributes to the harshness of its geography, it is more isolated and less cosmopolitan, making it harder to access the province. even though the cerattepe environmental movement had become very visible all around the country and was supported by diverse actors at the national scale, the number of people who physically visited artvin to support the environmental movement was limited. in this respect, the local inhabitants were the main actors in organizing the environmental movement. they took on this responsibility by organizing yad and by labelling their movement as supra-political to bring the whole community together to defend the place they live, love, breathe, and enjoy. at the same time, it is a place visible from the city’s downtown, whenever the inhabitants look up at the mountains surrounding the city. as one of the interviewees said, “it is a city with a face-up” (interview 7). also, the artvin inhabitants go to the plateaus and the mountains surrounding cerattepe in their leisure time. in this respect, the gold-mining activity in cerattepe breaks the community’s daily routine in addition to degrading the environment and transforming the culture embedded in the place. the culture embedded in the place enables inhabitants to create a collective identity through solidarity networks with each other (nicholls 2009). in contrast, çanakkale is located on the west side of turkey, and it is easily reachable from istanbul. the geography of çanakkale is also significantly different from that of artvin. it is a city that spreads along the coastline rather than being spread throughout the mountains like artvin. unlike artvin, it is hard to recognize environmental destruction from the çanakkale city centre because kirazlı village is not visible from downtown. on one hand, the increasing population of the city is crucial to understand the characteristics of the environmental movement in çanakkale, because those who migrate to the city actively participate in the environmental movement and create alliances with other environmentalist groups all around the region, especially i̇stanbul. on the other hand, its location close to istanbul enables many people to come to this region to support environmental mobilization against the mining corporation and ecological destruction in çanakkale. in this respect, i contend that the geographical location of the city enables diverse actors, including city inhabitants, those who come to support the movement, and others who migrate to the city from other metropolitan cities, to take part in the environmental movement. [189] üner in the grassroots environmental activism of artvin, local inhabitants organized themselves to defend a place that is particularly important for their daily routine in artvin. many of the inhabitants are members of this organization, created to defend cerattepe against the threat of mining. under yad, community members take responsibility to defend the place, and their protest activities spread around the city and target corporations, the state, and ecological destruction through an understanding of “topyekün çevrecilik” (erensü 2014, 2016, 2020) by bringing together those with a leftist past, the “environmentalism of the malcontent” (adaman et al 2015), with more conservative and rightist members of the community. when cerattepe is viewed as a place that shapes daily life with its geographical features and cultural attributions, community members who have different understandings of environmentalism can come together to identify environmentalism as supra-political activity. for example, when the vigil protest was organized in the cerattepe region, the atmosphere of solidarity created in cerattepe was felt in the downtown of the city (interview 16). in this respect, i argue that the artvin community has transformed the place into a space for social movement within the environmental movement (escobar 2008), and in this process, yad as an organization shapes everyday relations in the city. for this transformation of the city into a social movement space, i also maintain that the supra-political character of yad played a critical role, as it served as a strategic shift to bring the whole community together above the community members’ political and ideological differences that lead to disagreements. compared to the organization of the environmental movement in artvin, in çanakkale, the actors of the environmental movement do not share any common history that makes them familiar with the organizational strategies of the movement. in the beginning, the municipality, local ngos, and some inhabitants tried to organize environmental mobilization to defend the water resources of çanakkale because the proposed mining project is very close to atikhisar dam. this group tried to organize by creating a common ground under an umbrella environmental organization such as ida solidarity association. yet, they could not achieve the kind of organization realized by the artvin community because of a lack of participatory, transparent, and democratic mechanisms. for example, the people from this organization argue that those who migrated from i̇stanbul to çanakkale were not local inhabitants of the city, so it was unnecessary for them to take part in decision-making mechanisms in the kirazlı environmental movement (interviews 19 and 25). in contrast to the cerattepe environmental movement, in the kirazlı environmental movement, city inhabitants had different motivations for ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [190] environmental mobilization and did not have a harmonious relationship with the place they defended. therefore, they could not create a collective identity based on a place-based environmental struggle, and the place could not become a social movement space. for example, unlike the artvin case, when police forces pressured the protesters holding the vigil in kirazlı to stop, the people from the city centre did not come to kirazlı to support the oppressed, and the oppressive atmosphere in the vigil area was not felt in the city centre. i maintain that when different inhabitants have different relations with the place they defend, reaching a common ground through a local umbrella organization becomes harder. instead, the movement is maintained by different groups who do not have a common approach to environmental mobilization. overall, place has a significant role in the organization and mobilization of an environmental movement and the continuity of grassroots environmental activism. i argue that when the inhabitants of the city create a place-based environmental struggle, it becomes possible to continue grassroots environmental activism under an umbrella organization by reaching a common ground. in place-based environmental struggles, the inhabitants come together to defend their livelihoods, culture, and history, all of which are embedded in the place where they live, as the case of artvin shows. in this vein, the collective under a supra-political umbrella organization is essential to defend the place and create further alliances with bureaucratic actors and different political parties at the national scale. so, i argue that a supra-political movement does not mean a non-political or apolitical movement, but rather a way to strategically bring different ideological views together around a common cause. 8. conclusion in turkey, since the rise of the bergama anti-mining environmental movement in the early 1990s, many ecological distribution conflicts have emerged from the unequal distribution of environmental risks and burdens against the proposed/operated extraction projects. in some ecological conflicts, environmental mobilization continued through solidarity networks at the local level and in alliance with diverse actors at the national level, whereas others failed to maintain environmental mobilization for several years. for example, in the artvin case, local inhabitants who had different understandings of environmentalism could be organized under an umbrella association with common ground and through democratic and participatory organization practices. on the contrary, for some environmental movements, it is hard to bring together diverse actors under an umbrella organization, as in the case of kirazlı. thus, the rise of grassroots activism and the conditions that enable an alliance of diverse [191] üner actors deserve scholarly attention to debate the distinct features of these cases in terms of their organizational forms and mobilization capacities. through this research, i tried to comparatively analyse the characteristics of anti-mining environmental movements in turkey. the significance of this research lies in its attempt to show the ways/conditions under which environmental movements maintain grassroots activism by establishing common ground among diverse actors. on the one hand, the cerattepe environmental movement was a very particular kind of example where the whole community had been organized under an umbrella organization for over two decades. in turkey, only a few environmental struggles could achieve such organizational success. on the other hand, the kirazlı environmental movement is a critical case to analyse because of the city’s location. even if diverse inhabitants of the province could not reach a common ground in çanakkale, the continuing environmental mobilization and mining opposition in çanakkale deserve scholarly attention to analyse the evolution of environmental protests. besides making some contributions, this research has its shortcomings and points to different areas for further research. initially in this research, i focused on the organization of the city inhabitants to understand the conditions for realizing successful grassroots environmental activism. yet, my comparative study did not analyse the conditions for how an environmental movement fails or becomes latent. because of the pandemic, i had to choose two ongoing environmental movements. if i tried to choose a case that had become latent, it would be more difficult to conduct interviews. for further studies, it is critical to compare an environmental movement that has continued for several years with the latent environmental struggles of turkey. additionally, although i realized the importance of gender in sustaining environmental movements and how gender inequality impacts the organization of the movement, i did not have sufficient time to pursue these issues. for further studies, the gender aspect deserves scholarly attention for both bridging the gap between gender and environmental justice studies and understanding how gender inequality impacts environmental organization and mobilization in turkey. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research cannot be shared openly to protect the privacy of study participants and is stated in the paper. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [192] conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references adaman, fikret, and murat arsel. 2005. “introduction.” in environmentalism in turkey: between democracy and development, edited by fikret adaman and murat arsel, 1–15. london: routledge. ———. 2005. “development and democratization in the era of environmental crisis.” in environmentalism in turkey: between 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https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=yxcxdwaaqbaj&pg=pa100. https://www.mining-technology.com/data-insights/gold-in-turkey/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00331.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.06.021 https://cdn-tema.mncdn.com/uploads/cms/kaz-daglarihttps://cdn-tema.mncdn.com/uploads/cms/kaz-daglarihttps://www.mta.gov.tr/v3.0/kurumsal/hakkimizda https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429429699-9 https://m.bianet.org/english/environment/172159-attack-against-people-opposing-copper-mine-in-artvin https://m.bianet.org/english/environment/172159-attack-against-people-opposing-copper-mine-in-artvin https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120035 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120035 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inmet_mining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/chico_mendes https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/artvin_(il) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/datei:artvin_in_turkey.svg https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/çanakkale_(il) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [196] wikipedia. 2023d. “çanakkale in turkey.” wikipedia, april 21, 2023. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/datei:canakkale_in_turkey.svg. yaşın taşdemir, zehra. 2019. “contextualizing the rise of environmental movements: two instances of anti-gold mining resistance.” in transforming socionatures in turkey: landscape, state, and environmental movements, edited by onur i̇nal and ethemcan turhan, 137–164. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429429699-8 yazıcı, selin. 2020. “kaz dağları maden ruhsat alanları haritası.” kazdağları kirli altın 1 (1): 9–11. https://beyond.istanbul/kaz-dağları-kirlialtın-yayındac05c07abfc45. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/datei:canakkale_in_turkey.svg https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429429699-8 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 1–3, january 2021 editorial nature and socio-economic systems: a narrative of conflict and adaptation kanchan chopra  at the outset of the fourth year of publication of this journal, the pandemic continues to loom over the collective imagination of humankind. as a consequence, the past few months, and indeed, almost the entire year, have been characterized by extraordinary change and, perhaps, deep reflection. the pandemic reminds us of the frailty of the human condition and the many threads that weave us together to create either a rich tapestry or an unmitigated disaster. in whichever part of the world we live, the pandemic currently overshadows what we do and how we use our capabilities. meanwhile, another common unifying force, nature, remains unheeded in many ways. for it binds us in an unobtrusive manner. all of our economic activities and social institutions operate within the ecological realities of the planet that we live on. as such, scholars have tried to provide pointers for determining a “safe operating space” for humanity. in simple words, it is the room that we have to function in to improve our individual and collective well-being, if the threats of biodiversity loss, climate change, and so on are to be averted. what happens when we do not respect these limits to operating space? is the pandemic nature’s way of reminding us about the need to live within its limits? maybe yes or maybe no; perhaps this line of reasoning appears too far-fetched. note, however, that studies have shown that land use change contributes in a non-trivial way to the emergence of vector borne and zoonotic diseases. nevertheless, we need to understand the implications of such linkages more clearly.  coordinating editor (2020–21). former director and professor, institute of economic growth, university of delhi, north campus, delhi 110007. choprakanchan14@gmail.com. copyright © chopra 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.403 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.403 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] socio-ecological systems, which are complex and adaptive, are shaped by a set of fast-moving variables, (typically, but not always, economic in nature, such as capital movements across continents and rapidly changing consumption patterns) and another set of slow-moving ones (such as land use changes, species extinction, and climate change). some of these have the potential to shift the system to an altogether different state on reaching a tipping point. from the viewpoint of nature, there is not much to choose between these different states. each state is characterized by the dominance of some species or life forms and certain kinds of environments. for humans, however, a shift to a different state may have profound implications for the manner in which they define and access the wherewithal for their well-being. the waters get muddied as humans have prior notions of the level and kind of well-being they aspire to and the global population which it should ideally reach. the question inevitably arises: are we moving permanently or even temporarily into a state that will make reaching these goals difficult or impossible? such questions are difficult to answer. yet, we strive in little ways, approaching the problem from the varying perspectives of different disciplines. a commentary in this issue of the journal highlights the manner in which one such effort brought together evolutionary ecology and the social sciences to understand complex socio-ecological systems. while pointing out the commonalities between ecological and socio-economic systems, and the need for the latter to adapt through self-organization, the author interestingly concludes, “dealing with the commons is at the centre of the partnership that must grow between biology and the social sciences in the coming decades”. i could not agree more. it is also opportune that the special guest edited section in this issue of the journal revisits the commons while celebrating the life of n. s. jodha, a pioneer in research on common property resources in south asia. the papers in this section review the literature on the commons in south asia and offer suggestions for directions of future research. other contributions examine the impact of the pandemic and its management on the environment, ecology, and livelihoods. a thematic essay analyses the implications of a model that arrives at the counterintuitive result that reducing the mobility of people from highto low-risk areas can increase, not reduce, the total number of infections. another piece warns us to be careful about overstating the benefits to the environment (based on limited information) that result from reduced economic activity due to the concurrent impacts on livelihoods and equity. one contribution reviews the work of lonergan (known primarily for his work on the foundations of science), who viewed the economic process as a [3] kanchan chopra part of human living, (in support of human welfare) in which cultural context is of great significance. he supports a paradigm-shifting movement, from a focus on economic growth and prices towards socio-ecological economics. still another paper examines the role of market-based instruments in promoting organic farming. the books reviewed in this issue also provide insights into socio-ecological systems by dealing with the challenges associated with land ownership, coal mining, and oil extraction. the journal continues its journey of examining the environment in relation to human society and development through different methodological lenses. this issue helps readers understand the spectrum of analytical methods available and offers ways into interdisciplinarity and even the elusive field of transdisciplinarity. finally, the editorial board of ees and the executive committee of insee would like to express grateful thanks to the foundation for ecological security for a generous grant that has supported the publication of this volume of the journal. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 91–93, july 2018 conversations 2: air pollution can we use delhi’s air pollution crisis to improve agriculture? priya shyamsundar  last november, some 4,000 schools closed due to a pernicious fog that covered delhi and all modes of transportation into delhi were affected. as my partners in this conversation identify, this regular winter phenomenon is a result of many different factors. however, one source of pollution— rice straw burning in the indo-gangetic plains—emerges as a particularly significant problem during the winter. nearly a third of the concentration of small dust particles in delhi in the winter months is attributable to biomass burning (sharma and dixit 2016). the indo-gangetic plains, covering some 10.5 million hectares, represent india’s bread basket (national academy of agricultural sciences 2017). the green revolution, with its new farming practices, transformed agriculture— for instance, punjab, a state that covers less that 2% of the country’s land, is now thriving while growing nearly one-third of india’s total rice and wheat (mann 2017). however, recent years have seen a decline in agricultural productivity, partly because of changes in climate and water. given the continued reduction in water availability, the government of punjab requires farmers to match their rice-planting season with the arrival of monsoonal rains. the time available between the harvest of rice and sowing of wheat is enormously limited. thus, when it is time to clear their fields of rice straw to plant wheat, farmers simply light a match. coarse rice has high silica content, which is why farmers do not feed it to livestock. further, only seven electricity plants use rice straw for generating 62.5 mw  lead economist; the nature conservancy, 4245 n. fairfax drive, arlington, va, 22203, usa; priya.shyamsundar@tnc.org copyright © shyamsundar 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.42 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.42 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] of electricity. punjab and its northwestern neighbouring states produce some 34 million tons of rice residue per year, nearly 70 per cent of which is burned; punjab contributes about 65 per cent of the residue (naas 2017). in punjab, the health costs associated with bad air from straw burning are estimated to be some rs 76 million per year, or rs 3 per ton of rice residue produced (kumar et al. 2015). the smoke-filled air also spreads out into delhi’s airshed, adding to its already high levels of air pollution (liu et al. 2017). a series of agricultural machines developed over the past decade offer a promising solution to the straw-burning challenge. in the rice–wheat system, a combine harvester with a super straw management system (sms) can harvest rice and distribute the straw, while the happy seeder drills holes into the ground to seed the wheat. this form of conservation agriculture has economic returns that are comparable to other options and removes the need to burn straw (gupta 2014; sidhu et al. 2015). in addition to air pollution benefits, conservation agriculture using the happy seeder can potentially increase soil organic matter and reduce water use and greenhouse gas emission (national academy of agricultural sciences 2017). conservation agriculture, however, is new to farmers. it will require information, training, and incentives to persuade farmers to change habitual practices and to convince local manufacturers and service providers to supply happy seeders at scale. krishi vigyan kendras have already begun to demonstrate the use of no-burn technologies. such demonstration and training may need to be expanded and their efficacy better understood. the central government recently announced a subsidy package of rs 10 billion to help farmers to stop burning their straw fields. the government ban on burning, in combination with support for sustainable farming, may well lead to longer-term food security. references gupta, ridhima. 2014. “low-hanging fruit in black carbon mitigation: crop residue burning in south asia.” climate change economics (singapore) 5(4): 1-22 https://doi.org/10.1142/s2010007814500122 kumar, parmod, surinder kumar, and laxmi joshi. 2015. “valuation of the health effects of air pollution from agricultural residue burning.” in socioeconomic and environmental implications of agricultural residue burning: a case study of punjab, india edited by parmod kumar, surinder kumar, and laxmi joshi springer briefs in environmental science, 35–67. new delhi: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81322-2014-5_3 https://doi.org/10.1142/s2010007814500122 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2014-5_3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2014-5_3 [93] priya shyamsundar liu, tianjia, miriam e marlier, ruth s defries, daniel m westervelt, karen r xia, arlene m fiore, loretta j mickley, daniel h cusworth, and george milly. 2017. “seasonal impact of regional outdoor biomass burning on air pollution in three indian cities: delhi, bengaluru, and pune.” atmospheric environment 172: 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.10.024 mann, r s. 2017. “cropping pattern in punjab (1966–67 to 2014–15).” economic and political weekly 52(3): 30–33. national academy of agricultural sciences. 2017. innovative viable solution to rice residue burning in rice-wheat cropping system through concurrent use of super straw management system-fitted combines and turbo happy seeder. policy brief no. 2. new delhi: national academy of agricultural sciences. sharma, mukesh and onkar dikshit. 2016. “comprehensive study on air pollution and green house gases (ghgs) in delhi (final report: air pollution component).” submitted to department of environment government of national capital territory of delhi and delhi pollution control committee, delhi. http://delhi.gov.in/doit/environment/pdfs/final_report.pdf sidhu, h s, manpreet singh, yadvinder singh, j blackwell, shiv kumar lohan, e humphreys, m l jat, vicky singh, and sarbjeet singh. 2015. “development and evaluation of the turbo happy seeder for sowing wheat into heavy rice residues in nw india.” field crops research 184: 201–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2015.07.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.10.024 http://delhi.gov.in/doit/environment/pdfs/final_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2015.07.025 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 149–160, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india combining political ecology and “mésologie” for a new geography of rivers? flore lafaye de micheaux  and christian kull  abstract: how do we rethink the integrated management of river basins? this article is mainly a theoretical contribution that aims to reflect on ways of knowing rivers in the context of the anthropocene. the authors suggest a new framework based on post-positivist geographies for a deeper understanding of environmental, political, and social conflicts related to rivers. they highlight the potential of combining political ecology and its hydrosocial cycle framework with the mésologie of augustin berque. this approach, inspired by non-modern ontologies, helps to account for the full texture of the relationship between society and rivers. it emphasizes human–environment relations and the concept of ―milieu‖. it particularly captures the role of lived experience in river–human relationships, by accounting for the emotions and interpretations that link people to rivers both collectively and individually. this is particularly appropriate in the indian context where rivers are ritually revered. keywords: river; anthropocene; political ecology; mésologie; hydrosocial cycle. 1. introduction while there are ongoing debates about whether the anthropocene should be acknowledged as a new geological period, the acceleration of physical changes on the earth‘s surface since the mid-twentieth century has created challenges for human societies. this acceleration has been both in  institute for geography and sustainability, university of lausanne, bâtiment geopolis, unil-mouline, ch-1015 lausanne, switzerland; international union for conservation of nature (switzerland); french institute of pondicherry (india); floreldm@gmail.com.   institute for geography and sustainability, university of lausanne, bâtiment geopolis, unil-mouline, ch-1015 lausanne, switzerland; christian.kull@unil.ch. copyright © lafaye de micheaux and kull 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.231 http://www.unil.ch/igd/ http://www.unil.ch/igd/ https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.231 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] amplitude and in rhythm and is being experienced through land degradation, natural resource depletion, river valley reshaping, and climate change. in response, chartier and rodary (2016) call for geographers in france to take environmental change seriously and counter the ―ecoscepticism‖ of some french geographers who believe that technology can solve global environmental issues. they propose reinterpreting the episteme of geography in the contemporary context and shifting to an ―environmental geography‖. in this paper, we elaborate on a new theoretical framework for the environmental geography of rivers with the objective of rethinking existing practices of river management. we do so by questioning the ―grey epistemology‖ of rivers, such as the one promoted within the integrated water resources management (iwrm) approach.1 deliberately departing from the river basin perspective, we wish to imagine a new geography of rivers to capture how the ideas and materialities of rivers operate in the contemporary social order. we discuss combining political ecology with mésologie (propounded by the french geo-philosopher augustin berque, it is a non-modern ontology inspired by phenomenological perspectives [berque 2014]) to cover the full texture of the relationships between society and rivers. 2. river studies: what kind of “object” is a river? in this section, we provide a brief history of the study of rivers to explore what kind of ―object‖ a river is. we do this by accounting for the diverse ways of knowing rivers and by revealing the hegemonic meanings of rivers. we borrow this approach from geographer jamie linton, who highlighted the hegemonic meanings of water while reconstituting ―the story of a modern abstraction‖ (linton 2010). for our analysis, we consider three schematic chronological phases: the pre-modern, modern, and postmodern.2 the pre-modern phase encompasses antiquity and the entire medieval period up to the renaissance. examples drawn from ancient texts and archaeological evidences as presented by metchnikoff (1889), the scientific secretary and collaborator of the french geographer elisée reclus, illustrate 1 iwrm is an international reference for water management. its initial guiding principles (dublin statement, january 1992) gave way to a more technical and less political approach and was also introduced within the european water framework directive (2000). 2 here ―post-modern‖ refers to all critical approaches, though sometimes contradictory, that emerged in the 1980s and that oppose the positivist approach. this proposal is in line with mark moberg's discussion about anthropological theories (moberg 2013). [151] flore lafaye de micheaux and christian kull the significance of rivers as providers of water and fertile sediment for agriculture and livestock rearing.3 the hymn to the nile, found on the sellier papyrus, explicitly states ―rises he [the nile], the earth is filled with joy, every belly rejoices, every being receives his food, every tooth grinds‖ (translation from metchnikoff 1889, 211). during this phase, humans developed river knowledge primarily to help them manage their dependence on the river, as in the case of irrigation work. this river–society dynamic is also evident in sanskrit literature (nih 2018; mukherjee and choudry 2018). the pre-modern agenda was to make the most of the river and to try to minimize its destruction—offerings to the deified river were one such modality—without questioning society's dependence on the river. the river–human relationship was characterized by adaptation or ―accommodation‖ in reclus‘ framing (metchnikoff 1889). after the renaissance, a conceptual distance between human actors and rivers emerged in the west. scientists used mathematics and physics to explain the world and natural phenomena, independent of religious perspectives. in parallel, dualist views as seen in the philosophical works of rené descartes separated nature from society. new scientific tools emerged to control nature and rivers. the technologies developed during the age of exploration allowed for elaborate hydrography, which was also driven by military and strategic imperatives. there was a growing specialization of sciences, and disciplines such as hydraulics, hydrology, sedimentology, hydrogeology gradually emerged, alongside a scrutiny of the quality of water and its biology. the mathematical approach, as well as the complexities encountered by engineers in the applied sphere (such as while engineering large dams and river valley infrastructure), led to fragmenting problems and increasing specialization to reduce the number of factors considered and minimize the errors in mathematical modelling (pardé 1959). the social dimensions of the problems tackled by ―river scientists‖ were dismissed, particularly the question of anthropogenic impacts on rivers. humans were not included among the objects of the studies. diverse reactions to the modernist model became more prominent in the second half of the twentieth century, during the post-modern phase. one of them was the increasing interest in environmental sciences among researchers in order to address the anthropogenic impacts on the 3 leon metchnikoff was a close friend and collaborator of elisée reclus and was part of a group of exiled russian anarchist geographers in switzerland which also included pierre kropotkin (pelletier 2013); he was also a professor at the academy of neuchâtel. his opening address at the société neuchâteloise de géographie, published in the bulletin de la sng in 1885, was the subject of comments recently published by patrick rérat and etienne piguet (rerat and piguet 2011). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] environment. the scientific community then developed new fields of study such as eco-toxicology and bio-indicators for rivers. in parallel to this push for ―more science‖, a critique of modern science emerged in the 1980s within various post-modernist approaches; research started focusing on the relationship between objects and subjects, humans and non-humans, and the related arrangements and hybrids (latour 1991). braun (2008) proposed the term ―non-modern ontologies‖ to describe anglo-saxon works, which brought about an epistemological and ontological rupture, particularly in geography (braun 2008). these theories assumed that the boundaries of ―what is‖, especially between humans and non-humans, were no longer fixed, but in perpetual recombination, following the concept of networks from actor-network theory (latour 1991). these non-modern ontologies permeate recent works in emotional ecology (smith 2013), political ecology of emotions (sultana 2015), and hydrosocial studies within the political ecology of water. the latter approach explores the features and dynamics of the ―hydrosocial cycle‖ that account for the dialectical and internal relations between water and society (linton and budds 2014). in the same ontological vein, but according to a different conceptualization based on phenomenological perspectives,4 augustin berque (2014, 2016) has developed mésologie5 or the study of the milieu, i.e., the neither entirely objective nor entirely subjective relation between humans and their environment. in berque‘s works, the milieu is simultaneously physical and ecological and human interpretation (2014). as in other non-modern ontologies such as actor-network theory, berque‘s mésologie breaks the object–subject conceptual divide and renews our understanding of the human–environment relation as a mutually and internally shaping connection, parallel to the concept of a hydrosocial cycle in the political ecology of water framework. 3. towards an environmental geography of rivers: what does political ecology teach us? political ecology of water provokes a reconceptualizing of water; it provides a radical critique of the capitalist mode of production and of ―natural‖ approaches to water that ignore water‘s social construction. it addresses the call for a cosmopolitical geography that explicitly explores the role of 4 here, ―objects and subjects interpenetrate each other to form a geographical world that is only accessible through lived experience‖ (pradeau 2013). 5 this term should not be equated with the mesology developed by charles robin, a disciple of auguste comte, in the nineteenth century, which presents a positivist and determinist epistemology (berque 2014). [153] flore lafaye de micheaux and christian kull politics in creating a ―geography of justice‖ (chartier and rodary 2016, 41– 43). new conceptual tools have been proposed, such as the hydrosocial cycle, which differs from the hydrological cycle in that it accounts for the material as well as discursive co-production of water and society (bakker 2000; swyngedouw et al. 2002; linton and budds 2014). it also invites researchers to reinterpret discourses and representations of water in order to reveal the political dimensions they contain and the social injustices that they may entail (linton and budds 2014). several of these works on rivers, therefore, highlight the blind spots of policies and river management practices (bakker 1999; sneddon and fox 2006; norman and bakker 2009; graefe 2011; tvedt 2011; alatout 2012; bouleau 2014; bourblanc and blanchon 2014). these works often relate to ―politics of scale‖ analyses (swyngedouw and heynen 2003; rangan and kull 2009), which also bring to the fore the social construction of scales that are often misinterpreted as a given. some authors have also questioned the hegemonic use of the watershed concept, promoted by international organizations and the european commission (molle 2009; graefe 2011). others investigate rescaling measures in river management, shedding light on the biases involved (sneddon and fox 2006; norman and bakker 2009; vogel 2012; bourblanc and blanchon 2014). these works successfully address a classic theme in political ecology, i.e., the social distribution of benefits and costs within the nested perimeters of river management policies (molle 2005; matthews 2012; vogel 2012). however, political ecology does not deeply engage with the materiality of rivers, nor with the emotions and attachments towards rivers. this observation concurs with critiques from works that strongly engage with the material dimension such as ―bodily‖ or feminist geographies,6 and with critical physical geography that aims to develop dialogues between physical geography and critical approaches (lave 2015). this observation also draws on approaches that seek to integrate the emotional dimension that permeates the world with academic works (smith 2013; sultana 2015; chartier and rodary 2016). in particular, the symbolic, ethical, religious, and emotional dimensions of rivers are not subject to specific analyses in political ecology‘s river narratives, even though the authors acknowledge the significance and roles of river imaginaries (bakker 1999; molle 2005; sneddon and fox 2006; alatout 2012; bouleau 2014). 6 we must note here at least two exceptions: peterson (2000) proposes to model a river in its socio-political context as an ecosystem interacting with its own environment in his case study on the columbia river in us. bouleau (2014) details the biological indicators for the rhone and seine rivers in france and shows how these reflect the co-production of science and waterscapes. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] we argue that these bonds and attachments are likely to play a significant role in the ―strategic field of power relations‖ (foucault et al. 2001, 241) through collective and/or individual actions. dallman et al. (2013) presented the spiritual and emotional connections between the winnemem wintu tribe and its residual sacred spaces that were threatened by the extension of the shasta dam in california. the research demonstrated how these connections, perceived as inseparable from the identity and memory of the tribe, triggered the tribe‘s struggle—however symbolic—against the dam project. drew (2017) investigated the extent to which women‘s religious devotion, beliefs, and practices involving the ganga river catalysed and shaped political mobilizations against dam projects in the upper ganges basin. boelens (2014) proposed the concept of a ―hydrocosmological cycle‖ to extend hydrosocial analyses to the examination of ―ancient and modern myths that attempt to normalize and subjugate actors to control by the dominant groups in water society‖ (245). however, these approaches do not particularly investigate the ontological dimensions that underpin these perspectives. our proposition, as presented in the next section, will therefore turn to berque‘s mésologie. 4. the contours of the “environmental geography of rivers” in the indian context based on the richness of river–society relations that the existing literature highlights, we call for hydrosocial analyses to incorporate a focus on the materiality of rivers and the emotions and interpretations attached to them simultaneously.7 an environmental geography of rivers should scrutinize how the emotional and metaphoric, which could be the cultural, ethical, ideological, or spiritual dimensions of rivers, enrich the hydrosocial cycle. emotions and interpretations emerge from sensitive relationships between individuals and rivers but also from collective representations, systems of preferences, and values, religions, and ideologies. swyngedouw (2007) emphasized the importance of ideologies in his analysis of franco's ―hydrosocial dream‖ for spain, as did alatout (2012) in his ―geopolitical imaginaries‖ of the jordan river. religious beliefs and rituals are inseparable from several rivers in india, particularly the ganges. the attachment to rivers operates simultaneously at the physical and spiritual levels. in the indian context, bodily interactions with rivers are central to human–river relations. many rituals involve bathing and ablutions with water from the ganges or even taking a sip from it. haberman recalls 7 for example: sharma (2009), eck (2012), and singh (2013) shed light on the indian context of revered rivers. [155] flore lafaye de micheaux and christian kull (2000) that vallabhacarya, a sixteenth-century hindu saint, indicated that human relations with the material river condition one‘s capacity to relate with the two more elevated stages of the river—the spiritual river and the goddess river. reciting mantras and uttering the name of ganga also play an important role in the hindu faith (eck 2012). these are ways to invoke the goddess‘ presence in rituals at home. in her study on the bhagirathi valley, drew (2017) showed how contemporary devotees in uttarkashi city, especially women, recite chants dedicated to the river to actualize and strengthen the human–river relation. therefore, the rituals strongly connect devotees to the river and contribute to shaping it as ―socionature‖, both materially and discursively.8 at a collective level, the sacredness of rivers has also acted as an intrinsic trigger for the mobilization of activist movements since the 1980s; for example, the ganga ahvaan forum promoted the maintenance of the pristine upper stretch of the bhagirathi river (uttarakhand) by avoiding the construction of hydroelectric dams. the present indian government (2020) has also chosen to leverage the reverence for the river in its landmark namami gange programme launched in 2014. however, this programme is also a counter example. the attention given to the cultural and ontological values of the river for political matters is socially counterproductive, as it may divert the authorities‘ efforts from precisely documenting the social impacts of the environmental condition of the river and questioning the representativeness and legitimacy of policy priorities (lafaye de micheaux 2019). in response to the ―principle of sensitive geography‖, which calls for engaging with senses, practices, and emotions (chartier and rodary 2016), berque‘s mésologie singularly complements political ecology with its concepts of milieu and trajection (the relationship, necessarily historical, of reciprocal and iterative transformation between the milieu and humans [berque 2014]). advancing the socionatural approach, mésologie captures the full extent of river meanings—i.e., the complex links between the material dimensions (sensory perceptions and practices also mediated by technologies) and the emotional and conceptual dimensions (value-charged representations) of rivers. it also refines the notion of temporalities: ―the reality of the milieu is simultaneously present, past and possible‖ (berque 1986, 151). we read this sentence as an invitation for researchers to expand 8 geographer erik swyngedouw formed this neologism to reflect that society and nature are hybrids, internally connected and co-produced (1999). this proposition builds on a view of dialectics as internal relations (harvey 1996) and on the actor network theory developed by bruno latour (1991). ―socionature‖ encompasses material and discursive dimensions of nature in a historical-geographical production process (swyngedouw 1999). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] the spectrum of elements incorporated in their studies, such as mythological or religious narratives that defy rational space–time conventions. as a typical example of how these narratives may shape the governing of rivers, following new zealand‘s whanganui river, the indian court also conferred legal and human entity to the river ganges, justifying the action through religious (or traditional indigenous) perspectives that consider rivers as more than objects. 5. conclusion the combination of the hydrosocial framework with mésologie allows for a deepening of our understanding of stakeholders‘ perspectives and their positionality along with the full range and texture of the components that shape the hydrosocial cycle. through this integrated framework, the social, ecological, political, and ontological issues raised around river management initiatives and their interlinkages can be better apprehended. within the indian context, where society has revered rivers since the days of antiquity, ―colonial hydrology‖ (d‘souza 2006) was the major departure from the traditional perspective that conferred intrinsic and relational values to the river (pascual et al. 2017). in its contemporary legacy, evident in lofty national agendas like the interlinking of rivers, an ―environmental geography of rivers‖ can be a provocative approach to address questions from ―what changes?‖ to ―who changes?‖ if rivers are intervened upon beyond redemption. acknowledgements a version of this paper was originally published in french in géo-regards, 2016, 9: 97–117. an english translation of that version formed part of flore lafaye de micheaux‘ doctoral thesis in 2019. the authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors of géo-regards for their contributions to the reflections presented in this paper. they are also grateful to the editors of this special section of ees for their 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interview conducted by hita unnikrishnan on 20 february, 2015) abstract: this paper examines the historical waterscapes of bengaluru, now imperilled by development. earlier a garden city, the agrarian landscape of bengaluru was formerly supplied with water from an interconnected lake system. this system has since been fragmented due to urbanization and changes in land cover, impacting local institutions and livelihoods dependent on the lakes. in this paper, we use the case of the city‘s largest lake, bellandur, to demonstrate the transformation of the waterscape from an open semi-arid landscape pre-dating the city into an agrarian water-dependent landscape characterized by flows of water in pre-colonial and colonial bengaluru, and finally into a concretized landscape and the individualization of lakes in the ―modern‖ city. claims to and associations with the lake ecosystem have altered through changing hydrological, institutional, and social relations, leading to shifts in imaginations of the lake as well. keywords: waterscapes, lakes, urbanisation, bellandur, bengaluru  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology kharagpur 721302, india and azim premji university, bangalore 562125, india; mailtoamrita29@gmail.com.   urban institute, icoss, the university of sheffield, 219, portobello, sheffield s1 4dp, uk and azim premji university, bangalore 562125, india; h.unnikrishnan@sheffield.ac.uk.  school of development, azim premji university, burugunte village, sarjapur hobli, anekal taluk, bangalore 562125, india; harini.nagendra@apu.edu.in. copyright © sen, unnikrishnan, nagendra 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.229 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.229 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] 1. introduction since ancient times, water has been imbued with various imaginaries depending upon its perceived utility. at the same time, it is feared for its ability to destroy lives through floods, disease, or accidents. water is simultaneously seen as an economic good, a provisioning service, a common pool resource, a sacred entity, and an untameable force of nature (rodriguez-labajos and martinez-alier 2015; wright-contreras 2018), even in urban contexts (nagendra 2016; mukherjee 2018; goh 2019). imaginaries of water play an important role in shaping urban waterscapes— they contribute to a city‘s resilience and adaptive capacities in today‘s context of global environmental change (van ginkel et al. 2018). contemporary cities are facing unprecedented water availability crises; several cities, such as cape town, chennai, and bengaluru, are running out of water or are poised to do so in the near future. most of these cities have polluted their waterbodies. how did this crisis occur? what caused the shift in the meanings ascribed to these important infrastructures? these are some of the questions we address in this article. we illustrate our case using the former cascaded irrigation tank (now lake) network in the city of bengaluru. specifically, we consider the case of bellandur lake to demonstrate the link between changing imaginaries of water and the transformation of bengaluru‘s waterscape. from a semi-arid region with limited water availability prior to the formation of the city, bengaluru evolved into a market city characterized by the flow of water, and, more recently, into a global city filled with stagnant and polluted water. we used a mixed methods approach that combined an analysis of historical sources (inscriptions, archival records, historical maps, and oral history interviews) and primary fieldwork conducted by the authors over the past six years. a series of field interviews were conducted in february–may in 2013 and 2014, october–december in 2013 and 2014, july 2018, and april 2019. 2. the tank system of bengaluru tanks in south india, as mosse (1999) points out, are man-made reservoirs created by embanking river water. apart from irrigation, they help with percolation and groundwater recharge, flood control, and silt capture. these tanks were constructed because the region was semi-arid and lacked any major perennial water source required for agriculture (gurukkal 1986). this locally crafted system of transforming an essentially semi-arid landscape of thorny scrub to an irrigated one helped craft liveable spaces [127] amrita sen, hita unnikrishnan, and harini nagendra out of harsh geographies, although they were often built on a structure of deep social inequity (shah 2012; unnikrishnan, mundoli, and nagendra 2017). in bengaluru, these tank networks date back to at least the sixth century ce, as documented by stone inscriptions. tanks operated in association with common village grazing lands and wooded groves to support local livelihoods through a system of collective governance (mundoli, manjunatha, and nagendra 2017). the water within the tanks was a resource that was simultaneously venerated and controlled. successive dynasties attempted to expand their political and territorial domains by creating and extending tank systems; thus, many discourses hold that the system was not exclusively of local design but was also supported by the state (mosse 1997). inscriptional sources testify that tanks were also built for different social, economic, and religious reasons (nagendra 2016). with the introduction of piped water systems in the mid to late nineteenth century, tanks began to lose their significance. many tanks became polluted due to the impacts of urbanization (nagendra 2010). rapid industrialization coupled with growing real estate demands meant that several tanks and the channels connecting them were repurposed into land for built structures, while others were transformed into conduits for sewage disposal within the landlocked city. tanks thus lost their interlinkages and physically transformed into stagnant, isolated pools of water in many parts of the city. a system once characterized by engineered water flow was transformed into one with mostly stagnant water. this change brought with it different perceptions of the waterbodies that testified to changing epistemologies of water within this landscape. community narratives, which once mentioned a self-sufficient and sustainable social ecology with a flowing waterscape that supported livelihoods, now refer to these waterbodies as inert, static, and barren. once considered tanks, they transformed in the public imagination into lakes: ecological and recreational spaces, rather than being water reservoirs for irrigation. as such, village communities regard the present lakes as recreational spaces that are patrolled by security guards. thus, the lakes have been severed from their traditional usage patterns and are no longer seen as a source of livelihood (unnikrishnan et al. 2016, 10). the next section demonstrates these changing narratives—using the case of the iconic bellandur lake—that are representative of bengaluru‘s shifting waterscape. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] 3. changing imaginations: bellandur lake in bengaluru bellandur is the largest lake in bengaluru, situated in the south-eastern part of the city and covering approximately 892 acres. the lake was once a lifeline for 18 villages and supported local economies dependent on agriculture, fishing, livestock, and orchards. in recent years, the lake has attracted international attention because of frothing due to contamination (sengupta, pallavi, and goswami 2017). residents living close by suffer from a range of health problems as a result of living in close proximity to the contaminated lake. 3.1. myths, legends, and the production of an urban social-ecological system the earliest reference to the system of lakes is from a stone inscription dated to 870 ce and attributed to the region‘s ganga dynasty (rice 1915). the inscription reads: ―be it well. in the victorious year of the s‘rirajya, under satyavakya-permmadi‘s kali-yuga hanuman, nagattara—the irvvuliyur odeya, irugamayya‘s son siriyamayya fixed sluices to the two tanks, had the eastern tank built, and obtained the bittmatta of the three tanks. imprecation‖ (17). while not directly referencing bellandur lake, this inscription refers to agara lake, which is situated upstream, and gives us a sense of how old these waterbodies are. as with anything that represents a connection to people who lived centuries ago, these waterbodies are associated with myths of inception and survival, which have endured through stories that have been passed down over several generations. in multiple interviews, we heard various versions of the legend of the origin of bellandur lake. all versions speak of a hungry and thirsty woman (in some versions she is old, and in others she is young and pregnant) who approached the local villagers for food and water. she is always credited with creating the lake from a barren landscape; the idea of barrenness assumes multiple meanings depending on whether she was offered help or turned away. one version of the legend, narrated to us by an elderly respondent, is this: there was a hungry old woman who visited bellandur village. there was no lake then; there was only a village here. she went from house to house begging for alms, but not one single person helped her. no one gave her food or water. she became angry, and in her anger, very powerful. she cursed the villagers by creating a flood—the water swept away many people and their homes and [129] amrita sen, hita unnikrishnan, and harini nagendra belongings. the water has remained since then, as a reminder of what happens when people do not help those in need.1 barrenness here assumes a metaphorical meaning—the barren nature of human society was made fluid (and more empathetic) with the influx of water. water then became a purifier that washed away sins, thus creating a kinder social system. the lake was surrounded by open wells that tapped into shallow aquifers that it recharged. communities had strict rules about managing the waterbody and specific members of the community performed particular roles in relation to this. in the words of another elderly interviewee: the neerganti (village waterman) would let out the right amount of water into each field using the sluice gates; he would also monitor the level of water in the lake. there was a stone placed on each bank of the lake that would tell us the level of water each year. if the water levels went up or down, we would pray to the lake goddess to help us. the town crier would also make announcements if there was a chance that the village was going to be flooded or if a drought was likely. 2 bellandur lake is associated with two female deities—gangamma and dugalamma—who are locally worshipped through practices that evoke the plural ways in which the lake has both sustained and endangered the lives and livelihoods of the nearby communities. the legend of dugalamma, for instance, is invoked when people are in danger of drowning in the deep waters of the lake. one interviewee told us, ―in days long past, there were not as many roads that people could travel on. to get to another part of this area, we had to cross a canal that was deep and dangerous. before crossing this canal, it was our custom to pray to dugalamma to protect and return us safely to our families.‖3 even today, locals worship this goddess, especially when they are about to undertake long journeys. indeed, present-day road accidents in the locality continue to be attributed to her wrath and are interpreted as a sign that the deity‘s temple should be renovated or improved. different occupational groups had multiple ways of invoking divine protection, often relating to the ways in which they used the lake. women provided clothes or ornaments as offerings to enhance the well-being of those in the village. farmers and livestock owners performed other rituals involving the sacrifice of sheep or buffaloes and the sprinkling of sacrificial 1 interview conducted by hita unnikrishnan on february 20, 2015. 2 interview conducted by hita unnikrishnan on february 22, 2015. 3 interview conducted by hita unnikrishnan with priestess of the dugalamma temple on 28 july, 2016. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] blood on farmland. there were also village processions and community feasts to pray for adequate supplies of water or to invoke blessings for a healthy crop. our interviewees recalled stories of how the daily upkeep and maintenance of the waterbody was considered both important and sacred; further, these everyday practices were intimately intertwined with the cultural landscape of the area. for instance, it was important that silt deposits within the channels and lakebed were monitored and managed. this was done in a rather unique fashion; in the words of one of our interviewees, ―it was important to remove the mud from the kaluves (channels) and the kere (lake). the lake is so big that a few people alone could not do it. so prisoners were brought from the jail to help. this was their community service—they had to remove the mud from the lakebed and channels.‖4 the collected silt was then used to make religious idols, once again invoking the sacrality attributed to the waterbody. all these narratives provide fascinating insights into how the lake, the benefits people drew from it, as well as the dangers associated with the waterbody were highly integrated into the belief systems, rituals, and everyday practices of people. this produced a distinctive urban space that contributed to shaping, and in turn was shaped by, both societal and natural elements of the social-ecological system. 3.2. engineered flows and transformations within the urban socialecological system oral history interviews conducted around bellandur reflect the importance attached to the flow of water within the network of lakes and channels. one of our respondents said, ―before all these buildings came up here, water would flow in and out of the lake—it was clean water; it was pure. we could drink it.‖5 another noted, ―the water was so pure that it tasted like tender coconut water.‖6 this system of flow represented a fundamental change within the socialecological landscape of the city. it transformed a landscape devoid of flowing water into one where water could be channelled, harnessed, and used over large swathes of land. other commons were associated with bellandur lake, including nearby grazing lands and gunda thopes (village forests) that provided shelter to 4 interview conducted with elderly resident of the area by hita unnikrishnan on february 23, 2015. 5 interview conducted on september 11, 2018 by amrita sen, with a villager from bellandur. 6 interview conducted on september 11, 2018 by amrita sen, with a villager from bellandur. [131] amrita sen, hita unnikrishnan, and harini nagendra nomadic communities and functioned as a collective resource for wood. the deity gangamma was worshipped through a massive celebration (gange puje) when the lake filled up and overflowed. during the festival, people cleaned and whitewashed their homes, made lamps, and sacrificed buffaloes and lambs to celebrate. songs were sung to appease and thank the lake goddess for her benevolence; she was believed to be extremely powerful and was considered the protector of the lake bund. the advent of piped water in bengaluru during the late eighteenth century signalled the arrival of a new era of transformation within the socialecological system. the luxury afforded by pipes bringing water from distant sources meant that the lakes no longer occupied a central position in meeting the needs of villagers. although bellandur was located outside the main city of bengaluru then, many smaller lakes within the older parts of the city were connected to bellandur lake. some of these lakes and their interconnecting channels were slowly built over, while others were filled with sewage. several smaller lakes began to dry up as connectivity and, therefore, the flow of water into these lakes reduced. other lakes within the network transformed from seasonal, rain-filled lakes into perennial, sewagefilled lakes because of the continuous supply of sewage into them. the quality of water deteriorated, and native fish populations declined. most agriculturists moved away or adopted other occupations, and the domestic use of the lake water reduced. the associated cultural practices also evolved. today, lake deities are not worshipped in relation to the waterbody with which they were once associated, but for their own characteristics (such as providing protection to people undertaking a long journey). additionally, ceremonies associated with the flow of water are not practised anymore or have dramatically reduced. in the words of one of our interviewees, ―we go to the lakes every day, but we don‘t use the water. we go to the bund to perform religious rituals, but we take clean water from our homes. the frequency of annual worships has also decreased. i won‘t feel sad if this polluted lake dries up. i‘ll actually be happy if this dirty water clears out of here and the menace reduces!‖7 3.3. negotiating previously networked waters as standalone waterbodies every year since the early 2000s, bellandur lake has attracted both national and international attention as it froths up during the monsoon. headlines such as ―it‘s not switzerland! bengaluru‘s bellandur lake spews 10-ft high 7 interview conducted by hita unnikrishnan on 20 february, 2015. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] toxic foam‖ are accompanied by dramatic pictures of the toxic foam (the economic times 2018). barely a few yards from this foam, real estate boards advertise the benefits of their premium ―lake-facing apartments‖, lending irony to this scene of chaos. local governments assure citizens that the lake will be cleaned and sewage diverted and promise to allocate large sums of money for these activities. several community collectives have been formed to organize clean-up drives, protests, and online petitions to restore the lake. these diverse and often conflicting activities around bellandur lake have one thing in common—an internalization of the new static identity of bengaluru‘s lakes. bellandur lake is now seen as a standalone waterbody, whose connections to lakes either upstream or downstream have been rendered invisible. the significance of lakes within an interconnected system loses ground, thus giving way to isolated and compartmentalized attempts at restoring them, which do not often succeed due to a lack of systemic engagement with the dynamics of this complex social-ecological system. 3.4. changing epistemologies and an evolving waterscape: conclusions despite the physical transformation of the landscape and the discursive shifts in the way the lake is perceived, in many ways, bellandur remains an integral part of the city‘s fractured waterscape. the froth and fire that disrupted life around this lake are, in part, the effects of activities occurring upstream. similarly, water flowing out of the lake affects other areas and lakes downstream. where connections between individual lakes have been lost, monsoons wreak havoc, causing widespread flooding and damage, especially in those areas formerly occupied by a waterbody or its channels. it is these systemic connections that need to be re-engaged within this waterscape. the idea is that the water contained within these lakes is part of a larger urban circulatory network and that actions taken in one part of the city can indeed affect events occurring elsewhere. the history of bellandur lake informs us that restorative activities should be directed at the network and not just at individual lakes. this leads to the key message of this article—the need for cities, municipal bodies, and policy analysts to recognize the effective role that lakes as ―systems‖ can play in augmenting urban environmental resilience. systemic activities also need to recognize that a lake is not just a hydrological or ecological entity, but a social-ecological space. restoration needs to move beyond the current focus on hydrology and technology and aim to bring back the cultural connect to the waterbody. this can be achieved by making decisions that [133] amrita sen, hita unnikrishnan, and harini nagendra include under-represented voices and engaging with local traditions that respect the flow of water, while providing incentives to continue such engagement. in doing so, the city of bengaluru must seek to make invisible epistemologies of water visible again. acknowledgements the authors gratefully acknowledge funding from azim premji university in support of this research. hita unnikrishnan is also thankful for the british academy-funded newton international fellowship awarded to her, which enabled this research. references goh, kian. 2019. ―urban waterscapes: the hydro-politics of flooding in a sinking city.‖ international journal of urban and regional research 43 (2): 250–272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12756. gurukkal, rajan. 1986. ―aspects of reservoir system of irrigation in the early pandya state.‖ studies in history 2 (2): 155–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/025764308600200202. lewis rice, benjamin. 1915. epigraphia carnatica volume ix. bangalore: mysore government press. mosse, david. 1997. ―the symbolic making of a common property resource: history, ecology and locality in a tank irrigated landscape in south india.‖ development and change 28 (3): 467–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00051. mosse, david. 1999. ―colonial and contemporary ideologies of ‗community management‘: the case of tank irrigation development in south india.‖ modern asian studies 33 (2): 303–338. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x99003285. mukherjee, jenia. 2018. ―from hydrology to hydrosociality: historiography of waters in india.‖ in routledge handbook of the history of sustainability, edited by jeremy l. caradonna, 254–272. oxon, uk: routledge. mundoli, seema, b. manjunatha, and harini nagendra. 2017. ―commons that provide: the importance of bengaluru‘s wooded groves for urban resilience.‖ international journal of urban sustainable development 9 (2): 184–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1264404. nagendra, harini. 2010. ―maps, lakes and citizens.‖ seminar september: 19–23. http://www.india-seminar.com/2010/613/613_harini_nagendra.htm nagendra, harini. 2016. nature in the city: bengaluru in the past, present and future. new delhi: oxford university press. rodriguez-labajos, beatriz and joan martinez-alier. 2015. ―political ecologies of water conflicts.‖ wires water 2 (5): 537–558. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1092. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12756 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https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1087724x18780045 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 149–152, january 2021 report a report of the third biennial pollen (political ecology network) conference, 2020 brototi roy  the pollen (political ecology network) third biennial conference 2020 was held on 22–25 september 2020. initially expected to occur in brighton, united kingdom, on 24–26 june 2020, it was later turned into a virtual conference due to the ongoing covid-19 crisis. the broad theme and title of the conference was contested nature: power, politics and prefiguration. over the four days of the conference, there were about 60 sessions daily, covering a variety of themes and formats, with four interesting keynotes. the opening keynote plenary was an interesting and relevant discussion on ―political ecologies of covid-19‖ and had researchers and activists sharing experiences and insights on how the pandemic has affected communities and regions differently. the aim was to examine how colonialism, racism, capitalism, and other pre-existing social, political, economic, and historic inequalities have shaped the ways in which the virus has been wrecking differentiated havoc on people and ecologies. the second keynote, co-organized with the black ecologies initiative at arizona state university, involved the panelists reflecting on the historical and ongoing injustices faced by black communities as well as their survival efforts despite the multiple types of violence they encounter. the discussion was informed by the panelists‘ ethnographic and archival work across geographies. the third keynote plenary on ―conservation futures‖ discussed ways to make conservation more socially and ecologically just. it drew from multiple theoretical and epistemological strands while  doctoral student, institut de ciència i tecnologia ambientals (icta), universitat autònoma de barcelona, building z campus, z-135, icta-uab, uab 08193 bellaterra (cerdanyola), barcelona, spain; brototi.econ@gmail.com. copyright © roy 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.358 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.358 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] acknowledging the faults of the current model of conservation—both as a concept and a practice. the fourth and final keynote, called ―troubling nature and political ecology: feminists in the capitalocene‖, was a roundtable discussing feminist political ecology. along with these four interesting keynote discussions, there were many diverse sessions on topics such as decentering theories and empirics, epistemes of resistances, and the power of storytelling in political ecology research and activism. the conference also hosted multiple external workshops and events before and during the plenaries and sessions such as an academic–activist world café where people could reflect on their experiences and share skills beyond the ivory tower of academia. i coorganized a pre-conference workshop along with ruth pinto and gerardo a. torres contreras titled ―is your political ecology ‗decolonial‘?‖ to facilitate a space for early-career researchers and/or activists to critically reflect on our praxis. on the final day of the conference, during the pollen assembly, the venue, dates, and theme of the fourth biennial pollen conference were also announced. the next conference, pollen 2022, will be held on 28– 30 june, 2022, in durban, south africa, on the theme ―political ecology: north, south and beyond‖. unlike most conferences, pollen 2020 did not have a closing plenary. rather, a decision was taken to ―invert‖ this tradition by inviting all the participants to contribute to a co-produced ―reverse plenary‖. everyone shared their experiences on twitter, using the hashtag #pollenreverseplenary, which brought to light different experiences of collective sharing and learning. these tweets were then visualized as a word cloud by michalina lucja pietras and tabea josephine dorndorf and shared by pollen 2020 organizers. the online format of the conference allowed for greater diversity in participation. but the inability to see each other‘s faces, share food and drinks, and have conversations in corridors between sessions was commented about more than once. it was very refreshing to see the representation of young scholars and participants from the global south in the keynotes; for example, in the first keynote, two of the panelists were phd candidates. discussions on decoloniality, epistemological and ontological justice, and intersectionality frequently occurred during the conference too. it was after these interesting sessions that i felt the absence of a physical conference the most, as it would have allowed me to take the discussion forward after the time for the session was up. https://pollen2022.com/ [151] brototi roy there were also sessions on publishing in political ecology, the issues that researchers from the global south face and how can they be countered, as well as broader discussions on the need for open-access journals. in this regard, ecology, economy and society was mentioned as one of the open-access journals, recently launched in india and publishing broadly on socioecological concerns with a focus on south asia in particular. in the last keynote, which was on feminist political ecology, some controversial statements on intersectionality were made. it was a bit disconcerting to see a panel that was largely white and completely consisting of researchers based in european institutions be dismissive of a concept that stems from the struggles of african american communities and which has roots in decolonial and queer theories. one of the arguments put forward was that intersectionality is a western concept that should not overshadow feminist concerns. a recent article by farhana sultana (2020) was mentioned several times in the discussion by the audience to provide a counter-argument. this article stresses on the need to learn from multiple types of intersectional, interdisciplinary as well as international feminist explorations using varied methodological, epistemological, and pedagogical insights to analyze current socio-ecological injustices. at the next pollen conference to be held in south africa, i hope to see much more participation and involvement from activists and academics from the global south in the keynotes. although it was a commendable idea to have a session on black ecologies, i wondered about the lack of representation of researchers from the african community as well as institutions in most of the other keynotes; a notable exception was the conservation futures plenary. in their short life span, the pollen conferences have been a space for critical discussions and reflections. the keynote lecture delivered in the second pollen conference on ―critical approaches to dispossession in the melanesian pacific: conservation, voice and collaboration‖, seeking the field of political ecology to be more critical and inclusive (west and aini 2018), was partially answered in the third pollen conference. i hope this continues and is amplified in the future, and the next pollen conference sees more involvement of scholars and activists living and working in south asia in particular and the global south in general, in all spheres of the conference, bringing in a wealth of original ideas and experiences highly relevant for advancing the field of political ecology. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] references sultana, f. 2020. ―political ecology 1: from margins to center.‖ progress in human geography, p.0309132520936751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520936751. west, p., and j. aini. 2018. ―critical approaches to dispossession in the melanesian pacific: conservation, voice, and collaboration.‖ keynote lecture, pollen 2018 political ecology network biennial conference, 19–22 june, oslo, norway. https://paige-west.com/2018/07/28/decolonizing-conservation/ https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0309132520936751 https://paige-west.com/2018/07/28/decolonizing-conservation/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 101–105, july 2018 notes from the field the forest game: field experiments as a means to influence mental models liya thomas , sanoop v  and vinita rodrigues  1. forests and local governance forests play a vital role in carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and livelihoods, along with providing other local and global ecosystem services. however, forests continue to be subject to anthropogenic pressures caused by changing land use patterns and over-grazing, among other pressures. besides causing serious ecological problems, degradation of forests negatively impacts the livelihood of more than a billion people (chhatre and agrawal 2008). the basic livelihood of a large proportion of the rural poor residing in the remotest villages of india is dependent on forests. however, unfavourable property rights and weak institutional arrangements have resulted in a vast expanse of land being ill managed and a total loss of livelihood for a large section of the community (nayak 2003). common pool resource degradation is incorrectly attributed to ‘common property systems’; it is actually the result of disintegration of local-level institutional arrangements. a disintegrated institution leads to the incorrect application of ‘rule of capture’ on common pool resources, wherein each user tries to get as much as possible before others do (bromley and cernea 1989). forest conditions are determined largely by local governance institutions, which have the potential to respond to and affect biophysical and socio-economic factors impacting forests in the local context (andersson and agrawal 2011). experiences from several states in india  foundation for ecological security, anand, gujarat; liya@fes.org.in   foundation for ecological security, udaipur, rajasthan; sanooplissah@gmail.com  foundation for ecological security, anand, gujarat; viniro30@gmail.com copyright © thomas, sanoop and rodrigues 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.44 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.44 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] suggest that, in the existing socio-economic and demographic conditions, participatory forest management is the most suitable survival strategy for the threatened indian forest (pandey 2007) 2. field experiments ‘experimental games’ was an effort (ostrom, walker, and gardner 1992) to build game theoretical models in accordance with the institutional analysis and development (iad) framework (ostrom 2009). this participatory approach in collective action studies was conducted by involving communities in diagnosing constraints and solving problems by combining their local knowledge with the expertise of external researchers. several experiments exist that present different dilemmas for collective action. one of the many advantages of a laboratory experiment is its ability to be replicated with modification. in this paper we will focus on field experiments conducted in rajasthan, the ‘forest game’. the forest game was designed keeping in mind its potential to create a real-life situation for individuals, thereby enabling them to better understand the impact of their behaviour on the given resource or on other communities and discuss likely institutional options to overcome them. this aims at generating an understanding of enforcement and its relationship with other factors that affect changes in forest conditions, which is critical to the sustainable governance of forest commons. the field experiments conducted over a period of two months in 30 villages gave us interesting insights into the minds of communities dependent on forests. these insights were drawn through our observations during the course of the game and community debrief. the three scenarios presented in the game were aimed at influencing mental models by enabling players understand how factors such as communication, monitoring, and sanctioning are crucial for effective resource governance. 3. catalysing local forest governance: field observations and learnings the forest game, depicts real life scenarios, enabling players to make harvesting decisions on a board that represents a degraded forest. the game begins with 50 trees; the number of trees may increase to a maximum of 100 or decrease to a minimum of 4 depending on the harvest decisions made by players during the game. players make harvest decisions in three scenarios—without communication, with communication, and communication with the provision to keep a guard to monitor harvesting [103] liya thomas, sanoop v, and vinita rodrigues decisions and further to introduce sanctions. the game is followed by a community debrief, which attempts to trigger discussion around the playing pattern and how it influenced the condition of the forest, thereby initiating dialogue on aspects of collective action for forest governance. the initial rounds of the game, wherein players make harvest decisions without communicating with each other, aim at enabling participants realize the impact of individual decisions on the resource condition. their understanding of the relationship between individual harvest decisions and overall resource conditions was reflected in several statements. some were ‘cutting more trees is a loss to us’, ‘let’s cut according to our needs; what will we do with the extra trees?’, and ‘if we keep cutting at this rate, soon there won’t be any left to cut.’ this understanding surfaced when the players were able to communicate with each other during the game. to generate the realization that forest degradation declines with an increase in local enforcement (chhatre and agrawal 2008), a rule-enforcing mechanism was introduced. this realisation occurred among players when the total harvest did not match the decision taken as a group. ‘say something and do something else’ was the pattern followed in the game. even though players discussed harvest choices before taking individual decisions, not everybody cut as many trees as they claimed they would. in the rounds where the concept of monitoring and sanctioning were introduced, we encountered instances wherein, players stated, ‘we do not need a guard; we know how to manage our forest ourselves.’ this initial aversion towards monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms during the game indicated the false notion that monitoring would prohibit access to the forest and lead to a decrease in income. however, in cases where players resolved to monitor and sanction activity, we observed players harvest trees more cautiously and responsibly than in the other two scenarios. the community debrief that followed the game provided community members a space to articulate their understanding that forests provide both tangible and intangible services. during a debrief in rajasthan, an elderly community member said that ‘cutting trees is a necessity for subsistence needs such as firewood’ but also that ‘we receive rains because of the trees in the forest’. in another debrief, a woman said, ‘we are dependent on the forest, right from the time we are born up to the time we die. we need wood for both our cradles as well as our funeral pyres.’ these statements reflect that communities understand the social-cultural and ecological relevance of forests, and that these should be considered in making decisions for forest governance the potential of the game to trigger action for better forest governance was demonstrated during a community debrief in gogunda block of rajasthan, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] wherein, after reflecting on the three sets of the game, players noticed how the trees in the forest gradually increased as they proceeded from not communicating to communicating and, ultimately, to monitoring and sanctioning. after reflecting on the dynamics of the game, community members resolved to form a village institution to govern their degraded forest. they decided to collectively contribute money for a guard, who would be appointed from the village itself. the community members also resolved to approach the local governance institution, ‘the panchayat’, collectively to undertake soil and water conservation activities under the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme. this would provide an additional source of income and simultaneously facilitate the process of restoration of their degrading common land. 4. conclusion the conversations during the game and debrief form a rich source of qualitative data pertaining to the whys and whats of research; why the community thinks in a particular way and what makes them think in this direction. thus, the game as an action research tool provides both the community and facilitation team with insights on aspects such as collective action and incorporating mechanisms such as monitoring and sanctioning, which would need to be focused on for better forest governance. it also provides practitioners with valuable insights, which could enable them to provide informed suggestions to communities about the various schemes or provisions they could resolve to, for forest restoration and conservation. further, the community debriefs create a space for transfer of knowledge within communities since people of all ages and genders are present during these meeting. our experience with this field experiment, therefore, demonstrated its potential to trigger discussion on forest conservation and restoration and emphasised the importance of local governance mechanisms for better resource governance. acknowledgements we thank the community members who devoted their valuable time and shared their insights during the field experiments. [105] liya thomas, sanoop v, and vinita rodrigues references andersson, k. and a. agrawal. 2011. “inequalities, institutions, and forest commons.” global environmental change 21 (3): 866–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.03.004 bromley, daniel w. and michael m. cernea. 1989. “the management of common property resources: some conceptual and operational fallacies.” world bank discussion papers. world bank, washington dc. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548811468740174575/pdf/multipage.pdf chhatre, ashwini, and arun agrawal. 2008. “forest commons and local enforcement.” proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 105 (36): 13286–91. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803399105 meinzen-dick, r., m. digregorio and n. mccarthy. 2004. “methods for studying collective action in rural development.” agricultural systems 82 (3): 197–214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2004.07.006 ostrom, e. 2010. “beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems.” american economic review 100 (3): 641–72. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.3.641 pandey, d. 2007. “joint forest management in rajasthan—case studies of two villages in udaipur district.” financing agriculture–a national journal of agriculture and rural development january-february: 12–21. https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/7145/1221.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.03.004 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548811468740174575/pdf/multi-page.pdf http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548811468740174575/pdf/multi-page.pdf https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803399105 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2004.07.006 https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.3.641 https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/7145/12-21.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/7145/12-21.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 3–10, july 2018 commentary biological conservation and economic theory charles perrings  and ann kinzig  1. introduction the field of conservation biology was originally developed as the science required to preserve endangered wild species in protected areas. the field has broadened its remit since then, but remains focused on wild living species. yet, preservation of wild living species is just the tip of the conservation iceberg. the problem of conservation is much more generic than this. it is the problem of what to keep and how long to keep it, what to maintain in some state and what to allow to change, what to use and what to throw away. the protection of natural habitats or watersheds, the maintenance of the population of an exploited species, the preservation of ex situ collections of germplasm, the curation of art or natural history museum exhibits, and the listing of nationally important buildings or monuments are all examples of conservation problems. it is reasonable to ask what principles are at work in deciding what to conserve, and what to convert, independent of the particular conservation problem at hand. it is also reasonable to ask how these principles relate to the biology of threatened species. in this note we draw on a forthcoming book (perrings 2019) to consider how the problem posed by conservation biology appears through the lens of economic theory. in particular, we ask how the theory of conservation embedded in the work of harold hotelling helps both to deepen understanding of the aims and objectives of conservation biology and to implement the system of triage that must guide conservation efforts in a  school of life sciences, arizona state university, tempe, az85287, charles.perrings@asu.edu.   school of life sciences, arizona state university, tempe, az85287, ann.kinzig@asu.edu. copyright © perrings and kinzig 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.31 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.31 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [4] world of limited resources. the evolution of ecological economics as a field has been dominated by debates over what information to privilege in the management of human–environment interactions. conservation biology has a similar history. we show how hotelling’s work helps anchor the claims made in both fields. 2. hotelling’s theory of conservation our starting point is the general theory of conservation contained in hotelling’s paper on optimal extraction of non-renewable resources (hotelling 1931). in that paper hotelling provided a simple and intuitive test of when it is optimal to maintain an object, resource, or system in some state and when it is optimal to convert it to an alternative state. hotelling showed that if the value of a resource when conserved in some state was expected to rise more rapidly than its value when converted to an alternative state, it would be optimal to conserve the resource. by focusing on the expected change in the value of resources in different states, the test allows us to see conservation as one among many alternative future uses. conservation decisions accordingly reflect all of the factors that influence the value of resources. this includes the factors typically considered by economists such as individual preferences, social norms and mores, property rights and the legal system, technology, and the substitutability or complementarity of goods and services. but it also includes factors that weigh more heavily with others, such as the ecological functions performed by species or their place in the food web, their phylogenetic distinctiveness, and the degree to which they are endangered. hotelling saw the emergence of the conservation movement as a response to the perception that natural resources were being undervalued and hence overused. in the light of this he asked what the value of natural resources should be if they were being used in the best interests of society. hotelling asked, more particularly, under what conditions the owner of some mineral right would choose to extract the ore assuming that the objective of the resource owner was to maximize the present value of the future stream of net benefits to be had from exploitation of the resource. if the value of the resource at time t —what hotelling called the ‘net price’ of the resource—is )(tp , and if the rate of return on alternative assets is  , it is intuitive that the answer to this question should involve balancing the rate of growth in )(tp and  . the hotelling arbitrage condition does exactly that. in the case of exhaustible resources it holds that the resource owner will be indifferent between holding and extracting the resource if the proportional growth in [5] charles perrings and ann kinzig the value of the resource when conserved is equal to the proportional growth in its value when converted. = )(tp p (1.1) that is, a resource owner will conserve the resource if the expected capital gain of holding on to it is equal to the return that could be had if it were converted. the hotelling approach turns out to be broad enough to deal with a wide range of conservation decisions—the decision to hold or sell stocks and bonds is just as much a conservation decision as the decision to hold or sell natural resources. it also makes the decision to harvest or protect wild or domestic populations of fish, mammals, birds, and plants as consistent with the decision to extract non-renewables such as minerals, oil, gas, and fossil water. the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources is that the value of renewables can change for different reasons. as with nonrenewables, the value of the resource can change for any of the usual demand-side reasons. unlike non-renewables, however, the value of renewables can also change because of changes in the size of the resource itself. suppose that a renewable natural resource, the population of a particular species ,n grows according to the general relation )).(),(( thtnfn = that is, growth is density-dependent—it depends positively or negatively on the size of the resource stock and along with some control, ).(th if the value of the resource is denoted )()( tntp it can be shown that the hotelling arbitrage condition takes the form =+ )()( tn n tp p  (1.2) that is, the decision to conserve or convert depends both on the expected capital gain, )(tp p , and the expected growth rate in the size of the stock, )(tn n . an immediate implication is that the capital gain which warrants conservation in situ is smaller, the higher the growth rate of the population of n . conversely, for slow-growing or declining species, conservation will only be warranted if the expected capital gain is high enough. the consequences of the trade-off between biological growth, value growth, and conservation have been thoroughly explored in the case of fisheries. clark’s conclusion that it could be optimal to drive blue whales to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] economic extinction depended on the observation that the natural rate of regeneration of the species was low relative to the rate of return on alternative assets (clark 1973; clark 1976); however, it also assumed that the low biological growth rate of the species was not compensated by the growth in its value, and that the only thing that prevented the extinction of the species was the increasing cost of accessing whales as their numbers fell (clark 2006). the example nicely illustrates both the main elements in the decision to conserve living resources, and the points at which different disciplines have traction on the problem. to see how the relationship between the hotelling arbitrage condition and the optimal conservation of some natural capital stock, n t( ), consider the following simple problem: dtthtpemax t th )()( 0 )(   − (1.3) subject to )())(( thtnfn −= (1.4) a manager chooses the level of harvest of species n so as to maximize the value of harvest. benefits are discounted at the rate , which we take to be equal to the rate of interest on alternative investments. the manager’s actions are constrained by the growth rate of the species, .n first, note that the hotelling arbitrage condition for this problem, equation 1.2, implies that       −= )( )())(),(( tp p tnthtnf   from which it follows that at the point where the resource owner is indifferent between holding and conserving the resource, the slope of the density-dependent biological growth function, )( ))(),(( tdn thtndf , will be equal to the difference between the opportunity cost of capital and the expected capital gain on the stock, )(tp p − . now, consider the first order necessary conditions for harvest to be optimal in the problem described in equation 1.3. these include the requirements that )()( ttp = (1.5) [7] charles perrings and ann kinzig and )( ))(( )()( tdn tndf tt  −=− (1.6) where )(t is the shadow value of natural capital (a co-state variable, the multiplier in the current value hamiltonian for the problem). these conditions together imply that along an optimal harvest trajectory )( ))(( )()( ))(( )( tdn tndf tp p tdn tndf t +=+=     (1.7) but if the resource owner is indifferent between conserving and converting the resource, this is just a restatement of the requirement that the slope of the density-dependent biological growth function will be equal to the difference between the opportunity cost of capital and the expected capital gain on the stock. this does however depend on the equivalence between the price and the shadow value—the true social opportunity cost—of natural capital. 3. hotelling theory of conservation and conservation biology how does the hotelling approach connect to the propositions inherent in conservation biology? as we have already noted, hotelling himself saw the origins of the conservation movement in the perception that the natural environment was both undervalued and overexploited. hotelling sought to understand the basis of the value of natural resources, why that value might change over time, and how change in the value of natural resources might influence their conservation. the arbitrage condition applied to living resources or resource systems tells us that conservation depends both on the expected growth in the value of assets if conserved relative to the expected growth in their value if converted, and on the expected physical change in the stocks themselves. the central tenet of conservation biology as it originally developed was that the value attached by the majority of landowners and landholders to wild species is strictly less than its true value to society—that there is a wedge between the value attached by individuals to wild species and the value of those species to society (soule 1985). several reasons were advanced to explain why this has occurred. the most important of these was ignorance about the role played by particular species, and communities of species, and the relation between ecological functioning and the ecosystem services that benefit humans. ignorance about the effects of reduced diversity of food ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] webs on decomposition, nutrient retention, plant productivity, and water retention, for example, was argued to threaten a number of ecological functions of direct or indirect benefit to humans (naeem et al. 1996). ignorance about source and sink dynamics was cited as a major reason for the extirpation of many protected sink populations. failure to protect disproportionately valuable source populations necessarily put associated sink populations at risk, even if those populations were otherwise protected (mangel et al. 1996). more generally, by focusing on single species, populations, or biotopes in isolation from the system that supports them, resource owners paid insufficient attention to critical elements of the wider system (myers 1996). a related concern was that decisions that reduced biodiversity tended to be focused on short-term gain, and also that these tended to pay insufficient attention to the longer-term costs in terms of reduced capacity to protect future options against fundamental change. since the neglect of longer-term costs stems either from ignorance or from the application of high discount rates, and since there is an ethical component to discounting, the undervaluation of species and whole ecosystems was taken to reflect—at least in part—an ethic of myopic greed. by contrast, conservation biology was argued to be concerned about the maintenance of whole ecosystems over the long term. it was claimed that the difference in the values attached by conservation biologists to species reflected a fundamental difference in ethics (mangel et al. 1996). at the core of the conservation ethic was the proposition that biodiversity has intrinsic value, irrespective of its instrumental or utilitarian value, and that value is ‘neither conferred nor revocable’ but springs from the fact of the species’ existence (soulé 1985). there are obvious practical difficulties with a concept of value that is independent of human preferences and yet is expected to guide human action. indeed, many of these difficulties are recognized by conservation biologists themselves (justus et al. 2009). but if we think of the argument as a statement that there is value to species that stems from their place in the natural system, rather than from their incorporation in a managed production process, then it is quite consistent with the general proposition that nature is undervalued when measured by the market price of harvested species. it is also consistent with the key proposition implicit in the hotelling arbitrage condition for renewable natural resources: the expected growth in value of natural resources comprises the sum of the expected capital gain in holding those resources in situ and of the value added through their role in the functioning of the natural system. [9] charles perrings and ann kinzig many of the original propositions of conservation biology have evolved with efforts to uncover the value attached to the many and varied roles played by genes, species, landscapes, and ecosystems. there is now a more systematic attempt to ask what benefits are lost when there is a change in either species richness or abundance. the notion of intrinsic value still has a place in the language of conservation biologists, but it is increasingly linked to the value deriving from the place of species in the ecosystem rather than their mere existence (doak et al. 2015). the decision to conserve some aspect of the natural system in some state depends on the expected growth in the value of the system in that state, taking account of the role it has in the wider functioning of the system. while the simple example used to illustrate the hotelling approach to conservation focuses on a single species, both conservation biology and ecology reinforce the idea that the value of any one species to human society depends as much on its contribution to the functioning of the wider ecosystem as on the specific traits that make it useful in one application or another. although the wider value of species is sometimes clouded by conservation biologists’ insistence on the relevance of intrinsic value, it helps to remind us that for many people a sense of stewardship and moral obligation is a major determinant of the value they assign to the conservation of populations, species, and ecosystems. references clark, c. w. 1973. “the economics of overexploitation.” science 181 (4100): 630– 34. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.181.4100.630 clark, c. w. 1976. mathematical bioeconomics: the optimal management of renewable resource. new york: john wiley. clark, c. w. 2006. the worldwide crisis in fisheries: economic models and human behavior. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511617966 doak, d. f., v. j. bakker, b. e. goldstein, and b. hale. 2015. “what is the future of conservation? protecting the wild. ” in protecting the wild edited by g. wuerthner, e. crist and t. butler, 27–35. washington dc: island press. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-551-9_4 hotelling, h. 1931. “the economics of exhaustible resources.” journal of political economy 39 (2): 137–75. https://doi.org/10.1086/254195 justus, j., m. colyvan, h. regan, and l. maguire. 2009. “buying into conservation: intrinsic versus instrumental value.” trends in ecology & evolution 24 (4): 187–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.11.011 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.181.4100.630 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511617966 https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-551-9_4 https://doi.org/10.1086/254195 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.11.011 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] mangel, m., l. m. talbot, g. k. meffe, m. t. agardy, d. l. alverson, j. barlow, d. b. botkin, et al. 1996. “principles for the conservation of wild living resources.” ecological applications 6 (2): 338–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269369 myers, n. 1996. “environmental services of biodiversity.” proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 93 (7): 2764–769. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.7.2764 naeem, s., k. håkansson, l. j. thompson, j. h. lawton, and m. j. crawley. 1996. “biodiversity and plant productivity in a model assemblage of plant species.” oikos 76 (2): 259–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/3546198 perrings, c. and a. kinzig. 2019. conservation: science, economics, and policy. new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.2307/2269369 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.7.2764 https://doi.org/10.2307/3546198 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 113–123, july 2020 special section: new epistemologies of water in india knowledge others, others’ knowledge: the need for a new epistemology of water kuntala lahiri-dutt  abstract: this paper examines the ways in which knowledge about water has conventionally been generated by modern water scientists and illuminates how this approach leaves out the diverse ―ways of knowing‖ water and how scientism creates a trap of concrete evidential certainty. through the example of a failed conversation, it questions the basic epistemological underpinnings of understanding water in modern scientific inquiries—the means of knowing rivers, and how they conflict with feminist epistemologies and fail to account for the ―knowledge others‖ and ―others‘ knowledge‖. the paper concludes with observations on why we need new epistemologies of water in the anthropocene. keywords: water, epistemology, rivers, feminist methods, scientific methods 1. epistemicide? social science researchers studying water are aware of the hegemony of western epistemology, particularly the limits of a singular ―way of knowing‖ water. this western epistemology has shaped critical projects that involve managing, controlling, and modifying water. a growing body of literature argues that these projects are based on the contextually irrelevant experiences and perspectives of the west, and hence provide too few parameters or none at all, both analytically and conceptually. thus, in the global south, the challenge is to develop an anti-hegemonic ecology of knowledge that is free from the domination of western epistemology. to address this challenge, one must acknowledge the alternative ways of  crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, the australian national university, room 3.25, jg crawford building, lennox crossing, acton, act 2601, australia; kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au. copyright © lahiri-dutt 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.226 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.226 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] knowing water and living with it, and perhaps then understand the costs associated with this annihilation. according to a leading critical theorist, boaventura de sousa santos, the mass extinction of non-western knowledges can be termed as ―epistemicide‖. in his landmark book, epistemologies of the south (2014), de sousa santos establishes the parameters for a contemporary critical theory that considers the historical and analytical limits of marxism and proposes an epistemology that is global, anticolonial, anti-capitalist, and anti-patriarchal. in another article, de sousa santos (2016, 18) follows up on this argument and notes that awareness of this epistemicide encourages researchers to depart from the established, mainstream knowledge that derives from the eurocentric tradition. knowing that an epistemicide is in force can also lead researchers to undertake a crucial epistemological transformation that has the potential to reinvent social emancipation and sovereignty on a global scale. finally, the understanding can also evoke plural ways of relating to nature that are not simply based on a scientific conception of the world. much of this limited epistemology of water, as it is known, is propagated through tertiary education (and research) institutions, where pedagogy remains strictly discipline-based. each discipline remains bound by its methodological imperatives and proposes a particular understanding of the subjects within their boundaries. for a complex resource such as water, these limitations invariably invite reductionism, as each discipline examines different aspects of water, expecting to see the material in its entirety. within this scenario, geography exerts a proprietary claim over the physical containers and carriers of water such as rivers, lakes, and other water bodies. baghel, stepan, and hill (2017, 3) explain how ―epistemic communities‖—groups or networks of experts who share common norms, principles, and beliefs, causal credence, notions of validity, and strategies—have a common belief framework to explain the production of challenges. epistemic communities primarily focus on transnational policymaking, international regimes, and expert groups using science and technology; they operate within a culture of metrics, models, projections, and warnings. the science-based epistemic community presents (and perpetuates) only a partial view of water and discusses its abundance and scarcity in terms of human security. moreover, baghel, stepan, and hill (2017) argue that there is ―something distinct to water, to water experiences and water knowledges in asia‖ (2). in addition to the distinctiveness of water as a resource, there is also an explicit recognition of the differences that ―place‖ makes to knowledge. social and feminist geographers have consistently argued that knowledge is placed in (and is defined by) its context. as massey (2005) reminds us: ―without space, no [115] kuntala lahiri-dutt multiplicity; without multiplicity, no space‖ (9). it is this multiplicity of contexts that makes knowledges of water so special, and feminist voices contribute to the plurality of these knowledges. based on my personal encounters working within and outside disciplinary boundaries, this paper uses two examples to analyse epistemicide in the context of water and ends with some thoughts on feminist epistemologies, which might be one of the ―new‖ alternative knowledge forms in the anthropocene. 2. knowing water, understanding the epistemicide even if the language and terminology remain different, the idea of an epistemicide is not new in water studies. it has been expressed differently elsewhere, for example, in linton‘s (2010) argument that ―modern water‖ is a discursive construction that has helped harness and control extensive parts of the hydrosocial cycle. this acquisition, according to linton, was accomplished through large hydraulic infrastructures including dam construction, wetland draining, irrigation engineering, and water diversion into the circulatory systems of urban centres. schmidt (2017) calls this discourse of modernity ―normal water‖, that is, a discourse that repackages the political project of human adjustment into notions of adaptation that naturalize a certain way of thinking about water as the only possible option. roberts and philips (2019) argue that ―water is not a neutral and external substance or object, but something that is inextricably woven into social, economic and political rationalities‖ (5). to understand water ―as we make‖ meaning of it, strang (2010) adopts an anthropological approach to explore communities‘ relationships with water. this relationship develops through landscapes, cultures, religions, spirituality, as well as gender (lahiri-dutt 2006). the first effect of epistemicide, therefore, is the production of a number of geological, technical, and social ideas that conceptualize water as a resource that can, and should, be managed to follow an evolutionary model of postcolonial progress. the second effect is the transformation of nature through science and technology. this is enabled by the discourse that supplies of water and solutions to shortages fall within the realm of science and technology, leading to an objectification and categorization of the natural world (sjolander-lindqvist 2005). water, which was previously considered a part of nature, has now been transformed into an important urban commodity that can be engineered (stuart 2007). these urban water supply systems and networks, swyngedouw (2006) argues, ―are the mediations through which the perpetual process of transformation of nature … takes place‖ (106). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] nature is transformed into products to meet human needs, and market and regulatory mechanisms price these products for human consumption, which then enter the market as commodities (bakker 2006). scholars (for example d‘souza 2007) have emphasized this point in their study of dams and other colonial water infrastructure. this knowledge of water is walled in by scientism as a highly intellectualized, application-oriented and rationalized field where, as de sousa santos (2014) says, ―the relation between knowing and acting has lost its general character and been reduced to the relation between knowledge validated by modern science and rational social engineering‖ (5). outside of this wall, it presumes, lies the dark world of beliefs, faith, values, myths, and the world of the unsayable, where theory and practice are disentangled from each other. the example that follows exemplifies this point by showing how scientism becomes incapable of conversing with feminist epistemologies even if the scientists themselves want to include feminist visions in their work. 3. conversing with river basin modellers on gender established in 1916, the commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation (csiro) is australia‘s national science agency and one of its oldest research organizations. in 2013, it initiated a research programme to generate tools and evidence to improve the management of several south asian river basins. funded by the department of foreign affairs and trade (dfat) and csiro, the sustainable development investment portfolio (sdip) project at csiro uses river system modelling to generate water development scenarios—an activity in which the csiro has had considerable expertise and strength. the aim of the sdip is to increase water, food, and energy security in south asian countries for the poorest and most vulnerable. with women being over-represented in the poor and vulnerable groups in the region, csiro needed a gender expert. but how does one even begin a conversation between natural scientists working on basin modelling and gender scholars working with social science tools and methodologies? scientists dealing with the intricately complex river basins of south asia had no robust methodological tools to integrate interdisciplinary pluralism and explain the sociocultural contexts within which the water is being allocated, shared, and used. to resolve this impasse, csiro took a big (and unprecedented) step by hiring an anucsiro joint appointee gender expert who would divide their time between my (social science) department in anu (the australian national university) and csiro. under my mentorship, the appointee would help the scientists integrate gender into their areas of work. being a feminist who [117] kuntala lahiri-dutt is not uncomfortable working with physical scientists, i was pleased to take on the project. sadly, in reality, this profoundly innovative initiative encountered several roadblocks and challenges. a series of multifaceted events are evidence of its slow and painful failure. the primary problem was of communication between vastly different disciplinary orientations. the gender expert, who had a strong background in the domestic decision-making research space, found it difficult to converse with the (mostly male) scientists, and vice versa. did this failure occur because the project presented itself to these scientists as one of those much-maligned ―add women and stir‖ type initiatives? or are feminist approaches to knowledge inherently different? indeed, some branches of feminism rely on empiricism, or can confer with empiricists quite easily and confidently, as evidenced in journals such as feminist economist or in the innumerable mapping and quantitative works carried out by leading feminists. these are significant bodies of work that have used quantitative methods and conversed with the harder, physical sciences, have sensitized scientists, and made significant contributions to a feminist re-envisionings. on the other hand, some feminists have consistently argued that our task is not to follow established epistemologies, but to reject them altogether and adopt new methods and tools to change the existing (scientific) methods. perhaps this second approach has more merit, given the assumed hierarchies between the social and natural sciences and within disciplines. these hierarchies of knowledge prevent the kind of conversation and integration in which their disparate epistemologies can meld with each other. in this instance, the scientists‘ disciplinary training equipped them to apply quantitative tools for river basin management at a macro level. these tools do not lend themselves to an understanding of gender roles and relations, which require going beyond the macro and focussing on the micro—the minutiae of interactions and dynamics within households and families and interpersonal as well as inter-community relations. so how does one articulate the multi-directional relationship between rivers and human societies and integrate gender into the study of rivers and riverine communities? river scientist, plewa (2010), presents rivers as part of the earth‘s hydrosphere and as being determined by geology and climate, which in turn determine the river‘s hydraulic properties and hence its channel mechanics and chemistry. the epistemic community of classical river scientists, therefore, teaches students that although rivers are inert parts of the physical environment, they are almost like organisms because of their life cycles. this way, a river is imagined outside of the human ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] domain (lahiri-dutt 1999). if humans were separated from the physical world, then the epistemology of geomorphology would be characterized by the separation of human elements from rivers. lahiri-dutt (2015) has discussed the consequence of considering fluvial systems as part of the larger environmental system, ―a meaningful arrangement of things‖ (schumm 1977, 2), a whole that is formed as the sum of many parts. this knowledge invisibilizes human lives, their histories, and their various social and cultural connections with rivers and exemplifies how epistemicide is legitimized through disciplinary edifices. castree (2005) argues that knowledges are ―produced by myriad knowledgecommunities who possess sometimes similar (and sometimes different) outlooks on nature‖ (xiv). therefore, what we perceive as ―societal‖ understandings of the natural world are actually ―local‖ understandings that have emanated from their production sites to be considered as real, and hence valid, to different communities. according to castree (2013), these sites are not only universities and research organizations, which have conventionally presented themselves as the principal knowledge communities of professional geographers. people who create knowledge through their lives and day-to-day interactions with rivers are described by castree (2013) as ―epistemic workers‖. these epistemic workers, through face-to-face and virtual interactions, comprise epistemic communities. these communities have more or less distinctive languages and ways of communicating. lave (2015) argues that a new era of knowledge production is emerging in this manner. she suggests that in this knowledge regime, academia has significantly less clout than ever before. the knowledge claims that are broadly seen as legitimate are increasingly developed outside of the academy. river scientists, who claim to be the primary community producing knowledge about rivers, have failed to produce holistic knowledge that shows rivers as products of human history, interferences, attachments, and imaginations. without these humane aspects, our knowledge of rivers remains incomplete. more importantly, with the humane aspects, the kinds of nature knowledges that are produced would simply and truthfully depict things that scientism does not seem understand, recognise, or value. ekers and loftus (2012) underline this perspective and suggest that central to the making of nature knowledges are specific embodied practices across particular temporal and spatial conjectures that require a historicized and geographically rooted understanding of nature. river scientists have tried to establish standardized, universal, and appropriate conditions and settings for the creation of water knowledge [119] kuntala lahiri-dutt that can be translated into a model that all knowledge production (and knowledge-seeking) can look up to. this knowledge yields empirical certainty and considers itself robust enough to effectively silence the sceptics or ―non-believers‖ of this worldview. feminists question the presumed certainty of this approach by asking first if the sex of the knower is epistemologically significant (code 1981) and second, how masculine and feminine needs, interests, rights, and water uses can be illuminated in a gender-differentiated form, across or as ―stretching over‖ space. commenting on the first, the masculine production of knowledge, lorraine code (2014) observes: any hint of relativism such as is implicit in the suggestion that sex—a nonintellectual, non-rational, individual characteristic of the putative knowers— could play a constitutive part in the production of knowledge threatened to undermine the founding principles of ‗the epistemological project (9). questioning the sex of the knower could problematize knowledge and subjectivity, shifting the focus to what haraway (1988) considers ―situated knowledges‖—knowledges that allow an examination of multiple intersections of subjectivity and positionality and their epistemological implications—and questions the ―credibility, marginality, epistemic responsibility and the politics of testimony‖ (code 2014, 10). this is a simple but first step in understanding differences in epistemologies; in the story narrated above, it was not always men who failed to understand the roles that gender could play in the lives of riverine communities. as noted, some feminists reconcile the difficulties of conversing with natural or harder sciences by adopting different forms of empiricism. they present numbers, numerical data, and measurements, and maps as accurate and scientific evidence. indeed, this was possibly what might have been envisaged by csiro at the outset. therefore, instead of a gender expert, what they truly required was an empiricist who can deal with sex-disaggregated social, economic, and related data, and incorporate them into river basin modelling data of water-flows, sediment load, rainfall, and so on. however, is this co-option of sex-based social-economic indicators into the measurement and modelling work of the predictive sciences a solution? the feminist philosopher of science, sandra harding, in her influential book the science question in feminism (1986) opposes these attempts and argues that feminist standpoint theory rather than feminist empiricism actually offers ―strong objectivity‖. feminist standpoint theory unfurls a more inclusive and just scrutiny than older conceptualizations of objective analyses and addresses the historical-material diversity from which knowledge is produced by women and men. the feminist water scholar zwarteveen ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] (2006) outlines similar difficulties during her attempts to engage with irrigation engineers in a conversation on gender. she claims that the masculinity of the creators of water knowledges is responsible for the difficulties in finding novel ways of understanding and explaining the concept of water. returning to the story told above, was this initiative slated to fail because of the predictable collision of the two epistemologies? would it have been better not to mention gender at all in csiro‘s project? we now know that funding agencies feel compelled to ―mainstream‖ gender in each area of their work, and funding imperatives might have pushed csiro to even want to integrate gender into the work of their river scientists. we also know that sometimes well-meaning initiatives such as this one lead to disastrous results (eerdewijk and davids 2014), failure of projects (staudt 2003), unintended consequences (walby 2005), and, most importantly, a depoliticization (brouwers 2013) and instrumentalization of feminist politics that is at the heart of mainstreaming gender (daly 2005; mukhopadhyay 2014). on the other hand, is it not also true that the effort to integrate gender is better than not trying it at all? the most significant challenge for the present discussion is that many disciplines in the social and natural sciences that analyse water as a resource frequently tie water management problems to a society-nature dualism (schmidt 2017). this dualism is no longer tenable, yet our discipline-based knowledge production has not yet facilitated the kind of boundary transgressions or co-production of knowledge that was envisaged when mainstreaming gender in the work of scientists (barry and born 2013). addressing this problem, jasanoff (2004) invokes the need for a generative discourse on the role of science and technology in society, because they are interwoven with the meanings, values, and power in considering a critical inquiry on water. further, contextual hybridities are described by jasanoff (2004) as the ―rambunctious storyline of modernity‖, because they refuse to conform to ―any singular narrative of enlightenment, underlining how nature, knowledge, institutions, and identities are co-produced, and showing how other ways of knowing water can contribute to alternative and expanded knowledges of water‖ (3). no certitude exists within this flux. jasanoff (2004) argues that the ―familiar ingredients of modern life continually rearrange themselves in unpredicted patterns, creating rupture, violence, and difference alongside the sense of increasing liberation, convergence, and control‖ (13). the truth of this statement becomes evident in considering the implications of the story narrated here. [121] kuntala lahiri-dutt 4. conclusion: new water epistemologies for the anthropocene? what could be the implications of this epistemicide in our relations to water in the anthropocene? we are now living in a time when humans are considered as a force of nature in a geological sense, thereby conjoining nature and humans in ways that enable an immediate co-production of each other. how do we think about water epistemologies in these times? in situations like this, ―traditional disciplinary discourses fall short‖ (mehta, huff, and allouche 2019, 223). it falls upon each discipline to reimagine itself, to increase the porousness of its borders to encourage crossfertilization, and to inspire younger generations of scholars to think more independently whilst also collaborating with others, thus developing an antihegemonic ecology of knowledges that are liberated from the domination of western epistemology. growing evidence shows that conventional epistemologies based on the certitude of accurately measuring, modelling, and consequently, controlling water bodies are not working. perhaps this realization should help us chart our future course, particularly in the countries of the global south, as against western epistemology-based visualizations of water. references baghel, r., l. stepan, and j. hill. 2017. water, knowledge and the environment in asia: epistemologies, practices and locales. london: earthscan. barry, a., and g. born. 2013. interdisciplinarity: reconfigurations of the social and natural sciences. london: routledge. brouwers, r. 2013. ―revisiting gender mainstreaming in international development. goodbye to an illusionary strategy.‖ working paper series/general series, international institute of sciences, 556: 1–36. https://repub.eur.nl/pub/39504/wp556.pdf. castree, n. 2005. nature. abbingdon: routledge. castree, n. 2013. making sense of nature: representation, politics and democracy. new york: routledge. code, l. 1981. ―is the sex of the knower 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anthropological perspectives from ‗down under‘.‖ insights, journal of the institute of advanced study 3 (4): 2–26. stuart, n. 2007. ―technology and epistemology: environmental mentalities and urban water usage.‖ environmental values 16 (4): 417–431. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327107x243213. swyngedouw, e. 2006. ―circulations and metabolisms: (hybrid) natures and (cyborg) cities.‖ science as culture 15 (2): 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505430600707970. walby, s. 2005. ―gender mainstreaming: productive tensions in theory and practice.‖ social politics: international studies in gender, state & society 12 (3): 321–343. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxi018. https://doi.org/10.3197/096327107x243213 https://doi.org/10.1080/09505430600707970 https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxi018 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 69–71, april 2018 conversations 1: climate change climate change: the science robert watson  there is no doubt that the earth’s climate is changing on all scales, from local to global—in large measure due to human activities, primarily the combustion of fossil fuels and large-scale deforestation. climate change undermines economic growth, poverty alleviation, and the livelihoods of the poor; and threatens socio-economic sectors (food and water security, for example), ecological systems, human health, and personal and national security. the major indirect drivers of climate change are primarily demographic, economic, socio-political, technological, cultural, and religious. these drivers are clearly changing; for example, the world’s population is projected to increase from just over 7 billion people today to 9–10 billion people by 2050. there will likely be an accompanying increase in the global economy by a factor of three or four. increasingly, developing countries will drive global economic growth. these projected increases in population and the economy are certain to result in increased demand for energy. there is no doubt that the composition of the atmosphere and the earth’s climate has changed since the industrial revolution; and it is inevitable that these changes will continue—regionally and globally. the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years; and the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the major anthropogenic greenhouse gas (ghg), recently exceeded 400 parts per million by volume (ppmv). each of the past three decades has been warmer than the previous decade. the global mean surface temperature has already increased by about 1 °c  strategic director of the tyndall centre, university of east anglia, norwich research park, norwich nr4 7tj, uk; rtwatson1@gmail.com copyright © watson 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.16 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.16 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] relative to pre-industrial levels. the low emissions scenario projects that the global mean surface temperature will increase by 0.3–1.7 °c by 2100; the high emissions scenario projects that it will increase by 2.6–4.8 °c. the greatest increases are projected for land areas in the high northern latitudes. changes in temperature and precipitation are causing, and will continue to cause, other environmental changes. such changes include rising sea levels; retreating mountain glaciers; melting of the greenland and antarctic ice sheets; shrinking arctic sea ice; increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, floods, and droughts; and intensification of cyclonic events, such as hurricanes in the atlantic. the sea level has risen by about 0.2 metres since 1900, and is projected to increase by an additional 0.3–0.6 metres by 2100 in the low emissions scenario or by 0.5–1.0 metre in the high emissions scenario. annual arctic sea ice extent has decreased by 3.5–4.1 per cent per decade during the past three decades, and summer arctic sea ice minimum extent has decreased per decade by 9.4–13.6 per cent, with further reductions projected in september of 43–94 per cent by 2100. the rate of ice loss from the antarctic ice sheet between 2002 and 2011 increased significantly compared to the rate between 1992 and 2001. enhanced atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide cause, and will continue to cause, ocean acidification, which poses risks to fish, especially shell fish and marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs. the working group i of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) in 2013 concluded that the human influence on the climate system is clear, and that it is extremely likely that human activities have been the cause of more than 50 per cent of the observed warming (0.6–0.7 °c) since the mid-twentieth century. the ipcc considers it likely that anthropogenic activities have influenced the global water cycle; such influence includes global-scale changes in precipitation over land and intensification of heavy precipitation over land regions with sufficient data. every government in the world recognized the danger associated with human-induced climate change and signed the paris agreement in 2016, though the us has since withdrawn. under the agreement, governments pledged to hold the increase in global average temperature well below 2 °c (above preindustrial levels), and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °c above pre-industrial levels. to realize these targets, a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy is required, which involves unprecedented global cooperation and a dramatic transformation in energy systems. governments acknowledged that achieving the paris agreement goals requires balancing anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by [71] robert watson sinks (the oceans and terrestrial biosphere) in the second half of the 21st century. in reality, most models require negative emissions beyond 2050 to achieve these targets. as part of the paris agreement, 162 voluntary nonbinding pledges were submitted to the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfccc); these were from 189 countries and accounted for about 98 per cent of global ghg emissions. while these pledges demonstrate a real increase in commitment to reduce ghg emissions, they are far from sufficient to put the world on a pathway to meet the 2 °c goal—let alone the aspirational goal of 1.5 °c. without the paris agreement, global emissions of carbon dioxide-equivalent are projected to increase from the current level of 54 gigatons to 65 gigatons by 2030, but these will have to be reduced to about 42 gigatons for the global average temperature to stay below 2 °c. however, even if all pledges were fully implemented, global emissions would remain at about their current level, and result in an increase in global mean temperature of between 3oc and 4oc above preindustrial levels. therefore, without significantly stronger pledges to reduce ghg emissions, the paris agreement goals will not be met. indeed, the 2 °c goal could be reached between 2050 and 2060 and the 1.5 °c goal could be reached by the early 2030s. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 157–160, january 2021 report a report on the 14th annual meeting of the environment for development (efd) initiative tanay raj bhatt,  vidisha chowdhury,  and e. somanathan  the 14th annual meeting of the environment for development (efd) initiative (https://efdinitiative.org/) was held virtually during 16–20 november 2020. the efd annual meeting is an integral part of the efd initiative’s commitment to quality research and active interaction, focusing on the application of environmental economics in the global south. it brings together researchers from various efd centres, their collaborators, and other key stakeholders for the exchange of research ideas, discussion of research proposals, and presentation of results from efd projects. the five-day event included four keynote addresses by eminent scholars which focused on specific issues within the realms of environmental, agricultural, and gender economics. the keynote address on the first day was delivered by urvashi narain, senior environmental economist of the world bank. she described the world bank’s research on air pollution, now considered the greatest public health problem at the global level. environmental economists at the world bank have developed a methodology for assigning monetary value to the loss of life and risks to health from pollution, which governments can use to evaluate mortality and health damages from air pollution against the costs imposed by regulations to curb air pollution. the cost of air pollution  centre for research on the economics of climate, food, energy, and environment (cecfee), indian statistical institute; 7, s. j. s. sansanwal marg, new delhi 110016, india; bhatt97.trb@gmail.com.  cecfee; vidishachowdhury2@gmail.com.  cecfee; som@isid.ac.in.  copyright © bhatt, chowdhury and somanathan 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.373 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.373 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [158] was estimated at about 10% of the gdp in china, and about 8% of the gdp in india, sri lanka, and cambodia, based on data from 2013. the second keynote address was delivered by menale kassie of the international centre of insect physiology and ecology on adoption of new technologies for sustainable development. in particular, kassie focused on how research on insects holds the key to green development. he discussed state-of-the-art research in this area that provides evidence on how substituting fishmeal or soy-based animal feed with insects would be a pareto improvement. not only is the insect-based feed more cost-efficient, but evidence also indicates that farm animals that are provided with insectbased feed yield much more output (eggs, pig meat, etc.). this has important implications since, as kassie argued, animal feed accounts for up to 60–70% of production costs in the industry. moreover, compared to traditional feed, the emissions intensity of insect-based feed is far lower. in addition to animal feed, insects can also be used to manufacture fertilizers, which have been shown to be at least as effective as traditional fertilizers. in fact, the high protein content of insects and the minimal resource requirement of insect farming make it ideal for sustainably tackling the problem of global malnutrition. in conclusion, kassie mentioned that the socio-economic impacts of investing in insects are likely to be massive, contributing to poverty alleviation, lowering emissions, improving waste management, boosting employment generation, and increasing savings. on the third day, jan steckel from the mercator research institute on global commons and climate change (mcc) highlighted the growing need for research on emissions pricing in low-income countries and factors that shape its feasibility. from a climate perspective, rising energy demands in poor countries and their growing contribution to global emissions call for such climate policies. from an economic point of view, carbon taxes have the potential to generate significant revenues that could be used to lower other distortionary taxes, increase public investment, and support disproportionately affected communities. however, a major challenge facing emissions pricing, as jan pointed out, is the lack of public acceptance. he emphasized that the political acceptability of such policies is governed by people’s perceptions about their distributional effects, impacts on individual freedom, and effectiveness. social norms and political background may also play a major role in shaping public opinion. the keynote speech on the fourth day approached climate change through a gender lens. in her keynote address, farzana afridi from the indian statistical institute, delhi, discussed the gender-differentiated impacts of technological shocks and extreme weather conditions on labour usage. she emphasized that the effect of technological change or shocks on women [159] tanay raj bhatt, vidisha chowdhury, and e. somanathan can vary between the home and market; indeed, there exists a gender-based division of labour such that women bear a disproportionate burden of the domestic work. using empirical findings from her recent work, she showed that while productivity-enhancing cooking technologies, such as liquefied petroleum gas (lpg), can improve women’s welfare, farm mechanization that reduces the need for manual weeding may adversely affect women, rendering their labour redundant. in the case of negative production shocks such as droughts, women’s farm labour and earnings reduce significantly relative to those of men, and the former are less likely to migrate. consequently, such shocks can exacerbate earnings and labour market inequalities between men and women. formulating policies to respond to such gender-differentiated impacts requires reskilling the female workforce, ensuring safe mobility, and improving women’s access to work. each day of the meeting had five parallel presentation sessions in which participants discussed around 80 research papers and 15 research proposals. these covered efd thematic areas such as agriculture, air quality, biodiversity, carbon pricing, climate change, conservation, energy, experiments, fisheries, forestry, gender, health, land, policy design, urban spaces, waste, and water. amongst these, some papers investigated the impacts of climate change on crop yields and labour productivity; others looked at the effects of clean cooking fuels such as electricity and lpg on air quality and health; a few analysed factors driving sustainability in fisheries; and some explored how climatic, institutional, and economic factors influence covid-19 morbidity. the general assembly on the final day began with an address by pam fredman, president of the international association of universities and chair of the efd board, in which she pointed out the practices that need to be undertaken to achieve the objectives that efd has set for itself. in this context, she discussed the challenges that we face and that the network has already achieved positive results. she focused, particularly, on the role that higher education has to play, and how the efd network, academics, and international organizations must engage with each other and universities to address those objectives. this was followed by efd director gunnar köhlin discussing the scope of the efd against the background of the ongoing pandemic and what lies ahead in terms of the efd’s objectives. this year, zhaoyang liu was adjudged the winner of peter berck’s best discussion paper award for his paper on valuing a water purification scheme of forests. gunnar köhlin’s best msc dissertation award was conferred upon camilo de los rios rueda for his work on overlapping institutions and deforestation in the columbian amazon. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [160] for the first time at an efd conference, rebecca klege discussed the status of gender equity within the network. she pointed out that despite significant improvements, the progress of gender equity within economics departments has somewhat stalled since 2009. studies have shown that relative to stem (science, technology, engineering, and medicine) subjects, female participation is quite low in economics. moreover, since most efd member institutions are housed within economics departments, the status of gender equity in the network is far from ideal. except for centres in kenya and india, there are huge gender disparities in efd member institutions. given this background, klege discussed the shortand longterm goals of the efd to address this issue and announced the upcoming gender equity report. this year’s annual meeting brought together a large number of researchers from various countries to discuss a host of issues within the ambit of sustainable development. despite the virtual nature of the conference, there was a high level of academic and social interaction and effective building of networks. in conclusion, the annual meeting facilitated wide-ranging academic discussion and collaboration within the efd community and provided a much-needed platform for the discussion of pressing environmental concerns. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 1–3, july 2020 editorial living in, and thinking about, the world in pandemic times kuntala lahiri-dutt  queen elizabeth ii famously labelled 1992 as an annus horribilis—―terrible year‖—a year that saw a fire and a scandal that ravaged british society and the royal family. when 2020 kick-started the new decade, little did we know what lay in store. in australia, where i live, the wildfires started earlier in the year, were more widespread, and were more devastating. as the country had been in an el nino–induced draught phase, it had not rained for several months prior to the onset of summer. dry undergrowth provided fuel and high wind speeds allowed the fires to spread quickly, jumping across clearings, rivers, and roads, claiming several properties and much indigenous, innocent wildlife. the fires were eventually quenched, but this time by a spate of hailstorm—hail the size of golf balls crushed everything left outdoors; buildings were damaged and some beyond repair. the ongoing and unending debates on climate change—whether global warming is causing the extended xeric conditions, uncontrollable fires, and unpredictable weather—had not quite settled down when the pandemic arrived. interestingly, like the black death, covid-19 for all practical purposes arrived in australia by boat—a cruise boat offloading not rats but over a hundred passengers exhibiting symptoms of the illness. the pandemic does not spare anyone; like the plague, it is a great leveller. in his 1947 book, the plague, albert camus wrote how epidemics do not discriminate: ―the plague was no respecter of persons and under its despotic rule everyone,  coordinating editor (2019–20). crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, the australian national university, room 3.25, jg crawford building, lennox crossing, acton, act 2601, australia; kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au. copyright © lahiri-dutt 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.283 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.283 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] from the governor down to the humblest delinquent, was under the sentence and, perhaps for the first time, impartial justice reigned…‖ (p. 140). unlike sars, mers, and ebola, covid-19 brought illness to everyone’s doorstep. as one country after another fell prey, global resentment against china grew, and no one could pinpoint one particular factor that might have worked to keep the pandemic at bay. for example, if the wealthy northern italian province of lombardy had allowed its publicfunded hospital system to retreat, which led to a higher incidence of covid-19 deaths, britain’s well-built national health service, one of the largest and best state-funded healthcare provision system in the world, also failed miserably in dealing with the deadly virus. still, broadly, the experience of the usa is indicating the need for more and better statefunded public healthcare in all countries. this is one area where india—with its multibillion-dollar healthcare and pharmaceutical industries located in metropolitan cities that attract patients from all around the world and produce the largest range of drugs—has logged an abysmal record. according to the world health organization, india has one of the lowest doctor–population ratios, with only 7.7 doctors per 10,000 people. the ratio is much lower than what is prevalent in other developing countries and, in fact, is closer to that of some deeply poor countries in africa such as sudan. moreover, the pathetic and run-down condition of state-run hospitals puts india to shame, and more than a third of indians aged between 15 and 49 years remain undernourished. it is no wonder then that the pandemic exposed the systemic weaknesses and inconsistencies that perpetrate the vulnerabilities of the poor, those who must move around in search of cash incomes, work in insecure and risky jobs for a basic wage, and those without a home. the ―big question‖ that arose, one that will be intensely debated in the future as we recover and rebuild, is about the future of the citizen–state relationship. in the last four decades, we have allowed the unprecedented retreat of the state from healthcare and education in india. the extraordinary situation brought about by the pandemic has now forced us to encounter the multifaceted ramifications of this withdrawal. we must create a more sustainable—and desirable—world for our future generations, and covid-19 has offered us this rare opportunity. gaps between the rich and the poor, genders, ethnicities, religions, and castes must cease to exist. respect for nature and our relationship with it must be prioritised. our cities must be made more liveable. the state must ensure the well-being, good health, and mental upliftment of all through education. if this sounds utopian, let me point out that not all of this is a product of my imagination. our sustainable development goals, agreements to reduce [3] kuntala lahiri-dutt fossil fuel use, and many other global initiatives and processes have already agreed to the ideal of a more sustainable, equal, and just world where humans and nature no longer act as adversaries. we cannot allow ―business‖ to run ―as usual‖, for already the securitization of the pandemic emergency is underway in some countries. let us now stop and reflect: do we want a big, top-heavy government to take advantage of the extreme disruptions caused by the pandemic and/or sell the inheritance of future generations—india’s invaluable natural resources—to private interests so that they can accumulate surplus and generate windfall financial gains? alternatively, could we take this opportunity to envision a novel way to be governed and use this historical moment to lead us to a collective transformative experience? the commentaries in this ees issue further shed light on the relevance of community in a post–covid-19 world. research papers on arsenic pollution, the challenges of marine conservation, and flood mitigation in an environment of growing climate threats highlight, from their disciplinary perspectives, the need to find community-based solutions to our presentday pressing environmental challenges. the environment—and its conservation—holds different meanings for different communities, and our quest for a more inclusive and sustainable future should be based on a deep understanding of these differences. the special section on ―new epistemologies of water‖ also emphasizes these understandings in the context of water resources. the issue is being published only halfway into this horrendous year. we dread the future and worry about what other misfortunes remain hidden. yet, we remain hopeful and ever so optimistic about humankind’s ability to re-imagine and reinvent ourselves. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 149–157, july 2021 notes from the field when the “field” moves online: reflections on virtual data collection during covid-19 chandni singh1, sheetal patil2, prathigna poonacha3, maitreyi koduganti4, swarnika sharma5 1. starting a multi–country research project during a pandemic at the start of 2020, we were enthusiastic about beginning a multi-country, interdisciplinary research project titled “urban and peri-urban agriculture as green infrastructure” (upagri). examining the sustainability and social well-being outcomes of urban and peri-urban agriculture (upa), the project aims to develop empirical evidence on upa drivers, practices, and outcomes in rapidly growing cities and towns in india and tanzania.6 1 researcher and faculty member, school of environment and sustainability, indian institute for human settlements (iihs), 16th cross rd, sadashiva nagar, armane nagar, bengaluru, karnataka – 560080; csingh@iihs.ac.in. 2 researcher at the school of development of azim premji university, survey no 66, burugunte village, bikkanahalli main rd, sarjapura, bengaluru, karnataka– 562125; sheetal.patil@apu.edu.in. 3 researcher and faculty member at the indian institute for human settlements (iihs), 16th cross rd, sadashiva nagar, armane nagar, bengaluru, karnataka – 560080; ppoonacha@iihs.ac.in. 4 researcher with the climate team at iihs, 16th cross rd, sadashiva nagar, armane nagar, bengaluru, karnataka – 560080; kvmaitreyi@iihs.ac.in. 5 researcher, indian institute for human settlements, 16th cross rd, sadashiva nagar, armane nagar, bengaluru, karnataka – 560080; swarnikas@iihs.ac.in. copyright © singh, patil, poonacha, koduganti and sharma 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.414 6 pune and bengaluru in india, and dar es salaam and morogoro in tanzania. see the upigri website for further details: https://upagri.wixsite.com/up-agri. mailto:csingh@iihs.ac.in mailto:sheetal.patil@apu.edu.in mailto:ppoonacha@iihs.ac.in mailto:kvmaitreyi@iihs.ac.in mailto:swarnikas@iihs.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.414 https://upagri.wixsite.com/up-agri ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] we were to begin scoping visits in february 2020 and have a project kickoff meeting in march, where researchers from tanzania, india, and the uk would meet to conceptualize and operationalize the project, translating the ambitious proposal to actual research design and plans for research impact. however, as the spread of covid-19 escalated into a pandemic, our plans were upended. scoping visits, the essential first steps to more immersive, city-specific, multi-stakeholder engagement, became impossible. the project kick-off meeting was postponed and moved online. the pandemic and the restrictions that came with it forced us to adjust to new ways of working and collaborating: we needed to completely reorient our approach to research and data collection. this field note describes our experiences with online data collection in pune and bengaluru during the first year of upagri, january 2020–2021. we reflect on our methodological approach to, and experiments in, online data collection; the benefits and drawbacks of this approach; and the lessons others exploring online fieldwork might take away from our experiences. 2. pivoting, slowly within three weeks of starting scoping visits and preliminary interviews with urban farmers in bengaluru, we had to halt field visits because of india’s national lockdown, which started on march 25, 2020. as we were uncertain about how long the lockdown would be extended for, fieldwork was put on hold indefinitely. however, since the project had just begun, we had the option of redesigning our plans. reorienting to the new normal was not easy, personally or professionally. given that the project envisaged collecting data through farm visits, participant observation, in-person farmer interviews, and farmer diaries, the inability to travel to the field felt crippling. additionally, working from home, with its blurred work–life boundaries and increased care duties, presented further challenges. in april 2020, we pivoted our approach, albeit slowly. we made progress on desk-based outputs, such as a systematic literature review that was a planned project output meant to be concurrent to the scoping visits. however, the inability to whet our readings with field visits was somewhat discouraging. as india’s lockdowns continued into june, in-person field engagement remained uncertain. our request to the funding agency, the british academy, for an extension was granted, giving us much-needed breathing space. while the pandemic restricted primary data collection, it offered new avenues of engagement. in july 2020, we took stock of alternate ways of engaging with stakeholders and conducting farmer interviews, drawing on resources such as the lse digital ethnography collective reading list [151] chandni singh, sheetal patil, prathigna poonacha, maitreyi koduganti, swarnika sharma (glatt and spector 2020) and “doing fieldwork in a pandemic” (lupton 2020). we decided to use telephonic and online interviews to converse with urban farmers. coincidentally, the pandemic facilitated this shift to virtual fieldwork since people from varied locations, ages, and income groups in india were increasingly moving to online platforms and social media for work and entertainment (pinto 2020). 2. from in-field to on-screen: experiences with moving the field online in july 2020, we revisited stakeholder lists developed between february and march 2020 and contacted potential respondents over email, phone, and social media like facebook, twitter, and instagram. given the exploratory nature of the study, we used snowball sampling that is commonly used to identify “hidden populations” (johnson 2014). thus, we drew on our stakeholder lists for the initial conversations and then contacted other urban farmers suggested by interviewees. in most cases, urban farmers readily agreed to interviews7 since they were used to online interactions and training, even before the pandemic (desai 2020; srinath 2020). for government officials and institutional respondents, we sent interview requests via email, mirroring the more formal access practices typically used for particular stakeholders. when it came to the actual interviews, we intentionally experimented with various platforms including zoom, google meet, skype, and sometimes whatsapp. this plurality was necessary to meet various respondents’ preferences. urban farms and gardens in bengaluru and pune are typically located in and around peoples’ homes, making these homes the “field”. this meant that during interviews, respondents often gave us virtual tours of their balconies and terraces, rainwater harvesting setups, and composting containers. these interactions expanded our understanding of “being in the field” to something beyond “spending long periods of time in a site” and added to our understanding of the field as “multidimensional and socially constructed space” (here, homes and gardens) (ramesh 2020: 30). given the exploratory nature of our research, the interviews were semi-structured and conversational, with several interviews continuing beyond the scheduled duration. respondents often shared photographs and videos of their gardens days and weeks after the interviews. many chose to speak to 7 in two cases, people we contacted were unable to set up online interviews because they felt farm visits would be more suitable to demonstrate the practices and outcomes of urban agriculture. for these cases (which were in bengaluru), we conducted field visits in january 2021, after travel restrictions had eased. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] us multiple times to discuss other aspects of their urban farming practices, mirroring the practice of repeat visits, commonly seen in traditional fieldwork. this expansion of the field was also experiential—the field, typically understood as “out there” (bengtsson 2014; howlett 2021) also became “in here” as we conducted interviews from our home. a pressure cooker going off or a child taking online classes in the background were common for both interviewers and respondents, and soon, our families and personal lives became part of the “field”. this shared experience of the pandemic equalized the interviewer–respondent relationship. people opened up in conversations more readily than they might have if we had gone as “professionals” to meet “respondents” in the “field” (their homes). figure 1: observing farming practices in a community farm in pune virtually with mr dyaneshwar bodke, founder of abhinav farmers club source: authors one of the luxuries of qualitative fieldwork, and which also makes it so valuable, is the opportunity to construct “ethnographic relationships” (cavanagh 2016, 27), i.e., form friendships and develop ethical rules of engagement. pivoting to online data collection did hamper initial cues and [153] chandni singh, sheetal patil, prathigna poonacha, maitreyi koduganti, swarnika sharma more familiar processes of rapport-building, but it also led to other forms of insightful 8 engagement. the conversations also helped us build meaningful relationships: several older respondents said the conversations allowed them to reflect on decades of farming, while others noted that the discussions made them see their gardens in a new light. figure 2: visiting a terrace garden in bengaluru virtually source: authors along with these positive experiences, we also faced challenges. first, irregular internet connectivity and power cuts hampered the conversations, and sometimes elderly respondents had trouble logging into online meetings. in such cases, we would shift to audio calls over whatsapp, as all respondents were familiar with the app. second, we were unable to speak to as many government officials as we had hoped, in part because they had additional covid responsibilities. third, most of the conversations were only with the respondent unlike typical in-person fieldwork where researchers have the opportunity to talk to respondents’ colleagues and/or 8 for example, in august 2020, the research team and four urban farmers conducted an online session “who feeds bengaluru?” to discuss the multidimensional benefits of urban agriculture. in february 2021, as part of the nature of cities festival, three urban farmers co-hosted a virtual field trip with the research team titled “garden city’s farming habits: a field tour in bengaluru, india”. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] family members. finally, the online nature of the interviews may have led to a homogenisation of respondents: they were middle-class, educated urban farmers. none of our respondents was from low-income informal settlements.9 over three months, between august and october 2020, we successfully conducted 51 interviews with a variety of urban farmers, perhaps exceeding what we could have done in our scoping visits. 3. lessons for moving the field online confronted with the “unprecedented nature” of the covid-19 pandemic, many researchers have called for pragmatism around meeting pre– pandemic research objectives, becoming methodologically agile, and avoiding being extractive or exacerbating burdens on community partners and key informants (ahmed et al. 2020; dodds and hess 2020). below are key takeaways10 from our experience of shifting to online data collection:  online does not mean anything goes: using technology to conduct interviews was not as disruptive as we had expected. a few months into the pandemic, most of our respondents were wellversed in using online platforms. in situations where this was a problem, especially with older respondents, we used options such as phone calls. second, we followed rigorous and ethical research procedures, just as we would have for in-field data collection. we decided on interview durations while setting up interviews and asked respondents for permission to record and take photographs. although data collection moved online, we intentionally reminded ourselves to be mindful of peoples’ time and privacy. one might 9 our desk-based review of literature and media articles tended to only report urban farming from middle and upper-middle class city dwellers. this made it difficult to identify possible respondents for remote interviews from low-income settlements. in subsequent field visits, we aim to address this by undertaking transect walks and participant observation in lowincome settlements to make the narratives of urban agriculture more inclusive and representative. 10 we recognize that our experience is mediated by certain privileges—the project had steady funding and the funding agency granted us flexibility by giving us a one-year, no-cost extension. further, all team members were well-versed in using online platforms since those were used for other international projects. the different teams also had a good working relationship prior to the shift online and had adequate supporting structures (laptops, space to work from home, and fast internet to conduct interviews). also, the nature of the field as primarily urban, where respondents were typically familiar with technology and could afford stable internet connections, and our methodological approach being qualitative and openended, also enabled us to “pivot” to online data collection through trial and error. [155] chandni singh, sheetal patil, prathigna poonacha, maitreyi koduganti, swarnika sharma have to pay additional attention to these practices as personal and professional boundaries tend to blur when working online.  there is no travel, but everything takes longer: while almost no time was spent travelling to the field, we found time management was still essential. instead of interviewee fatigue, we often faced interviewer fatigue and had to experiment with interview frequency and duration. overall, we moved from doing three interviews a day to just doing one so that transcripts and follow up questions/reflections could be written up. an hour-long interview typically worked best, though some respondents were more keen to converse and those conversations could go on for up to an hour and a half. if we saw signs of fatigue or distraction, we amended the interview length with the permission of the interviewee.  acknowledge ethnographic hits and misses: ethnographic methods involve “hanging out”, participant observation, informal conversations, and interacting with people other than the identified respondents. this was not possible in our online interviews. however, we found that repeat interviews and follow-ups through phone and email built a successful rapport that led to further conversations and meaningful bonds and eventually helped us establish a relationship with respondents. months after the online interviews, we visited sites and enriched our online interactions, thus developing “thick” data.  remote work needs more communication: typically, fieldwork involves reflective conversations within the research team, where one would go over the day’s interviews, discuss leads and ideas, and plan for the next day. working remotely, we found that the project team had to make space and time to connect more frequently. a 15-minute conservation right after an interview for quick reflection-sharing as well as additional bi-weekly discussions helped us share emerging findings and plan for future interviews. these additional meetings, though often exhausting, were essential and also made us aware of each other’s personal situations, helping build more empathy and understanding within the team. as “the field” moves online, experimenting with hybrid methods of inperson and online data collection are increasingly important. with travel restrictions easing in india, we are beginning to supplement current online data collection with immersive field visits. the pivot to online data collection was critical to continuing our research. the lessons from this online mode of working and data collection are instructive in flexible ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] methodologies, in opening up alternate spaces, and in reducing travel and associated carbon footprints. it has, for us, expanded the meaning and materiality of the term “field” and challenged normative ideas of data collection as only being embedded and in-person. references ahmed, nabila, sally cawood, sarita panday, megnaa mehtta, glyn williams, jiban kumar karki, and ankit kumar. 2020. 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sheetal patil, prathigna poonacha, maitreyi koduganti, swarnika sharma ramesh, madhuri. 2020. “a call to redefine ‘the field’ in nature conservation studies in india.” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3(2): 27–31. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.123. srinath, shruthi. 2020. “look up, the terraces thrive.” deccan herald, may 8, 2020 https://www.deccanherald.com/spectrum/look-up-the-terraces-thrive835229.html https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.123 https://www.deccanherald.com/spectrum/look-up-the-terraces-thrive-835229.html https://www.deccanherald.com/spectrum/look-up-the-terraces-thrive-835229.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 21–29, january 2021 commentary organic farming in india: catalysts that can help in transition m. manjula  and p. indira devi  abstract: organic farming has been receiving policy support from both the central and state governments in india since 2005. the shift in policy thrust from conventional chemical-input based farming to organic farming comes as a response to the sustainability concerns surrounding indian agriculture. despite this, organic farming remains niche, with less than 2% of the net sown area in the country under organic production. this paper suggests market-based instruments—which have been successful in inducing changes in farming practices in some countries across the globe—as complementary policy mechanisms for catalysing the transition to organic farming in india. keywords: organic farming; economic incentives; market based instruments; pes; sustainability. 1. introduction the economics nobel prize (2017) winner richard h. thaler’s work demonstrates that individuals often behave irrationally but can be ―nudged‖ towards rational outcomes. his insight has significant implications for farmer behaviour, agricultural policy, and larger environmental outcomes, especially in developing economies. agricultural policy in india has come a full circle, with a shift in emphasis from seed–fertilizer technologies in the early 1960s to eco-friendly nature  school of development, azim premji university, pes campus, hosur road, electronic city, bengaluru, karnataka 560100, india; manjula.m@apu.edu.in.   (former) director of research and professor (agricultural economics), kerala agriculture university, 21, pranavam, thriveni gardens, calvery road, poothole, thrissur, kerala 680 004, india; induananth@gmail.com. copyright © manjula and devi 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.337 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.337 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] based organic farming technologies around 2005. agriculture is a business with nature. however, the nature and intensification of the agriculture pursued have significant environmental, social, and economic impacts (ahlem and hammas 2017). chemical input dependent conventional agricultural practices like seed–fertilizer technologies impose huge environmental costs in the long run (pingali 2012). this results in negative externalities like the degradation of natural resources, pollution, desertification, and adverse public health outcomes. organic farming, with its emphasis on stewardship of natural resources, gains significance in this context. recognizing this, the ministry of agriculture developed the first national-level organic farming policy in 2005 (goi 2005). however, concerted efforts to promote organic farming were only initiated a decade later under the aegis of the national mission of sustainable agriculture (khurana and kumar 2020). the policy thrust for organic farming can be seen as a response to the sustainability concerns surrounding indian agriculture. organic farming has its roots in traditional agricultural practices, which align with the indian philosophy of sustainability and an eco-centric management approach. organic production techniques conserve natural resources and biodiversity and contribute to reducing the agriculture sector’s energy and water footprints (khan and hanjra 2008). empirical evidence has established a link between organic farming and ecosystem services (sandhu et al. 2020). organic production systems also contribute to achieving sustainable development (ahlem and hammas 2017; setboonsarng and gregorio 2017). they capitalize on the comparative advantages of resource-poor farmers located in pristine, remote locations that are naturally predisposed towards organic cultivation; harness traditional knowledge; and foster gender equality by creating meaningful work (yekinni et al. 2019). this paper discusses the provisions under the current nationaland statelevel organic policies and programmes. it then explores the potential for using monetary incentives like agri-environmental schemes (aes) and payment for ecosystem services (pes) to compensate for the revenue loss from transitioning to organic farming in categories ii and iii priority areas identified in the national policy. finally, the paper details mechanisms for operationalizing the incentive mechanism. [23] m. manjula and p. indira devi 2. challenges in transitioning to organic production in addition to the national-level organic policy (goi 2005), several states in india have formulated state-specific policies and strategies to shift to organic production. sikkim has pioneered this effort and was declared the first ―fully organic‖ state in the world. the reach of the green revolution was historically limited in the eastern and north-eastern states; hence, traditional farming practices have continued to flourish in these regions. the policy documents from the organic farming policy, 2005, and those of the states, outline the institutional, technological, input, and certification support extended to promote organic farming. some specific measures include group certification; participatory guarantee systems (pgs); demarcation of organic clusters in tribal, hilly, and rainfed regions; introduction of a holistic framework for the overall organic sector covering aspects of production, marketing, and trade; coordination of various programmes for the promotion of organic farming; and making tracenet—the electronic process certification platform—flexible and open access (goi 2019). india has the largest number of organic producers in the world and ranks ninth in terms of its area of agricultural land under organic cultivation (pib 2020). however, a mere 2.78 million hectares, which is roughly about 2% of the net sown area, is being used for organic farming in india (khurana and kumar 2020). india is the second-largest exporter of organic products in asia, but its export volume comprises just about 0.55% of the global trade in organic produce (goi 2019). thus, organic farming continues to remain a niche area despite the available policy support. conversion to an organic production system is especially challenging for farmers in categories ii and iii priority zones (goi 2005). these are areas with moderate to high levels of chemical input–based agriculture systems; converting to organic production systems would entail productivity and revenue loss in the short run in these places (de ponti et al. 2012). this is the private cost that individual farmers bear for realizing the larger social benefits of organic production. 3. the role of market-based instruments the private cost borne by cultivators shifting to organic production systems in priority zones illustrates a case of market failure due to externalities. a shift to organic production generates a wide range of non-excludable ecosystem services, which are positive externalities. these include better ecosystem services (low pesticide and chemical fertilizer load on the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] environment and in food) that benefit society. in the absence of a market for these ecosystem services, farmers do not get any monetary benefits for generating these services. in this context, the provision of monetary incentives to compensate for private economic loss upon conversion to organic production systems gains significance as a policy instrument in these transition zones. however, farmers are expected to sustain organic systems despite a probable fall in output in the short term. policy mechanisms like pes and aes could compensate farmers for adopting organic techniques that generate improved ecosystem services. aes has been used as a market-based policy instrument in the european union (eu), usa, and australia since the early 1990s to reduce the environmental risks associated with input-intensive farming and to preserve natural and cultivated landscapes (de krom 2017; sep 2017; kuhfuss et al. 2016). aes establishes contracts between governments and farmers that guarantee annual payments to farmers who enrol in the scheme. it covers the average compliance cost and foregone farming revenue consequent to the adoption of environmentally benign farming practices (kuhfuss et al. 2016). pes payments generally cover ecosystem services, while aes payments are directed towards changing farming practices. but when farming systems and practices are modified to protect and ensure ecosystem service flow, the distinction between the two disappears (ottaviani 2010). to date, there is no pes scheme that is implemented directly for agriculture.1 even those schemes that are strongly related to agriculture are classified as targeting water, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity. in most of these schemes, farming practices are modified; this serves as an entry point for controlling soil erosion, improving carbon sequestration, and maintaining water quality and biodiversity. successful pes models exist in indonesia, tanzania, and nepal, where farming systems and practices are used as entry points to achieve ecological benefits (ottaviani 2010). the potential for using pes to double farmers’ incomes by getting them to shift to ecosystem service generating, environmentally friendly farming practices has also been explored in the indian context2 (devi et al. 2017; kumar et al. 2019; manjula et al. 2019). 1 the paramparagat krishi vikas yojana and the mission organic value chain development for north eastern region offers financial assistance to farmers. however, this incentive goes towards input support, capacity-building, certification, and collectivization. it is not designed for generating non-market ecosystem services from organic farming. 2 the study estimated potential pes payments for different scenarios of transition to ecologically sensitive agricultural practices. three desired outcomes proposed are increased carbon sequestration in soil, reduced water usage, and lower toxic residuals in the soil. farmers could choose all three outcomes (full adoption scenario), a combination of two [25] m. manjula and p. indira devi as incentive-based mechanisms, both aes and pes promote voluntary payments for rent and revenue foregone due to low-input agricultural practices. thus, pes and aes potentially provide bridges for the adoption of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. under world trade organization (wto) regulations, aes and pes qualify as green box subsidy measures for agriculture. currently, the policy environment in india is conducive to the introduction of market-based policy instruments in line with aes/pes. india’s national environment policy, 2006, proposed to introduce market-based instruments (mbis) for environmental management (moef 2006). pes-based benefit-sharing schemes are already operational in the sukhomajri watershed in haryana and the bohal spring catchment area in himachal pradesh (kerr 2002; dash 2019). in sukhomajri, the pes component provides additional incentives for landless and marginal farmers to abandon free grazing and tree-felling practices in watershed areas. in himachal pradesh, the agreement was between the village forest development society and the palampur municipal corporation. the pes was implemented to ensure a sustainable supply of water and the protection of the catchment area of the bohal spring, which is managed by local communities living in the nearby bheemi forest. similar market-based instruments could be established for incentivizing the transition to socially beneficial, environmentally friendly organic farming practices, at minimal or no private cost to the farmer. 4. operationalizing a market-based incentive mechanism the challenge in operationalizing aes/pes mechanisms can be institutional, technological, and behavioural. agro-ecologies should be the basic planning units on which cropping patterns and management protocols are decided. the conversion should happen in a phased manner. switching to organic farming often results in an initial decline in output, which eventually recovers. the extent of decline, and the time required to regain the original/higher level of productivity, varies depending on the crop and climate and soil, agronomic, and management factors. analysing a metadataset of 362 published organic–conventional comparative crop yields (medium adoption scenario), or any one of them (low adoption scenario). depending on the scenario adopted, the farmer would be given 100%, 70%, or 30% of the pes payment. the payment, which is for non-market ecosystem services, will supplement their annual income from agriculture. the per hectare pes estimate is derived based on the value of non-market ecosystem services from croplands provided in the eonomics of ecosystem and biodiversity (teeb) database. the authors’ estimation shows that in the high and medium adoption scenarios, the pes mechanism helps to almost double farmers’ income. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] showed a wide variation in yield across crops and geographies (de ponti et al . 2012). the average yield reduction in the switch from intensive farming to organic is around 10–15%; meanwhile, in traditional rainfed agriculture, organic farming has the potential to increase the yield. similarly, a study by indian council of agricultural research (icar) that examined yield across 12 states showed that the organic yield of some vegetables, spices, etc. increased by 5–20% as compared to the inorganic yield. however, a 5–20% yield reduction was observed in the case of rice, certain vegetables, and groundnut (khurana and kumar 2020). cropping systems that input sufficient organic nutrients reported at least a 10–20% increase in the organic carbon content of the soil. evidently, there are contrasting claims concerning the initial yield dip/spike during a transition to organic farming systems. as such, it is important to assess the realistic yield gaps (if any) consequent to conversion and the time required for the yield to stabilize or improve for different crops/cropping systems. scientific estimations of yield gaps and the time taken for yield stabilization should form the basis for deciding the quantity and schedule of payments. while yield figures are important, changes in farm income are also determined by the prices that farmers charge. yields are sometimes compensated by higher prices; the results of a study by devi (2018) highlight this aspect. for example, the average yield of banana (nendran variety) from an organic field in kerala was 13% lower, but it fetched a 20% higher price, leading to a 33% increase in income. in the case of organic coconut production, the income advantage was around 43%, as production was export oriented. the advantage was a modest 2% in organic black pepper farming. the average yield of organic rice was only 2.077 t/ha against 2.625 t/ha from conventional farms, which is 21% less; however, the price premium was not enough to offset this yield gap and the returns were reduced by 6% (devi 2018). thus, incentives need to align with the cropping/farming systems, location, yield, and income patterns. the field-level assessment of these aspects could be linked to the existing system under the commission for agricultural cost and prices (cacp), which engages in regular field data collection. further, a national system for estimating the value of ecosystem services (nseves) must be formed to regularly assess the value of ecosystem services from organic systems. this system, like the system of national accounts, can assist in the estimation of the green gross domestic product (gdp) as well, through the generation of data on net ecosystem service changes and their value. alternately, the methodology from kumar et al . (2019) (detailed in footnote 2) could be adopted to arrive at the per hectare value of non-market ecosystem services [27] m. manjula and p. indira devi from organic farming, and the rupee value of the ecological incentive to be paid out as pes to organic farmers. the financial base for aes/pes could be pooled from various stakeholders who derive direct/indirect service benefits from the agriculture sector. this includes industries that depend on agricultural produce for raw materials and trade; consumers of organic products; and sectors that use agricultural biodiversity (for instance, the benefits from the gene fund and access and benefit sharing structures). the demand for organic products is influenced by age and income levels, and the price difference ranges between 50–150% depending upon the vegetable (devi 2018). a fixed proportion of the profit that traders earn can be diverted to the fund. funds allocated for climate-smart agriculture (csa) can also be sources of financial support. budgetary provisions for the promotion of organic farming could also be channelized for this. budgetary allocation for the scheme should be shared between state and central governments. scheme implementation could be the responsibility of state governments. the model set by the government of kerala in launching a scheme for royalty payments to rice paddy farmers since september 2020 is one initiative which can be emulated. an amount of ₹ 2,000 per hectare is extended to owners of 2.05 lakh hectares of paddy land in the state. furthermore, ₹ 40 crore has been earmarked for this in the 2020–21 budget for integrated rice development. 5. conclusion the central and state governments have implemented a host of measures to encourage organic farming in india. however, they have had a limited impact on the area under organic cultivation. market-based instruments are suggested as complementary policy mechanisms to encourage large-scale adoption of organic farming in india. these instruments are to be introduced in addition to the measures implemented to overcome technological and institutional constraints in the large-scale conversion to organic cultivation. funds for implementing this scheme could be pooled from various stakeholders who derive direct/indirect service benefits from the agriculture sector. market-based instruments have been successfully implemented across the globe to encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly farming practices. india could do well to emulate these successes. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] references ahlem, z., and m. a. hammas. 2017. ―organic farming: a path of sustainable development.‖ international journal of economics and management sciences 6: 5. https://doi.org/10.4172/2162-6359.1000456. dash, a. 2019. ―payment for ecosystem services: palampur in himachal has a model in place.‖ down to earth, july 30, 2019. 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policy.‖ new delhi: ministry of environment and forests. https://ibkp.dbtindia.gov.in/dbt_content_test/cms/guidelines/20190411103 521431_national%20environment%20policy,%202006.pdf ottaviani, d. 2010. the role of pes in agriculture. rome: food and agricultural organisation. http://www.fao.org/3/i2100e/i2100e01.pdf. pingali, p. l. 2012. ―green revolution: impacts, limits, and the path ahead.‖ proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 109 (31): 12302–12308. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0912953109. press information bureau (pib). 2020. ―organic food for health and nutrition #atma nirbhar krishi.‖ new delhi: press information bureau. https://pib.gov.in/pressreleasepage.aspx?prid=1645497. sandhu h. s., s. d. wratten, and r. cullen. 2020. ―organic agriculture and ecosystem services.‖ environmental science & policy 13 (1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2009.11.002. sep. 2017. ―agri-environmental schemes: how to enhance the agriculture– environment 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pollution editorial note vikram dayal  we have three different perspectives on air pollution. first, ashish kothari sees air pollution in delhi as a symptom of the wrong model of development. because this is one environmental problem that affects the rich and powerful, it may get focused attention. but quick fixes like clean fuels will not solve the problem. we need to change the energy system, so that it is based on renewables, and even restrain energy consumption itself. the urban transport system has to be overhauled so that public transport, cycling, and walking are given priority. housing, too, should move to such materials as mud and bamboo. and agriculture can be based on organic, biologically diverse farming. all these radical changes require radical democracy with meaningful participation, and that each of us change our worldviews. second, rohit negi notes that members of india’s civil society such as kothari want the indian state to take environmental concerns more seriously. negi examines one aspect of delhi’s air pollution: when it moves across the portfolios of different administrative units, how do they collaborate? government departments and political leaders engage differently with the phenomenon and with even trying to collaborate. negi discusses the views of political leaders—the initial appeal by the chief minister of delhi; the response by the chief minister of punjab, which was that his state lacked resources; and the suggestion of the minister of environment and forests at the centre—the smog in delhi was not an emergency.  associate editor and coordinator for this conversations section. professor, institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi; vikday@iegindia.org copyright © dayal 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.39 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.39 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] third, priya shyamsundar picks up one aspect of delhi’s air pollution that kothari and negi identify—rice straw burning in the indo-gangetic plains. shyamsundar cites a study by iit kanpur (2016) that estimates that a third of the concentration of small dust particles in delhi in winter months is due to biomass burning. in contrast to kothari—who appears to suggest that you need a wholly different kind of agriculture, and lists a menu of farreaching changes—shyamsundar focuses on agricultural machines that can solve the straw burning challenge. the happy seeder, for example, has diverse benefits: it reduces air pollution and water use and increases soil organic matter. negi draws attention to the punjab chief minister saying that the central government has to lead such efforts; shyamsundar closes her piece by suggesting that the central government’s announcement of a subsidy package to help farmers who stop burning straw—along with other measures—could reduce pollution and lead to longer-term food security. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 77–80, july 2018 conversations 1: water governance reforming governance to solve india’s water crisis mihir shah as we move into the 21st century, india faces a major crisis of water. this crisis threatens our citizens’ basic right to drinking water; it also puts millions’ livelihoods at risk. while there is growing recognition both on the ground and among researchers and policymakers about the gravity of the water crisis, what is not adequately understood is the link between this crisis and the ossified structures of water governance in india. the existing paradigm of water governance is characterised by several features, dimensions, and principles: 1. command-and-control: whether it be rivers or groundwater, the dominant paradigm is of command-and-control by large, centralised, decaying bureaucracies. there is no scientific understanding of river systems or their interconnections with the health of catchment areas and groundwater. what has prevailed is accurately described by ghosh, in this conversation, as ‘arithmetic hydrology’. as ghosh argues, ‘these definitions are clearly bereft of understanding the broader ecosystems and livelihoods concerns in a river basin, and are therefore reductionist on the one hand, and myopic on the other.’ 2: unidisciplinarity and unidimensionality: since the goal is seen as dam construction and groundwater extraction, the only disciplines evoked are engineering and hydrogeology – that too in their narrowest versions. 3. silos: we have divided water into silos – groundwater and surface water, as also irrigation and domestic use. there is little dialogue across  distinguished visiting professor, shiv nadar university. he chaired the government of india committee on restructuring the central water commission and central ground water board during 2015–16. village jatashankar, tehsil bagli, district dewas 455227, madhya pradesh, india; mihirbhai25@gmail.com copyright © shah 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.38 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.38 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] silos, leading to ‘hydro-schizophrenia’ – the left hand of drinking water does not know what the right hand of irrigation is doing, and the left foot of surface water does not know what the right foot of groundwater is doing. 4. supply-side focus: the entire focus has been on augmenting supplies; little attention has been paid to managing water demand. 5. no reference to sustainability: sustainability is rarely a consideration; this oversight endangers the future of both groundwater and river flows. 6. discrimination and lack of equity in access to water: historical forms of discrimination combine with the impact of growing economic inequalities to create severe discrimination in access to water on grounds of caste, class, gender, location, and community. 7. lack of transparency and access to water information: needless secrecy of water data and information and restricted access for researchers and stakeholders over the years has compromised the quality of water management and exacerbated conflicts. 8. british common law: the legal framework governing water belongs to 19th century british common law, which legitimises and perpetuates inequity in access to water by giving unlimited powers of drawal of water to owners of land. this outmoded governance architecture has not kept pace with either emerging realities or the growing scientific understanding of water, which attempts to embrace all the scientific disciplines necessary for truly comprehending water. the central water commission (cwc), set up in 1945, and the central ground water board (cgwb), founded in 1971, and their counterparts in the states continue to operate unreformed. civil engineers at the cwc and state irrigation departments have little clue regarding the management of irrigation systems, which require a different set of skills and operating culture. the story at the cgwb and state groundwater departments is similar. populated with hydrogeologists, they were created in a different era when the imperative was the construction of tube wells. but the current situation is very different from that of 40 years ago. most areas in india today face a severe groundwater crisis and the challenge is of participatory groundwater management (pgwm) and participatory irrigation management (pim), as successfully pioneered in some states. today, many states have blazed the trail in which illustrates the direction in which we need to reform water governance in india. [79] mihir shah the single most important factor of drying post-monsoon flows in india’s peninsular rivers is the over-extraction of groundwater. drying baseflows of groundwater have converted many of our ‘gaining’ rivers into ‘losing’ rivers. without taking a unified view of surface water and groundwater, and understanding their interconnections at the river basin level, we will not be able to save our rivers. not only must civil engineers and hydrogeologists work together, they also need to work closely with professionals from many disciplines, including the social sciences, management, agronomy, ecological economics, and river ecology. this has been correctly underscored by ghosh in his contribution to this conversation. with this in mind, it has recently been proposed to the government of india that the cwc and cgwb be merged to create a multidisciplinary national water commission (nwc). it should operate in a decentralised manner within each of india’s major river basins (committee on restructuring the cwc and cgwb 2016). as arthington emphasises in this conversation, ‘environmental flow requirements vary with location along a river, from river to river, basin to basin and region to region, depending on climate, hydrology, geomorphology and landscape characteristics, as well as the social-ecological characteristics of the river basin.’ this has to become the guiding principle of the nwc. the nwc must build, institutionalise, and appropriately manage an architecture of partnerships with knowledge institutions and practitioners in the water space. the water challenges of india are too large and complex to be left to the government alone. simultaneously, we need a national water framework law (nwfl), which enunciates a series of principles and practices that all states must sign up to. the recently drafted nwfl of the ministry of water resources, government of india provides an essential corrective to british common law and builds upon the public trust doctrine enunciated by the supreme court whereby the state, at all levels, holds natural resources in trust for the community. this would ensure that no one’s use of water would deprive anyone of the right to water for life as defined under the nwfl. unfortunately, over the past three decades, not merely in india but across the globe, reform has come to connote a policy shift in the direction of privatisation and a reduction of the state’s role in the economy. such a narrow view fails to understand that each sector of the economy has some very specific features and reform needs to be defined with reference to these differentia specifica of each sector. the state’s role remains critical in many instances, but this role itself needs profound reform. a key element of the reform needed in the governance of a natural resource like water is the recognition that the economy is but a small part of the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] larger ecosystem, and proceeding with an inadequate recognition of this fact and a narrow notion of economic development can only lead to disastrous outcomes, as evidenced by the fate of the planet currently in this age of the anthropocene. references committee on restructuring the cwc and cgwb. 2016. a 21st century institutional architecture for india’s water reforms. ministry of water resources, government of india ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 269-272, july 2023 book review uncertainty and climate change policymaking in india sadaf javed mehta, lyla, hans nicolai adam, and shilpi srivastava, eds. 2022. the politics of climate change and uncertainty in india. new york: routledge. edited by lyla mehta, hans nicolai adam, and shilpi srivastava, the politics of climate change and uncertainty in india is an important and timely contribution to the everexpanding interest in climate change studies. the volume is an inter-disciplinary effort, with essays focused on addressing what the editors term the “science and politics of uncertainty”, which is often described as the “super wicked problem” that undermines effective policymaking. all the essays in the volume are informed by richly textured ethnographies, intensive fieldwork, ground-based surveys, and the study of archival sources. lastly, the  phd candidate, department of geography, rutgers, state university of new jersey. sadaf.javed@rutgers.edu copyright © javed 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1039 mailto:sadaf.javed@rutgers.edu https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1039 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [270] studies are mainly focused on three ecological zones in india: kutch (western india), the sundarbans (the deltaic segment of eastern india), and mumbai (one of india’s sprawling megacities on the west coast). as the editors inform us in the introduction, these three distinct ecological locations are marked by their ecological contrasts: drylands, deltaic ecosystems, and rural–urban/peri-urban complexity. the introductory chapter by srivastava, et al. discusses how one specific strand of thinking about uncertainty dominates, which involves making abstract future projections and scenario-building through modelling exercises. however, such modelling efforts, as pointed out, often fail to incorporate different perspectives, especially those of disempowered and marginal communities and their livelihood strategies. in contrast, by documenting and engaging with the lived experiences of vulnerable populations, the authors aver that more meaningful and transformative policymaking can be achieved. in other words, we need to move away from having a singular focus on “scientific expertise” and instead also incorporate and engage with how climate change uncertainties and impacts play out at the popular level. in effect, for the authors, studies need to keep a conversation going between various levels of experiences, calculations, and realities: from the “above” (expert knowledge associated with science and policy), the “below” (lived experiences of the local people), and the “middle” (the knowledge brokers or intermediaries between the “above” and “below”). according to the authors, these new “hybrid perspectives” or “hybrid alliances” (13) could bridge the various gaps in knowledge on climate change impacts and could then potentially “facilitate processes that embrace rather than eliminate uncertainty” (3). this chapter also compellingly unpacks the three types of uncertainties: a) aleatoric or ecological uncertainties, b) knowledge or epistemic uncertainties, and c) uncertainties linked to larger political economy conditions. the second chapter by mehta, et al. focuses on how uncertainty is understood and represented by the “above”, which includes climate scientists and members of “high science” as well as policymakers at the national and sub-national levels. according to the authors, it is important to think about how climate change uncertainty is understood from “above”, as experts, policymakers, and scientists are those who frame climate change policy decisions and aid decision-making on funding priorities (29). this chapter, in essence, is a call for collaborative actions between members of the “above” and laypeople, by arguing that there is a pressing and urgent need to integrate local knowledges and micro-level information into policymaking. methodologically, the chapter relies on rich qualitative interviews with various scientists and policymakers in india and abroad. [271] javed chapter 3 discusses uncertainty by drawing upon and engaging with the field of environmental history. through a careful study of archival records (1800 onwards), damodaran, et al. track how the colonial government and local communities reacted to extreme weather events and environmental shocks in colonial kutch (gujarat) and the sundarbans (west bengal). the chapter is mainly aimed at comparing and contrasting the “above” (the colonial state and the postcolonial state) and the “below” (nomads and pastoralists from kutch and sundarbans), with regard to how uncertainty can be associated with “marginal environments” (extreme weather and natural events) and the “environmental normal” (typical seasonal weather patterns and relatively stable environments). unlike the other essays, this chapter is exclusively based on the study of archival records and skilfully reveals how the colonial state often misjudged local adaptation strategies and entirely misread how inhabitants in the kutch and the sundarbans both coped and harnessed a range of opportunities within extreme environmental contexts. the three remaining chapters (chapters 4–6)—with their empirical focus on kutch, the sundarbans, and mumbai—discuss how uncertainty can be conceptualized through various socio-ecological standpoints. the case studies, however, are mostly confined to exploring and documenting the diverse responses of those who comprise the “below”: the koli community (fishing community) from mumbai, the pastoralists from the kutch region, and the islanders in the sundarbans. by highlighting their perspectives and everyday adaptation strategies, the authors point out that these marginal and vulnerable communities need climate change policymaking to consider their specific and concrete anxieties about uncertainty, rather than only speaking to high science and model-building or calculations around probable scenarios. overall, these empirically driven and field work–based chapters provide enough evidence to argue for the co-production of knowledge and the need for a “hybrid perspective” in climate change policymaking. the concluding chapter builds on the important arguments of the previous chapters and paves the way for recommendations for future research around climate change–induced uncertainties. by building on various rounds of meetings and roundtable conversations with multiple stakeholders—that occurred at research sites as well as outside—the final chapter focuses on the importance of the “plurality of perspectives and how one can work towards bridging the gaps in understanding and perspectives” (179). in sum, the call is to revive the focus on everyday knowledges and the experiences of marginal and vulnerable communities for policymaking. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [272] in a nutshell, this collection is a convincing effort and timely addition to the fast-growing interest in climate change literature. in my opinion, it will be extremely valuable for students, journalists, scientists, and policymakers, who are on the frontline of efforts aimed at understanding and documenting climate change impacts. most importantly, as discussed prior, this edited volume adds to the critical discourse on climate change adaptation by emphasising the value of incorporating diverse perspectives for effective policymaking in india and beyond. in sum, the politics of climate change makes a compelling case for restoring the centrality of “place-based” indigenous knowledge and experiences in the formulation of solutions to the gravest challenge of our times. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references mehta, lyla, hans nicolai adam, and shilpi srivastava, eds. 2022. the politics of climate change and uncertainty in india. new york: routledge. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 83–85, july 2018 conversations 2: air pollution to tackle air pollution, one needs to be grounded ashish kothari  ecological issues are rarely headlines in the national media. so when delhi’s horrific air pollution issue took up prime time this winter, i found it ironically welcome. perhaps, just perhaps, if many powerful people in india’s capital are affected, this could be an environmental problem that will see some focused attention? or perhaps not. much of the discussion in official circles remains centred around quick fixes, as it has been for many years. compressed natural gas (cng) and other clean fuels, phasing out old vehicles, euro standards for automobiles, odd-and-even-number-plated traffic, stronger standards for power stations—all these are worth doing, but they will not yield anything more than temporary relief, if even that. ecological crises require getting to root structural reasons: who is taking decisions for whose benefit, what models of well-being or ‘development’ are being adopted, and so on. for many decades, india’s politicians, bureaucrats, and corporations have pushed a form of development whose single-minded reliance on economic growth has overshadowed all considerations of justice. this is accompanied (or underwritten) by an unregulated hunger for profits and material gains and the pursuit of political power through ugly electoral competitiveness. and so a country averaging the second highest rate of growth in the world for the past 25 years has amongst the worst records regarding hunger and deprivation, nutrition, inequality, gender discrimination, casteism, and ecological damage. air pollution is just one of the outcomes of development that claims uncounted victims as ‘collateral damage’.  kalpavriksh, apt 5 shree datta krupa, 908 deccan gymkhana, pune 411004, india; chikikothari@gmail.com copyright © kothari 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.40 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.40 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] so what would be truly meaningful solutions to this? we could get to this by considering each of the immediate causes of the ‘airpocalypse’ (an apt term coined by greenpeace india) (dahiya et al. 2017). one, replace coal with renewable sources of power, which are eminently comparable in cost if one were to include all the ecological and social costs of coal. even more important is widespread dialogue on and restraints on energy consumption itself, for even renewable sources would be destructive with ever-increasing power demand. then there is the explosion of autovehicles. in the post-globalization era (early 1990s), governments have offered all kinds of sops to boost the automobile industry. cities that were pedestrian and bicycle-friendly have been converted into a nightmarish maze of roads, flyovers, and parking lots. trying to solve this by mandating cleaner fuels is shortsighted, as delhi’s cng experiment has shown. highest priority has to be given to public transportation, cycling, and walking, now becoming common in some european cities. pune is currently designing an ambitious plan for cycling, a game-changer if implemented. additionally, urban design that minimizes the work–home commute can save hours of productive time and reduce fuel use and pollution. construction dust is another major source of pollution that requires rethinking architecture, with greater attention to mud, bamboo, and other alternatives to cement–concrete and to dust control mechanisms. but more fundamental is controlling the real estate and construction industry, a political minefield. another basic issue is large-scale rural–urban migration, requiring massive new infrastructure. several villages have reversed this trend by vitalizing the local economy and tackling social injustice. policies that support such changes—including by redirecting investments currently skewed towards cities and providing good facilities for basic needs including health, learning, and communications—could help buck the migration trend. there is then the issue of crop residue burning, especially relevant for northern india. ecological damage, increasing economic cost of farming, and poor returns in the market, all related to the green revolution model, have made it harder for farmers to stay afloat. instead of traditional techniques of fallow agriculture, farmers simply burn the residue and immediately put the land back into cropping. a shift is needed to organic, biologically diverse farming; better market remuneration for crops; villagebased agro-processing; and direct sale to consumers through producer companies. plenty of examples in india show the feasibility of these approaches. [85] ashish kothari three final points are important. none of the above will happen if decision-making continues to be concentrated in the government (and its corporate buddies). recalling the roots of democracy (=power of the people), we have to demand that we have a voice in the decisions that affect our neighbourhoods and the city we live in. if nascent moves towards participatory budgeting and sabha planning in pune, bengaluru, delhi are taken to their logical end, we may be able to get decisions of the above kind, depending also on how much we are willing to take responsibility and participate meaningfully. radical democracy is also needed for villages to be empowered to say ‘no’ to urban exploitation of their resources. secondly, while air pollution affects everyone, it affects the poor (and especially women and children) more. they often live and work in more polluted areas, are more vulnerable to the ill effects of pollution, and are less able to afford treatment. workers in industries, construction, traffic management, and similar jobs are most susceptible. so, the poor need priority actions, which also means that they need to be central to decisionmaking. how about giving the millions of workers who cycle to work a say in how roads should be designed? third, we need transformations in our worldviews. many of us ‘educated’ types tend to think that life revolves around material possessions, money, and instant fame. we ignore the most basic things in life: air, water, the satisfaction of a quiet moment, the happiness of being with nature and loved ones. there is a collective insanity in a species that pollutes the two things without which none of us can live: clean air and water. treating this madness requires changing what we ‘teach’ our children, looking deeply within ourselves to find the care and love and ethics we are each capable of. cleaner fuels simply do not make the cut. references dahiya, s., myllyvirta, l., and sivalingam, n. 2017. airpocalypse: assessment of air pollution in indian cities. greenpeace india, bengaluru. https://secured-static.greenpeace.org/india/global/india/airpoclypse--not-just-delhi-air-in-most-indian-cities-hazardous--greenpeace-report.pdf https://secured-static.greenpeace.org/india/global/india/airpoclypse--not-just-delhi--air-in-most-indian-cities-hazardous--greenpeace-report.pdf https://secured-static.greenpeace.org/india/global/india/airpoclypse--not-just-delhi--air-in-most-indian-cities-hazardous--greenpeace-report.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 5–11, july 2020 commentary the post-covid india: making science and technology socially and environmentally relevant prerna singh bindra,  chirag gajjar,  arunabha ghosh,  manoj kumar,  crispino lobo,  digangana mukherjee,  pradeep nair,  shannon olsson,  nitin pandit,  tina patrao,  uma ramakrishnan,  usha ramanathan,  nimish shah,  priya shyamsundar,  prashanth n srinivas   bindra.prerna@gmail.com.  chirag.gajjar@wri.org.  arunabha.ghosh@ceew.in.  manoj@tatatrusts.org.  cslobo1@gmail.com.  digangana@echonetwork.in.  p.nair@fordfoundation.org.  shannon@echonetwork.in.  nitin.pandit@atree.org.  tina@echonetwork.in.  uramakri@ncbs.res.in.  urushar@gmail.com.  shah@toiletboard.org.  priya.shyamsundar@tnc.org.   prashanthns@iphindia.org. the authors represent a multi-disciplinary group brought together for a discussion on covid-19 in may 2020 by the echo network, center for cellular and molecular platforms, (c-camp), uas-gkvk campus, bellary road, bangalore 560 065, india. copyright © bindra, gajjar, ghosh, kumar, lobo, mukherjee, nair, olsson, pandit, patrao, ramakrishnan, ramanathan, shah, shyamsundar, srinivas 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.279 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] 1. introduction the ongoing global pandemic and its health and economic effects have aggravated multiple existing systemic vulnerabilities linked to human and environmental systems, both in india and around the globe. science and technology offer evidenceand data-driven strategies to address these challenges, but they ought to be grounded in an overall value framework that applies evidence and data to strengthen human, social, and ecological resilience. critical to identifying successful solutions is an interdisciplinary approach. 2. dialogue across disciplines in may 2020, steered by the echo network, 1 the authors of this commentary—a group of economists, public health professionals, lawyers, environmental scholars, policymakers, activists, journalists, and ceos— assembled over three online discussions to identify the urgent problems created, revealed, or exacerbated by the current crisis; clarify priorities for rejuvenating india; and establish immediate starting points. our goal was to stimulate further discussions on the role of science and technology as india readies itself to address and move beyond covid-19. the online dialogue started with a survey to identify pressing covid-19 related concerns. at the first online meeting, participants identified a series of priority challenges that were later categorized into broader concepts. a second discussion streamlined these constructs into the ―compass points‖ that we outline below. the final conversation led to the drawing up of recommendations to which science, including social science and local knowledge systems, and technology can contribute. these are meant to serve as triggers for deeper dialogue across sectors on knowledge gaps and methods for targeted interdisciplinary research. this process, through a progressive funnelling of ideas from challenges to concepts to recommendations, allowed diverse viewpoints to be recognized and synthesized (echo network 2020). 1 please see https://www.echonetwork.in/. https://www.echonetwork.in/ [7] prerna singh bindra, chirag gajjar, arunabha ghosh, manoj kumar, crispino lobo, et al. 3. preventive and responsive public health systems while life expectancy has steadily increased in india, morbidity and mortality risks vary significantly across the country based on location and socio-economic status (ravindran and gaitonde 2018; isdbic 2017). thus, the current pandemic calls for a careful diagnostic assessment of disease and accident risk across indian states and the environmental, agricultural, and livelihood sources of risk. further, the decentralized and intersectoral management of interactions among people, livestock, wildlife, forests, and water is essential to prevent and respond to infectious diseases. science and technology have a role to play in facilitating onehealth 2 approaches that recognize the interconnections among people, animals, and plants and their shared environment (chatterjee et al. 2016; vanak and paul 2020). in addition, we need a system-wide overhaul of primary healthcare, with investments in infrastructure and provisions, disease surveillance based on onehealth principles, and local health governance supported by trained public health professionals rather than specialist doctors, who currently dominate public health and infectious disease management. for instance, providing essential public health workers, such as the million women ashas (accredited social health activists) at the forefront of the government of india’s covid response, with training, equipment, and strategies to cope with any negative societal responses to their work, is critical. there are serious capacity gaps at the district level in primary and secondary healthcare and educational programmes on nutrition, safety, and hygiene. these gaps need to be filled with the support of nodal public health research and training centres. earlier efforts, including the highlevel expert group on universal health coverage, can offer guidance on such investments (planning commission of india, 2011, takhur 2011, patel et al. 2015). the national mission on biodiversity and human well being, the united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs), and the global health security agenda provide specific targets and indicators.3 2 onehealth is defined by the centers for disease control (cdc) as ―a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment‖ (see the cdc website for more information: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html.) 3 please see http://psa.gov.in/pmstiac-mssions/national-biodiversity-mission for national biodiversity mission, office of the principal scientific advisor to the government of india. please see https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ for the 17 interconnected sdgs. the global health security agenda (ghsa) is a group of https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/index.html http://psa.gov.in/pmstiac-mssions/national-biodiversity-mission https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] 4. communities with dignity and equity the current crisis has aggravated as well as focused attention on the glaring inequities within india’s population, with some staying at home without the ability to practise physical distancing and others returning home under extremely difficult circumstances. it has also brought into stark relief the invisible work undertaken by two demographic groups—migrants and women caregivers. the mass migration of indians as a result of covid-19, in particular, has put a spotlight on two critical issues: a) the need for mandatory registration of employees at the lowest administrative levels of businesses (to enable assessment and communication); and b) decentralized data-driven public service delivery (to meet basic needs). a series of recommendations are available in the 2017 working group on migration (mhupa 2017). importantly, significant progress is possible by enforcing existing laws such as the interstate migrant workmen’s act of 1979 (chief labour commissioner 2020). supporting vulnerable mobile populations will require decentralized action by smart, inclusive, and sustainable communities. thus, local governments (urban and rural) need to be empowered to deliver quality public services— and particularly health and safety information and services—while simultaneously enabling residents to access information and data at their source. medium-term strategies may include establishing centraland statelevel commissions (with public representation) to examine current inequities in service access and district-level citizen-focused public emergency funds. some immediate actions, supported by evidence-based research on impacts on nature and the livelihoods of both men and women, can help with long-term sustainable development. public works programmes such as the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) 4 and pradhan manthri krishi sinchayee yojana can be used to restore ecosystems, build agricultural infrastructure, and conserve water resources, especially in rural districts with high tribal, returning migrant, or daily wage worker populations. 67 countries, international organizations, non-government organizations, and private-sector companies that have come together to address threats posed by infectious diseases. https://ghsagenda.org/. 4 please see narayan (2020) on mgnrega’s potential to address economic crisis-related challenges. https://nrega.nic.in/ https://ghsagenda.org/ [9] prerna singh bindra, chirag gajjar, arunabha ghosh, manoj kumar, crispino lobo, et al. 5. sustainable livelihoods with the economy in crisis, the pandemic has brought attention to india’s persistently large informal sector (ghani et al. 2013), which provides over 90% of jobs (mehrotra and parida 2019), and the dominant role of micro, small, and medium enterprises (msmes). urgent action to support msmes would include payment of public-sector outstanding dues and a time-bound government credit guarantee on incremental loans to induce lending to msmes. further, a recovery package that includes low-interest credit to promote climateand biodiversity-friendly business practices and investments in clean r&d, waste management, energy generation, grid development, and regenerative agriculture would nudge india onto a climate-smart and nature-positive pathway. successful examples of distributed market linkages point to how we may be able to move the economy forward with a united focus on jobs, growth, and sustainability. new scientific and technological innovations in distributed and decentralized energy, water, and sanitation infrastructure, sustainable cooling, regenerative agriculture, and rural value chains can support both rural and urban economies (ghosh et al. 2020). human, livestock, and agri-residue waste offer additional potential resources for conversion to energy or farm nutrients. these new sources of growth would require research, capital, and public education to bolster rural entrepreneurship. collaborations between industry, education, and the government can provide pedagogical and technical training for the production, use, and repair of new technologies and services. with the active participation of indian youth, both men and women, this interdisciplinary space where science, technology, social science, and policy intersect can generate innovation. women’s labour force participation in india was already on the decline (32% in 2005 to 21% in 2018 [ilo 2020]) and any job rebound from covid-19 is likely to be far easier for men than women. hence, technical training would need to pay attention to drawing indian women into the labour force. 6. secure human and environmental ecosystems modern scientific knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, and sdg targets can be combined into a roadmap that prevents environmental degradation and strengthens ecosystem protection and restoration. this roadmap would need to be guided by careful research and analyses of biodiversity and ecosystem service losses and predictions regarding disease emergence, climate change impacts, and economic and health implications. rigorous environmental, social, and economic assessments, combined with ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] stakeholder participation, and lifecycle analyses of infrastructure and industry planning can help incorporate the benefits of ecological goods and services into decision-making. to be effective, research would need to be coupled with local monitoring. the national mission on biodiversity and human well being can assist in this process (krishnan 2020). closely entwined with the loss in biodiversity and ecosystem services is agriculture, which is fundamental to india’s food security and for securing livelihoods. making agriculture both more competitive and increasingly nature-positive and climate-responsive is a critical challenge. research to foster integrated watershed development and regenerative agricultural practices would need to go hand-in-hand with investments in upgrading rural skills, technology adoption across value chains, and efficient postharvest activities. 7. conclusions the pandemic has brought to the forefront systemic issues that require an interdisciplinary focus to generate effective solutions. innovations in science and technology have the potential to drive positive social, economic, and environmental change, but they need to be explicitly leveraged for this purpose. interdisciplinary research can facilitate reforms that are more sustainable and equitable. we hope that our efforts will stimulate new science and additional conversations across sectors and geographic boundaries to identify ways to better embed scientific discourse into society. references chatterjee, pranab, manish kakkar, and sanjay chaturvedi. 2016. ―integrating one health in national health policies of developing countries: india’s lost opportunities.‖ infectious diseases of poverty 5 (87). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249016-0181-2. chief labour commissioner. 2020. the inter-state migrant workmen (regulation of employment and conditions of service) act, 1979. accessed june 22, 2020. https://clc.gov.in/clc/acts-rules/inter-state-migrant-workmen echo network. ―india’s journey beyond covid.‖ accessed june 22, 2020. https://www.echonetwork.in/download. ghani, ejaz., william r. kerr, stephan d. o’ connell. 2013. ―the exceptional persistence of india’s unorganized sector.‖ policy research working paper 6454. washington dc: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-016-0181-2 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-016-0181-2 https://clc.gov.in/clc/acts-rules/inter-state-migrant-workmen https://www.echonetwork.in/download [11] prerna singh bindra, chirag gajjar, arunabha ghosh, manoj kumar, crispino lobo, et al. ghosh, arunabha, shuva raha, nandini harihar, shweta jha, hemant mallya, disha agarwal, prateek aggarwal, et al. 2020. jobs, growth and sustainability: a new social contract for india’s recovery. ceew and nipfp report. new delhi: council on energy, environment and water. india state-level disease burden initiative collaborators (isdbic). 2017. ―nations within a nation: variations in epidemiological transition across the states of india, 1990–2016 in the global burden of disease study.‖ the lancet 390 (10111): 2437–2460. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(17)32804-0. international labour organization (ilo), ilostat database. 2020. ―labor force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15+) (modeled ilo estimate).‖ the world bank. accessed march 1, 2020. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sl.tlf.cact.fe.zs. krishnan, anusha. 2020. ―the national mission on biodiversity and human wellbeing: for a greener, healthier, and more sustainable way of life.‖ ncbs news, march 3. http://news.ncbs.res.in/bigger-picture/national-mission-biodiversityand-human-well-being-greener-healthier-and-more. mehrotra, santosh and jajati k. parida. 2019. ―india’s employment crisis: rising education levels and falling non-agricultural job growth.‖ cse working paper. bengaluru: azim premji university. ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (mhupa). 2017. report on the working group on migration. new delhi: ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, government of india. narayan, sudha. 2020. ―the continuing relevance of mgnrega.‖ the india forum, march 21. https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/continuing-relevancemgnrega. patel, vikram, rachana parikh, sunil 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https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sl.tlf.cact.fe.zs http://news.ncbs.res.in/bigger-picture/national-mission-biodiversity-and-human-well-being-greener-healthier-and-more http://news.ncbs.res.in/bigger-picture/national-mission-biodiversity-and-human-well-being-greener-healthier-and-more https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/continuing-relevance-mgnrega https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/continuing-relevance-mgnrega https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00955-1 https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/the-time-is-right-for-onehealth-science/article31069639.ece https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/the-time-is-right-for-onehealth-science/article31069639.ece ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 185–190, july 2020 notes from the field why regulations come up short? some observations from a field study of the kanpur leather industry aparajita singh  and haripriya gundimeda  1. introduction poor water quality adversely impacts the environment and public health. the quality of river water in india has been declining drastically. the number of ―severely polluted‖ river stretches increased from 34 to 45 during 2015–2017 (cpcb 2018). cpcb (2019) has identified 17 categories of highly polluting industries, of which the leather industry is among the most damaging. effluents from leather factories contain toxic chemicals such as chromium, sulphates, and chlorides. exposure to tannery pollutants is hazardous to human health and can cause diseases such as stomach and lung cancer; further, improper disposal of pollutants can adversely affect soil and groundwater quality (bosnic et al. 2000; pure earth 2016). the government of india has set an upper limit for effluent discharge from leather industries and provides technical support to install effluent treatment plants to treat wastewater before it is discharged into water bodies. despite stringent regulatory standards, the quality of water bodies remains alarmingly low in leather clusters. thus, this study examines why regulations have failed in addressing the problem of leather pollution. we undertook a field study of kanpur’s leather industry, one of india's most polluted leather clusters and a significant contributor of pollution in the ganges (clri 2012). our field survey of the tanning industry in kanpur in  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology bombay, powai, mumbai – 400076, india; aparajita.anchal@gmail.com.   department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology bombay, powai, mumbai – 400076, india; haripriya.gundimeda@iitb.ac.in. copyright © singh and gundimeda 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.107 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.107 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [186] 2018 showed that asymmetric information and the lack of incentives within environmental regulations are responsible for the industry’s unresolved pollution problem. 2. kanpur leather industry the kanpur leather industry was founded at the beginning of the nineteenth century. it developed rapidly under british rule due to the demand for leather boots, saddlery, and harness equipment. easy access to the cantonment area that was in continual need of military equipment, such as leather boots, the availability of water supply from the ganges, labour, raw materials, and large areas of vacant land, led to the development of the cluster (clri 2012). kanpur has two leather clusters—jajmau in kanpur city has 250 operational tanneries and unnao, 35 km from kanpur, has 50 operational tanneries. the responsibility of ensuring that kanpur leather tanneries conform with regulatory norms lies with the uttar pradesh pollution control board (uppcb), which records data on pollution and levies penalties on defaulters. about 85% of the tanneries operating in kanpur are small scale and have a primary effluent treatment plant (petp) to pre-treat their pollutant discharge before it is treated at a common effluent treatment plant (cetp). the uppcb monitors two parameters of the effluent discharge from the petps—total suspended solids (tss) and chromium (cr), the permissible limits being 600 mg/l and 2 mg/l, respectively. we analyzed the uppcb pollution data for 2013–2016 and found that 80% of the tanneries discharge effluents that meet permissible limits (see table 1). the official data seemed quite puzzling given the severity of the pollution problem in the cluster (mukherjee 2013; parthasarathy 2016; sengupta 2017; koshy 2018). the discrepancy compelled us to study the regulation and monitoring of these industries. table 1. number of tanneries in non-compliance with effluent standards region year jajmau unnao 2016 20 out of 198 (10%) 8 out 42 (19%) 2015 28 out of 173 (16%) 7 out of 47 (14%) 2014 26 out of 129 (20%) 12 out of 43 (27%) 2013 14 out of 105 (13%) 10 out of 43 (23%) source: uppcb kanpur [187] aparajita singh and haripriya gundimeda 3. issues of asymmetric information and incentive compatibility within regulations the objectives of our field study were two-fold. firstly, we studied the loopholes in the monitoring of pollutants in tanneries, and secondly, we examined if the regulations adequately incentivize tanneries to treat their industrial discharge. 3.1. asymmetric information the uppcb monitors tanneries at random using the ―grab sampling‖ method, wherein the sample collected reflects the concentration of pollutants only at one point in time. however, the concentration of effluents in discharge varies for different processes in leather manufacturing. thus, the results may be misleading as the pollutant concentration may vary across the day. tanneries often discharge pollutants illegally at night. thus, random checks are inadequate to monitor such practices. furthermore, pollution data shows that most tanneries are inspected only four to five times a year. there is also scope for manipulation during sample collection. one of the officials we interviewed mentioned that once news of an upcoming inspection spreads among tanners, they reduce the concentration of pollutants by re-arranging the on-going leather manufacturing process. in such cases, the official sample does not reflect the actual toxicity of discharge (personal conversation with a uppcb officer, march 25, 2018). thus, we find that a classic example of information asymmetry emerges, where the polluters know more about their pollutant discharge than the regulators. our interaction with the tanners revealed that there is rampant corruption during the monitoring of tanneries. uppcb officials take bribes to manipulate the collected sample. for example, instances of tannery units providing a sample of mineral water instead of the discharge from the petp were reported by one of the tanners. another tanner revealed that tanneries pay uppcb officials to continue operating illegal tanneries that were officially shut down by the uppcb. bribes are predominant even if firms abide by the law. corruption discourages firms from adopting cleaner technologies, as tanneries prefer to pollute and bribe than to reduce pollution. a higher concentration of effluents is found in the inflows of wastewater at the cetp, indicating that norms are not strictly followed (personal conversation with cetp manager, april 5, 2018). thus, informational asymmetries and rent-seeking practices undermine the monitoring process. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [188] 3.2. incentives incompatibility the command and control regulations impose the same standards on all and fail to recognize the differential ability of firms of varying sizes to meet effluent standards. our conversation with a few members of the kanpur tannery association revealed that the primary aim of tanners is to meet the increasing demand for their products rather than to meet environmental hazard reduction requirements. big exporting houses like mirza international and super house ltd. are more interested in ensuring the quality of leather exported to the european market. europe has enforced the stringent reach (registration, evaluation, authorization and restrictions of chemicals) policy, which regulates the use of hazardous chemicals like azo dyes, formaldehyde, and chromium by the exporter in their leather products. one of the tanneries reported that importing countries often send their teams to inspect the leather manufacturing process and the quality of chemicals used by their exporting houses. central leather research institute (clri) certifies exporting firms to ensure the quality and fulfilment of chemical limits. clri undertakes a thorough examination of the leather samples from tanneries, and samples are kept with them in case of re-evaluation/falsification later. the exported leather is checked at the ports of the importing european countries to examine whether they meet the standards of the reach policy, wherein noncompliance will lead to the rejection of the shipment. therefore, big exporting tanneries have adequate incentives to voluntarily comply with strict environmental standards to maintain the reputation of, and demand for, their products. on the other hand, small tanneries operate in a highly price-competitive domestic market with meagre profit margins. hence, small leather firms prefer to use cheap chemicals over environment-friendly chemicals while manufacturing leather goods. discussions with one clri official revealed that only 12 big tanneries in the cluster had adopted expensive cleaner technologies like waterless chrome tanning, which helps to increase the uptake of chemicals so that fewer chemicals are discharged in the wastewater. the large firms are incentivized to adopt sustainable practices through duty drawback to export high quality, sustainable leather goods. in contrast, small firms that sell in the domestic market have no such incentive. furthermore, regulations require tanneries to contribute to the cetp’s operational costs based on their production capacity. since the contribution to cetp’s operational cost is based on production capacity, the tanneries have no incentive to reduce pollution below effluent standards. rather, the tanneries under-report their official production capacity to reduce monetary burden. [189] aparajita singh and haripriya gundimeda 4. conclusion our field observations highlight that the poor quality of pollution data presents a flawed picture of regulatory compliance by tanneries who, in reality, evade pollution norms. the main driver of this problem is asymmetric information and lack of incentives to treat pollution. we have the following recommendations to address the issue. firstly, a shift from the present monitoring practice of ―grab sampling‖ to ―composite sampling‖ for evaluating the discharge from tanneries effectively is required. composite sampling will require the collection of discrete samples at regular intervals over 24 hours and will represent the average performance of effluent treatment plants during the collection period. random monitoring at different hours of the day, including the night, can also be fruitful to catch the defaulters. involving third parties like research institutions and non-governmental organizations (ngos) in monitoring may help reduce the probability of corruption. secondly, designing policies to incentivize small tanners to reduce pollution is urgently needed. the incentive could be linked to a measurable outcome—in this case, recovery of chrome from the effluent. the subsidy amount can be linked to the extent of chromium recovered and reused. where the tanners adopt waterless chrome tanning, the subsidy can be linked to avoided use of chromium. disbursal of subsidies in the form of direct benefit transfer would act as an incentive for tanners and improve compliance. loans could be extended to tanners for investing in technologies to treat sludge and wastewater. targeted subsidies based on a measurable outcome will offer incentives for reducing effluent discharge and shift the burden of monitoring and demonstrating compliance from pollution control authorities to the tanneries themselves. targeted subsidies will act as a premium for tanneries to reveal accurate information about their pollution abatement levels and reduce the cost of enforcing regulations. references bosnic, j. buljan, and r. p. daniels. 2000. ―pollutants in tannery effluents.‖ united nations industrial development organization. https://leatherpanel.org/sites/default/files/publicationsattachments/pollutants_in_tannery_effluents.pdf. central leather research institute (clri). 2012. ―study report on relocation of tanneries in jajmau, kanpur.‖ lucknow: government of uttar pradesh. central pollution control board (cpcb). 2019. ―guidelines for environmental improvement in leather tannery sector." new delhi. https://leatherpanel.org/sites/default/files/publications-attachments/pollutants_in_tannery_effluents.pdf https://leatherpanel.org/sites/default/files/publications-attachments/pollutants_in_tannery_effluents.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [190] http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/draft%20guidelines%20for%20 environmental%20improvement%20in%20leather%20tannery%20sector.pdf. central pollution control board (cpcb). 2018. ―report on river stretches for restoration of water quality: state wise and priority wise.‖ india environment portal, september 28. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/458938/report-on-riverstretches-for-restoration-of-water-quality-state-wise-and-priority-wise/. sengupta, sushmita. 2017. ―ganga's burden of pollutants from kanpur to varanasi.‖ down to earth, february 21. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/gangas-burden-of-pollutants-from-kanpurto-varanasi-45382. parthasarathy, sindhuja. 2016. ―in pictures: the toxic cost of kanpur's leather industry.‖ india today, july 19. https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/the-toxic-costof-kanpurs-leather-industry-329990-2016-07-19. pure earth. 2016. ―tannery operations.‖ world's worst pollution problems. https://www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/136. mukherjee, arindam. 2013. ―kanpur: a city being killed by pollution.‖ aljazeera, october 6. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2013/10/kanpur-acity-being-killed-by-pollution-2013103102518868628.html. koshy, jacob. 2018. ―nowhere to hide: how kanpur’s tanneries are struggling to stay afloat.‖ the hindu, september 1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/nowhere-tohide/article24835411.ece. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/draft%20guidelines%20for%20environmental%20improvement%20in%20leather%20tannery%20sector.pdf. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/draft%20guidelines%20for%20environmental%20improvement%20in%20leather%20tannery%20sector.pdf. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/458938/report-on-river-stretches-for-restoration-of-water-quality-state-wise-and-priority-wise/ http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/458938/report-on-river-stretches-for-restoration-of-water-quality-state-wise-and-priority-wise/ https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/gangas-burden-of-pollutants-from-kanpur-to-varanasi-45382 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/gangas-burden-of-pollutants-from-kanpur-to-varanasi-45382 https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/the-toxic-cost-of-kanpurs-leather-industry-329990-2016-07-19 https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/the-toxic-cost-of-kanpurs-leather-industry-329990-2016-07-19 https://www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/136 https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2013/10/kanpur-a-city-being-killed-by-pollution-2013103102518868628.html https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2013/10/kanpur-a-city-being-killed-by-pollution-2013103102518868628.html https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/nowhere-to-hide/article24835411.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/nowhere-to-hide/article24835411.ece ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 67–68, july 2018 conversations 1: water governance emerging knowledge should prevail in water governance jayanta bandyopadhyay  water governance has become a complex problem. water professionals in most parts of the world have used new knowledge and perceptions to address this growing problem. the conversation makes it clear that such a transition is yet to arrive in formal water governance in india. i had in an article earlier (bandyopadhyay 2012) described this situation in india as ‘hydrological obscurantism’. in this conversation, ghosh makes a strong case for such a transition based on new water science, and shah actually provides a road map for such a transition, articulating the legislative and institutional transitions needed. steps for realizing such a transition are, unfortunately, not to be seen and the ‘obscurantism’ remains in practice. arthington relates the global degradation of aquatic ecosystems like streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, groundwater-dependent ecosystems, etc. to large water storage and transfer projects. her articulation of and stress on the need for protection of the aquatic ecosystems by taking a scientific and holistic approach to ‘environmental flows’ is crucial. this is very much needed in the case of india. the conversation actually makes it clear that in addressing the grave challenges in water governance in india, replacement of the obscure perception of water governance as practised by a more informed and  editor and coordinator for this conversations section. former professor of indian institute of management, calcutta, diamond harbour road, joka, kolkata, india 700104; jayanta@iimcal.ac.in copyright © bandyopadhyay 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.35 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.35 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] holistic one is the need of the hour. the initial direction of such a transition is already available, as shah and ghosh have described. references bandyopadhyay, jayanta. 2012. “water science in india: hydrological obscurantism.” economic and political weekly xlvii (16): 45-47 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 107–109, july 2018 book review envisioning a just and sustainable society harsh dobhal  ashish kothari and k j joy (eds.). 2017. alternative futures: india unshackled, new delhi: authors upfront, isbn: 9788193392478; pp. 704, inr 995 alternative futures is a compelling collection of thought-provoking essays on how india’s several political, economic, environmental, and social challenges might play out towards a hopeful future. the editors ashish kothari and k j joy, however, do not intend for the volume to serve as some sort of a road map for future-oriented action. rather, alternative futures, as shiv visvanathan underlines in the foreword as well, should be best understood as affirming gandhi’s notion of the ashram as a laboratory for ‘futuristic, ethical and scientific experiments’. the 35 essays by 50 writers are clubbed under five broad sections— ecological, political, economic, socio-cultural, and concluding perspectives. while taking a full stock of the varied visions, imaginations, and insights will be impossible in this limited review, one could, nonetheless, dwell upon some of the striking viewpoints and perspectives that suggest a general conceptual slant in the volume. for one—unsurprisingly, perhaps—many  visiting professor, school of media and communication studies, doon university, dehradun, india; harshdobhal@gmail.com copyright © dobhal 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.45 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.45 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] of the essays make clear their strong disagreements with the prevailing hegemonic beliefs in economic growth, consumerism, and the role of neoliberal markets. the alternative imaginings, on the other hand, argue for a provocative range of possibilities for achieving economic justice, social equality, ecological sustainability, and the deepening of democratic values and practice. in the section ‘political futures’, aruna roy, nikhil dey, and pravitta kashyap provide us helpful arguments for ‘direct democracy’, their claim here being that a ‘rainbow coalition of grassroots social movements’ could assemble both the intellectual and organizational muscle to make democracy more participative and meaningful. aditya nigam’s essay, with similar reasoning, weaves together the often differing thoughts of gandhi, nehru, tagore, and even m n roy to make a compelling case for ‘radical social democracy’. in sum, the essays in this section urge us to reconsider the critical differences between the electoral logic of representative democracy from that of striving instead for popular participation in which communities and citizens can meaningfully decide upon, and have agency in realizing, their interests. the essays in the ‘ecological futures’ section cover themes such as water, environmental governance, biodiversity, and energy. shripad dharmadhikary and himanshu thakkar argue against large dams and the now infamous scheme of interlinking rivers. for them, centralized water infrastructures—besides displacing traditional access of local communities—fail to ensure that rivers have sufficient ecological flows. for them, moreover, only water infrastructures that allow inclusive community access and are sensitive to ecologies of flow can enable the sustainable management of water resources. kartik shanker, meera anna oommen, and nitin rai point out, in a similar vein, that the history of exclusionary conservation in india or what is widely referred to as the ‘guns and fences’ approach to environmental protection has largely failed. not only have subsistence communities been denied access to their traditional livelihood means in such elite, expert-driven, and bureaucratically administered conservation agendas but whole worlds of traditional knowledges and local expertise have been marginalized. in the opinion of these ecologists, the effort for an inclusive conservation must be premised on a more ‘holistic’ approach in which heterogeneous multi-use landscapes are encouraged and communities living within biodiversity-rich zones are made part of the striving for environmental justice. the ‘economic futures’ section deals with diverse sub-themes such as food sovereignty, pastoralism, crafts, industry, urbanization, transportation, and technological alternatives. aseem shrivastava and elango rangasamy [109] harsh dobhal elaborate upon the need for the localization and regionalization of economies. the belief here is that these new scales might offer better opportunities for crafting ecologically stable and collectively self-sufficient societies. bharat mansata, kavitha kuruganti, vijay jardhari, and vasant futane debate a range of possibilities for achieving food sovereignty, dignified livelihoods to farmers, and ecological sustainability. k j joy draws our attention to a biomass-based future, which, he hopes, can tie together livelihood and ecosystem needs. dunu roy urges us to think about industrial manufacturing without having to be competitive or profit-driven. the theme ‘socio-cultural futures’ engages with the issues of languages, schooling, arts, alternative media, knowledge, health, dalits, gender, minorities, and adivasis. paranjoy guha thakurta explores possibilities for an alternative media which can be made responsive to public concerns and is based on collaborations between media practitioners, representatives of civil society, whistle-blowers, and other stakeholders. arguing that language is just not a mode of communication but a world view, g n devy suggests that language diversity in india is an important inheritance and helps us sustain our multicultural identity. anand teltumbde emphasizes on the need for the socio-economic, sociopolitical, and sociocultural empowerment of dalits and argues that empowerment is vital for working towards the abolishment of caste and communal consciousness. gladson dungdung’s passionately written essay on the adivasis (indigenous people of india) discusses not only the legacies of violence, exploitation, and domination that have shaped the latter’s contemporary worlds but also compellingly outlines a possible adivasi future comprising a need-based economy, cooperation, and communities living in harmony with nature. while these essays are persuasive, they offer no particular road maps for achieving or realizing these better alternatives. nonetheless, the essays in alternative futures remain useful for not only helping us understand the many social, economic, political, and environmental ills that afflict contemporary india. these writings also set the stage for fuelling a range of possible discussions amongst academics, public intellectuals, journalists, legal practitioners, and peace activists. in sum, there is a now a meaningful conceptual template for all those interested in working to a future that can be better than the present. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 13–20, january 2021 commentary imagining sustainability beyond covid-19 in india bejoy k. thomas,  soumyajit bhar  and shoibal chakravarty  abstract: the covid-19 lockdown in india saw a spate of news stories suggesting improvements in environmental conditions. in this article, we caution against optimistic narratives of environmental revival. first, we analyse air pollution data before and during the lockdown to show that these improvements were temporary and a by-product of the severe restrictions placed on the normal functioning of the economy. second, drawing upon data on income and inequality, we suggest that the human suffering witnessed during the lockdown was a result of widening social disparities since the 1990s. we argue that environmental priorities cannot be separated from social concerns, and equity has to be at the centre of imagining sustainability beyond the pandemic. keywords: covid-19; equity; environmentalism; degrowth. 1. introduction india went into forced confinement with a national lockdown from march 25, 2020, in response to the covid-19 pandemic. even as the pandemic spiralled into an unprecedented public health, economic, and humanitarian crisis, anecdotes of environmental revival began to emerge in different parts of the country. in this article, we caution against such optimistic narratives  associate professor in humanities and social sciences. indian institute of science education and research (iiser), dr. homi bhabha road, pashan, pune 411 008, india. bejoy@iiserpune.ac.in.   doctoral student, ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree), bangalore, 17/589, m. g. road, p. o. chinsurah, dist. hugli 712101, india; soumyajit.bhar@atree.org.  senior researcher, divecha centre for climate change, indian institute of science, bangalore 560012, india; shoibalc@gmail.com. copyright © thomas, bhar and chakravarty 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.315 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.315 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] of environmental revival. first, we analyse data on air pollution before and during the lockdown and suggest that the improvements in environmental indicators were unplanned and temporary. given the scale of economic and social disruption, the environmental improvements were meagre. second, drawing upon data on income and inequality, we argue that the scale of human suffering india saw during and after the lockdown was a result of widening disparities in income, wealth, and opportunities since the 1990s. a more considered position should take into account the implications for equity and justice when we think of sustainability during the pandemic. 2. air pollution before and during the lockdown except for a handful of studies undertaken immediately after the lockdown (e.g., lokhandwala and gautam 2020; kumar and managi 2020), the narrative surrounding improvements in environmental indicators was driven by observable cues in nature, like stories of rivers appearing cleaner in bangalore, or of air becoming clearer in delhi, or of a stretch of the himalayas becoming visible from jalandhar. we used weekly running averages of daily means of an air quality index1 based on pm2.5 for four metropolitan cities that represent the major geographic regions in india—delhi, kolkata, mumbai, and chennai—to see the effects of the lockdown. since the air is generally clearer during spring, which coincided with the beginning of the lockdown, any comparison with just the preceding months would be misleading. so we looked at data for the same period from previous years (2019, 2018, and 2017) in addition to the 2020 data to understand the additional effects of the lockdown on air quality. our results showed a general improvement in air quality compared to the previous years in all cities, though this was accompanied by local variations in weather and sources of pollution (figure 1). it can be concluded that the national lockdown did improve air quality, but the effect wo temporary, especially given the strictness of the lockdown measures. air pollution returned to pre-covid-19 levels in china and europe when lockdown restrictions were lifted (carrington and kommenda 2020). the case in india is unlikely to be any different. among other environmental indicators, data on river water quality showed mixed results with regards improvements following the lockdown (cpcb 2020). the lockdown is estimated to result in a 7% decrease in global annual co2 emissions (le quéré et al. 2020). india‘s co2 emissions reduced 1 we sourced this data from airnow, which collects current and historical air quality data. https://www.airnow.gov/. accessed august 12, 2020. https://www.airnow.gov/ [15] bejoy k. thomas, soumyajit bhar and shoibal chakravarty by an estimated 3.6% (1.7%–5.6%) during january–april 2020 compared to annual emissions in 2019. the projected emissions reduction over the calendar year 2020 could vary between 5.2% and 8.7% (midpoint estimates) depending on the continuation of lockdown measures and the severity of the economic slowdown. however, these reductions have to be looked at not in isolation, but in the context of the disruption that the lockdown has caused to the economy and livelihoods. figure 1: air pollution in major cities, 2017–2020 (january 1–june 30) data source: airnow, https://www.airnow.gov/. note: the dotted lines show the beginning (march 24) and middle (april 28) phases of the lockdown and the beginning of unlock 1.0 (june 1) in india. https://www.airnow.gov/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] 3. unequal social impact the indian economy witnessed a massive slowdown in the aftermath of the lockdown. the gross domestic product (gdp) fell by 23.9% during april– june 2020 compared to the same period during the previous year (goi, 2020). the economic slowdown has had a significant impact on the livelihoods of urban and rural working populations, particularly casual workers and the self-employed in the informal sector (kapoor 2020), urban migrant labourers, and small agriculturists, pushing a large number of them into hunger. the unemployment rate shot up to 23.52% from 7.76% between february and april 2020, with urban areas hit the hardest, and small traders, labourers, entrepreneurs, and salaried employees suffering the most.2 the azim premji university covid-19 livelihoods survey (kesar et al. 2020) found that 66% of the respondents had lost their jobs, with urban casual and self-employed workers being the worst affected. in the agricultural sector, 85% of the farmers surveyed could not harvest or sell their produce or sold it at a lower price than normal. supply disruptions have in turn led to an increase in the prices of essential food items (narayanan and saha 2020). the severe impact on the poor and vulnerable must be understood within the broader context of india‘s rising inequality in recent decades. whether measured in terms of income, consumption, or wealth, various estimates based on diverse data sources all point to an increase in inequality between different socio-economic groups. chancel and piketty (2019) showed that inequality in incomes and top income shares showed a declining trend until the 1970s and began making a turnaround in the mid-1980s, owing to the shift from a regulated system to a market economy. they estimate that 22% of india‘s income is held by the richest 1%—the highest income concentration since independence. anand and thampi (2016) found a similar trend in wealth inequality, with wealth getting concentrated among the top 10% in recent decades. they also found a widening gap between the share of profits and wages in manufacturing after 2002, indicating that the gains from growth are disproportionately distributed in favour of the already wealthy. the income and employment impacts of covid-19 are likely to be significantly higher on those working in the poorer informal sector, agricultural workers, and the self-employed, and will likely exacerbate inequality. our own estimates from the two nationally representative india human development survey (ihds) datasets (combined urban and rural sample) 2 this is as per the estimates of the centre for monitoring indian economy (cmie). see https://unemploymentinindia.cmie.com/ accessed september 18, 2020. https://unemploymentinindia.cmie.com/ [17] bejoy k. thomas, soumyajit bhar and shoibal chakravarty indicate a high gini coefficient of .53 during 2004–05 and .55 during 2011– 12. we looked at expenditure on food, non-food, and luxury items3 across households belonging to different income deciles for 2011–12, the latest available ihds data (figure 2). luxury items include those goods with the highest environmental impact. on average, households in the top decile spend 5.6–8.2 times more money than households in the bottom deciles on luxury consumption, whereas the ratio for food (2.1–2.4) and non-food (3.1–4.1) expenditure is far less. the consumption of the poorer and middle-income households is limited to subsistence or essentials, with the significant environmental footprint coming from the affluent. figure 2: expenditure on food, non-food, and luxury consumption source: computed by authors using ihds 2011–12 (rural and urban). the mainstream media has extensively covered the plight and vulnerability of migrant labourers. a study based on the 2004–05 ihds reported that short-term, seasonal migrants (defined as those who migrate for a period of less than six months out of distress and other reasons) are more vulnerable, tend to be poorer, and are more likely to belong to lower castes than longterm migrants (desai and chatterjee 2019). we found a comparable trend in the 2011–12 rural sample of ihds. as table 1 shows, short-term migration is likely to happen at lower levels of income. looking at the marginalized communities—dalits and adivasis—separately, we found that 65% of all short-term migrants among these communities are from the bottom two income quintiles. it was possibly this section of migrants— 3 the food basket includes cereals, pulses, oils, eggs, and milk. the non-food basket comprises fuel, electricity, cable television/telephone, education, and services. the luxury basket includes jewellery, entertainment, vehicles, and recreation. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] short-term and vulnerable—who undertook precarious journeys back to their villages after the lockdown was announced (rukmini 2020). table 1: proportion of rural short-term migrants income quintiles short-term migrants (%) non-migrants (%) 1 13.39 86.61 2 10.39 89.61 3 8.59 91.41 4 5.77 94.23 5 3.50 96.50 source: computed from ihds 2011–12 (rural) 4. . imagining sustainability the popular media narrative focused exclusively on visible changes in air and water to suggest that the environment benefitted from the lockdown. the studies undertaken immediately after the lockdown only reinforced this view, given that it is only expected that air quality would improve in the event of a shutdown of industrial activities and the suspension of vehicular traffic. however, these narratives paid less attention to the question of whether and how this could last beyond the lockdown, and more importantly, the normative question of whether this was tenable, given the disruptive impact that the lockdown had on livelihoods. a more reflective environmentalist response came from advocates of degrowth, who envision transforming production and consumption through downscaling by choice and in a participatory manner, at both the individual and national scale, thereby transitioning towards a sustainable future. the degrowth movement was quick to point out that a recession in a growth-centric economy can be devastating for the poor, and hence such an environmental revival is not tenable with the principles of justice (hickel 2020). in broad sympathies with this position (bhar 2020), we see several useful pointers from the responses to the pandemic in india as we envision the future of sustainability. first, the environmental improvements from the drastic measures were not as significant as the severe social distress that they caused, hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest. unless we undertake carefully considered policies and long-term interventions, the system will go back to business as usual and could even worsen the current already high levels of inequality. second, expectations about the speed at which ecological recovery can happen are misplaced. clean rivers are not an indication that river health and aquatic biodiversity, which have been adversely affected by long periods of industrial pollution, have been revived. third, the environmental challenge is not just about regulating [19] bejoy k. thomas, soumyajit bhar and shoibal chakravarty industrial growth, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, but also about addressing unsustainable consumption among the wealthy; concentration of incomes and wealth among a few; lack of opportunities for the marginalized; and effective non-existence of social security systems. environmental priorities, therefore, cannot be separated from social concerns, and equity and justice will have to be at the centre of imagining sustainability beyond the pandemic. acknowledgments we thank the reviewers of the journal and vinish kathuria for comments on an earlier version. references anand, i., and a. thampi. 2016. ―recent trends in wealth inequality in india.‖ economic and political weekly 51 (50): 59–67. bhar, s. 2020. ―degrowth and covid-19: are we drawing a simplistic connection?‖ mongabay, 21 april. https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-arewe-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/ carrington, d., and n. kommenda. 2020. ―air pollution in china back to precovid levels and europe may follow‖ the guardian, 3 june. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/air-pollution-in-chinaback-to-pre-covid-levels-and-europe-may-follow central pollution control board. 2020. a report on impact of lockdown on water quality of river ganga. new delhi: ministry of environment, forest and climate change, government of india. chancel, l., and t. piketty. 2019. ―indian income inequality, 1922–2015: from british raj to billionaire raj?‖ review of income and wealth 65 (s1): s33–s62. https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12439. desai, s., and e. chatterjee. 2019. ―male migration from rural india: divergent pathways to long-term and short-term migration.‖ 2019 annual meeting of population association of america, april 10–13, austin, http://paa2019.populationassociation.org/uploads/192011. government of india. 2020. ―press note on estimates of gross domestic product for the first quarter (april–june) 2020–21‖. new delhi: ministry of statistics and programme implementation, government of india. http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/press_noteq1_2020-21.pdf. hickel, j. 2020. ―what does degrowth mean? a few points of clarification.‖ globalizations. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1812222. https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-are-we-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/ https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/commentary-degrowth-and-covid-19-are-we-drawing-a-simplistic-connection/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/air-pollution-in-china-back-to-pre-covid-levels-and-europe-may-follow https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/air-pollution-in-china-back-to-pre-covid-levels-and-europe-may-follow https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12439 http://paa2019.populationassociation.org/uploads/192011 http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/press_note-q1_2020-21.pdf http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/press_note-q1_2020-21.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1812222 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] kapoor, r. 2020. ―the unequal effects of the covid-19 crisis on the labour market.‖ the india forum, 27 july. 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research, 188, 109807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109807. narayanan, s., and s. saha. 2020. ―urban food markets and the lockdown in india.‖ working paper 2020–017. mumbai: indira gandhi institute of development research. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3599102 rukmini, s. 2020. ―why india‘s ‗migrants‘ walked back home.‖ livemint, 28 may. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/why-india-migrants-walked-back-home11590564390171.html. https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/unequal-effects-covid-19-crisis-labour-market https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/unequal-effects-covid-19-crisis-labour-market https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-020-00072-1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0797-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109807 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3599102 https://www.livemint.com/news/india/why-india-migrants-walked-back-home-11590564390171.html https://www.livemint.com/news/india/why-india-migrants-walked-back-home-11590564390171.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 33-57, july 2023 research paper wetlands and ecosystem services: empirical evidence for incentivising paddy wetlands m. manjula, girigan gopi and vipindas p abstract: wetland paddy agro-ecosystems are recognized as important humanmade wetland systems. realizing that paddy lands are important ecological systems, the state of kerala in southern india passed an act in 2008 preventing their conversion to other uses. the state provides subsidies and production bonuses to encourage paddy farmers and imposes penalties for non-compliance. however, the economic benefits associated with the conversion of paddy lands are considerably higher than the current subsidies and bonuses. as such, the conversion of paddy lands continues unabated despite the incentives and disincentives provided in the act. this study examines the ecological rationale for preventing paddy land conversion through a comparative assessment of the ecological health of paddy lands against that of lands with competing uses. ecological health is assessed in terms of the amphibian population—specifically, frog abundance and diversity across different land uses, as frogs are considered bio-indicators of ecological health. the results reveal that the conversion of paddy lands adversely affects the survival of amphibians, especially frogs, thus emphasizing the role of paddy lands in maintaining the ecological health of a region. the study also provides empirical evidence for creating “pigouvian subsidies” or ecological incentives for paddy farmers. keywords: ecological health, pigouvian subsidy, amphibian diversity, paddy wetlands, kerala, india  faculty, school of development, azim premji university, bengaluru, karnataka. manjula.m@apu.edu.in  principal development coordinator, cabc, m.s. swaminathan research foundation, wayanad, kerala. girigan@mssrf.res.in  development coordinator, cabc, m.s. swaminathan research foundation, wayanad, kerala. vipindas@mssrf.res.in copyright © manjula, gopi and das 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.985 mailto:manjula.m@apu.edu.in mailto:girigan@mssrf.res.in mailto:vipindas@mssrf.res.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.985 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] 1. introduction wetlands, both natural and human made, are a rich source of ecosystems services (maltby and acreman 2011; mea 2005). they are critical natural resources that provide various socio-economic and environmental benefits to local communities (dixon and wood 2003). the role of wetlands in contributing to the sustainable development goals (sdgs) has been well documented (jaramillo et al. 2019). the sdg targets that have considerable relevance to wetlands are those related to “improving water quality”, “sustainable food production”, and “sustainable management of resources”. wetlands are a potentially valuable agricultural resource (mccartney and houghton-carr 2009). wetland agriculture, if sustainably managed, could play a significant role in promoting food security and income (dixon and wood 2003). the maintenance of wetlands’ ecosystem services depends on their ecological character. any changes in the ecological character of wetlands alters the ecosystem service delivery, impacting human well-being (mea 2005). hence, the conservation of wetlands—both natural and human made—is essential to maintain the ecosystem services flow, which will contribute to achieving the sdgs. the state of kerala in southern india enacted the kerala conservation of paddy land and wetland act (kcplw act), 2008, with the twin objectives of promoting agricultural growth and preserving ecological systems (chitra 2016). this act prohibits the conversion of wetlands and paddy lands for other land uses—agricultural or non-agricultural. the law directs the state to provide incentives to paddy farmers, and accordingly, the state extends special subsidies (us$15 per hectare [ha]) and production bonuses to the tune of us$67 per ha per season to paddy farmers, to encourage them to continue paddy cultivation. the penalty for non-compliance includes imprisonment for 6 to 11 months and a fine in the range of us$610 to us$1,220. but such a carrot-and-stick approach has been unsuccessful in preventing paddy lands from being converted to other lands, as the forgone benefit or opportunity cost of conservation is very high. from 1985–1986 to 2019–2020, an estimated 75% of the area that had been under paddy cultivation was converted for other land uses in kerala (gok 2021). the major competing crops in kerala are banana and areca nut, both of which have high commercial value.1 1 the sequence of conversion of paddy lands in kerala is as follows: first it gets converted to banana, and after the cultivation of banana for more than five consecutive years, areca nut is planted. conversion to banana is considered a reversible one, while conversion to areca nut, a plantation crop, is irreversible. once paddy land gets converted to areca nut, it loses its wetland characteristics and can be easily put to non-agricultural uses. [35] manjula, gopi and das paddy wetlands are privately owned agro-ecosystems and often the only source of livelihood for most farmers. any private land use choice by paddy farmers involves a trade-off between short-term profitability and long-term environmental sustainability. a study on the relative profitability of crops, carried out by the state department of agriculture, reveals that the average cost of cultivating2 paddy is in the range of us$8263 to us$907 per ha across the three cropping seasons in a year. the average costs of cultivating banana and areca nut are us$2,680 per ha and us$1,262 per ha, respectively.4 the average net return per ha for paddy is in the range of us$418 to us$742, while for banana and areca nut, the returns are us$3,723 and us$1,918 per ha, respectively—six and three times higher than that of paddy (gok 2022). the production bonus and subsidy given by the government, which amounts to us$82 per ha of paddy land, neither compensates for the cost of cultivating paddy, nor bridges the huge profit gap between paddy and its competing crops. thus, paddy remains an economically unviable option for farmers despite the state’s focused support for paddy cultivation. nevertheless, the kcplw act, 2008, mandates that paddy farmers continue paddy cultivation to sustain the ecological system of the state (a positive externality), which results in high private costs for the farmers. given this background, the study compares the ecological health of wetland paddy vis-à-vis that of competing land uses and critically examines the rationale for conserving paddy lands to sustain the ecological system of the state. this assessment provides empirical evidence in support of the rationale behind offering ecological incentives to paddy farmers, who bear the costs of providing this social benefit. 1.2. rationale for the study environmentalists and ecologists worldwide have contrasting views on the utility of paddy wetlands. one section recognizes paddy lands as humanmade wetlands that play a significant role in groundwater recharge, water regulation, flood and drought control, and conservation of biodiversity, in addition to their primary role in food production (iwasaki et al. 2012; blackwell and pilgrim 2011; shivakoti and bastakoti 2010). they emphasize that paddy systems are landscapes that are not only integral to the food and livelihood security of people but are also a valuable source of ecosystem services. the habitat services and biodiversity conservation services offered 2 the cost presented here is cost a, which includes all kind of expenses (paid out costs) actually incurred by the cultivators. 3 us$1 = ₹82. 4 banana is an annual crop and areca nut is a perennial, while paddy is a 60to 90-day crop. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] by wetland paddy fields are well documented as are their regulating services in terms of eco–disaster risk reduction (naoki et al. 2015; (osawa. nishida, and oka 2020). hence, wetland paddy is also increasingly being touted as valuable green infrastructure (osawa, nishida, and oka 2022). however, a section of environmentalists’ view paddy lands as contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and thereby to global warming (singh et al. 2022; bautista and saito 2015; wang et al. 2017). in short, there exist conflicting views regarding the ecological/environmental utility of paddy wetlands, and land use decisions involve trade-offs between short-term profitability and long-term ecosystem sustainability. a key determinant of the ecosystem services potential of wetlands is their ecological health. an important ecosystem service of paddy fields is their role in facilitating biodiversity—both flora and fauna (edirisinghe and bambaradeniya 2006). the loss of paddy ecosystems is said to have a profound influence on biodiversity, inevitably disturbing the ecological balance (luo, fu, and traore 2014). hence, in studies comparing land use changes involving paddy, a key element of comparison is the gain/loss in useful biodiversity. the present study adopts a similar approach. although paddy lands are home to various flora and fauna, our study quantifies the amphibian diversity, with a specific focus on frogs. 1.3. the frog as a bio-indicator for ecosystem health and services among the faunal species found in paddy lands, frogs are common and representative of the health of the ecosystem (sato and azuma 2004). they are natural enemies of crop pests and are, therefore, good bio-control agents. frogs are considered keystone species in food webs as they prey on arthropods, while they in turn are prey to snakes, birds, and even humans (tsuji et al. 2011; naito and ikeda 2007). a decline in their population is bound to have a significant impact on other organisms in the food web. several studies have established that frogs provide regulatory and supporting services in tropical ecosystems, playing a major role in nutrient recycling, bioturbation, seed dispersal, and biological control, in addition to being a source of medicine and food (hocking and babbitt 2014). most importantly, frogs are used as bio-indicators of ecological health as they are highly sensitive to changes in ecosystems (baharuddin, ramli, and othman 2015; duré et al. 2008; parmar, rawtani, and agrawal 2016; samantha et al. 2015; simon et al. 2011). the response of frogs to ecosystem changes has been used as an indicator in studies on the impacts of anthropogenic activities, habitat fragmentation, and general ecosystem stress (beebee and griffiths 2005; cochard, maneepitak, and kumar 2014; loumbourdis et al. 2007). furthermore, among the faunal species observed in paddy lands, [37] manjula, gopi and das frogs are unique in that they need both aquatic (e.g., paddy) and terrestrial habitats (e.g., banana and areca nut) to complete their life cycle (matsuno et al. 2006; parmar, rawtani, and agrawal 2016). thus, using frogs as an indicator of ecosystem health for a comparative analysis across land uses is justified. the impact of land use changes and the effect of environmental management in paddy fields on frog species has been studied earlier by naito et al. (2012) and tsuji et al. (2011) in japan. these studies showed a striking decline in frog distribution due to the conversion of paddy fields. such studies linking land use changes to amphibian decline are scarce in india. in this context, our study establishes causality between land use changes and amphibian abundance and diversity. the results of this study show a strong association between paddy land conversion and decline in frog abundance and species diversity, thereby lending credence to the ecological argument in the kcplw act, 2008, for conserving paddy lands. 2. materials and methods this section describes the study area, methodology adopted, sampling framework, the data and details on the individual variables used in the study. 2.1. study area this study was carried out in the wayanad district5 in the state of kerala in southwest india, which is in the ecologically fragile western ghat region (figure 1). the district covers 2,131 sq km and is divided into three taluks and four blocks. each block is further divided into panchayats, and each panchayat into wards.6 the district has undergone major land use changes since the mid-1980s, with the area under paddy cultivation declining by more than 75% between 1985–1986 and 2019–2020 (gok 2022). paddy farming in wayanad, as in the rest of kerala, is not remunerative, with net returns per ha from banana cultivation being three to four times that of paddy. however, several studies have shown that the conversion of paddy lands leads to adverse ecological outcomes like ground water depletion (vinayachandran and joji 2007), loss of diversity of wild edibles from paddy fields (narayanan, swapna, and kumar 2004), and a loss of genetic diversity of rice (kumar, gopi, and 5 a district is an administrative division within the state. 6 taluks and blocks are divisions within districts, and panchayats are local administrative divisions within blocks. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] prajeesh 2010) in the district. the western ghat region is rich in amphibian fauna and is home to almost 60% of the known amphibian species in india (117 out of 224). of this, 89 species are endemic to the region (daniels 1992; myers et al. 2000). figure 1: wayanad district map source: authors’ creation based on google maps, accessed on 16 december 2022. 2.2. methodology the study adopted a functional form to estimate the ecosystem services gain/loss due to land use changes. the ecosystem services being measured are frog abundance and frog species diversity. the functional form is broadly denoted as es = f(lu, xn) + u, where • es is the ecological service measured in terms of frog abundance and species diversity • lu is the land use (paddy, banana, and areca nut in this study) • xn are the other plot-level explanatory variables like (i) biophysical parameters, (ii) agronomic practices, (iii) boundary effect, (iv) plot history • u is the error term. visual encounter surveys and male call recording methods were used to make plot-level measurements of frog abundance and species diversity across the different land uses. measurements were taken between 7 and 11 pm on two occasions: (i) during peak monsoon (july–august) and (ii) when [39] manjula, gopi and das the monsoon was receding (september–october). along with the number of frogs and the species diversity, plot-level biophysical variables like temperature, humidity, ph, and water levels in fields were measured. apart from the ecological measurements, other plot-level details that are expected to have an influence on these measurements were collected using a survey schedule. the outcome variables—frog abundance and frog species diversity—are non-negative count data. hence, following das (2011), a poisson regression was used to estimate the impact of land use change and other plot-level explanatory variables on frog abundance and diversity. the details of the poisson regression are given in annexure a. 2.3. sampling framework the sampling framework is provided in annexure b. plots are the units of sampling. a stratified purposive sampling procedure was adopted to select the plots. the strata are (i) agro-climatic zones, (ii) panchayats, (iii) wards within the panchayat. the district has three agro-climatic zones, and one representative panchayat from each of the zones was selected. following this, wards were ranked in descending order by acreage and extent of equitable distribution of the crops being studied. two or three wards with the highest ranks were selected from each panchayat. contiguous plots of one acre and above under paddy, banana, and areca nut were included in the sample. gps marking of the plots was done, and plot latitude and longitude coordinates, plot boundaries, and the distance from the next sample plot were recorded to ensure the required spatial distance between the sampled plots. of the total sample of 178 plots, 62 were under paddy, 68 under banana, and 48 under areca nut cultivation. ecological measurements like frog abundance and species diversity were recorded for the plots. details regarding agronomic practices, plot history, and boundary details were also collected from the farmers working the plots.7 2.4. data and variables table 1 gives details regarding the variables, their nature, and their expected role in determining frog abundance and species diversity. 7 if the land was on lease, details on agronomic practices were collected from the tenant farmers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] table 1: list of variables, definitions, and expected role in frog abundance and species diversity name of variable nature of variable expected role in frog abundance/species diversity outcome variable frog abundance (numbers) count data frog species diversity (numbers) count data explanatory variables (i) land use paddy, banana, or areca nut (paddy = 1; banana = 2, and areca nut = 3) categorical shift from paddy is expected to exert a negative influence (ii) biophysical parameters temperature (ºc) continuous negative/positive humidity (percentage) continuous negative/positive ph (the degree of acidity or alkalinity of the soil in the plot) (numbers) continuous negative/positive water level (cm) continuous negative/positive (iii) history and boundary effects history: number of years that the plot has been under the particular land use continuous positive boundary effects road as border to the plot (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) categorical negative fallow land as border to the plot (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) categorical negative/positive water body as border to the plot (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) categorical positive (iv) plot-level agronomic details farmyard manure (1 if yes, 2 otherwise) categorical positive per-acre fertilizer use (kg) continuous negative per-acre pesticide use (litres) continuous negative per-acre man-days (numbers) continuous negative source: analytical framework proposed in the study by authors 3. results this section presents the summary statistics of the outcome and explanatory variables used in the analysis. [41] manjula, gopi and das 3.1. frog abundance and diversity across land uses among the various plots, paddy fields had the highest abundance of frogs as well as species diversity (table 2). the least abundance and species diversity was observed in banana plots. the coefficient of variation (cv) for frog abundance and species diversity was lowest for paddy and highest for banana plots. this indicates that paddy lands in wayanad exhibit lesser variation in abundance and diversity across plots, compared to banana and areca nut plots. frogs were observed to be “breeding”, “calling”, and “foraging” in paddy wetlands, while mostly “calling” and “foraging” in banana and areca nut plots. table 2: summary statistics of outcome variables outcome variables land use minimum maximum mean cv frog abundance paddy 3.0 56.0 30.0 0.41 banana 0.0 18.0 4.0 0.81 areca nut 3.0 21.0 10.0 0.48 frog species diversity# paddy 1.0 5.0 3.0 0.32 banana 0.0 3.0 1.0 0.54 areca nut 1.0 4.0 2.0 0.47 source: field-level ecological measurements. notes: paddy (n = 62); banana (n = 68); areca nut (n = 48). #species diversity reported refers to the total number of species observed per plot across land uses and does not represent the actual number of different species observed across land uses. 3.2. plot-level biophysical parameters not much variation was observed in temperature, humidity, and ph across land uses, with soils being generally acidic (table 3). variation in water depth was observed to be in the range of 4 to 11 centimetres (cm), with paddy reporting the greatest water depth. 3.3. plot-level input intensiveness and plot history input intensiveness and agronomic practices adopted have an impact on the floral and faunal diversity of plots. the intensive use of chemical inputs like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and extravagant intercultural operations might negatively affect the abundance and diversity of faunal species (cochard, maneepitak, and kumar 2014). manure is used extensively by both paddy and banana farmers, with a higher proportion of banana farmers reporting the application of manure. the per-acre manure use for paddy is in the range of 0.5–2 tonnes, while ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] table 3: plot-level biophysical parameters explanatory variable land use minimum maximum mean cv temperature (ºc) paddy 22.8 27.8 25.0 0.03 banana 23.5 28.1 25.0 0.04 areca nut 24.0 27.0 26.0 0.04 humidity (percentage) paddy 62.0 85.0 73.0 0.09 banana 64.0 82.0 74.0 0.08 areca nut 64.0 88.0 75.0 0.08 water depth (cm) paddy 1.0 24.0 10.5 0.50 banana 1.0 16.0 4.0 0.54 areca nut 2.0 8.0 4.3 0.37 ph (numbers) paddy 4.1 5.0 4.4 0.06 banana 3.9 5.3 4.7 0.07 areca nut 4.1 5.6 4.6 0.07 source: field-level ecological measurements and farming practice survey. note: paddy (n = 62); banana (n = 68); areca nut (n = 48). for banana, it is in the range of 1–8 tonnes. in the case of paddy, the manure mainly consists of cow dung, either from livestock at home or bought from the market. in the case of bananas, the manure is largely bought, and consists of cow dung, bone meal, and pig and poultry manure. fertilizer and pesticide use are also highest in banana plots (table 4). the least amount of fertilizer and pesticide use is reported in paddy plots. on average, about five to six different fertilizers are used in banana plots, of which many are complex fertilizers.8 in paddy plots, however, there is a predominant use of straight fertilizers9 like urea and potash. the frequency of fertilizer application per season ranges from three to seven times for banana, while for paddy, fertilizer is applied only once or at most twice. pesticide use is higher for banana, especially during fruit maturation. it has been observed that many farmers drench the banana bunches with 8 complex fertilizers or compound fertilizers have more than one primary nutrient. the primary nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. 9 straight fertilizers have only one primary nutrient. [43] manjula, gopi and das pesticides. in addition, they apply phorate to the soil to ward off rodents. areca nut cultivation also involves high use of bordeaux mixture, a fungicide. paddy plots use the least quantity of pesticides. table 4: input use and plot history crop minimum maximum mean cv total per-acre fertilizer use (kg) paddy 0.0 300.0 78.0 0.93 62.0 banana 200.0 3,600.0 1,203.0 0.49 68.0 areca nut 0.0 900.0 94.0 1.90 48.0 per-acre pesticide use (litres) paddy 0.0 30.0 0.7 5.7 62.0 banana 0.0 210.0 8.1 3.6 68.0 areca nut 0.0 67.4 6.0 2.0 48.0 per-acre labour man-days (numbers) paddy 0.0 140.0 51.0 0.54 62.0 banana 5.0 221.0 90.0 0.56 68.0 areca nut 0.0 126.0 42.0 0.91 48.0 history of the plot (years) paddy 15.0 66.0 51.0 0.19 62.0 banana 2.0 42.0 17.0 0.48 68.0 areca nut 10.0 35.0 23.0 0.27 48.0 source: plot-level farming practice survey. bananas require the highest number of man-days—the labour includes making drainage channels, applying fertilizer, applying pesticide, protecting the crop from the wind, and harvesting. unlike in the case of paddy, those employed in banana cultivation are mostly male. paddy cultivation creates employment for local women, as key operations like transplanting and harvesting are done by them. 3.4. plot history and boundary effects the number of years that the land has been under a particular land use, and the type of land use within the boundary of the plot, is said to influence the ecological measurements of the plot. the number of years a plot has been constantly under a particular crop (plot history) range from 2 years for banana to 66 years for paddy. note that prior to banana and areca nut cultivation, the plots were invariably under paddy (table 4). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] the commonly observed boundaries for plots are roads, water bodies (streams, rivers, or canals), vacant/fallow plots, and other cropped fields (table 5). having a road as a boundary is expected to have a negative influence on the abundance of frogs, as there are chances of them being crushed to death by passing vehicles (dhanukar and padhye 2005). the presence of a water body is expected to positively influence the abundance and diversity of frogs. table 5: border effect (number of plots) crop road water bodies fallow land other crops total paddy 8.0 16.0 23.0 15.0 62.0 banana 35.0 11.0 6.0 16.0 68.0 areca nut 13.0 6.0 5.0 24.0 48.0 source: plot-level farming practice survey. of the 62 paddy plots, 8 had roads as boundaries, 16 had water bodies, and 23 had fallow lands. in the case of banana, 35 plots had roads on at least one or all sides, 11 had water bodies, and 6 had fallow land. six areca nut plots had water bodies, 13 had roads, and 5 had fallow land as borders. 3.5. regression results sections 3.6 to 3.10 present the results from the poisson regression analysis. to effectively tease out the impact of land use change on frog abundance and species diversity, a stepwise poisson regression was run with a new variable added at each step. altogether, five regression models were run. the results are presented in the subsequent sections. 3.6. frog abundance table 6 gives the poisson coefficients for the explanatory variables on frog abundance. sequential building of the poisson regression with explanatory variables resulted in five poisson regression outputs. paddy is the reference land use category in the poisson outputs. banana and areca nut plots negatively influence the abundance of frogs, unlike paddy plots. this result is consistent across the five models and is significant at the 1% level. plot water levels are observed to influence frog abundance positively and significantly across the models. [45] manjula, gopi and das table 6: poisson coefficients—results of the poisson regression on frog abundance outcome variable (frog abundance) model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 explanatory variables banana (2) −2.124*** (0.116) −1.565*** (0.131) −1.242*** (0.141) −1.311*** (0.201) −1.394*** (0.237) areca nut (3) (paddy is the reference land use category) −1.141*** (0.084) −0.600*** (0.103) −0.501*** (0.101) −0.588*** (0.162) −0.577*** (0.166) temperature (ºc) 0.045 (0.035) −0.022 (0.033) −0.022 (0.031) −0.020 (0.031) humidity (%) −0.017*** (0.006) −0.011** (0.005) −0.008 (0.006) −0.008 (0.006) water level (cm) 0.061*** (0.009) 0.055*** (0.010) 0.052*** (0.011) 0.052*** (0.011) ph (numbers) −0.468*** (0.140) −0.560*** (0.137) −0.507*** (0.141) −0.507*** (0.139) frog species diversity 0.198*** (0.038) 0.212*** (0.037) 0.209*** (0.038) years under the crop (numbers) −0.001 (0.004) −0.001 (0.004) road as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) −0.038 (0.082) −0.038 (0.085) water body as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) 0.021 (0.080) 0.027 (0.079) fallow land as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) −0.170** (0.086) −0.166* (0.088) farmyard manure (1 if applied, 2 otherwise) (0.083) 0.000 per-acre fertilizer quantity (kg) (0.000) −0.001 per-acre pesticide quantity (litres) (0.002) −0.000 per-acre man-days (numbers) (0.001) constant 3.414*** (0.061) 4.889*** (1.126) 5.984*** (1.051) 5.667*** (1.083) 5.618*** (1.082) pseudo r2 0.54 0.64 0.66 0.66 0.66 observations 178 178 178 178 178 source: based on analysis of primary data collected in the project note: robust standard errors are in parentheses. ***p<0.01; **p<0.05; *p<0.1. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] this result is also significant at the 1% level. biophysical variables like soil ph have a negative influence on frog abundance, and the effect is significant at the 1% level across the models. humidity also has a negative effect on frog abundance, but this variable is significant only in two of the poisson regression models. humidity is significant at the 1% level in one model, while it is significant at the 5% level in the other. the other explanatory variable—namely, frog species diversity—is positive and significant at the 1% level across models, wherever included. however, having a fallow border is observed to negatively influence frog abundance, and the effect is significant at the 1% level. input intensiveness—captured through the variables per-acre use of fertilizer, pesticide, labour, and farmyard manure—is observed to have no effect on frog abundance across the models. 3.7. frog species diversity table 7 has the poisson regression results for frog species diversity. here, again, paddy is the reference land use category. it can be observed that a shift from paddy to banana has a negative impact on frog species diversity across all the models, and the effect is significant at the 1% level. a shift from paddy to areca nut significantly and negatively affects frog species diversity only in model 1. this is the model that has land use as the only explanatory variable. once we add other explanatory variables, the impact of the shift to areca nut from paddy on frog species diversity is statistically insignificant. biophysical variables like plot-level temperature, humidity, and water level have a significant influence on species diversity across all the models in which they are included. plot-level temperature has a positive and significant impact on species diversity across models. this effect is significant at the 1% level across all models. humidity has a negative impact on species diversity, and the effect is significant at the 1% level across the models. water level in the plot and the consecutive number of years that a plot is under a particular land use (plot history) has a positive and significant influence on frog species diversity. the influence of water level is significant at the 5% level, while the number of years under the land use is significant at the 1% level across the models. farmyard manure application has a negative influence on species diversity in the two models where it is included as an explanatory variable. the effect is significant at 5% in one model and 10% in the second model. [47] manjula, gopi and das 3.8. marginal effects: frog abundance and species diversity the poisson coefficients reflect the nature of influence of the explanatory variables on the outcome variables, namely, abundance and species diversity. the coefficients of the variables cannot be directly interpreted as the magnitude of the effect. hence, marginal effects are estimated to capture the magnitude of impact of the explanatory variables on the outcome variables. table 8 lists the marginal effects of the explanatory variables on frog abundance and species diversity. 3.9. marginal effects: frog abundance a shift to banana from paddy results in a reduction in frog abundance by 16%, while a shift to areca nut results in a reduction in frog abundance by 9%. a one-unit increase in water level increases the number of frogs in the plot by 0.8%. if the adjoining plot is fallow, it reduces frog abundance by 3%. a one-unit increase in soil ph reduces frog abundance by 7%, whereas a one-unit increase in frog species diversity increases frog abundance by 3%. 3.10. marginal effects: frog species diversity shifting from paddy to banana would reduce the species diversity by 0.7%. a one-unit increase in temperature and water level in the plot would increase frog species diversity by 0.3% and 0.04%, respectively. however, a one-unit increase in humidity would reduce abundance by 0.02%. one more consecutive year under the same land use (plot history) would increase species diversity by 0.02%. farmyard manure application would reduce species diversity by 0.3%. 4. discussion from the poisson regression results, it follows that shifting from paddy to banana or areca nut has adverse effects on both frog abundance and species diversity. frog abundance is negatively impacted by shifting away from paddy to either banana or areca nut, while the impact on species diversity is more robust for a shift to banana when compared to a shift to areca nut. paddy lands are not only important as breeding sites due to the presence of standing water but also as foraging sites (ecological data sheets). cultivated paddy lands, compared to banana and areca nut lands, offer an advantage to frogs in terms of foraging, as insects and microorganisms thrive on them. this can also be attributed to the fact that of the three crops, paddy is associated with the lowest pesticide use, thus providing a conducive environment for the sustenance of faunal biodiversity in general. furthermore, even the terrestrial frogs found in banana and areca nut plots need water bodies for their sustenance. thus, the presence of cultivated ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] table 7: poisson coefficients (poisson regression results)frog species diversity outcome variable: species diversity model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 model 5 explanatory variables banana (2) −0.848*** (0.077) −0.763*** (0.089) −0.474*** (0.163) −0.393** (0.180) −0.383** (0.178) areca nut (3) (paddy -reference category) −0.209*** (0.106) −0.134 (0.155) 0.112 (0.251) 0.123 (0.261) 0.125 (0.259) temperature (ºc) 0.117*** (0.035) 0.109*** (0.033) 0.113*** (0.031) 0.118*** (0.030) humidity (%) −0.010* (0.005) −0.012** (0.006) −0.010* (0.006) −0.010* (0.006) water level (cm) 0.015** (0.007) 0.016** (0.008) 0.017** (0.008) 0.017** (0.008) ph (numbers) −0.050 (0.104) −0.058 (0.110) −0.064 (0.121) −0.065 (0.124) years under the crop (numbers) 0.009*** (0.003) 0.009*** (0.003) 0.009*** (0.003) road as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) 0.079 (0.078) 0.064 (0.076) 0.070 (0.079) water body as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) −0.061 (0.078) −0.057 (0.082) −0.067 (0.079) fallow land as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) 0.005 (0.069) 0.003 (0.074) 0.007 (0.075) farmyard manure (1 if applied, 2 otherwise) −0.140** (0.071) −0.137* (0.072) per-acre fertilizer quantity (kg) −0.000 (0.000) per-acre pesticide quantity (litres) −0.000 (0.001) per-acre man-days (numbers) −0.001 (0.001) constant 1.082*** (0.041) −1.096 (1.120) −1.124 (1.090) −1.128 (1.128) −1.287 (1.139) pseudo r2 0.08 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.11 observations 178 178 178 178 178 source: based on analysis of primary data collected in the project note: robust standard errors are in parentheses. ***p<0.01; **p<0.05; *p<0.1. [49] manjula, gopi and das paddy fields with standing water for a large part of the year helps with the multiplication and sustenance of the amphibian population and promotes diversity within the agro-ecosystem. this is further corroborated by the fact that the level of water in the observation plots positively influenced frog abundance and species diversity across all regression models. table 8: marginal effects of the explanatory variables explanatory variable frog abundance frog species diversity banana (2) −15.81*** (2.56) −0.73* (0.34) areca nut (3) −9.26*** (2.65) 0.31 (0.36) temperature (ºc) −0.35 (0.47) 0.25*** (0.07) humidity (%) −0.09 (0.08) −0.022* (0.012) water level (cm) 0.76*** (0.16) 0.037* (0.16) ph (numbers) −6.78** −0.140 (0.59) (0.27) frog species diversity 3.07*** (0.57) years under the crop (numbers) −0.007 0.019** (0.06) (0.06) road as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) −0.97 (1.20) 0.15 (0.18) water body as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) 0.72 (1.13) −0.14 (0.16) fallow land as border (1 if yes, 0 otherwise) −2.58* (1.18) 0.015 (0.16) farmyard manure (1 if applied, 2 otherwise) −0.49 (1.19) −0.30* (0.16) per-acre fertilizer quantity (kg) 0.002 (0.002) −0.00 (0.00) per-acre pesticide quantity (litres) −0.016 (0.028) −0.00 (0.002) per-acre man-days (numbers) −0.008 (0.02) −0.003 (0.002) source: based on analysis of primary data collected in the project notes: standard errors are in parentheses. ***p<0.01; **p<0.05; *p<0.1. paddy is used as the reference land use category. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] other biophysical variables like soil ph negatively influenced the abundance, but ph had no significant influence on species diversity. paddy lands had the lowest mean soil ph, which could partly explain the decline in abundance that would be triggered by a shift away from paddy. however, the humidity of the microenvironment had a significant negative influence on species diversity, but its impact on abundance was not significant in models that included other explanatory variables such as plot history, boundaries, and agronomic details. paddy lands reported the lowest mean humidity compared to banana and areca nut plots, thereby providing a conducive microenvironment for amphibians like frogs. soil temperature had a positive and significant influence on species diversity. areca nut plots had the highest mean soil temperature. this could explain to some extent the lack of significant impact of a shift away from paddy to areca nut on frog species diversity once soil temperature was included as an explanatory variable in the relevant poisson regression models. the positive influence of temperature on species diversity is also corroborated by the number of species reported from areca nut plots in the sample. descriptive statistics reveal that after paddy lands, areca nut plots had the largest number of species (table 3). this could be because the soil temperature of areca nut plots is conducive to sustaining the life cycles of different species of frogs. nevertheless, the number of individuals reported per species in areca nut plots was much lower compared to that in paddy plots. the fact that the number of individuals per species was highest in wetland paddy ecosystems is significant evidence of the role of paddy lands in maintaining the amphibian population density and species diversity, which was not seen with banana and areca nut. the positive, significant, and consistent influence of the explanatory variable “years under the crop”—which is reflective of plot history—on species diversity explains to some extent the reason for observing the highest diversity of species in paddy lands, followed by areca nut. paddy lands had been used for the highest average number of consecutive years (51 years) without any change in land use, followed by areca nut (23 years). an interesting result is the negative influence of “presence of a fallow plot” adjacent to the observation plot on frog abundance. fallow lands are mostly overgrown with weeds and shrubs and have poorly maintained bunds. thus, they do not have adequate standing water for calling and breeding. to sum up, our empirical results suggest that paddy lands play a significant role in supporting frog abundance and diversity. amphibian conservation through the conservation of paddy wetlands gains significance in wayanad—the study area—as this district in kerala is situated within the western ghats, a highly ecologically sensitive region and one of the eight [51] manjula, gopi and das “hottest hotspots” of biodiversity (goi 2011; myers et al. 2000) in the world. conservation of frogs, a key bio-indicator and keystone species in the food web, will help conserve the macroand micro-biodiversity within the western ghat agro-ecosystems. the study results conform with those of naito et al. (2012) and tsuji et al. (2011), which showed a decline in frog abundance due to the conversion of paddy lands. the result provides strong empirical evidence for the role of paddy lands in sustaining ecosystem health and providing ecosystem services. furthermore, paddy lands being human-made wetlands with all the characteristics of natural wetlands offer valuable ecological and environmental benefits to society (iwasaki et al. 2012; blackwell and pilgrim 2011). the results of the study lend credence to the legislation in kerala that regulates the conversion of paddy lands on grounds of ecological sustenance. still, paddy farmers across kerala incur significant personal losses by continuing with paddy cultivation, as is reflected in the benefits forgone due to conservation. the regulatory mechanism restricting paddy land conversion in the state of kerala penalizes paddy farmers without adequately compensating them for private economic losses. in light of the results of the study, we argue that the current regulatory mechanism needs to be complemented by market-based policy instruments over and above the prevailing subsidy and production bonus to incentivize conservation efforts. this recommendation is in line with suggestions that call for the payment of an “ecological incentive” to paddy farmers, which were put forth in the draft kerala state agricultural development plan of 2013, and the gadgil committee recommendation to pay a “conservation service charge” to farmers who adopt environmentally sustainable farming practices in the western ghat region. the market-based policy instrument could be a “pigouvian subsidy” or an “ecological incentive” that is at least equivalent to the opportunity cost of conservation, which is the “economic rent” forgone by paddy farmers who do not shift to banana—the first stage of conversion, which is still reversible. a shift to areca nut is considered a permanent conversion as paddy lands brought under areca nut lose their wetland characteristics, making it impossible to bring the land under paddy again. hence, it is important to stop conversion when it is still reversible. having said this, it is also important to acknowledge that an appropriate value for the pigouvian subsidy or ecological incentive can only be arrived at through an economic valuation of the non-market ecosystem services provided by wetland paddy. 5. conclusion this study investigated the ecological rationale behind the restrictive regulations on paddy land conversion in kerala, india. to accomplish this, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] a comparative analysis of the ecological health of paddy wetlands and its competing land uses—banana and areca nut—was done. frog abundance and diversity were used as proxies to assess the ecological health of plots with alternate land uses because frogs are bio-indicators of ecological health. the study results establish that a shift away from paddy to banana and areca nut can have adverse effects on frog abundance and diversity. the role of paddy lands in sustaining frog populations goes beyond its provisioning services, such as food and feed. the ability of paddy lands to support frogs is reflective of their capacity to bolster ecological health. the results of the study provide evidence of the significance of paddy agroecosystems in sustaining ecological health, which has larger societal benefits. however, paddy farming is estimated to be less economically viable, and paddy farmers, who supply valuable non-market ecosystems services, as also evidenced in this study, need to be compensated for their private losses if a socially desirable and environmentally responsible land use system is to thrive. the state, in addition to promulgating legislations controlling land use, should pitch in with a pigouvian subsidy (ecological incentives) to encourage paddy farmers to continue to cultivate paddy, at the risk of personal economic losses, for larger societal benefit. this pigouvian subsidy should be in addition to the existing production bonuses and subsidies for paddy farmers in kerala. it should at least match the opportunity cost of conserving paddy lands and provide the “economic rent” forgone by not shifting to banana. as indicated earlier, a shift to banana is considered an intermediary conversion as it is still reversible. the aim of the pigouvian subsidy would be to arrest the intermediary conversion. this suggestion is also in line with the idea of ecological/conservation incentives referred to in previous state policy documents. as indicated earlier, estimating the pigouvian subsidy is an area of future research and necessitates an economic valuation of ecosystem services from paddy wetlands. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is available on request under condition that it will not be used for research or commercial purposes without the knowledge or prior consent from the authors. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. acknowledgements [53] manjula, gopi and das the authors acknowledge research funding from the south asian network for development and environmental economics (sandee). a special acknowledgement is due to subhrendu pattnayak, professor at duke university, north carolina, usa. references anil kumar, nadesapanicker, girigan gopi, and parameswaran prajeesh. 2010. “genetic erosion and degradation of ecosystem services of wetland rice fields: a case study from western ghats, india.” in agriculture, biodiversity and market: livelihoods and agroecology in comparative perspective, edited by stewart lockie and david carpenter, 137–153. devon, uk: earthscan publishers. baharuddin, zainul mukrim, lukman ramli, and rashidi othman. 2015. “the diversity of amphibian species in urban lake as 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implications.” plos one 12 (1): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169254 annexures annexure a: poisson regression function equations the probability density function of a poisson distribution is given by where is the probability that the variable takes a nonnegative integer value , and is the mean (and the variance) of the variable , which is assumed to have a poisson distribution. the marginal effect of variables on the probability of non-zero abundance/diversity can be estimated using the following equation: = = – = exp () , where is the marginal effect of the jth variable on the expected abundance and species diversity of the ith plot. the marginal effects measure the expected change in probability of the outcome variables—frog abundance and species diversity—with respect to unit change in the explanatory variables. https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrobiology1030023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2011.08.005 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169254 [57] manjula, gopi and das table a1: stepwise poisson regression model used in the study – variables added in each model outcome variables frog abundance and frog species diversity models explanatory variables 1 land use 2 land use, biophysical parameters 3 land use, biophysical parameters, plot history, boundary effect 4 land use, biophysical parameters, plot history, boundary effect, manure use 5 land use, biophysical parameters, plot history, boundary effect, manure use, per-acre fertilizer use, per-acre pesticide use, and per-acre labour use source: analytical framework proposed in the study by the authors annexure b: sampling framework table a2: sampling framework no. agro-climatic zone representative panchayat ward numbers 1 aes 1 (drought area) nenmeni (block: sulthan bathery) 18, 19, and 23 2 aes 2 (valley paddy area) kaniyambatta (block: mananthavady) 9 and 14 3 aes 3 (humid, high-altitude area) pozhuthana (block: kalpetta) 1, 2, 4, and 5 source: wayanad district data, government of kerala. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 123–128, january 2021 notes from the field so near yet so far: a narrative from a forestdwelling gaddi community in chamba, himachal pradesh kritishnu sanyal,  anupreet kaur,  shyamasree dasgupta  1. introduction ―we exist as the trees exist‖,1 our respondent said with a chuckle when we asked how the surrounding forests helped her sustain. this was in one of the three gaddi villages in the chamba district of himachal pradesh (hp) that we visited between august 2019 and march 2020. the gaddis are a semi-nomadic scheduled tribe who live mostly in parts of the western indian himalayan region. agriculture and animal husbandry are their main sources of livelihood, and they practise winter migration. because of the remoteness of our study location, other than a few research scholars, occasional tourists, and forest produce merchants, hardly anyone from the outside visits these villages. this note briefly narrates two significant observations from the site on how the gaddi villagers perceive the ―forest‖ as a natural resource and their thorough sense of alienation from the entire gamut of forest management practices. we interviewed people from 60 randomly selected households using a semi-structured questionnaire and  doctoral student, school of humanities and social sciences (shss), indian institute of technology mandi (iit-m), himachal pradesh 175075, india; sanyalkritishnu@gmail.com.   project associate, shss, iit-m; anupreetk98@gmail.com.  assistant professor, shss, iit-m; shyamasree.dasgupta@gmail.com. copyright © sanyal, kaur, dasgupta 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.309 1 exact quote: ―ped hain to hum bhi hain‖. respondent: a 36-year-old schoolteacher (woman); date: 16 march 2020; time: 15:20 ist; location: sirad; interviewer: author 1. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.309 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] engaged in multiple other informal discussions that formed a part of a more extensive survey. 2. benefits from forest ecosystems are too obvious to report the valuation of anything is related to its contribution toward achieving a specific goal (costanza and folke 1997, 49). such goals vary between stakeholders. the ―ecological identity‖ (kumar and kumar 2008, 818) of the stakeholder is significant in such value formation. since the valuations of forest ecosystem services are mainly determined by experts attaching values to these services given their scientific knowledge, we wanted to explore whether the communities living in proximity to forestlands also similarly recognize their value. to understand this, we first asked respondents to name the products/services that they collect/derive from the forest. the most frequent, spontaneous responses were ―fodder‖ and ―fuel wood‖. while most respondents also collected food items, such as guchchhi and lingdu, and medicinal plants, such as banafsha and nagchhatri, 2 most forgot to mention these initially and reported these names only after further probing. this underreporting led us to question whether the villagers did it deliberately because they collected food items and medicinal plants without a licence. in some cases, a licence is required since the forest is not an open one. we found that for the most part, the villagers were unaware that a licence may be required or the type of forest (open or protected) from which they collected resources. so it seemed unlikely that the underreporting was deliberate. they expressed their point of view saying, ―taking things is not taking advantage of, but getting necessary help from, the forest for sustenance‖3 and, ―one can‘t be a thief in their own house‖.4 2 ―guchchhi‖ (common morel mushroom, morchella esculenta); ―lingdu‖ (fiddlehead fern, matteuccia struthiopteris); ―banafsha‖ (viola odorata); and ―nagchhatri‖ (trillium govanianum). 3 exact quote: ―jungle se kuchh lena matlab jungle ka faida uthana thodi na hai; hum bas apni jarurat ke hisabsehi lete hai‖. respondent: a 38-year-old farmer-cumcontractual labourer (woman); date: 26 august 2019; time: 17:08 ist; location: jhikli kugti; interviewer: author 1. 4 exact quote: ―apne ghar pe to koi chori nahi karta na?‖ respondent: a 22-yearold master‘s student-cum-small tea shop owner (man); date: 27 august 2019; time: 12:42 ist; location: jhikli kugti; interviewer: author 1. [125] kritishnu sanyal, anupreet kaur, shyamasree dasgupta the respondents primarily talked about ―provisioning services‖ they derive from the forestland. but does that mean that they have no understanding of other ecosystem services such as ―regulating‖, ―supporting‖, and ―cultural‖? while our interviewees were mostly unaware of various supporting services (such as pollination, habitat, and soil fertility), they had an in-depth understanding of regulating services (carbon sequestration, climate control, watershed management, etc.). however, they thought that these were too obvious to mention and expressed amusement that we were asking such basic questions. they were most surprised when we asked them whether they could attach any monetary value to these services. moreover, they were not aware of the market prices of fodder, fuel food, and food items—in most cases, they consumed the forest produce that they collected. evidently, a community that derives benefit from the forestland cannot easily place a value on it. our interactions revealed that the process of value formation for the community was different from that of the external scientific community. 3. participation in forest management: the past and the present forests in south asia have historically been inhabited by several tribal and non-tribal communities, whose livelihoods significantly depend on forestlands (lele 2019, 22). following the drive for participatory forest management in the world and india in the 1990s, the indian forest rights act, 2006 (fra) (mota 2007), recognized a ―forest-dwelling scheduled tribe‖ community‘s right to ―manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use‖ (mota 2007, 4). while the wishful belief is that the philosophy of forest management in india has shifted from a strict top–down model to a cooperative one, the question remains whether the communities feel the same way. most families in the studied villages had ancestral houses in which they had been living for many decades. they recalled traditional forest management practices based on deity institutions and the rakha (the keeper) and praza (the public) systems. these institutions are also mentioned in the works of dhiman (2001, 932), gupta (2006, 14), and vasan and kumar (2006, 332). deity institutions, run by a devta committee (pre-sixteenth century to the present), historically controlled, and still control, the social, cultural, moral, economic, and political lives of the villagers. in turn, the villagers protect the nearby forests from exploitation as they believe that the deities are settled in these forests and that transgressors will be duly punished. in the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] rakha system (pre-sixteenth century to 1950), a villager was nominated and employed by the village community to guard the local forests and received remuneration from all the households. after the indian forest department (ifd) was established in 1864, this system became partially institutionalized. the rakha became a joint employee of both the state and the local community and started receiving a small cash payment from the state along with community payments. this practice of the ifd paying the rakha was questioned and rejected in the neighbouring district of kangra in 1924, resulting in the fall of the rakha system in hp (singh 1998). in the praza system (1950–1980), with the mutual consent of all the villagers, the village pradhan (chief) nominated 10–15 members to be a part of a committee called the praza. the praza organized major social practices related to collective resource extraction and its use and management. however, all these systems were non-inclusive as these were mostly run and managed by the upper-caste gaddis, and women‘s participation was nil. the influence of traditional institutions has reduced over time, and, at present, there is no locally elected body to manage forests. similar to the reality in the rest of the country, the current forest management system in hp follows a hierarchical structure, and legal rights are implemented through the state forest department. while hp has extensive experience in joint forest management, the studied area did not utilize any such institutionalized forest management practices. on one hand, while strong bureaucratic resistance has prevented the granting of communities‘ rights promised under the fra in various parts of the country (lele 2019, 26), the villagers here did not even know about the existence of the fra. the gaddi community in the studied villages, with has a history of strong, traditional forest management practices, felt alienated from the present forest management system in the absence of participatory forest management processes: ―our forest is no longer ‗our forest‘; it has become government‘s forest. so whether we protect it or not doesn‘t matter‖.5 now they only engage in a wide variety of centre and state government–run schemes and community development programmes and other livelihood projects. we found that government interventions in local communities were limited to recruiting villagers on a daily-wage basis for afforestation under schemes such as sanjhi van yojna. the villagers expressed 5 exact quote: ―humare jungal ab humare nahi sarkar ke ban chuke hain. isliye hum unki raksha kare iya na kare usse koi farak nahi padta‖. respondent: a 60-yearold farmer (woman); date: 18 march 2020; time: 18:13 ist; location: thathan; interviewer: author 2. [127] kritishnu sanyal, anupreet kaur, shyamasree dasgupta discontent about the fact that nobody ever asked them how the forestland should be managed. this made them reluctant to embrace existing forest management policies and they simply deflected them instead. there is no reason to believe that they criticize government policies for the sake of it. they appreciate the role of government forest policies with their attached legalities in promoting caste and gender equity, increasing canopy cover, etc., as all this may be difficult to achieve under traditional systems. however, they feel completely alienated from the entire discourse. 4. reflection the experiences of these villagers are not representative of all forest dependent communities, but definitely of some. we observe that there is a difference between the process of value formation for forest products and services between the local community and the external scientific community. the gaddi villagers did not even spontaneously recognize some of the important services because they felt that they were too obvious. we believe that this is one of the reasons why we see significant underreporting of forest produce collection in the existing literature. for forest management, there was neither a ―politics of collaboration‖ nor a ―politics of partnership‖ (guha 2001, 232–233). the community experienced a transition from traditional participatory ―forest management system‖ practices to participating in ―forest conservation‖ as wage labourers. therefore, while the academic discourse and philosophical standpoints of forest policies thrive on stating that the community as a stakeholder should participate significantly in managing forests within a legal framework established by the state, our field study revealed quite the opposite. acknowledgements we are grateful to our respondents for their valuable time and insights. references costanza, r., and c. folke. 1997. ―valuing ecosystem services with efficiency, fairness, and sustainability as goals.‖ in nature’s services: societal dependence on natural ecosystems, 49–70. washington dc and california: island press. dhiman, r. c. 2001. ―traditional initiatives in participatory forest management: dodra-kwar (shimla-hp) experience.‖ indian forester 127 (8): 929–935. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] guha, r. 2001. ―the prehistory of community forestry in india.‖ environmental history 6 (2): 213–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985085 gupta, h. k. 2006. ―cultural significance of indigenous institutions and forest management practices in the indian himalayas: implications for policy and sustainable livelihoods.‖ eleventh conference of the international association for the study of common property on ‗survival of the commons: mounting challenges and new realities‘, bali, indonesia, june 19-23, 2006. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42761964_cultural_significance_of_in digenous_institutions_and_forest_management_practices_in_the_indian_himala yas_implications_for_policy_and_sustainable_livelihoods. kumar, m., and p. kumar. 2008. ―valuation of the ecosystem services: a psychocultural perspective.‖ ecological economics 64 (4): 808–819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.05.008 lele, s. 2019. ―understanding current forest policy debates through multiple lenses.‖ ecology, economy and society – the insee journal 2 (2): 21–30. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.71 mota. 2007. forest rights act 2006, act, rules and guidelines. new delhi: ministry of tribal affairs, government of india. singh, c. 1998. natural premises, ecology and peasant life in the western himalaya 1800– 1950. new delhi: oxford university press. vasan, s., and s. kumar. 2006. ―situating conserving communities in their place: political economy of kullu devban.‖ conservation and society 4 (2): 325–346. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985085 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42761964_cultural_significance_of_indigenous_institutions_and_forest_management_practices_in_the_indian_himalayas_implications_for_policy_and_sustainable_livelihoods https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42761964_cultural_significance_of_indigenous_institutions_and_forest_management_practices_in_the_indian_himalayas_implications_for_policy_and_sustainable_livelihoods https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42761964_cultural_significance_of_indigenous_institutions_and_forest_management_practices_in_the_indian_himalayas_implications_for_policy_and_sustainable_livelihoods https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.05.008 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.71 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 31–43, january 2021 thematic essay mobility restrictions and the control of covid-19 charles perrings  and baltazar espinoza  abstract: a recent study on the impact of mobility controls on the final size of epidemics by espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) found that mobility restrictions between areas experiencing different levels of disease risk and with different public health infrastructures do not always reduce the final epidemic size. indeed, restrictions on the mobility of people from high-risk to low-risk areas can increase, not reduce, the total number of infections. since the first response of many countries to the covid-19 pandemic was to implement mobility restrictions, it is worth bearing in mind the implications of the espinoza result when considering the effectiveness of such restrictions. keywords: mobility restrictions; covid 19; diseases risk; health infrastructure. 1. introduction most governments‘ first response to the covid-19 pandemic was to introduce mobility restrictions. these took many forms, spanning selective restrictions on national and international travel and trade; closure of schools, museums, and cultural and social centres; restrictions on nonessential local travel; local stay-at-home orders; and area quarantines. by the end of may 2020, 220 countries had imposed a total of over 62,000 restrictions on international travel (international organization for migration 2020). as a result, trade in services involving proximity between suppliers and consumers, especially services involving travel or the temporary movement of people, has since been ‗paralyzed‘ (world trade organization  school of life sciences, arizona state university, p.o. box 874501, tempe, az 852874501, usa; charles.perrings@asu.edu.   biocomplexity institute and initiave, university of virginia, p.o. box 400298, charlottesville, va 22904-4298, usa; baltazar.espinoza@virginia.edu. copyright © perrings and espinoza 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.344 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.344 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] 2020a). internally, public curfews, domestic travel restrictions, and lockdowns of varying severity have had similar effects. a recently published paper by espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) analysed the effectiveness of mobility restrictions in controlling infectious diseases such as covid-19. the paper particularly considered the impact of mobility restrictions between areas experiencing different levels of infection risk and having different access to healthcare. the main result reported in the paper (hereafter ‗the espinoza result‘) was that mobility restrictions between lowand high-risk areas do not always reduce the final epidemic size. indeed, in some cases, restrictions can have the opposite effect. restricting people in high-risk areas from moving to lowrisk areas can increase, not reduce, the total number of infections. in some cases, allowing mobility out of high-risk areas can be sufficient to control an outbreak. in this paper, we discuss the implications of the espinoza result for the effectiveness of covid-19 disease control. the problem modelled by espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) is one in which mobility restrictions limit movement between areas that differ not just in the level of infection risk but also in their capacity to treat those who are infected. it is assumed that the lowand high-risk areas are distinguished by differences in income, nutrition, health status, and health infrastructure. it follows that they will also differ in terms of outcomes associated with the same number of cases. while theoretical studies on the impact of mobility restrictions on epidemiological dynamics in a multipatch system suggest little impact on the final epidemic size if restrictions permit some movement between patches (arino et al. 2007), the espinoza result finds that restrictions on movement between highand low-risk areas can have a substantial impact on both the area-specific and global final epidemic size. in all recent epidemics affecting multiple countries—the 2003 sars epidemic, the 2009 h1n1 influenza pandemic, and the 2014 ebola epidemic—the speed, direction, and extent of spread of the disease were determined by pre-existing patterns of trade and travel. these patterns determined both the routes along which the disease spread and the frequency with which it was introduced (sirkeci and yucesahin 2020). in all cases, the response to the outbreak included travel restrictions, international border closures, and area quarantines (cordons sanitaires). broadly similar measures have been deployed in the management of infectious diseases for hundreds of years (mcneill 1977; mcneill 2003). the motivation for the study by espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) was evidence that mobility restrictions have not always succeeded in [33] charles perrings and baltazar espinoza controlling the size of epidemics. in the 2014 ebola epidemic, for example, quarantining an area that later contained about 70% of all cases led to a perfect storm within the area. food supply was disrupted, the healthcare system was overwhelmed, infection risk increased, and both, the number of cases and the case mortality rate, increased over time. the final epidemic size—around 29,000 cases leading to around 11,000 deaths—was larger than it would have been with no quarantine (towers et al. 2014; castillochavez et al. 2015; espinoza et al. 2016). in the following sections, we first summarize the espinoza result and then consider the implications it has for the spread of covid-19 and for the wellbeing of people in regions with varying degrees of development. 2. a model of mobility restrictions and disease dynamics the model developed by espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) describes infectious disease transmission between two communities connected through the movement of people. specifically, it models the time spent by individuals in each community using a residency time matrix. in a two-community world, time not spent in one community is assumed to be spent in the other community. individuals either spend all of their time in a single community or they divide their time between two communities. their location is tracked over time, making it possible to understand the impact of mobility and mobility restrictions on disease dynamics in each community and on a global scale (bichara et al. 2015). the risk of infection in a given community is assumed to be proportional to the time spent there, weighted by a community-specific infection likelihood. this makes it possible to model the impact of mobility restrictions on disease dynamics in communities. the model is parameterized for covid-19. intuitively, one would expect people‘s mobility away from the outbreak location to increase both the rate at which the disease is spread and the final epidemic size. what the espinoza result shows, however, is that if the two communities differ in population density, disease risk, and standards of healthcare, outcomes may be quite different. specifically, if infected individuals in a high disease risk community move to a less densely populated region with better sanitary conditions, then the increase in the number of secondary infections in that region may be offset by the reduction in the number of secondary infections in the high-risk community. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] the dynamics of covid-19 in two communities with distinct infection risks is described by the following system of differential equations:                          jjii jjjiii iji i i jjii jjjiii iiii n)t(nt )qei(t)qei(t st n lj ntn)t( )qei(t)qei)(t( s)t(s 11 1 1 i jjii jjjiii iji i i jjii jjjiii iiii e n)t(nt )qei(t)qei(t st n lj ntn)t( )qei(t)qei)(t( s)t(e                           11 1 1 iii i)(ei  1  iii j)(ij  2  iii jir 21     ji,,j,i  21 for the thi community, the compartments comprise susceptible, is , exposed and potentially infectious, ie , symptomatic infectious and undiagnosed individuals, ii ; diagnosed cases, ij ; and recovered individuals, ir . individuals move between compartments, depending upon: i , the community-specific transmission rate per day;  , the progression rate to symptomatic infectious;  , the progression rate from infectious to quarantine; 1 , the infectious individuals‘ recovery rate; 2 , the diagnosed individuals‘ recovery rate; q , the reduced infectiousness of the exposed class; l , the reduced infectiousness of diagnosed cases; and,  , the covid-19-induced mortality rate per day. transmission rates in the th i community are weighted by the average proportion of time spent in that community, and it refers to residency time in the community. it is assumed that different conditions in the two communities drive differences in the community-specific values of the basic reproduction number, 0r . for the case where the disease dies out in the low-risk community (when the 0r for that community is less than one), the espinoza result shows that strong mobility restrictions can increase the final global epidemic size while weak restrictions can reduce it. to illustrate this result, figure 1 shows the community-specific and global final epidemic sizes, measured on the y axis, as functions of the average proportion of time that people from the high-risk community spend in the low-risk community, denoted by 1t and measured on the x axis. the first [35] charles perrings and baltazar espinoza threshold, 1  t , reflects the trade-off involved in mobility from the high-risk to the low-risk community—the reduction in the number of secondary infections in the high-risk community against the increase in the number of secondary infections in the low-risk community. the second threshold, 1  t , gives the level of mobility between the high-risk and low-risk communities required for the global basic reproduction number to fall below 1. espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) then test the sensitivity of this result to variations in population density ratios and community-specific risks of infection. figure 1: patch-specific, global final size in the presence of mobility source: espinoza, castillo-chavez, and perrings (2020) figure 1 shows the community-specific and total final epidemic size with unidirectional mobility from the high-risk community, 1t ( 2t = 0). the thresholds 1  t and 1  t denote the level of mobility required to reduce the total final epidemic size below that reached by applying the most extreme mobility restrictions (area quarantine), and the level of mobility needed to control a disease outbreak in the whole system, respectively. 3. covid-19 and the 2020 recession estimating the cost of disease control measures is complicated by the fact that the pandemic coincided with an expected downturn in the economy. covid-19 proved to be the trigger for a widely anticipated recession, making it hard to identify the excess costs due to disease control measures. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] in mid-april 2020, the international monetary fund (imf) estimated that government measures to sustain economic activity amounted to usd 3.3 trillion and that loans, equity injections, and guarantees totalled an additional usd 4.5 trillion—most of which were at least formally tied to covid-19. they projected the increase in public-sector borrowing to finance this to be equal to 6.2% of the global gross domestic product (gdp). in the us, the imf expects the fiscal balance to gdp ratio to rise from 5.8% in 2019 to 15.7% in 2020. france, germany, italy, japan, and the united kingdom all have public sector support measures exceeding 10% of their gdps (international monetary fund 2020). in terms of gdp growth, the imf‘s april 2020 estimate was that the global economy would decline by 3.0% in 2020 but that the impact would be significantly different for developed (-6.1%) and developing economies (-1.0%) (table 1). table 1: projected change in world gdp 2019 2020 (projected) world 2.9 –3.0 advanced economies 1.7 –6.1 united states 2.3 –5.9 euro area 1.2 –7.5 japan 0.7 –5.2 other advanced economies 1.6 –5.2 emerging market and developing economies 3.7 –1.0 regional groups emerging and developing asia 5.5 1.0 emerging and developing europe 2.1 –5.2 latin america and the caribbean 0.1 –5.2 middle east and central asia 1.2 –2.8 sub-saharan africa 3.1 –1.6 source: international monetary fund (2020) in terms of trade, a similarly timed estimate by the world trade organization (wto) was that the decline in world merchandise trade would be between 12.9% and 31.9% in 2020 (table 2). in these projections, the differences between developed and developing economies are less pronounced. world trade was already declining in 2019, and this was expected to become worse in 2020. detecting the impact of the covid-19 response in the data is hard. mobility restrictions primarily affect trade in services, which are not included in merchandise trade. however, the wto makes the point that there are tight connections between trade in goods and trade in services (since transport is a service). they also note that there are no inventories of services. it is not possible to [37] charles perrings and baltazar espinoza draw down on a service in one year and restock it in another. the implication is that any decline in services in 2020 cannot be recouped later (world trade organization 2020b). table 2: projected change in world merchandise trade optimistic scenario pessimistic scenario 2019 2020 2020 volume of world merchandise trade -0.01 -12.9 -31.9 exports north america 1 -17.1 -40.9 south and central america -2.2 -12.9 -31.3 europe 0.1 -12.2 -32.8 asia 0.9 -13.5 -36.2 other regions -2.9 -8.0 -8.0 imports north america -0.4 -14.5 -33.8 south and central america -2.1 -22.2 -43.8 europe 0.5 -10.3 -28.9 asia -0.6 -11.8 -31.5 other regions 1.5 -10.0 -22.6 source: world trade organization (2020b) note: other regions comprise africa, middle east, and commonwealth of independent states (cis) including associate and former member states. in the case of covid-19, the social cost of the disease includes the cost of the morbidity and mortality it induces along with the cost of treatment. the social cost of disease control includes all direct and indirect consequences of disruptions to trade and travel, social distancing, industry closures, domestic market restrictions, and financial measures to compensate firms and households for the effect of such restrictions. backward and forward supply chain linkages mean that disease control measures in one location have consequences for employment and output elsewhere. just as private contact decisions may generate external effects, so also disease control measures may have external consequences for both disease transmission and economic disruption elsewhere in the trade network. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] 4. implications for efficiency while the result reported in espinoza is strictly epidemiological, in that it concerns the impact of mobility restrictions on the final size of the epidemic only, it does have implications for the efficiency of mobility restrictions as a disease control measure. first, trade and travel decisions both affect disease transmission through their effects on contact between infectious and susceptible individuals (jones et al. 2008; daszak 2012). for private individuals, the potential disease risks of contact are included in the costs of both trade and travel decisions and are weighed against the benefits of those decisions. disease dynamics are thus sensitive both to the cost of disease and the cost of disease avoidance (the forgone benefits of contact). if the cost of disease is low, there is little incentive to avoid it. if the cost of disease is high, people will do more to avoid it. understanding the tradeoffs involved can therefore strengthen our capacity to predict disease dynamics (fenichel et al. 2011). at the same time, unless private individuals confront the full social cost of their actions, the level of disease avoidance may be less than socially optimal. this is the motivation for interventions designed to limit contact— for example, mobility restrictions and social distancing measures. the test for whether such interventions are socially efficient is whether they minimize the social cost of disease and disease control. if the health authorities implementing disease control measures neglect the cost of those measures for people elsewhere, their actions are unlikely to be costminimizing (perrings et al. 2014). the espinoza result assumes that the public health authority responsible for imposing mobility restrictions weighs disease prevalence in each community equally. if we do not consider the economic costs of disease control, it then follows that mobility restrictions should be increased up to the point that the global final epidemic size is minimized. the reason that mobility restrictions fail to minimize the global epidemic size is that individual communities generally place a greater weight on containing their own risk than on reducing risk overall. they focus on community-specific epidemic size rather than the global epidemic size. multiple public health authorities, each representing a different community or a different jurisdiction, have little incentive to coordinate their responses to the pandemic to assure the lowest global epidemic size (espinoza et al. 2020). including the economic cost of disease control complicates the calculus. in the current covid-19 pandemic, most disease control interventions are made at the national level. indeed, efforts to coordinate control interventions across nation states have been frustrated by efforts to weaken [39] charles perrings and baltazar espinoza the world health organization. in several countries, control has devolved to even lower levels. in the us, for example, most disease control measures have devolved to individual states, while some measures have devolved to individual counties or cities. while it may be motivated by the subsidiarity principle, the devolution of disease control to local authorities is problematic when the consequences of control are realized over a much wider area. for the individual authority, the incentive is to increase disease control up to the point where only the local costs of disease and disease control are minimized irrespective of global costs. if this results in higher overall costs than could be achieved through a cooperative approach, the outcome is socially inefficient. for any given public health authority, their actions involve two possible sources of inefficiency. first, the adoption of specific disease control measures in one location may have a direct impact on both morbidity and mortality in other locations, but this impact may be ignored. the espinoza result described above indicates why. second, disease control measures that affect either labour or transport potentially have effects either up or down the supply chain, and these effects may occur at a distance from the place where the measures are enforced. a recent study on the short-term economic impacts of sector-specific transport and labour supply constraints imposed in response to the covid-19 pandemic found that even countries that are not directly affected by the virus would face large losses (greater than 20% of their gdp) due to the disruption of supply chains. they also found that lowand middle-income countries are more vulnerable to supply chain-mediated effects than high-income countries (guan et al. 2020). 5. implications for equity an additional issue with a public health control strategy that privileges individual communities is that the outcome may not only be inefficient from a social perspective, it may also be inequitable. in the long history of area quarantines, the question of whether quarantining people is ethical and/or equitable has seldom been raised. in the covid-19 pandemic, however, the question is being discussed in ways not been seen before. countries have different approaches to it. in china, the imposition of a cordon sanitaire around wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, was not questioned. in the us, by contrast, much milder social distancing measures that limit the behaviour of individuals have been challenged as a violation of individual rights. because mobility restrictions differentially affect the health and welfare of those who are restricted and those who are not, they have distributional ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] implications. the espinoza result implies that the people who are constrained to remain in high-risk areas face an increased risk to their health. if they also face increased losses due to the disruption of supply chains, lost access to product or labour markets, the collapse of public services, and so on, they are twice harmed. the evidence currently suggests that low-income countries, and low-income communities within developed countries, are most affected by the disease. this is in part due to the state of their public health infrastructures. limited healthcare personnel (especially anaesthesiologists), hospital beds, intensive care units, oxygen, ventilators, infusion pumps, and even water and power supply mean that low-income countries have a more limited capacity to handle a large number of cases compared to high-income countries (see, for example, sonenthal et al. 2020). this is partially because most surgeries are urgent and non-elective (such as caesarean deliveries). they cannot be postponed (bong et al. 2020). but it is also because people with low incomes have fewer options to avoid infection, whether by changing work habits, social distancing, or moving to safer environments. in new york, the city most affected by the pandemic in the us, evidence indicates (a) that residents from high-income neighbourhoods were more likely to move away from the city than residents from low-income neighbourhoods, (b) that residents in low-income black and hispanic neighbourhoods exhibit the most high-risk work activity during working hours, and (c) these residents are least likely to ‗shelter in place‘ outside of working hours (coven and gupta 2020). the evidence also indicates that covid controls affect women more than men. the closure of schools and day-care centres has impacted child care and hence working mothers (alon et al. 2020). in east and south east asia, travel restrictions have restricted the availability of employment for female foreign domestic workers traveling between the philippines, indonesia, hong kong, and singapore (wenham, smith, and morgan 2020). the central point here is that mobility restrictions evidently limit the capacity of those in less safe environments to move to more safe environments, whether within a country or between countries. this raises the cost of disease in less safe environments and lowers it in more safe environments. just as this has implications for epidemiology, so does it have implications for equity. [41] charles perrings and baltazar espinoza 6. concluding remarks the emergence of covid-19 shares many similarities with the emergence of other novel zoonotic diseases over the last 50 years. the first appearance of the disease in the wet markets of wuhan mirrors the first appearance of many other emerging zoonoses. an interface between humans and wildlife at forest margins is the likely origin of the disease, and local markets for wildlife products are the likely mechanisms for transmission from the forest margin to the urban centre. as with other emerging zoonoses, its transmission from one country to another was due to patterns of travel and trade. where it differs from other recently emerged zoonoses is in the characteristics that make it especially difficult to contain—the high proportion of people infected who are asymptomatic but infectious. in these circumstances, mobility restrictions appear to be an effective means of slowing spread between communities, although a recent study concluded that airline travel restrictions would not have been sufficient to prevent the spread of the virus (shi et al. 2020). what makes the espinoza result interesting is that the same mobility restrictions can, conversely, increase transmission within restricted communities. when communities are differentiated in terms of population density, health infrastructure, and the resources that susceptible individuals have to avoid infection, restrictions that limit the capacity of people in highrisk areas to leave can lead to higher rates of infection in those areas. not only does this increase the number of cases in high-risk communities, but it also increases the probability that health infrastructures will fail, that case mortality rates will rise, and that the disease will not be contained. aside from the ethical issues this raises, it also risks prolonging the pandemic. despite the lack of a coordinated response to covid-19, it is still an infectious disease and its control is still a public good of a very particular kind. as with other infectious diseases, control of covid-19 is a weakest link public good (sandler 2004). the benefits of disease control to all are, ultimately, only as effective as the benefits of disease control offered by the least effective provider. as long as there are any countries where public health authorities are unable to contain the disease, no country is safe. an immediate implication of this is that the interests of all are best served by strengthening the capacity of the weakest links in the chain. as it happens, we have seen resources being diverted away both from healthoriented development assistance and from intergovernmental organizations set up to protect global interests. indeed, the us has announced its intention to withdraw from the world health organization at the very moment it is most needed. we have also seen the use of mobility restrictions that are certain to increase the stress on already stretched health ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] infrastructures in low-income countries. there is certainly scope for collaborative action within the global south to fill the void, but there is also little clear indication that this will happen. references alon, t. m., m. doepke, j. olmstead-rumsey, and m. tertilt. 2020. ―the impact of covid-19 on gender equality.‖ working paper 2937. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26947 arino, j., r. jordan, and p. van den driessche. 2007. ―quarantine in a multispecies epidemic model with spatial dynamics.‖ mathematical biosciences 206: 46–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mbs.2005.09.002 bichara, d., y. kang, c. castillo-chavez, r. horan, and c. perrings. 2015. ―sis and sir epidemic models under virtual dispersal.‖ bulletin of mathematical biology, 77: 2004–2034. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-015-0113-5 bong, c.-l., c. brasher, e. chikumba, r. mcdougall, j. mellin-olsen, and a. enright. 2020. ―the covid-19 pandemic: effects on low-and middle-income countries.‖ anesthesia and analgesia, 131 (1): 86–92. https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000004846 castillo-chavez, c., r. curtiss, p. daszak, s. a. levin, o. patterson-lomba, c. perrings, g. poste, and s. towers. 2015. ―beyond ebola: lessons to mitigate future pandemics." the lancet global health 3: e354–e355. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(15)00068-6 coven, j., and a. gupta. 2020. ―disparities in mobility responses to covid-19.‖ nyu stern working paper. new york: nyu stern school of business. daszak, p. 2012. ―anatomy of a pandemic.‖ the lancet 380: 1883–1884. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)61887-x espinoza, b., c. castillo-chavez, and c. perrings. 2020. 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economy." geneva: wto. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06536 https://doi.org/10.1080/01426390306530 https://doi.org/10.1097/00004010-197721000-00022 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-014-0963-6 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511617119 https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.20.255679 https://doi.org/10.33182/ml.v17i2.935 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30250-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30250-3 https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.outbreaks.9e4c4294ec8ce1adad283172b16bc908 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30526-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30526-2 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 169-171, july 2021 book review economics for the everyday aurko mahapatra 1 sudipta sarangi, the economics of small things, penguin india, 2020, 296 pages, isbn 9780143450375 midway through the iconic sci-fi thriller, the matrix, neo, played by keanu reeves, cheekily informs his interlocutors, “once you figure out the matrix, it all gets much easier”. the matrix, in this blockbuster film, refers to a computer programme that defines the terms for action; the system itself, however, remains open to being entirely gamed. sudipta sarangi’s lucidly written and engaging the economics of small things invokes a similar reality. economic decision-making, we learn, can yield desired outcomes if we play within the rules as well as bend and scramble the game. the book comprises a collection of anecdotes and stories—25 bitesized, crisply written chapters. these slick and quick-witted 1third-year student of bsc economics, erasmus university, burgemeester oudlaan 50, 3062 pa rotterdam, netherlands; aurko.mahapatra@gmail.com. copyright © mahapatra 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.456 mailto:aurko.mahapatra@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.456 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [170] accounts focus on the ordinary and everyday and tell us that economic behaviour is a series of puzzles awaiting solutions. hence, every choice, calculation, and action can be peeled open to reveal its underlying economic logic that, in turn, flows from larger patterns and rationales. a personal favourite from the collection is the puzzle of the dominance of the alphonso over other indian mangoes in foreign markets. for sarangi, the popular answer that the alphonso is the undisputed “king” of taste and aroma does not cut it. rather, through counterintuitive reasoning, he makes a compelling case to show us that fixed transportation costs make the alphonso only four times more expensive—even as its production costs ten times more—than other mangoes. the foreign consumer, thus, gets a better premium deal. put differently, the relationship between relative prices and fixed costs gives the alphonso its competitive edge. the story of shoes left outside temples urges us to focus on the significance of the complementary good—having one half of a pair is useless. kids are therefore taught to keep their shoes apart when leaving them unattended. while this is a good anti-theft technique, it also has macroeconomic applications. sarangi plots out an example by discussing the issue of traffic jams in india. prior to the 1990s, india was not home to a demanding automobile industry; hence, the condition of roads and highways was usually well below average. following liberalization, however, banks in india started handing out car loans on a large scale and many new foreign automobile companies entered the market. what followed was a huge increase in the number of cars. however, there was no similar investment in road infrastructure to match the automobile industry’s growth. we face the repercussions of this even today, as urban commuters suffer daily traffic jams. clearly, in this case, perceptive macroeconomic planners could have understood and noted the vital linkages between the automobile industry and roads. in other words, if complementarities are involved, one lagging behind the other most certainly leads to inefficient outcomes. the economics of small things uses day-to-day decisions as entry points to understand deeper economic rationales. the story of grameen bank and muhammad yunus reveals a similar trend. assessing the creditworthiness of the vast rural populations of bangladesh was a serious challenge, mostly because poor people lacked tangible assets to serve as collateral. disempowered and marginalized people relied primarily on loan sharks for much-needed credit, though such sources charged high interest rates and applied unfair conditions to unsecured loans. yunus solved this by offering loans to groups of people rather than individuals. those in need of loans were thus encouraged to form groups with other equally creditworthy members of society, a process also known as “self-selection”. economic [171] aurko mahapatra theories of self-selection, in other words, helped yunus design a radically innovative and attractive credit system. for all the puzzle-solving and compelling anecdotes, one still wonders if sarangi is fronting the old and well-worn belief that self-maximizing behaviour must form the basis of macroeconomic policy. throughout the book, moreover, there is undue emphasis and fascination with consumer behaviour. contemporary climate change anxieties, to give but one pronounced example, tell us that short-term consumer behaviour can complicate the task of evolving solutions based on long-term perspectives on planetary health. while i am a student of economics, i often ask myself if i enjoy economics at all. growing up, unsolicited lectures from my father about karl marx and doordarshan’s broadcast of the budget never caught my fancy. rather, it was watching sachin tendulkar hit a century or ar rahman accept an oscar that got my blood rushing. the economics of small things, however, helped me appreciate afresh the meaning of “everyday”, the intricate calculations that underlie daily choices, and what we consider common sense. sudipta sarangi has certainly deepened my understanding of economics by connecting theory and practice through the art of storytelling. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 59–82, july 2020 research paper role of marine national park for sustainable livelihoods of artisan fisherfolk: a case study of mnp, jamnagar rohit magotra,  pushkar pandey,  mohit kumar,  mohit kumar gupta,  asha kaushik,  and jyoti parikh  abstract: over the past few decades, marine conservation has become a global concern due to increasing anthropogenic activities in the vicinity of coastal areas, which has led to the development of the concept of marine protected areas (mpas) for the conservation of marine ecology and its biodiversity. conservation and acceptance of mpas can only be achieved if coastal communities and fisherfolk are included as significant stakeholders because mpas have direct relevance to their livelihood. to capture their acceptance towards the gulf of kachchh marine national park (mnp), jamnagar, artisanal fisherfolk fishing in and around the mnp were surveyed to determine whether the presence of a wellmanaged mnp has any positive effects on the adjacent fishing communities since its establishment. the survey was carried out at six sites along the coast of southern gulf of kachchh (sachana, jodiya, sikka, salaya, arambada, and bet dwarka) using structured questionnaires. the findings showed that the total fish catch was observed to increase over the years, but there has been a perceived decline in total catch in recent years. similarly, while the total fish catch data recorded an increasing trend, discussions with the fisherfolk revealed a sharp decline in ―catch per unit  integrated research and action for development (irade), c-80, shivalik, malviya nagar, new delhi 110017, india; r.magotra@irade.org.  irade; pandeypushkar989@gmail.com.  irade; mohitk@irade.org.   irade; mohitgupta@irade.org.  irade; akaushik@irade.org.  irade; jparikh@irade.org. copyright © magotra, pandey, kumar, gupta, kaushik and parikh 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.118 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.118 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] effort‖ in recent years. fisherfolk from all the study sites showed interest in the development of the mnp and were keen to be involved in conservation planning and the management of the mnp. keywords: gulf of kachchh, marine national park (mnp), fisherfolk, sustainable livelihood, community based management. 1. introduction establishing marine protected areas (mpas) in coastal and marine environments is considered essential for the conservation and protection of coastal and marine biodiversity. mpas are governed by policy regulations that are meant to restrict and regulate human activities within a predefined area. as stated by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) general assembly in 1988, an mpa is ―an area of intertidal or subtidal terrain together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment‖ [resolution 17.38 of the iucn general assembly, 1988, reaffirmed in resolution 19.46 (1994)]. though they are mandated by government regulations, the success of an mpa depends on its acceptance by local stakeholders such as fisherfolk (klein et al. 2008). in particular, the active participation of local stakeholders in the management and governance of mpas greatly aids their functioning (klein et al. 2008; gleason et al. 2010). examples from around the world show that mpas were more successful in strengthening and protecting local marine biodiversity when their management strategy changed from a governmental, top–down approach to a co-management system involving locals along with the government (alcala and russ 2006; uychiaoco et al. 2005). in addition, research also shows that excluding local stakeholders leads to the loss of trust and support among locals, thus consigning the mpa to failure (himes 2003). however, mpas are usually established by the government without consulting the locals. therefore, it is important to periodically assess the role of mpas in the lives of local stakeholders such as artisanal fisherfolk and their acceptance of mpas as government institutions. in this paper, we report the perceptions and opinions of the most important stakeholders in the gulf of kachchh marine national park and sanctuary (mnp&s)—fisherfolk—about its establishment and impact in the gulf of kachchh (gok), gujarat, india. the gok is a semi-enclosed basin located between the 20° 15’ n and 23° 35’ n latitudes and the 68° 15’ [61] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh figure 1: location of gulf of kachchh marine national park and sanctuary source: office of the chief conservator of forests, marine national park, jamnagar and 70° 22’ e longitudes. it is one of two highly energetic, macro-tidal systems of the north-eastern arabian sea, where tidal ranges may go up to 7.2 m (vethamony and babu 2010). the southern coast of the gok was first declared a marine sanctuary (ms) in 1980, and then some parts of it were made a marine national park (mnp) in 1982 to provide more protection to its marine ecology (singh 2003). the mnp spans 162.89 sq km, whereas the ms covers an area of 457.92 sq km (see figure 1). administratively, the mnp&s stretches across the jamnagar, morbi, and devbhumi dwarka districts. there are 42 islands along the southern coast of the gok, of which 37 islands fall in the mnp area and the remaining five islands under the ms area. 2. hypothesis and objectives of the study in this study, we investigate the hypothesis that establishing the mnp&s along the southern coast of the gok is a sustainable option and is acceptable to local fishing communities. the objectives of the study are ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62]  to assess how fisherfolk living along the southern coast of the gok perceive the mnp&s;  to examine perceived changes in marine life resulting from the establishment of the mnp&s, by means of a social survey of fisherfolk; and  to assess, based on local perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and resource-use patterns, the positive and negative impacts of the mnp&s on the fishing community. 3. literature review mpas can help in managing and conserving coastal and marine biodiversity if they are accepted by local communities. it is, therefore, important that local stakeholders—like fisherfolk—are consulted about such establishments. locals can significantly contribute to making mpas successful by providing historical catch trends, information about traditional practices, and data on changes in the local environment (jentoft 2000; himes 2003). the literature from around the world shows that engaging with local people helps build trust in the government management of mpas (beaumont 1997; himes 2003; alcala and puss 2006). in addition, involving local communities can help increase the ease and cost-effectiveness of mpa maintenance (uychiaoco et al. 2005). indeed, studies have shown that fishers are keen to participate in such endeavours and have a negative reaction to being excluded from decision-making (pita et al. 2010). further, hamilton (2012) shows a high level of acceptance of mpas among fisherfolk in cambodia and the philippines, while mascia et al. (2010) demonstrate that mpas affect the social well-being and political power of fishers by providing food security and control over the governance of local marine resources. mascia et al. (2010) reviewed the impact of mpas across 11 countries on five aspects of fisherfolk’s welfare: food security, resource rights, employment, community organization, and income. they found that mpas affect the social well-being and political power of fishers by providing food security and control over the governance of local marine resources. they examined the data of 70 fishing subgroups from 20 mpas located in 11 countries and reported that ―following mpa establishment, food security generally remained stable or increased (df = 2, 2 = 12.46; p = 0.002), but it declined for 16% of the fishing subgroups‖ (1426). they concluded that [63] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh mpas may be a viable strategy for empowering local communities and enhancing their food security; however, the study showed that their social impact varies within and among different groups and subgroups. in india, karnad et al. (2014) surveyed 342 fisherfolk in two states—154 from 39 villages in maharashtra and 188 from 23 villages in tamil nadu— to examine the perceptions of fisherfolk about the state of fish stocks and current fishing practices and management strategies in the country. they reported that a majority of the fisherfolk surveyed—90% in maharashtra and 83% in tamil nadu—perceived declines in total catch due to which they have modified their fishing practices. they found that the socioeconomic characteristics of fisherfolk, like income and experience, influenced their perception of the state of fishery in the country. they concluded, ―the convoluted interactions between ineffective community and state regulations guiding their actions has prevented fishermen from developing successful models of sustainable fisheries management‖ (218). sridhar (2017) studied the mpas in india and highlighted the challenges in managing fisheries in such protected areas. she noted: the challenges of managing fisheries is not uncomplicated by any means. traditional management systems based on restricting activities work well only where fishing communities are an integral part of the monitoring and enforcing mechanisms. the idea of intense resource-use was not organic to traditional fisher communities. there is an active effort to promote such a perspective from the hinterland (significantly through technology upgradation schemes of the state). these rapid technological advancements in fisheries and a noticeable systemic breakdown within the fishing communities make conformity to rules difficult. only where fishing communities are better organised and the level of awareness and political representation greater have these communities been able to enforce some form of rules (traditional or official). 4. study area of the various coastal states of india, gujarat has the second-longest coastline (rajawat et al. 2015) and is endowed with a bounty of natural resources. two of the three gulf regions of the country lie in this state. the southern coast of the gok, in particular, boasts a diversity of coastal and marine life. however, this region has been heavily exploited for human development activities dating back to the 1930s, when coral mining began (magotra et al. 2017). subsequent development in this region includes the establishment of bedi port in 1933, a unit of tata chemicals ltd., along the coast in mithapur village in 1937, digvijay cement company at sikka in 1940, sikka port in 1949, and navlakhi port in 1955. these occurrences led ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] to the clearing of large tracts of mangroves for the creation of salt pans in 1970 and the laying of the subsea pipeline of the indian oil corporation ltd. (iocl) in 1978 (magotra et al. 2017). these activities took a heavy toll on marine life in the region, and realizing its importance, the state government declared some parts of this coast a marine sanctuary in 1980. in 1982, the area of the ms was expanded, and some parts were declared an mnp to provide them with more protection. overall, the mnp&s includes 118.32 sq km of reserved forests, 347.90 sq km of unclassified forests, and 98.20 sq km of indian territorial waters (biswas 2009). the forest department of gujarat manages the whole area. this region supports a variety of marine biodiversity due to the availability of a range of habitats, viz. coral reefs, mangrove forests, sandy beaches, mudflats, creeks, rocky coasts, seagrass beds, etc. the region is home to 108 species of algae, 70 species of sponges, 72 species of hard and soft corals, more than 200 species of fishes, 27 species of prawns, 30 species of crabs, 4 species of seagrass, 3 species of sea turtles, 3 species of sea mammals, over 200 species of molluscs, 94 species of water birds, 78 species of birds, 92 species of bivalves, 55 species of gastropods, and more (magotra et al. 2017). diverse habitats cater to the needs of thousands of species, providing them with suitable shelter and sustenance. the two major coastal ecosystems of this mnp are mangroves and coral reefs. the total area of reefs in the mnp is 443.49 sq km, whereas mangroves occupy approximately 173 sq km (kumar et al. 2017). these coral reefs are of immense importance and provide a range of goods and services that benefit the people and environment. as per an economic valuation by the gujarat ecological commission (gec), the total estimated annual value of the benefits from coral reefs (mainly in the mnp in the gok region) is ₹220.024 crore (dixit et al. 2010). this area supports a diverse range of fishes. the vast intertidal mudflats also support traditional fishing operations using indigenously developed gear (biswas 2009). in 2005–2006, the average value of the marine fish landed in jamnagar (₹52.33) was over 70% higher than the average value of the catch for gujarat (₹30.36) (biswas 2009). during 2005–2006, jamnagar contributed 10.01% of the total marine fish production in the state (biswas 2009), and during the decade of 2004–2005 and 2014–2015, the district contributed 9.73% of the total share of the state (sharma et al. 2016). there are 110 villages along the southern coast of the gok, which administratively fall under the jamnagar, morbi, and devbhumi dwarka districts of gujarat. of these 110 villages, 56 coastal villages were selected [65] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh figure 2: study sites of primary surveys source: authors and google earth for the world bank–funded integrated coastal zone management (iczm) project launched in 2010. its primary focus is capacity-building of local communities for the protection, conservation, and regeneration of mangroves of mnp&s (gec 2009). based on the socio-economic information collected under the iczm project and provided to us by the office of the gulf of kachchh marine national park, we selected six villages located along the coast in the vicinity of the mnp—sachana, jodiya, sikka, salaya, arambada, and bet dwarka (see figure 2). village selection was based on occupational structure, i.e., we chose villages with good fishing populations. we have provided the socioeconomic details of the selected villages, along with their occupation-wise involvement, in table 1. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] table 1: socio-economic details of the villages selected for the primary survey village name total households total population occupation-wise households male female total agriculture animal husbandry fishing saltpans agriculture and animal husbandry misc. other work sachana 602 2, 292 2, 266 4, 558 107 12 405 0 0 68 10 sikka 150 626 424 1, 050 0 0 150 0 0 0 0 jodiya 600 1, 147 1, 053 2, 200 0 0 350 0 0 232 18 salaya 600 1, 900 2, 100 4, 000 0 0 600 0 0 0 0 arambada 750 2, 241 2, 259 4, 500 64 15 358 63 8 148 94 bet dwarka 407 1, 609 1, 338 2, 947 0 0 407 0 0 0 0 source: office of the chief conservator of forests, marine national park, jamnagar [67] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh 5. questionnaire design and survey methodology we used a structured survey adapted from the literature (hamilton 2012) and edited for site-specificity, with inputs from the marine national park forest department, jamnagar, which added more detailed information (presented in the annexure). the survey included openand close-ended questions on household demographics, attitudes, awareness, and resource use. focus group discussions (fgds) were also held to gain a deeper understanding of the related issues. fgds involved a discussion with fisherfolk belonging to one village and provided a glimpse of the common understanding of most of the fisherfolk of that village regarding mnprelated issues. it was a form of qualitative investigation where questions related to mnp were asked to find out about the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and ideas of fisherfolk. the questionnaire was divided into two sections: section (a), which sought general information about the fisherfolk, including their basic profiles (such as their age, fishing methods, and the species they caught most frequently); and section (b), which sought their opinions on the perceived impact of the mnp and their willingness to be involved in the management process. most questions in section (b) used a likert scale answering system, with options ranging from ―strongly disagree‖ to ―strongly agree‖. other questions had categorical answers, such as ―yes‖ or ―no‖. we calculated an attitude score for each respondent based on their responses to the questions. we tabulated the responses from section (a) to show the mean and standard deviation of continuous data and the frequencies of occurrence (as percentages) of categorical data. we also tabulated data from section (b) to show the percentage of each response to each question. in this study, we present categorical responses as ―yes‖, ―no‖, and ―maybe‖, in which ―maybe‖ and ―don’t know‖ responses are combined. we measured ordinal responses on a five-point likert scale ranging from ―strongly agree‖ to ―strongly disagree‖ and then reduced it to a three-point likert scale due to the small sample size; this contained only the responses ―agree‖, ―neutral‖ (neither agree nor disagree), and ―disagree‖. we present the likert scale responses as percentages of each response from the fishers surveyed at each study site. we carried out these surveys with the support of the forest department at jamnagar, a local translator, the village-level fishing community head, and social scientists from the office of the marine national park, jamnagar. we chose fisherfolk randomly at all six sites along the coast and in landing centres. we conducted surveys opportunistically, as the fisherfolk could only be contacted in the morning, during the low tide. it took roughly 15– ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] 20 minutes to complete each survey. we surveyed a total of 35 fisherfolk each in sachana, jodiya, salaya, okha, and arambada taluka, and 24 in sikka. thus, we surveyed a total of 199 fisherfolk in the mnp&s. 6. results we have summarized the information about the socio-economic backgrounds of the surveyed fisherfolk in table 2. the mean age of all the surveyed fisherfolk was 43.5 years. the mean age of surveyed fisherfolk ranged from 48 to 39 years in each of the sites. the mean number of years of experience ranged from 23 to 49.83 years. the traditional knowledge of fisherfolk is useful for successfully managing the mpa. the age of fishers can influence their actions and perceptions, including their opinions towards the management of their fishery (tzanatos et al. 2006). older and more experienced fishers may have better knowledge about coastal and marine resources than younger individuals. therefore, we attempted to include a greater number of older and experienced fishermen. the fishing gear that they operated varied from one site to another; fixed bag nets, boat seines, and hooks and lines were common across all the sites, whereas in salaya, our survey showed that most fisherfolk (45.71%) use trawl longlines for fishing. there were significant overlaps between the species they caught—at all sites, fisherfolk caught prawns, pomfret, blue fish, and crabs. most fisherfolk we surveyed across the six study sites did not have any occupation or sources of income outside of fishing. of all the fisherfolk we surveyed in salaya, sachana, and bet dwarka, 2.86% informed us that apart from fishing activities, they did have other sources of income. in the other sites, the participants reported that they had no other income sources. the mean boat length varied across sites: it was 26 m in sachana, 36.46 m in arambada, 35.09 m in salaya, 25.77 m in jodiya, 31.42 m in sikka, and 38.6 m in bet dwarka. we found that the mean boat power was much higher in salaya (84.86 hp),1 sikka (94.75 hp), bet dwarka (61.3 hp), and arambada (54.03 hp) than in sachana (39 hp) and jodiya (17.10 hp). the mean distance that fisherfolk travelled to reach the fishing grounds was 79.7 km in salaya, 56.88 km in sikka, 46.81 km in jodiya, 42.44 km in bet dwarka, 39.16 km in arambada, and 36.23 km in sachana. it seems that the fisherfolk at salaya and sikka used more powerful boats as they had to go further into the ocean to catch the fish. this indicates the dwindling availability of fish near the coast in salaya and sikka. 1 hp = horse power. [69] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh table 2: primary survey findings village sachana (n = 35) salaya (n = 35) jodiya (n = 35) sikka (n = 24) bet dwarka (n = 35) arambada (n = 35) socio-economic characteristics mean (std. dev.) % mean (std. dev.) % mean (std. dev.) % mean (std. dev.) % mean (std. dev.) % mean (std. dev.) % age (years) 39 (14.82) – 43.6 (10.23) – 41.69 (13.08) – 46.21 (9.09) – 48 (8.86) – 40.69 (9.67) – experience fishing (years) 23 (14.13) – 29.74 (9.98) – 26.49 (12.81) – 32.17 (8.20) – 33.4 (14.5) – 23.80 (7.12) – any other occupation – 2.86 – 2.86 – 0 – 0 – 2.86 – 0 fishing characteristics mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) boat length (m) 26 (4.02) 35.09 (8.19) 25.77 (3.40) 31.42 (4.05) 38.6 (19.6) 36.46 (12.72) boat power (hp) 39 (28.71) 84.86 (21.29) 17.90 (14.41) 94.75 (7.30) 61.3 (50.7) 54.03 (42.66) source: authors note: % signifies frequency of occurrence ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] ...continued village sachana (n = 35) salaya (n = 35) jodiya (n = 35) sikka (n = 24) bet dwarka (n = 35) arambada (n = 35) fishing methods % % % % % % fixed bag net 65.71 68.57 82.86 – 42.86 25.71 boat seine 31.43 11.43 62.86 – – – drift net 8.57 – – – – gillnet (large) – 71.43 100.00 57.14 68.57 gillnet (small) 68.57 31.43 – – 8.57 hooks and line 11.43 5.71 70.83 34.29 5.71 ring seine – – – – – traps 25.71 – 11.43 – – – trawl longlines 45.71 – 8.33 – – scoop net – – – – – other – – – – – – fishing operations mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) mean (std. dev.) distance from coast (km) 36.23 (13.54) 79.7 (46.65) 46.81 (33.35) 56.88 (14.43) 42.44 (33.07) 39.16 (32.60) times per week 4.11 (1.12) 4.26 (0.98) 4.77 (1.73) 4.33 (0.82) 4.8 (1.18) 4 (1.16) source: authors note: % signifies frequency of occurrence [71] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh ...continued village sachana (n = 35) salaya (n = 35) jodiya (n = 35) sikka (n = 24) bet dwarka (n = 35) arambada (n = 35) species present in catch % % % % % % prawns 14.29 97.14 45.71 41.67 77.14 82.86 shrimps – – – – – 60.00 pomfret 94.29 97.14 91.43 50.00 – 42.86 crab – 11.43 85.71 37.50 57.14 17.14 bluefish (surmai) 48.57 25.71 14.29 33.33 45.71 51.43 lobster – 8.57 80 – 42.86 25.71 threadfish (dara fish) 42.86 – – – 5.71 25.71 dutia 5.71 – 8.57 – – 8.57 bombay duck (bumbla) – – – 8.33 20.00 40.00 other clupeids (palli) – – – – 14.29 8.57 kuth 8.57 14.29 – – – – sak – – – – 8.57 – catfish – – – – 48.57 – goldfish 40.00 – 17.14 8.33 22.86 11.43 tuna – – – – 5.71 – source: authors note: % signifies frequency of occurrence ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] figure 3: fisherfolk’s opinions about the mnp&s source: authors figure 3 shows that a large percentage of fisherfolk are aware of the mnp; however, a significant minority (a mean of 35.34%) are not aware of the mnp and its importance. this highlights the failure of the regulating body to generate awareness among the general public living along the coast. during the survey, our team provided a brief description of the mnp to the respondents and their families, especially those who were not aware of its benefits. we asked respondents who were aware of the mnp: ―is the establishment of a marine national park/marine protected area a good thing?‖ about 98.10% of fisherfolk across all the study sites responded positively to the question, with 100% positive responses in salaya and sikka. but in jodiya, some 5.71% of fisherfolk were not happy with mangrove plantation activities because mangrove roots trap sediments, which block creeks and prevent fish from entering; this means that the fisherfolk have to venture out into the open ocean for fishing. the fisherfolk’s opinions on sedimentation due to mangroves do not reveal antagonism towards the mnp; rather, the fisherfolk suggested that the concerned regulatory body should work on removing excess sedimentation that is blocking the creeks. [73] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh figure 4: descriptive statistics on survey statements designed to quantify fisherfolk’s opinions about the mnp source: authors note: we measured responses to statements on a five-point likert scale and subsequently reduced it to a three-point likert scale: disagree (d), neutral/neither agree nor disagree (n), and agree (a). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] figure 4 shows that when questioned about the impact of the mnp on the volume of catch and diversity of fish species caught, there were significant differences between the responses of the fisherfolk from each study site. most fisherfolk from all six sites (ranging from 63% to 83%) agreed that the establishment of the mnp has increased the volume of their catch. only in bet dwarka, 49% of fisherfolk responded that they had not found any different types of fish species in their catch because their fishing operations were not active near the mnp area; they go further out to sea, far from the mnp area, to fish. this should be a matter of concern for the mnp authorities as fishermen have to move out of the coastal belt for fishing, which may pose more risks for them. mnp authorities should take measures to increase the diversity and abundance of fish species near the coastal area of bet dwarka. most of the fisherfolk we surveyed—91% in sachana, 100% in sikka, 100% in salaya, 100% in arambada, 89% in bet dwarka, and 77% in jodiya—felt that mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrasses are important for fishing and fish growth in coastal areas. fisherfolk reported positive relations with the forest department in all the areas surveyed. a small fraction (6% in sachana and 6% in bet dwarka) reported conflicts with the forest department regarding the mismanagement of the monitoring activities of the mnp, the fishing gear that neighbouring villagers used, and the patrolling activities of the indian coast guard near the coast in bet dwarka. there were significant differences in the responses of fisherfolk regarding the presence of conflicts with the industries operating along the coast in southern gok. fisherfolk in all the areas we surveyed reported negative relationships with the industries because of their polluting production processes and the dumping of their wastes into the sea, which cause a reduction in fish catch around the coast. according to them, industrial growth benefits some people, but it should not pollute the environment. we found that 86% of the fisherfolk we surveyed in salaya and 92% in sikka reported that due to the establishment of industries along the coast, the condition of fish and marine life has deteriorated over a period of three decades, affecting catch size, fish size, and weight. however, in bet dwarka and arambada, only 23% and 34% of fisherfolk, respectively, responded negatively to the establishment of industries; this could be because they have adapted to the changes. according to them, large industries have been operating there for the last 60–70 years, and people living in their vicinity know that they will rarely find fish within 1–2 km of these industries. [75] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh table 3: fisherfolk’s opinions about the state of resources % response in bet dwarka salaya jodiya sikka sachana arambadha in the last five years, compared to 10–15 years ago, i’ve noticed a difference in the catch y n y n y n y n y n y n number of (most fished species in) the catch 91 9 97 3 86 29 100 0 71 29 83 17 size of (most fished species in) the catch 86 14 97 3 77 23 100 0 77 23 83 17 number of species present in the catch 80 20 83 17 77 23 88 12 71 29 91 9 source: authors table 3 shows the fisherfolk’s opinions about the state of fisheries in and around the mnp. we gathered opinions from all the study sites, comparing changes that the fisherfolk had noticed in the last five years to those they had seen over 10–15 years. most fisherfolk reported that they had noticed a difference in the state of marine resources over the last 10–15 years. the most common response to a perceived change in the number of fish was ―yes‖; most fisherfolk reported an increase in the fished species present in their catch (ranging from 71% in sachana to 100% in sikka), the sizes of the most targeted species (ranging from 77 % to 100%) and the number of different species caught (71% to 91%) (see table 3). all fisherfolk who reported that they had noticed a difference in the state of resources felt that there had been better resources 10–15 years ago. reasons may vary from area to area; for example, in sachana, most respondents identified industrial pollution as the major threat to fish in and around their fishing area and the use of small nets by big trawlers from salaya village as the reason for a decrease in the number of fish and size of their catch. biswas (2009, 26) also noted similar observations: ―traditional fishers point out that trawler owners are often able to use political and money power to escape penalties. in most places, traditional fishers identified trawling as one of the key reasons for the depletion of fish stocks and destruction of their gear. in the industrialized coastal belt, oil and chemical contamination, salt works and increasing port activity were stated as the reasons for declining catches‖. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] most fisherfolk in all six study sites stated that they had been asked to change their fishing methods and gear (63% in bet dwarka, 86% in salaya, 77% in jodiya, 100% in sikka, 86% in arambada, and 89% in sachana). the department of fisheries has prohibited them from using small nets for fishing because they capture too many small fish that are not big enough to eat; the catch is therefore wasteful, as these small fish will not have the opportunity to grow large enough to provide a good meal or a good price. though 86% of the fisherfolk surveyed in salaya said that they have been asked to stop fishing with small nets, most still use them. during the survey, we observed that fisherfolk from the neighbouring villages, like sachana and jodiya, also responded negatively to the salaya villagers’ use of small fishing nets, and demanded that they be banned indefinitely. most fisherfolk (ranging from 89% in bet dwarka to 100% in sachana) claimed that they were not aware of any of the mnp’s management strategies. however, almost all of them (94% in bet dwarka, 94% in jodiya, and 100% in arambada, salaya, sikka, and sachana) were keen on being involved in conservation and management planning procedures. fishing community residents at all six sites responded positively and said that they were ready to support the government in any kind of conservation activities, but being among the key stakeholders, fisherfolk and the fishing community want to be consulted and involved in the preparation of any management or conservation plan. 7. discussions the hypothesis we investigated in our survey concerned fisherfolk’s acceptance of an mnp, based on a survey of fisherfolk at six sites along the coast. the results showed the differences in fisherfolk’s attitudes towards the mnp and highlighted factors that influenced their opinions. the small sample size (35 in sachana, 35 in jodiya, 24 in sikka, 35 in salaya, 35 in arambada, and 35 in bet dwarka) was the main limitation of this study. however, the study does provide some insights into fisherfolk’s opinions and acceptance of mpas—like mnps—at all the sites we surveyed, and may act as a pilot that could aid the design of more comprehensive research in the future. any future studies should aim to collect data from a larger sample size of fishers for more robust statistical outputs. the fishers at all the sites in our survey were concerned about better mnp management to help conserve coral reefs and mangroves. according to the fisherfolk, while the total fish catch has shown an overall increasing trend over the years, there has been a decline in their ―catch per unit effort‖ in [77] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh recent years. this is mainly owing to the overall environmental degradation of fishing areas due to rapid industrial development and the construction of breakwaters for ports, jetties, and single point mooring (spm) stations. the planning, implementation, and management of any mpa is dependent on stakeholders’ opinions on conservation. there is a need to pay adequate attention to gaining the acceptance of those dependent on the resources in that area. a high level of acceptance of the mnp is important for effective, community-based management and conservation. attempts to conserve the ecology of this marine area could become ineffective if the regulator has low levels of support from artisanal fisherfolk and other related stakeholders. our survey observations suggest that fisherfolk with little or no knowledge about mnps are ready to support it and be part of its planning and management, so that conservation efforts do not affect fishing activities. results from our survey also indicate that most respondents—an average of 98.10% from all surveyed sites—felt that an mpa or mnp is good for the marine ecosystem and for their livelihoods; this is likely due to the fisherfolk having already seen the benefits of the jamnagar mnp reflected in their catches. though ―catch per unit effort‖ has declined, an overall increasing trend has been perceived. the decline was noticed because of industrial pollution and big trawlers. as a legally protected area, these activities should be strictly regulated in the mnp. however, at present, these activities are not strictly regulated. the fisherfolk further suggested that they would like to be involved in the management or conservation planning of the mnp. 8. conclusions and recommendations we found similarities and differences in the responses of fisherfolk from each study site. the widespread acceptance of mnps or mpas in all study sites is encouraging. our survey shows that fisherfolk from all six study sites support mnps or mpas as a conservation management strategy as long as they feel that their fishing activities will not be affected. the mnp&s in gok is an economic and ecological hotspot; its establishment has certainly slowed down ecological exploitation and contributed to the conservation of biodiversity. without the creation of the mnp&s, this fragile ecosystem might have been at risk of endangerment or even extinction. fisherfolk livelihoods might also have been compromised in its absence. one possible trade-off of setting up an mpa along the southern coast of gok is the restriction it may pose to uncontrolled resource utilization. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] earlier, extensive utilization of mangroves and coral reefs led to a significant reduction in the area of these two important coastal ecosystems (kumar et al. 2017). however, their degradation has been controlled substantially after the area was declared ―legally protected‖ (kumar et al. 2017). still, one of the major reasons for the loss of biodiversity in fishing catches and the fall in catch size is the degradation of ecological support structures, such as coral reefs and mangroves. the central marine fisheries research institute (cmfri) has indicated that the most conspicuous change in resource composition over the years was the replacement of quality fish like pomfret and large sciaenid and penaeid prawns with lowervalue fish such as ribbon fishes, threadfin breams, carangids, non-penaeid prawns, and smaller crabs (mohanraj et al. 2009). therefore, conserving mangroves and coral reefs will eventually help increase the biodiversity and the number of fishes in the mnp. another possible trade-off could be that the fisheries in the gok are managed so that local fishing as well as open water fishing are practised, and certain areas are regulated to create nursery areas for fish by creating protective mangroves and coral reefs (singh 2003). this could, however, propel fisherfolk to fish at greater distances in the open ocean, putting them at greater risk. some fishermen in jodiya also complained that mangrove plantation activities have resulted in the blocking of creeks, so fisherfolk have to move further out to sea to fish. although the fisherfolk had mixed views about some aspects of the mnp (such as the issues causing conflict), in general, they welcomed it and acknowledged the benefits they had received from it in the past. fisherfolk at all six sites favoured community-based management of mnps or mpas. effective management and local involvement are important for optimal success, and community-based management may be the method favoured by small, artisanal fishing communities in other areas. the forest department should increase the involvement of local communities and village panchayats by assigning them roles and responsibilities in the management and conservation framework of the mpa. this will also decrease conflicts among local communities and other stakeholders. the forest department should ensure effective participation of local communities in management and conservation activities, such as mangrove planting, considering the understanding and knowledge that communities have about their ecosystems and how their economic activities relate to their social environment. local people should be made aware of types of mangroves, the environmental conditions required for their planting, and their contribution to the water table. local communities should not be used just as labour; rather, they should be trained in mangrove planting and be involved in the long term, so that after planting [79] rohit magotra, pushkar pandey, mohit kumar, mohit kumar gupta, asha kaushik, jyoti parikh they will be able to take care of the mangroves. the department and the local community must have a dialogue on the ecosystem services that the mangroves provide. we received positive opinions about awareness campaigns from fisherfolk in all our study areas. during fgds, fisherfolk suggested that there is a need for more awareness campaigns among fishing villages so that wrongful fishing methods can be stopped to increase the fish production in and around the mnp. the forest department should consider organizing more awareness campaigns. this study provides lessons and inputs on the perceived importance and value of the mnp&s. future work should include studies with larger sample sizes to investigate the opinions of fisherfolk living in the vicinity of mpas, not only in gujarat, but also in other states of india that have mnps. this can provide important policy inputs for promoting the coexistence of economic and ecological hotspots. these two hotspots can coexist, if rules of co-existence can be sharpened, followed, and strictly monitored. this requires capacity-building of fisherfolk and institutions that work with them on a regular basis. strict guidelines and monitoring mechanisms need to be in place. international protocols that could be adjusted to local situations should be the starting point. acknowledgements this paper is part of the project, ―review of status of marine national park, jamnagar: evolving a vision statement for management of mnp‖, funded by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (moefcc), government of india, vide grant no. no. 22-3/06-cs. the authors of this study acknowledge the support and cooperation of gujarat state forest officials, the moefcc, the government of india, and other city-level officials of jamnagar city. we would like to express our deep gratitude to j. r. bhatt, advisor, moefcc, government of india; s. c. pant, ex-pccf, gujarat forest department; h. s. singh, ifs, exconservator of forests, gulf of kachchh marine national park; and bharat pathak, former director, geer foundation, gandhinagar. we also acknowledge the support provided by shyamal tikadar, the then conservator of forests, gulf of kachchh marine national park, for 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review.‖ indian journal of geo-marine sciences 39 (4): 497–503. http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/10795. http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/10795 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 95–99, july 2018 notes from the field thinking beyond fairy lights and fountains: lessons from the waterscape of bengaluru hita unnikrishnan  1. the fairy lights and the fountains in march 2013, i was part of a group of researchers participating in a discussion with a nodal agency responsible for maintaining one of periurban bengaluru's information technology (it) hubs. the objective was to seek academic collaboration to understand the ecology of two lakes earmarked for rejuvenation and evolve a plan to clear ‘weeds’. we quickly found out ‘weeds’ included forms of vegetation (like reeds) that were not pleasing to the human eye although they were important resources feeding informal economies integral to this landscape. the discussion included propositions to make these lakes ‘attractive’– musical fountains, lights, jogging tracks … – in essence, everything that would fuel aspirations of the urban middle and upper classes but would exclude people whose lives and livelihoods were directly supported by those water bodies – farmers, fishermen, commercial launderers, urban foragers, and livestock owners. for them, the lake was not an embodiment of beauty and pleasure, but something sustaining their ways of life. that discussion, though disappointing, was not unique. it was representative of how visions, policies, and planning agencies responsible for the city’s waterscape operate. it was a glimpse into how the idea of urban bengaluru as a city of educated, elite upper and middle classes has permeated the identity of the city to the  urban institute, icoss, the university of sheffield, 219, portobello, sheffield s1 4dp, united kingdom and azim premji university, pes campus, pixel park, b block, electronics city, hosur road (beside nice road), bengaluru 560100, karnataka, india; h.unnikrishnan@sheffield.ac.uk; hita.unnikrishnan@apu.edu.in copyright © unnikrishnan 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.43 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.43 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] exclusion of several people whose lifestyles, livelihoods, and traditions have unwittingly been relegated to the peripheral margins of the grand urban design. 2. complex realities however, the identity of urban bengaluru is more complex than what emerges out of these myopic visions. having grown engulfing peri-urban villages that today make up the bulk of the city, bengaluru can only be described as a continuum of sorts – a space where rural and urban meld – in ways of life, livelihoods, and more importantly in how people relate to the land, water, and trees around them (nagendra et al. 2013). it was these interconnections that interested me while i conducted fieldwork as a doctoral student in the city i have called home for over 15 years. despite having lived in bengaluru for practically my entire life, having been part of activist groups looking to rejuvenate lakes and clean the city, i had remained oblivious to these interdependencies hidden in plain sight. that realisation was humbling, yet at the same time made me curious – were there ways i could engage better with the complexity of this landscape? and so i tried to research the tangible and intangible ways people have connected across centuries to the waterscape represented by the lakes of bengaluru. these lakes have grabbed headlines for extraordinary levels of pollution, flammability, encroachment, citizen engagement movements, and evoked nostalgia. built centuries ago to support an agricultural, semi-arid landscape, they provided water for the city until the end of the 19th century, when bengaluru started obtaining water from a river 100 kilometres upstream (nair 2005). since then many of these lakes have fallen into disuse and become vulnerable to threats like pollution, encroachments, and conversion (sudhira et al. 2007). lakes that survive in the city, albeit in a highly vulnerable form, are focal points for urban (often middle class and elite) resident welfare associations, nodal agencies, bureaucrats, schools, and local leaders to rally over. with worthy intentions, these groups devise strategies to understand the complexity of water bodies and to intervene in ways they perceive will benefit either the ecosystem or the communities living around them. many of these proposed interventions seek to engage with the same myopic visions of promoting or enhancing the values of aesthetics and recreation discussed at the meeting. however, lakes in bengaluru are not just spaces where people jog, walk, exercise, play music, or sit meditatively in front of a large expanse of water at sunrise or sunset. they are not just spaces affording a great view from balconies of apartment complexes, separated from houses by sliding glass doors. they are in fact [97] hita unnikrishnan spaces that support lives, livelihoods, and cultures, and have done so through centuries. 3. unpacking the waterscape of bengaluru my research gave me some important insights. first, lakes are resources that stand testimony to this changing urban landscape. remains of sluice gates (known locally as thoobu), often ornately sculpted, stand sentinel alongside blocks of granite used to mark levels of water. on digging deeper, one learns that the lake provided water to the village communities its banks connected. these communities were responsible for maintenance of the lake, as it was valuable for both water-intensive agriculture (paddy) and dryland agriculture (millets, vegetables, flowers) in the vicinity. community members assumed specific roles – village waterman, headman, and village crier – to take stock and keep the system functioning. the lake itself met irrigational, industrial, and domestic needs of communities living nearby. plants such as onaganesoppu (alternanthera sessilis) that grow on the banks of lakes formed the mainstay of people’s diets during periods of drought and famine due to their high perceived water content (unnikrishnan et al. 2016). it is perhaps because of this remembered interdependence that people’s rituals of birth, marriage, illness, prosperity, and death remain to this day centred around lakes, their waters, and deities delivering divine protection from associated natural calamities such as flooding. lakes are also associated with several commons that served to meet community requirements in several ways in the precolonial past of the city and, to some extent, in its colonial past too. the village temple and cemetery, which serve to meet spiritual beliefs of life and afterlife, were found associated with a lake in deference to the perceived sacred nature of water. very often today, these structures persist in the absence of the lake that once connected them. the gundathope or village grove consisted of fruiting or timber trees cultivated on banks of lakes to provide resources for community gatherings such as village festivals or marriages (mundoli et al. 2017 a). harvesting timber or fruit for an individual’s personal needs was strictly prohibited, and compliance was assured because the community held these groves sacred. they served as shelter for nomadic tribes who periodically visited villages to receive food and clothing in exchange for services such as fortune-telling or theatrical entertainment. these groves also provided shade and watering holes for livestock owners and their herds when out in the afternoon sun. in addition to these commons, villages also boasted of communal threshing grounds (where millets and paddy harvests were threshed to separate straws from grain), grazing commons (gomala), and spaces where cattle could be tied up (gokatte). further, one could also ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] find the ashwathkatte – a raised platform that in addition to providing seating also housed two to three trees of neem (azadirachta indica) and/or peepal (ficus religiosa) and idols representing religious figures near a lake. in the past, the ashwathkatte represented a communal space where the village headman administered justice (nagendra 2016). today, many lakes have been replaced by malls, bus stands, stadiums, residential gated communities, and educational institutions. the ones that survive are dynamic in their own ways. village groves that remain in their original form are used by nomadic communities (who have since changed occupations to include lock making and knife sharpening) and by livestock owners for grazing cattle. local men and women harvest the reeds growing on the banks of lakes to feed cattle and livestock. commercial launderers use water from lakes to wash clothes. local women harvest the green leafy vegetables growing on the banks of lakes either for their own sustenance or to sell in markets for supplementary income. marginalised daily wage workers (often belonging to the building industry) set up temporary shelters on the banks of lakes. people use lake water to bathe and wash clothes and utensils, notwithstanding the pollution level; sometimes, they even drink it. cultural traditions such as village festivals (jaatres) often involving ritualistic sacrifices and offerings made to lake deities are still practised around these spaces. ashwathkattes no longer serve as spaces for delivering judgement, but communities frequent them to perform religious ceremonies or simply to get together and exchange thoughts. cemeteries and temples are still an integral part of the waterscape of bengaluru. 4. towards alternative, inclusive urban visions grand urban visions such as the smart city programme or community-led visions of lake rejuvenation have often failed to adequately consider the interdependence of marginalised or vulnerable communities with water bodies (mundoli et al. 2017b). consequently, these visions prioritise the needs of urban middle and elite classes and give shape to an urban design that creates enclosures of aesthetic and recreational utilities while excluding (both physically and ideologically) other existing alternative utilities of the water body, such as those described here. exceptions to this do exist, like the case of kaikondrahalli lake to the south and jakkur lake to the north (nagendra 2016), but these cases are too few and too far between. it is time urban resident collectives, bureaucracies, and planning agencies recognise and encourage informal economies and resource-dependent lives and livelihoods around urban spaces. only through promoting equitable access to these resources can we evolve targeted schemes of community-led [99] hita unnikrishnan stewardship of urban nature, which is important to urban resilience in a changing world. acknowledgements this paper draws on insights from research that was funded by a usaid peer grant to my supervisor harini nagendra. i thank harini nagendra for her valuable comments on this piece as well as acknowledge the contributions of manjunatha b and seema mundoli without whom my work would not have been possible. i thank ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree) and azim premji university, bengaluru, india for enabling the research presented here. this paper was also made possible through a newton international fellowship granted to me by the british academy and hosted by the urban institute at the university of sheffield, uk. references mundoli s, b. manjunatha, and h. nagendra. 2017 a. “commons that provide: the importance of bengaluru’s wooded groves for urban resilience”. international journal of urban sustainable development 9(2): 184–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1264404 mundoli s, h. unnikrishnan, and h nagendra. 2017b. “the ‘sustainable’ in smart cities: ignoring the importance of urban ecosystems”. decision 44(2): 103–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40622-017-0152-x nagendra h, h. unnikrishnan, and s. sen. 2013. “villages in the city: spatial and temporal heterogeneity in rurality and urbanity in bangalore, india”. land 3(1): 1– 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/land3010001 nagendra h. 2016. nature in the city: bengaluru in the past, present, and future. oxford university press, india. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199465927.001.0001 nair j. 2005. the promise of the metropolis: bangalore’s twentieth century. oxford university press, india sudhira h.s., t.v. ramachandra, and m.h. b. subrahmanya. 2007. “city profile: bangalore”. cities 24(5): 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2007.04.003 unnikrishnan h. s. mundoli, b. manjunatha, and h. nagendra. 2016. “down the drain: the tragedy of the disappearing urban commons of bengaluru”. south asian water studies 6(1): 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1264404 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40622-017-0152-x https://doi.org/10.3390/land3010001 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199465927.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2007.04.003 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 5–12, january 2021 commentary mathematical ecology, evolution, and the social sciences simon a. levin  abstract: the last few decades have seen an enhanced partnership between ecologists and social scientists, especially economists, in addressing the environmental challenges facing societies. not only do ecology and economics, in particular, need each other; but also the challenges they face are similar and can benefit from cross-fertilization. at the core are scaling from the microto the macro, the development of appropriate statistical mechanics to facilitate scaling, features underlying the resilience and robustness of systems, the anticipation of critical transitions and regime shifts, and addressing the conflicts of interest between individual agents and the common good through exploration of cooperation, prosociality and collective decision-making. confronting these issues will be crucial in the coming years for all nations, especially those in south asia that will suffer in major ways from the consequences of overpopulation, climate change and other environmental threats. keywords: mathematical ecology and evolution; economics; public goods; scaling; complex adaptive systems. 1. introduction though my academic training was as an applied mathematician, i was drawn even as a graduate student to problems in biology, especially in ecology. i received my ph.d. in 1964, two years after the appearance of rachel carson‘s monumental silent spring and just a few years before the influential population bomb of paul and anne ehrlich (carson 1962; ehrlich 1968). in this context of increasing societal attention to environmental  james s. mcdonnell distinguished university professor, department of ecology and evolution, princeton university, princeton, new jersey 08544-1003; slevin@princeton.edu. copyright © levin 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.401 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.401 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] degradation, i was increasingly drawn to studying the environment, and, by 1970, i was fully committed to the field of ecology, and in particular the development of theoretical foundations. theoretical ecology is a subject that is at least a century old. its earlier roots, going back several centuries, were in demography and the biology of populations, spurred on by the need for more quantitative approaches to these subjects. the first fundamental mathematical advances were made by the great mathematician vito volterra and the physical chemist and mathematician alfred lotka, who independently derived sets of differential equations to describe the dynamics of species in competition and exploitation (lotka 1925; volterra 1926). volterra, in particular, was interested in the fluctuations of the adriatic fisheries, a problem brought to him by umberto d‘ancona, a formidable fisheries biologist, and his simple equations were able to explain those fluctuations. the equations of lotka and volterra still are at the core of much work in theoretical ecology today and have found application in economics and other social sciences (samuelson 1971, 1974). i enjoyed pure theoretical ecology and still do; but i soon realized that to address environmental issues substantively, i needed to turn more effectively towards economics and other social sciences. the key issues that needed to be addressed included how to value biodiversity and convince others of that value; matters of discounting the future, equity, and the interests of others; and the role of cooperation and social norms in the development of management strategies in local and global commons. thirty years ago, i was invited to join the nascent beijer institute at the swedish academy of sciences, and that interdisciplinary paradise changed my research trajectory, and those of countless others, forever. i learned how much ecology needed economics and how much economics needed ecology, and the collaborations that followed have been invaluable. however, i also learned something else. the problems of ecology and economics are two sides of the same coin; this is no accident, because both disciplines address the self-organization and evolution of communities of individual agents competing, exploiting, and cooperating with emergent dynamics at higher levels of organization that produce systems that cycle various kinds of capital, natural and created, and provide a context in which individual behaviours change. kenneth arrow, one of the key members of the beijer community, pointed out to us that the fact that both disciplines begin with ―eco-,‖ meaning household, was not coincidence; they both face similar issues—both confront complex adaptive systems (cas) and the challenges of understanding and managing them (arrow, ehrlich, and levin 2014). [7] simon a. levin 2. some common problems in ecology and economics because similar problems have been addressed in both disciplines, there are reciprocal benefits from revisiting the different approaches that have been developed in the two. such mutualisms are increasing in number, and i will touch on only a few of them in this section. these include but are not limited to the matter of scaling across levels and across space and time (chave and levin 2003); foraging theory and search theory (pyke, pulliam, and charnov 1977); the potential for critical transitions (steele 1998; scheffer 2009); and identifying the structural features that make systems robust and resilient (holling 1973; levin et al. 1998; levin and lubchenco 2008). evolutionary ecology to a large extent addresses how genomes have been adapted to deal with uncertain environments. the vertebrate immune system is a wonderful example of evolution‘s hierarchical response to the certainty of uncertain events and is a model for how societies might deal with everything from pandemics to terrorist attacks to financial collapse (levin and lo 2015). more generally, life history theory in evolution deals in large part with the allocation of resources over an evolutionary lineage (stearns 1992) and has strong parallels with models of the theory of interest (haberler and fisher 1931) and of resource allocation and dynasty theory in economics (becker 1965; heckman 2015). kenneth arrow and i merged these by examining through dynamic programming how uncertainty of various kinds would affect consumption patterns and deferral of resources to one‘s offspring, a fundamental problem in evolution and economics alike (arrow and levin 2009). more generally, evolution deals with fitnesses and the processes that select more fit genotypes over less fit ones, while economics does the same, with the word ―fitnesses‖ replaced by ―utilities‖. both ecology and economics therefore utilize techniques from optimization and game theory to understand what strategies can be expected to prevail; indeed, crossfertilization between the two perspectives on such problems is rapidly gaining traction. 3. complex adaptive systems ecological systems, the socio-economic systems with which they interact, and the interconnected global socio-ecological system that emerge, are all examples of cas (holland 1995; levin 1998, 1999; arrow, ehrlich, and levin 2014). such systems are composed of individual agents that interact ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] with one another at local scales, leading to the emergence of higher order patterns and processes that feed back to modify individual behaviours. the agents—be they genomes, organisms, institutions, or nations—adapt their behaviours, in some cases over evolutionary time, generally in response to differential payoffs, utilities, or fitnesses; hence, the term ―adaptive‖ in the name. the term, however, can be misleading, since the myopic benefits to individuals may not advance the collective good; the adaptation is at levels below the whole system. whatever the natures of the cas, similar questions arise: what factors underlie the robustness and resilience of these systems to change, exogenous or endogenous? are there early warning indicators of impending transitions? how do patterns vary across scales, and how can we use coarse-grained models to understand the emergent properties as statistical consequences of behaviours and interactions among large numbers of agents? and perhaps most challenging, how do conflicts between the interests of individual agents and the collective good play out, and to what extent do they undermine equity or system resilience? these are, of course, all familiar challenges to economists, who are used to dealing with the interplay between microeconomics and macroeconomics and with the challenges of public goods and common-pool resources. it might be surprising, however, for economists to learn that such questions, especially of cooperation in the face of public goods, are at the centre of much evolutionary theory. bacteria produce extracellular polymers that provide collective benefits as well as antibiotics that poison susceptible neighbours; plants fix nitrogen, transforming it into a form more widely available to free-riders; and species from cellular slime moulds to birds, fish, and humans engage in collective behaviours that improve access to resources or mutual defence. all involve costs and all are susceptible to free-riding. understanding how and under what conditions such behaviours are maintained, and when they break down (as in tumour growth), are among the deepest problems in evolutionary theory—puzzles that worried charles darwin enough to delay publication of the origin of species for many years. 4. public goods, common-pool resources, and the tragedy of the commons our planet is threatened by a litany of interlocking problems—climate change, biodiversity loss, overpopulation, and increasing inequity—that must be solved if we are to achieve a sustainable future. william forster lloyd first spoke of the commons nearly two centuries ago (lloyd 1833), [9] simon a. levin and garrett hardin famously introduced the notion of the ―tragedy of the commons, arguing that the solution was in ―mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon‖ (hardin 1968). views about managing the commons were changed, however, by the landmark work of another core beijer participant, elinor ostrom, who showed, through empirical and theoretical arguments, that societies could self-regulate through the development of social norms and other institutions that limited overexploitation (ostrom 1990). dealing with the commons is at the centre of the partnership that must grow between biology and the social sciences in the coming decades. economists have with great success developed frameworks for dealing with public goods by addressing questions such as: what is the social optimum? without top-down regulation, can the social optimum be approximated and sustained as a nash equilibrium or does discounting of the future undermine it? where it cannot be sustained, are there second-best solutions that can be? in cooperative games, can co-operators develop social norms, for example, the punishment of defectors, that can flip the system to more favourable equilibria? what is the role of prosociality and how can it be achieved (gintis 2003; akcay et al. 2009; dixit, levin, and rubenstein 2013; dixit and levin 2017)? evolutionary biologists have had to tackle the same problems from different perspectives, focusing attention on the evolution of altruism and cooperation and the importance of genetic relatedness (hamilton and axelrod 1981; nowak, tarnita, and wilson 2010; levin, 2014). we now need to bring these separate approaches together to develop a theory of governance for the global commons. (polasky et al. 2019). ostrom‘s ideas of polycentric governance (ostrom 2009) are likely to play a central role in what must be at the top of the agenda for ecological and environmental ecologists for many years to come. 5. concluding thoughts the problems discussed in this paper are, of course, of general relevance to all nations, but they pose special challenges for india and other parts of south asia. overpopulation, biodiversity loss, and the growing inequity in well-being are especially acute in these parts of the world, as documented in the dasgupta report for the british government on the economics of biodiversity (h m treasury 2020). infectious diseases, like the current covid-19 pandemic, threaten devasting consequences. climate change will impact india, china, pakistan, and bangladesh especially hard, and expanding populations and their resource needs will exacerbate the climate crisis, unless steps towards promoting alternative energy are successful. it is no surprise then 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145–148, january 2021 book review conservation dilemmas in contemporary india ayesha pattnaik  ghazala shahabuddin and k. sivaramakrishnan, eds. 2019. nature conservation in the new economy. hyderabad: orient blackswan. isbn: 97893-5287-613-6, pp. 291, inr 995.00 (hb). nature conversation in the new economy presents a thoughtful analysis of how a steady reorientation in environmental laws following the liberalization of the indian economy in the 1990s has impacted conservation policies in india. the editors, ghazala shahabuddin and k. sivaramakrishnan, emphasize that this shift towards neo-liberal legal thinking has mostly served commercial interests and excludes a range of local stakeholders. the case studies in the volume provide deep insights into how legal loopholes, implementation challenges, and the unintended consequences of even wellintentioned efforts have worked  research associate, professional assistance for development action (pradan), #3, community shopping centre, niti bagh, new delhi 110049; ayesha.pattnaik@gmail.com. copyright © pattnaik 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.374 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.374 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] to whittle down genuine conservation outcomes. besides emphasizing multidisciplinary approaches, the collection of nine richly detailed essays addresses four main themes: the study of wildlife laws and policies; regulatory environments; institutions and social change; and the role of science in implementing conservation agendas. the wildlife protection act of 1972 (wpa) is often heralded as india’s key legislation that offers legal protection for wild animals. the opening chapter by ambika aiyadurai, however, raises several questions about the wpa’s efficacy—particularly its impact on local communities. through a case study of the mishmi tribe in arunachal pradesh, aiyadurai points out how a simple reading of the wpa could end up casting the mishmi as a potential threat to wildlife since they are dependent on hunting for their livelihood. the wpa, consequently, is a source of tension rather than a tool for conservation. as a way out, aiyadurai proposes that the effectiveness of wildlife protection laws will depend on how sensitive conservation agendas are to the world-views of communities inhabiting the environments in question. state-controlled forest conservation is a recurring theme in several of the essays. m. vikas challenges the purported success of forest management laws such as the national forest policy of 1998 by examining how the strong belief in separating humans from nature actually results in emphasizing the aesthetics of afforestation rather than taking the science that is required for achieving good conservation outcomes seriously. the essay highlights how the establishment of the delhi ridge as a protected area caused the usurping of the commons that were previously used by pastoral communities. while vikas laments the exclusion of local communities and the marginalization of their knowledge of forest management, rinki sarkar’s detailed study of kinnaur (himachal pradesh) raises doubts about the role of communities in shaping desired conservation practices. sarkar’s research suggests that when given increased access to markets, communities often tend to stress the delicate ecosystem of chilgoza pines (pinusgerardiana) and bird habitats. for sarkar, a possible strategy to mitigate the situation is ―a citizen science kind of participatory framework‖(213) that could aim to blend indigenous and scientific knowledge for better policymaking. rajkamal goswami and t. ganesh, in their essay on community forests in meghalaya, further complicate the role of the indian state in forest protection in the post-liberalization phase. by comparing factors like population density and the rise in plantation agriculture, the authors deftly illustrate how community forests experienced more intense degradation than reserved forests in the region between 1994 and 2014, as communities [147] ayesha pattnaik opened up forests for industrial use. to address this dilemma, meghna agarwala et al. flag the need to develop ecosystem services frameworks for measuring forest resilience in their essay. they believe such valuation exercises, which draw upon the differing perceptions about species value by stakeholders, could offer ways for local communities to evolve conservation priorities while meeting commercial interests. the politics of conservation is brought out by ghazala shahabuddin in her essay, which explores the various twists and turns that dogged the attempted reintroduction of the asiatic cheetah in india. by discussing how the reintroduction could have had an adverse impact on the ecosystem and local communities, her essay underscores the dynamic and fragile nature of the ecosystem. while largely political calculations prevented the cheetah’s reintroduction, the essay sheds a searching light on how policymaking often prioritizes the needs of a few with little consideration for informed conservation. neha sinha’s essay focuses on the complex linkages between water resources and urban ecosystems. it points out that biologically diverse ecosystems have in fact emerged from human-created water bodies such as stormwater drains and swamps in cities across the states of delhi, tamil nadu, and andhra pradesh. while wetland ecologies provide several critical ecosystem services, in urban areas they continue to remain excluded from wetland rules and regulations and are often encroached upon. like the earlier essay by vikas, sinha too asserts that conservation policies need to go beyond treating these urban ecologies as merely aesthetic contributions and instead should acknowledge them for the important services they provide as wetland ecosystems. kanchi kohli and manju menon in their essay attempt to address one of central questions raised throughout the book: is meaningful conservation impossible? the authors provide a detailed survey of coastal management plans in karnataka and gujarat to illustrate how the coastal regulation zone notifications (crz) are systematically failing in india. while the crz notifications of 2011 emphasized the need for participatory conservation, kohli and menon argue that developmental agendas seem to win invariably at the cost of the environment. in the final essay, archana bali and kartik shanker weigh the effectiveness of certain kinds of conservation policies within coffee plantations located in the western ghats. the authors discuss changes in hunting practices and the felling of trees brought about by the wpa and karnataka preservation of trees act in particular. however, they point out that market fluctuations have had a much greater impact on tree cover and the hunting pursuits of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] local populations than regulations. they contend that while the lack of infrastructure available for officials can explain why some of the policy implementation is weak, realizing meaningful conservation outcomes greatly depends on how different social groups relate to their ecological endowments. by thus exploring the various political and economic fault-lines that run through different conservation policies in india, this compelling collection of essays highlights the need to go beyond merely scrutinizing legislations. rather, understanding how policymakers interact with practitioners, researchers, and various local stakeholders is key to designing meaningful and effective conservation on the ground. nature conversation in the new economy is an important contribution to a field that continues to cry out for more multidisciplinary dialogue. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 87–89, july 2018 conversations 2: air pollution regionalizing air: on the possibilities of transborder collaborations rohit negi  the transboundary nature of air pollution is well recognized today. already by the end of the nineteenth century in england, the spatiality of air toxicity was beginning to be seen as generalized rather than precisely located (whitehead 2011). this is increasingly true of north india’s air pollution discourse. to be sure, the tendency to view pollution as ‘delhi’s problem’ remains popular. this city focussed imaginary is constructed, for instance, via delhi’s positioning as the world’s most polluted city, its repeated comparisons with beijing, and by exceptional actions such as vehicle rationing and converting the public transport fleet to run on compressed natural gas. in particular, atmospheric scientists who use remote sensing are quick to argue that smog episodes take a regional form, and have deployed concepts like the ‘airshed’. during the november 2017 smog, it was suggested that dust storms blowing in from the faraway middle east were a contributing factor. fires with origin in indonesia and industrial effluents from china’s pearl river delta are similarly blamed for pollution in, respectively, singapore and hong kong. it is against this backdrop that the following questions become relevant: under what conditions do administrative units—whether nation-states or provincial governments—collaborate towards effective pollution abatement actions? and what would it take for parties in the national capital region (ncr), where four different states and the central government interact, to meaningfully cooperate?  associate professor, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, delhi 110006; rohit@aud.ac.in copyright © negi 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.41 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.41 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] in their analysis of the convention on long-range transboundary air pollution (clrtap), which brings together 51 countries of europe and north america to monitor and ameliorate air pollution, lidskog and sundqvist (2012) elaborate on what they consider the preconditions for such collaboration. these are, first, the establishment of working channels of communication (or ‘roads’) between different administrative units; second, doing the political work of finding mutually agreeable achievable goals that are progressively scaled; and third, bringing science and policy together to define a clear plan of action implementable across the region. the authors do not, however, problematize a straightforward relationship of contemporary states to science—even though countries like the us have moved in a decidedly post-truth direction—in fact, they assume it. these developments have heightened suspicion of not only the sciences that study ecological concerns but also of transnational environmental collaborations, such as the emergent climate change regimes. this is a knee-jerk reaction that turns on what it considers its simultaneous defence of narrowly defined national interests and individual freedom (wainwright and mann 2012). closer home, and as ashish kothari notes in this issue, the indian civil society has long complained about the state’s lack of seriousness in its response to environmental concerns. to this one may add the considerable unevenness between departments and provinces in terms of an engagement with scientific debates (cse nd). in november 2017, as smog enveloped the ncr, some of these issues came to light. aerial images suggested that smoke released by the burning of farm residue in the agricultural belts of the indo-gangetic plains was largely responsible (see priya shyamsundar’s intervention in this issue). the regional nature of the issue was clearly visible even though the media was largely fixated on delhi. keen to expand the geography, the chief minister (cm) of delhi called the cms of punjab and haryana for an emergency meeting. this invited immediate scepticism from the punjab cm, who argued that his government did not have the resources to incentivize an alternative means of residue disposal and, moreover, it was a national issue, and the central government should be therefore leading the efforts, rather than delhi. the present government’s environmental stance in turn is not consistent. the prime minister has asserted seriousness at global events even as his government has been accused of pro-corporate bias. the current minister of environment, forests and climate change has repeatedly attracted criticism given his frequent downplaying of air toxicity. in november 2017, for instance, he suggested that the smog did not constitute an emergency since it was not as bad as the bhopal gas disaster. [89] rohit negi in this scenario, establishing effective monitoring and proactive regional collaboration, though challenging, remains urgent. while supplementing technical capacities is important, political representatives’ role is more critical. they must bring together diverse publics for continuous knowledge sharing and discussions, and lead efforts to develop a shared understanding of the problem and of suitable interventions. drawing lessons from experiences like the clrtap is a good place to begin. references centre for science and environment (nd). “the delhi story.” https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/hsawards/talks/anumita_roychowdhury_haagen -smit.pdfaccessed 21 january 2018. lidskog, rolf, and göran sundqvist. 2002. “the role of science in environmental regimes: the case of lrtap.” european journal of international relations 8(1): 77– 101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066102008001003 wainwright, joel, and geoff mann. 2012. “climate leviathan.” antipode 45(1): 1– 22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01018.x whitehead, mark. 2011. state, science and the skies: governmentalities of the british atmosphere. somerset: wiley. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066102008001003 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01018.x ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 113–122, january 2021 special section: the commons: a revisit gender and the commons: water management in trans-himalayan spiti valley, india ranjini murali,  ajay bijoor,  charudutt mishra  abstract: studies on common pool resource governance have largely focused on men, who tend to have disproportionate rights and ownership with regards property and resources. this has resulted in the access and control rights of women being generally overlooked. gender disaggregated analyses have revealed the important role of women in the governance of the commons. while certain commons may be relatively more important for women, there are variations in their level of resource access and management role, influenced by social structures and divisions. we examined the role of gender and how such intersectionality could shape the governance of the commons in the spiti valley in the indian transhimalaya. we found that gender, class, and caste intersected in the governance of irrigation water. our study highlights the role of women in the governance of the commons and points to the nuanced and variable roles found within this gender group. keywords: decision-making; intersectionality; local institutions; women. 1. introduction the importance of local institutions in common property resource governance has been well established (ostrom et al. 1999; agrawal 2002). studies of local institutions often focus on the factors and conditions that enable successful governance of the commons (ostrom et al. 1993; wilson  the snow leopard trust (slt) and the nature conservation foundation (ncf), 1311, “amritha”, 12th main, vijayanagar 1st stage, mysore 570017, india; ranjini@ncf-india.org.   slt and ncf; ajay@ncf-india.org.  slt and ncf; charu@ncf-india.org. copyright © murali, bijoor and mishra 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.378 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.378 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] 2013). early studies, by default, described institutions run and managed by men, since, across most societies, men tend to have disproportionate rights to property, access, and control (casari and lisciandra 2016). gender disaggregated studies subsequently revealed the crucial role of gender in better understanding the governance of the commons. experiences, knowledge, perceptions, and capabilities with regards natural resource management varied between genders due to social structures that determine property rights, resource access, and control (leach et al. 1995; leach et al. 1997). social structures built around gender roles are embedded in culture and traditions, are context-dependant, and can vary from place to place. these mechanisms manifest in women and men having different access to information, environmental and social spaces, knowledge systems, and opportunities and challenges in relation to environmental change (allendorf and yang 2013; leach 2007). for example, many women in rural india are responsible for meeting the fuel and food needs of the family, which require them to tend to land and gather forest produce, which gives them knowledge of the ecosystem and resources (agarwal 1994, 1997). often, women have limited access and control over resources, their own labour, the labour of others, and capital (leach et al. 1997). for example, land rights in agrarian systems are largely concentrated among men (zwarteveen and meinzen-dicks 2001). gender and the commons influence each other, with gender structuring outcomes in the commons and the commons themselves shaping gender roles (nightingale 2019). gender is not homogenous and intersects with other axes of social differentiation such as class, caste, race, culture, and ethnicity in shaping access to land, water, and other spatially distributed environmental resources (crow and sultana 2002). in this paper, using a case study, we examine the role of gender and how its intersectionality with other social influences shape the governance of the commons. we describe the governance of the irrigation system and the role of women in a high altitude agro-pastoral system. our study focused on kibber village, a tibetan-buddhist community located in spiti valley in the high altitudes of the indian trans-himalaya, where agricultural lands are largely owned by men, while the water for irrigation is largely managed by women. [115] ranjini murali, ajay bijoor, charudutt mishra 2. methods 2.1. case study area kibber is an agro-pastoral village located at an altitude of 4,200 m above mean sea level in spiti valley, himachal pradesh, in the indian transhimalaya. temperatures range from -40° c in peak winter to 30° c in peak summer. precipitation received is mainly in the form of snow in winter, which starts to melt in late march. the landscape is rocky, with steep slopes largely dominated by grasses, herbs, and shrubs. there are 79 agro-pastoral households in the village. most households in the valley are tibetan-buddhist. the main cash income is from the sale of green pea (pisum sativum). the other crops grown are barley (hordeum vulgare) and black pea (local variety of pea). the community is composed of three traditional social groups: the chechang (landlords), who are considered „upper‟ caste, and the dzo (drummers) and beta (pipers), who are considered to be of a „lower‟ caste. each family in the social groups is split into the khangchen (big house), which is the family of the eldest son, and the khingchun (small house), comprised of all younger siblings. land ownership is restricted to the chechang khangchen. the chechang khingchun and the dzo and beta khangchen and khingchun do not own land, but they can rent land from chechang khangchen. in 2020, 55 households belonged to the chechang community, 16 households to dzo, and 8 households to beta. of this, 21 households were considered chechang khangchen. an extension of land rights to the landless took place under the himachal pradesh nautor land rules, which were enacted in 1968 to provide agricultural land to people across the state, and especially to people from designated tribal districts, including lahaul-spiti. under this scheme, the dzo and beta received property. the nautor lands are shared between villages (e.g., some of the nautor land given to kibber households are interspersed with land given to households from other villages such as kee), where the water management system is different, and mediated by the government‟s public works department. in the following sections, we describe the cycle of farming for traditionally held land. we also include a brief description of water management for nautor lands. 2.2. data collection we collected data through key informant interviews with seven members of the village. we interviewed three men and four women. all three men belonged to chechang families; two of them belonged to khangchen households and were in their thirties, while one who was past 60 belonged to a khingchun household. among the four women who participated in the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] discussions, one woman in her thirties was from a chechang khangchen household, two women in their sixties were from chechang khingchun households, and one woman in her thirties was from a dzo household. the interviews were open-ended discussions on the governance of water. the information was also supplemented by the knowledge of the authors, who have spent over ten years working in this system. 3. results the irrigation system is closely interlinked with the land property rights system. we briefly describe the details of the land property rights system after which we describe the irrigation system. a more in-depth analysis of the property rights system can be found in tsering (2018). table 1: social classification of kibber society and the distribution of traditional property rights social classification traditional property rights class and caste chechang khanchen ownership upper class and upper caste chechang khingchun can rent land upper caste and lower socioeconomic class dzo khanchen sometimes (if gifted by the village), if not can rent land upper socio-economic class and lower caste dzo khingchun can rent land lower socio-economic class and lower caste beta khanchen sometimes (if gifted by the village), if not can rent land upper socio-economic class and lower caste dzo khingchun can rent land lower socio-economic class and lower caste source: authors. 3.1. property rights in kibber, there are broadly three types of households with respect to property rights. the chechang khanchen, considered the original inhabitants of kibber, hold most of the property rights. they are also considered upper caste and upper class. property rights belong primarily to the men of the household. the first son inherits all the land, and the chechang khanchen households are considered the first son descendants of the original inhabitants of kibber. the second sons usually become monks. they are left a little land they can cultivate, which is returned to the eldest son after their death, and cannot be inherited by their children. these households are chechang khingchun. if there are only daughters in a family, the husband of the oldest daughter inherits all the land. he is considered an adopted son. the [117] ranjini murali, ajay bijoor, charudutt mishra dzo and beta, traditionally drummers and pipers, do not own property under the traditional property rights system. they can rent land from the chechang khanchen in exchange for their labour. they are considered to be of a lower caste than the chechang khanchen and khingchun. in kibber, there have been instances where the village has given dzo and beta households land from the common temple land. for example, a dzo household and all its descendants were given the responsibility of closing the water source each afternoon (5:00 p.m.) during the cropping season. in return, they were gifted land. another dzo household was gifted land in lieu of their musical contribution to the village. 3.2. irrigation system the traditional irrigation system in kibber is considered the domain of women. it was initially built for irrigating the traditional crops barley and black pea, but it was subsequently adapted by women to irrigate green pea, a cash crop. snow melt is the main source of irrigation water, which is brought to the fields using water channels that are repaired before the start of irrigation each year and are maintained through the growing period. the agricultural season is from march to september, determined by seasonality. all households have use rights, but land owners have the right to irrigate their fields first. the crops are irrigated in cycles through the season, and each time a particular sequence is followed. in preparation for irrigation, women build embankments in the fields, based on natural gradients, to guide the flow of water. this is done as the men plough the land using yaks or tractors. the date of ploughing is decided in a village meeting, attended by a male representative of each household and the numbardar, who is the rotating head of the village. a religious ceremony performed by the oracle (devta) marks the beginning of ploughing. the first round of irrigation, called yurma, occurs 40 days after ploughing. weeding is carried out by women before the first irrigation cycle and is done periodically thereafter. just before yurma, the women scatter the fields with dried aconogonum sp. plants collected from pastures to increase water retention and prevent soil run-off. irrigation on the first day of yurma is reserved for the fields of the traditional healer (amchi) and the devta. women from all households participate in irrigation on the first day. the second day is reserved for families who have faced a serious illness or death the previous year or have pregnant women who are unable to work in the farm. the third day, referred to as tiping langzet, is reserved for families who support the khangchen and have participated in the maintenance of water channels. the land is owned by the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] khangchen, but the families have rights to the produce from the field. after the third day, the remaining fields are irrigated. fields have designated days for irrigation. if on certain days the water flow is less and fields receive less water, it is considered divine intervention and they are not given another chance. the second and third irrigation cycles follow the same system of irrigation. this order is followed for the first three irrigation cycles, after which the fields of the khangchen receive fixed turns. it is the responsibility of khangchen women to ensure the dzo and beta who have rented land from them receive enough water. the khangchen can also give water to the khingchun of their family on their turn. the women from the chechang khanchen households have the control rights over the irrigation water and all women who own and rent agricultural land have use rights. after the first irrigation, the women from chechang khanchen households decide when the second and third irrigation is to take place based on soil, weather, and crop conditions. this decision is made collectively, with all women from chechang khanchen households having equal voice, irrespective of age or amount of land owned. once they decide the dates, they approach the numbardar who informs the devta. the devta performs a religious ceremony after which the second round of irrigation begins, which follows the same sequence as the first. two women chosen on an annually rotating basis from the khanchen households manage the daily distribution of water. they are in charge of inspecting and monitoring the condition of the water channels and communicating to the numbardar about repairs needed, ensuring that the fields receive water on the assigned days, ensuring that the water pressure to all the fields is similar, etc. to assess the water pressure, blocks of wetland sedges are placed in the channel and the pressure is assessed based on the movement of the sedges. the two women also resolve any disputes. persistent disputes are taken to the numbardar, who may take them to the village council and the devta. the interviewees reported that the rules are written in a book in the possession of the devta. however, no one in the village has seen the book. the devta refers to it at the time of conflict or confusion, and his word is taken to be final. an interesting story from a few generations ago is still often narrated. a conflict between two women over water distribution turned violent and one of the women was killed by the other. it was decided that the family of the woman who lost her life would receive all the overflow water through the night till 8 a.m. the next morning, when it would be divided for the rest of the fields. this arrangement is still followed today, several generations later. myths exist that also determine [119] ranjini murali, ajay bijoor, charudutt mishra watering patterns, such as too much or too early watering can make the plants „thirsty‟. the rules for the irrigation system in kibber are thought to have existed for centuries and our interviewees were not sure if women were involved in their original conceptualization. today, the women from chechang khanchen households formulate collective choice and operational choice rules. for example, decisions related to the repair of water channels are made by women and are communicated to the village through the numbardar. similarly, decisions related to the start of the second and subsequent cycles of irrigation are made collectively based on their knowledge of farming. the role of men in the management of the irrigation system is limited. men are responsible for ploughing the land, providing labour to maintain the irrigation channels, collecting aconogonum, and, along with the other members of the household, harvesting. the pastures are primarily managed by men. the nature of the management of the irrigation system is different for nontraditional land, i.e., nautor land. reforms enacted through the himachal pradesh nautor land rules, 1968, mandate the allocation of land for agriculture to those with less than 4 acres of land for self-cultivation. this legislation allowed the large landless population to claim land for cultivation, especially in the tribal districts of lahual-spiti and kinnaur. land owned by the government, considered „wasteland‟, outside towns, reserved and demarcated protected forests, were provided as nautor land, and each household was granted a maximum of 4 acres of land (rahimzadeh 2018). in terms of irrigation management, households from multiple villages own arable land in the same area, and each village appoints a person to coordinate matters for their group. these representatives coordinate among themselves to decide water distribution among the village groups. this responsibility is usually held by men. the irrigation and public health (iph) department under the district administration is responsible for the maintenance of the water channels in nautor lands. in case of a conflict, the resolution agency is the iph and the office of the subdivisional magistrate (sdm), unlike in traditional land, where the path to conflict resolution is within the community. 4. discussion in our study system, gender, class, and caste intersected in the governance of the irrigation system. land is owned by men, and the ownership of agricultural land gives households access to irrigation water. women‟s management of the irrigation system is mediated by male ownership of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] agricultural land. this system is common to other villages in spiti valley (tsering 2018) and to irrigation systems in nepal (upadhyay 2003). control rights over the irrigation system closely followed the class and caste distinctions of the private property system, with only the upper caste and upper class having control over irrigation water. the dzo, beta, and chechang khinchun had access to irrigation water if they rented land from the chechang khanchen, and water was provided under the direction of their landlord. in the case of gender, while women did not have land rights, chechang khanchen women (upper caste and upper class) had control rights. they have the power to control and restrict access to irrigation water. their work is explicitly recognized and they are considered the managers of the irrigation system. they have the power to make decisions and are involved in conflict resolution mechanisms. although this power to control irrigation water is mediated through men, who are their husbands or fathers, their voices are represented in the system. this role of women, as actors with agency in a management system, is fairly rare, especially in patriarchal societies where women are rarely represented at the community or policy level (upadhyay 2003). although the chechang khanchen women have significant influence, the chechang khinchun, and dzo and beta women have no formal power in the system. rather, they have to negotiate access to irrigation water by aligning themselves with a chechang khanchen household either by renting land or through labour. this reiterates the perspective that women are not a homogenous group; rather, the same societal divisions of class and caste also operate in systems managed by them, with certain sections having greater privileges than others (joshi and fawcett 2005). one important limitation in our study is that our interviewees were primarily from chechang households as we had a greater access to them. therefore, the views of dzo and beta households may be inadequately represented. 5. conclusion if the sustainable development goal of „no one left behind‟ is to be achieved, it is essential that the perspectives, knowledge, and interests of both men and women be integrated into decision-making (brown and fortnam 2018). case studies have shown that when women are involved in community forest management, and the group composition consists of more women, forests are in better condition (agarwal 2009). further, women are also more likely to comply with the rules if they are involved in management. to integrate women into decision-making, it is important to [121] ranjini murali, ajay bijoor, charudutt mishra focus on the different roles they occupy in society, while being aware of caste and class barriers to participation. we have described a long enduring water irrigation system managed by women and its intersection with gender, caste, and class. while women are the primary managers, their power is mediated by men who own the agricultural land. we also found that due to societal barriers of class and caste, power was concentrated among the chechang khanchen (upper class and upper caste) and excluded women from lower classes and castes from decision-making. thus, understanding the role of women in the governance of common resources requires a disaggregated analysis not just between genders but also within women as a group. acknowledgements we would like to thank all our interviwees, especially tanzin thilley and kalzang gurmet, for explaining the irrigation system to us in detail and helping with the 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economy and society, my mind goes back to a workshop on ‘interdisciplinarity’ it organized in 2001. speakers concentrated on ‘the divide between the natural and the social sciences’ and ‘the bigger divide within the social sciences’. in the years since then, one wonders whether the two divides have been widened or reduced. undoubtedly, a great deal has been added to the understanding and literature on environmental issues. however, this has happened in many diverse ways—so diverse, indeed, that one can identify several ‘academic worlds’, each laying a claim to being the ‘most appropriate’ way of bridging the two divides referred to above. each of these academic worlds speaks to different aspects of the same issues and in different ways. some even attempt to craft a ‘common language’ which could bridge the divide, both within and across the two sets of disciplines. studies focusing on the ‘environmentalism of the poor’ adopt a political and social ecology perspective and are connected by a focus on equity. the study of environmental justice movements in latin america and other parts of the developing world proves amply that the distribution of benefits from resource extraction and use is skewed. justice and equity as the keystones of development are indeed a powerful metaphor to depend on. one cannot, however, help wonder: ‘how important is the environmental inequity in the landscape of multiple and overlapping disparities in south asia or, indeed, in the developing world?’ and can that be the only overwhelming reason to look at ecology and society?  coordinating editor (2017–18). former director and professor, institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007; choprakanchan14@gmail.com copyright © chopra 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.3 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.3 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] the understanding of natural scientists begins from another vantage point. they maintain that an overshoot in the use of the earth’s resources has occurred in several areas where our planet has crossed the ‘safe operating space for humanity’. they focus on physical boundaries crossed at the global level. ecologists, geographers, and natural scientists have developed methodologies to examine these. ecological footprint studies, geographic information systems (gis) using satellite-generated data, and vegetative index studies help us to see how our forests, wetlands, and cities are changing. these constitute another strand of work, and another methodology for looking at linkages between ecology, the environment, and society. but individual nations and governments need to understand what this means for them. which are the ecosystems that a nation needs to protect? as developing south asian countries, where have we crossed the limits of irreversibility? and then there is ‘environmental economics’—which, in a sense, looms large in its attempt to explain environmental issues and influence policy. using the powerful quantitative techniques and metaphors of its mother science ‘economics’, it has evolved at a phenomenal rate in the past few decades. it uses the tools of mathematical modelling and econometrics in intellectually seductive ways. with modelling as a common tool, it has found ways to develop interdisciplinarity with inputs from the natural sciences. other social sciences, meanwhile, question the basic paradigm of ‘homo economicus’, on which a number of its results are contingent. parallelly, ‘ecological economics’ in its pristine form sees biophysical processes as of the essence, and takes on mainstream economics, but not in a decidedly successful manner yet. it views economic systems as parts of a larger ecosystem, which it conceives of as the sum total of the physical world and as governed by the laws of thermodynamics. but missing from this approach is human behaviour and its levers, as also the inequity in distribution of power and wealth. with evolutionary biology and the learning from non-human species stepping in, lessons on the drivers of human behaviour emerge. a very compelling related development looks at economic and ecological systems as ‘complex adaptive systems’. in economics as well as in nature, individual agents interact with each other through competition, exploitation, and cooperation. mathematics is sometimes used as a tool to analyse outcomes, with concepts such as thresholds, tipping points, and resilience providing depth to the analysis. these built bridges of a kind more academic than policy-enlightening. from the perspective of political science and sociology, scholars attempting to study communities, and how they manage their resources, initiated the literature on the links with diverse institutions [3] kanchan chopra governing behaviour. these constitute another reaching out within the social sciences, leading to the understanding that institutional economics is indeed the economics relevant for the environment. this new journal, in its invited and contributed sections, aims to highlight and provide examples of each of these diverse approaches to the study of the links between ecology, economy, and society. we choose to do so by attempting to publish, in each issue, representative papers and contributions belonging to as many of the genres mentioned above as possible. it is hoped that the community of scholars working on the environment will read and ponder over alternative ways of looking at the issues they study. this will constitute one small step towards bringing about a more pluralistic understanding of the challenges that our planet earth faces in the twentyfirst century and, perhaps the ways we can confront these challenges. ecology, economy, and society–the insee journal 6(2): 205-236, july 2023 research paper socio-spatial infrastructures: drinking water supply and formation of unequal socio-technological relations in rural southern bihar amit kumar srivastwa* and asmita kabra abstract: this paper explores the social and spatial implications of drinking water infrastructures in rural southern bihar. hardiya, a multi-caste and multi-religion village, has a complex social arrangement. this village consists of original households, households resettled due to dam construction, and households resettled due to excessive fluoride contamination in groundwater. excessive fluoride produces incidences of fluorosis among households, and historically, households have low access to clean drinking water. in response to the drinking water and public health crisis, multiple state, non-state, and transnational institutions intervened in hardiya to provide safe technologies and infrastructures for clean drinking water. these twenty years of interventions have brought different technologies, institutions, and actors together to supply drinking water. however, these schemes are functioning inadequately on the ground, and access to clean water remains a big question amidst the development of drinking water infrastructures in hardiya. this paper explores the dialectical relationship between drinking water infrastructures and social spaces, how both shape each other, through which assemblages, and what it renders. it explores the uneven outcomes of this technological intervention across different socio-spatial groups in hardiya. firstly, it examines how drinking water infrastructures arrange social spaces at the village, settlement, cluster, and household level. it further examines the changing nature of drinking water services and infrastructures in hardiya and how various drinking water programmes incorporating multiple institutions, organizations, actors, and social groups arrange and settlement patterns in the village. moreover, it * doctoral scholar, school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmiri gate, delhi -110006; aksrivastwa.19@stu.aud.ac.in  professor, school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmiri gate, delhi – 110006; asmita@aud.ac.in copyright © srivastwa and kabra 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.990 mailto:aksrivastwa.19@stu.aud.ac.in mailto:asmita@aud.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.990 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [206] examines how different social groups, with variable access to power, access water for their daily needs in the face of diversity in technologies, infrastructures, and responsiveness of local state actors. using political ecology and critical geography frameworks, this paper argues that drinking water infrastructures and services, mediated by institutional and social actors, produce uneven access, power arrangements, and socio-technological relationships. keywords: drinking water supply, infrastructure assemblage; geography and technology, political ecology, southern bihar. 1. introduction on 28 july 2022, while returning from a day of fieldwork in the village of hardiya, i was looking for a water source to fill my empty bottle. the scorching heat had dehydrated me and propelled me to obtain water from nearby households. at the household i went to ask for water, i encountered kavita devi. on my request for drinking water, she asked me to sit down and told her younger daughter to bring water for me in a lotah (a brass or steel water jug) from their hand pump. kavita devi, who looks after her five children, shared with me that her husband was a migrant labourer and visited home only once or twice a year; in his absence, she was the head of the household. soon after, her daughter fetched me some water. i was amazed and speechless when i saw the water: it was filthy, and micro-red residual particles were visible in it in enormous quantities. i asked hesitantly whether the tap water connection had yet to reach their household. kavita devi replied that her household has a tap water connection but does not receive water regularly. she said that at the time of setting up the tap water connection, the plumber had left the pipe open in the middle of the road, saying that the government had only provided that much length of pipe per household. further, her household was located on higher ground, making access to piped water difficult. she quoted these reasons to justify their dependence on a hand pump. i could not decide whether i should drink the water. i drank it, hesitantly, and asked kavita devi whether this water affected their health. she said that most of her family members merely faced colds and fever at times but that her elder son suffered from fluorosis and could not walk. when she told me this, she was calm and composed. she did not know much about fluorosis and that it was a water-borne disease. consuming fluoride through contaminated drinking water had disabled her son’s body, and she had to care for him. it seemed customary to accept the occurrence of fluorosis due to its prevalence in households. [207] srivastwa and kabra i was frightened to consider how drinking such contaminated water would affect people’s health in hardiya. over the decades, contaminated drinking water has worsened households’ health and livelihood conditions and constrained “social reproduction1” in hardiya (norton and katz 2017). further, partial access to safe drinking water ultimately directs people to consume contaminated water through degraded technologies and infrastructures. like kavita devi’s household, many other households in different parts of hardiya suffer from incidences of fluorosis. hardiya is a multi-caste and multi-religion village with a complex social arrangement, comprising multiple social groups, including the original settlement and villages displaced from the nearby forests and relocated here in the 1980s. hardiya is not only deprived of clean drinking water; low groundwater availability (cgwb 2013), barren lands, poor soil quality, and inefficient cultivation (o’malley 1906; roy chaudhury 1957) also produce absolute scarcity (scoones et al 2019). in hardiya, which is situated in the southernmost part of bihar, diversity in topology, socio-economic differences, and technological and infrastructural interventions shape access to safe drinking water. over the decades, multiple types of water infrastructures have emerged. today, access to water is shaped by diverse technological interventions such as large dams, water treatment plants, irrigation canals, hand pumps, borewells, open wells,2 pipes, and taps. the presence of fluoride in the groundwater in the village has drawn the attention of state, non-state, and transnational organizations. over the last two decades, many state and non-state institutions have intervened to provide water for agrarian and domestic purposes. however, focus group discussions conducted for this research reveal that these interventions performed poorly and failed to produce the desired outcomes. in a different tola,3 one can see the remains of technological artefacts once introduced to 1 social reproduction is defined as daily and long-term reproduction of the means of production, which is enabled by labour power and social relations. social reproduction also takes place outside the waged labour–capital relationship, where uneven access to state-based provision (e.g., public health facilities) in daily life restricts or enables the production and reproduction of material social relations and practices. 2 borewell and open well both extract groundwater but at different levels. a borewell is installed by drilling a pipe into the ground and is equipped with a pump to draw water. they extract groundwater stored at a deeper level. on the other hand, an open well is a big hollow place that allows manual access to groundwater. 3 a tola refers to a neighbourhood usually consisting of a single social group. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [208] improve water quality. during the fieldwork for this study, many people narrated their interaction with drinking-water infrastructures that had initially generated hope of safe and secure water access. however, over time, they resulted in disappointments due to poor operation and management, unattended grievances, and lack of technical expertise. figure 1: abandoned fluoride removal cylinder in a resettled area source: amit kumar srivastwa this study attempts to understand the changing nature of drinking-water services and infrastructures in hardiya. it examines how various drinking water programmes incorporating multiple institutions, organizations, actors, and social groups shaped and continue to shape the village society and settlement patterns. it further examines how different social groups, with variable access to power, access water for their daily needs given the diverse nature of technologies, infrastructures, and responsiveness of local state actors. through the existing literature in political ecology (for instance, bakker, 2007; budds, 2009; sultana 2013; krause and strang 2016; anand 2017; goodwin 2018; scoones et al 2019) and critical geography studies (for instance, ferguson 1994, 2012; gupta, 2001; ferguson and gupta 2002; meehan 2014; boelens et al 2016; schouten and bachmann 2022), this paper tries to link site-specific realities of water access with the stated purpose of diverse drinking-water infrastructures in policies. [209] srivastwa and kabra the rest of the study is structured as follows. section 2 discusses the methodology and describes the study area in terms of social arrangement, settlement, and structure of social and religious groups and livelihood activities. section 3 explores the historically produced geography of hardiya and describes how infrastructural and geographical processes have configured territories and spaces at the intra-village level in the past. section 4 traces how groundwater contamination and the development of clean and safe drinking-water infrastructures have affected household water access across different socio-spatial groups in the study area. section 5 further explains how the location of drinking-water infrastructures and accessibility to local state actors influence households’ access to safe and clean drinking water at the interand intra-settlement, cluster/ward, and caste group levels. section 6 elaborates on how different households meet their water requirements from multiple drinking-water infrastructures and the role played by social and economic power differences in this context. this study adds to the current discourse in urban political ecology and critical geography in a rural location, which views drinking-water infrastructures as a tool for arranging uneven power dynamics. further, it highlights the role of infrastructures and local state actors in the making of caste-based hydrosocial networks and territories. 2. study area and methodology hardiya is located in the rajauli sub-division of nawada district, in the southernmost part of bihar, adjoining the border with the state of jharkhand (figure 2); the hilly tracts of the chotanagpur plateau run along its southwestern side. river tilaiya flows along its western boundary, and river dhanarjay runs along the eastern boundary. since both are seasonal rivers, the water supply ends a few months after the monsoon. the southern boundary of the village is adjacent to a wide belt of brushwood forest (roy chaudhury 1957), which also has some mica reserves that are mined at a small scale. the nawada district gazetteers (o’malley 1906; roy chaudhury 1957) describe this region as water scarce and attribute this scarcity to geographical factors such as altitude and rainfall. census data reveals that the actual rainfall in this district decreased by 34% between 2006 and 2009 (census of india 2011), creating ongoing risk and vulnerability in the daily lives and livelihoods of the people. central, state, non-state, and transnational institutions and agencies have implemented multiple schemes and programmes over the decades to provide water to the region for agricultural and domestic purposes. these ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [210] interventions include building water infrastructures—such as the phulwariya dam and associated canals and piped-drinking-water infrastructures, such as neer nirmal pariyojana (nnp, “pure water scheme”), a fluoride removal centre and cylinders, and other drinking water programmes. a significant attempt to ensure the availability of clean drinking water in the area was made in 2015–2016, when the public health engineering department (phed), nawada district, in collaboration with the world bank and jindal water infrastructure limited (jwil), sanctioned a large-scale project in hardiya to supply water through piped water supply. figure 2: spatial configuration of hardiya source: india map – wikimedia commons, district map – census of india, and hardiya map – qgis, authors hardiya becomes an important site for understanding the complexity and entanglements of communities, institutions, and infrastructural arrangements. it helps examine how the materiality of drinking water, infrastructure, and local bureaucratic arrangements shape access to safe drinking water. in the following sections, we will discuss how this and other interventions have impacted the social groups living in settlements and influenced spatial conditions and technological availability in hardiya. as per the 2011 census, the total number of households in hardiya was 1,170. however, this number has increased to around 1,600 in the last decade, as indicated by our participatory rural appraisal (pra) estimates and [211] srivastwa and kabra table 1: social and occupational structure of hardiya 1 dominant caste consists of those social groups which may or may not belong to upper caste groups but hold or wield social, economic, and political power in a given context or space. 2 scheduled castes (sc) are those social groups which are historically disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. other backward castes (obc) are those social groups which are educationally and socially backward. settlement social composition no. of households (approx.) key livelihood activities old settlement area (s1) this settlement has different caste groups, living in different clusters, which are originally from this village. dominant castes: sahu and rajput extremely vulnerable castes: rajbanshi and harijan religious minority group: muslim 375 (sample size: 75 households; 20% from each cluster) dominant castes:1 agriculture, private jobs, and formal businesses scs, obcs,2 and religious minorities: agricultural wage labour, non-agricultural wage labour, migrated labour, informal businesses, and sustenance farming resettled areas (s2, s3, s4, and s5) these settlements are constituted by different caste and religious groups, earlier residing in forest villages and rehabilitated due to the construction of the phulwariya dam. 1,100 (sample size: 220 households; 20% from each ward of each settlement) dominant castes: agriculture, formal and informal businesses, and private and government jobs sc, obc, and religious minorities: agricultural wage labour, nonagricultural wage labour, migrated labour, sustenance farming, and private jobs resettled area (s6) sc households earlier residing in a forest village and rehabilitated on the outskirts of the old settlement area s1. 50 (sample size: 20% of total households, i.e., 10 households) scs: non-agricultural wage labour resettled area (s7) sc groups relocated from a cluster of the old settlement due to the presence of excessive fluoride in the groundwater. 50 (sample size: 20% of total households, i.e., 10 households) scs: non-agricultural wage labour, migrated labour source: social mapping activity across settlements and clusters note:1dominant caste consists of those social groups which may or may not belong to upper caste groups but hold or wield social, economic, and political power in a given context or space. 2 scheduled castes (sc) are those social groups which are historically disadvantaged socio-economic groups. other backward ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [212] castes (obc) are those social groups which are educationally and socially backward. interactions with ward members. the major caste and religious groups include sahus, rajbanshis, yadavs, and muslims. table 1 shows that dominant caste groups have better employment and income opportunities than the scheduled castes (sc), other backward castes (obc), and muslim households. figure 3: household percentage of social and religious groups in different settlements source: demographic profile through primary data collection the village has three categories of settlements. the first (s1 or old settlement) consists of those who originally lived in the village, while the second (settlements s2 to s6) consists of those who were displaced due to the phulwariya dam construction and resettled in hardiya (figure 2). the last category (settlement s7) consists of a few households that were moved from the sc cluster of s1 in 2004 due to the occurrence of excessive fluoride in the groundwater. thus, hardiya has residents who originally lived here, residents who resettled due to dam construction, and residents who resettled due to groundwater contamination. this study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the nature of drinking-water infrastructures in the study village. we selected a [213] srivastwa and kabra representative sample of 20% of total households through stratified random sampling, covering the village’s different settlements, clusters, and wards. the survey questionnaire had five sections: a) demographic profile, b) source of drinking water, c) quality and expenses of drinking-water infrastructure, d) quality of water supply, and e) exposure to fluorosis. information on the qualitative aspects of people’s local lived realities of drinking water access, services, and infrastructures was collected through conversations with key respondents and in-depth interviews. key respondents were selected through snowball sampling. some of the key respondents were pump operators, agents from jwil, and persons from households with no access to piped water. questions in these interviews varied according to the respondent. questions to local state actors aimed to understand the trajectory of drinking water programmes, their shortcomings, and how they respond to household grievances. questions to households aimed to understand whether they depend on one or several sources and what problems they face in accessing drinking water. quantitative data analysis was conducted using microsoft excel and stata. qualitative analysis was conducted through the frameworks of political ecology (anand 2011; sultana 2013) and critical geography (dixon and whitehead 2008). the spatial distribution of households and drinking-water infrastructures was mapped using qgis and google earth. oral narratives and ethnographic accounts (ernstson and nilsson 2022) were deployed to establish the role of infrastructural interventions in shaping different settlements. focus group discussions (fgds) and non-participant observations (ladder research team 2001) were used to identify the changing nature of households’ interactions with the various drinking-water infrastructures and institutions. fgds were conducted to understand problems in accessing safe drinking water specific to each settlement/cluster. 3. geographies of infrastructure: spatial configuration and reconfiguration of hardiya geography and infrastructure go hand in hand in shaping marginal identities and the sense of othering in social spaces. flowing through landscapes and infrastructures, water either transforms or destroys places, lived spaces, social linkages, and boundaries, rendering new social, geographical, and water configurations (mosse 2008). water infrastructure ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [214] creates unequal spatial conditions (meehan 2014), where households within or across spaces have restricted access to water due to the locations they live in. water infrastructures can be seen as “material geographies of power” (gandy 2004; meehan 2014; schouten and bachmann 2022), where geophysical, biophysical, ecological, temporal, and spatial conditions shape the contested relation between communities, water infrastructures, and powerful state and non-state actors (boelens et al 2016). these infrastructural, geographical, and social processes produce “hydrosocial territories”, defined as spatially bound multi-scalar networks where human and non-human entities are aligned and defined through hierarchies (boelens et al 2016). these territories and networks reorient the landscape and produce new values and meanings (ferguson 1994), inclusion and exclusion (boelens et al 2016), development and marginalization (björkman 2015), and benefits and burdens (appel, anand, and gupta 2018), which often generate precarious conditions for households. in the mid-1980s, the irrigation department of bihar constructed the phulwariya dam near hardiya to impound water from the tilaiya river to improve water supply, agricultural conditions, and associated livelihoods. figure 4: landscape change in the resettlement area between 2006 and 2011 source: google earth however, the phulwariya dam displaced many households from the forest villages and destroyed the associated ecologies. the irrigation department resettled all of these villages in the remaining parts of hardiya on the side of the dhanarjay river. between 1981 to 2011, the number of households in hardiya increased from 100 to 1,170 (census of india 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011). the rapid growth of the population created resource scarcity, as every household required forest and water resources to support their sustenance farming and domestic requirements. dam construction eventually created contestation among resettled households who depended [215] srivastwa and kabra upon dhanarjay and the nearby forest to build and sustain their new habitat. the question of water remains the same, as dhanarjay does not provide water in all seasons, and only those living on the river’s banks can access water from it. moreover, canals flow through the old settlement area, restricting resettled communities’ access to phulwariya dam’s water. figure 4 shows that the landscape of hardiya changed drastically after the resettlement. the forest resources in the resettlement area have been reduced, and the river dried out in a short period. over the years, deforestation—due to household demand for fuelwood and commercial tree-felling—and riverbed mining for stone and sand have caused siltation in the riverbed. most households in the resettlement area belong to sc and obc groups (figure 3) who relocated from an upland forest area to the plains of hardiya. earlier, these households depended on forests for resources such as fruits, wild meat, firewood, and fodder for their livestock. displacement and resettlement impacted resource accessibility adversely. the sc households in resettled areas live in kaccha houses.4 most generate their livelihood by working as labour (non-agricultural and migrant). women in these households spend a large part of their day collecting firewood from the forest area and caring for livestock. resettled communities were promised to receive a fair amount of land in compensation but they actually received very little land for house construction. people in the resettled areas also narrated that the irrigation department provided different land amounts to different households, which was opposite to the proposed compensation. the resettled parts of the village are barren and undulating, with little scope for agricultural activities. during the social mapping activity across the resettled clusters, people reported that the land they received from the government was not enough for their living requirements. as families grew, the land was distributed among kin, and living spaces became congested. those with fewer household members retained some land for sustenance farming. a resident of resettlement area s3 said that his household had a very good amount of land earlier, but after displacement, the state government had provided them with minimal land. he further narrated, we did not get a good amount of land during our displacement. our forefathers had ample land, but when we came here after resettlement, the 4 mud house or under-constructed house. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [216] state government gave us very little land for subsistence farming and household construction. at the time of displacement, karpuri thakur was our cm, and he promised us government jobs, but we have not got any employment security from the state. now, most of the households in our cluster do wage labour or some of the members from every household migrate for better employment opportunities. those with social and political capital captured more land through their strong relationships with state officials, and people like us can’t do anything about it but struggle. thus, dam construction reshaped the socio-spatial settlement pattern of hardiya. first, at the village level, two spaces and identities emerged: the households living in the old settlement and households resettled due to the dam’s construction. these spaces are formed based on identity, culture, knowledge systems, agrarian and livelihood practices, caste-based distinctions, and their access to water. those initially residing in the village had the upper hand in terms of accessing resources, upholding social relations, and negotiating with the irrigation department and other government institutions. dam construction, leading to displacement by default, created a hierarchy between old and new settlements, where the households of old settlements had access to canals from the phulwariya dam and new settlements had to depend upon the river or rainfall for their farming needs. secondly, a large water infrastructure such as the phulwariya dam reconfigured multiple social structures and spaces within the displaced community, where the location of a house shapes its access to water resources and, further, its material conditions. for instance, households living near the river can easily access water compared to people living near roads. therefore, households’ social spaces configure access to water; simultaneously, water constitutes and reconstitutes social groups as spatial entities. reconfigured spaces further drive people to look for multiple water sources to fulfil their domestic needs. dependence on multiple sources creates heterogeneity, wherein households struggle to access water in their everyday lives. hardiya thus appears as a product of infrastructural and geographical processes, where socio-spatial conditions configure access to drinking water. the material conditions of drinking-water infrastructures have shaped the social spaces from above (dam, river, canal) and below (hand pump, taps, well) in this village. [217] srivastwa and kabra 4. infrastructural interventions in the production of unequal socio-technological relations the previous section demonstrated how past water-based infrastructural interventions created socio-spatial inequality in hardiya. this section shows how recent interventions for access to clean water have aggravated these inequalities. in 2004, the phed built a water tank and a network of pipes in one of the resettlement areas (s4) to supply clean drinking water to the fluorosis-affected households in the sc-majority tola of the old settlement (s1). this water tank extracts and purifies groundwater using chemicals (e.g., chlorine). in the initial years, households in resettled areas (s3 and s4) also accessed water from this tank. however, the water tank reportedly stopped functioning within a year or two due to poor operation and maintenance. in 2016, phed, world bank, and jwil established nnp to provide safe access to clean drinking water to the entire village. this programme aimed to provide all households with a paid pipe-based tap water connection using water drawn from the reservoir of the phulwariya dam. however, in reality, the infrastructure created under this universal drinking water scheme produced diverse realities of water access across different socio-spatial settlements in hardiya. the pump operator reported that the bihar government had waived the installation and maintenance cost, making the tap water supply free and allowing everyone to use it. however, access to clean drinking water from taps depends on whether a household has a piped water connection and whether the taps connected to these pipes receive water supply. even though programmes like nnp promised water for everyone, the actual spread of pipe connections varies widely across settlements in hardiya. in figure 5, it can be seen that while settlement s7 has universal access to pipe connections, in settlement s2, only 53% of households have a piped water connection. the reasons include (i) instability in tap water supply; (ii) the quality of water in traditional sources of water (hand pumps and borewells); (iii) divergence of views within settlements (especially those of mixed-caste groups); and (iv) irresponsiveness of state actors to demands for water connections. the views of local state functionaries and community members diverge widely. for instance, the pump operator of the hardiya water tank said, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [218] figure 5: households with tap water connections in different settlements source: questionnaire-based, close-ended survey when we made the pipe connection five or six years ago, many households denied tap water. many officials from the nawada district came to hardiya to inform households of contaminated drinking water, but households outrightly denied the clean water. what else can we do? these people are like that, illiterate and stubborn. however, a resident of one of the sc tolas in the old settlement (s1) gave the following counter-argument, in 2015–2016, at the time of pipe water installation, some people, including our ward member, resisted the tap connection and said that the installation of pipes would damage their street. people were separated into groups and argued over the pipe connection; due to that, no one got the connection in our tola (cluster). now, we have no other option but to share other households’ hand pumps. we went to the pump operator asking for connections, but he refused our request by stating that he had no autonomy in providing a new piped water connection. households in the resettled areas (s2, s3, s4, and s5) echoed this narrative of unresponsive local state actors. for instance, some households at the far end of s3 have no tap connections and depend on hand pumps for their water supply. a resident of an obc household said, [219] srivastwa and kabra when they (jwil officials) were installing pipe connections, they said it was impossible to bring pipes to our homes. so, they left the pipe connection on the main road of the ward and told us to invest our money to extend that pipe to our households. you tell us. who has this much money and time to look out for pipes and taps in the market? muslim and sc households in s3 face similar problems and deploy similar coping strategies. however, access to a piped water connection does not mean access to sufficient water. this is because of factors such as inadequate water pressure, leakages in pipes, disruption of supply, and breakdown of taps. when pipes fail to supply clean drinking water, residents turn to other strategies to access water—traditional water sources such as rivers, open wells, and canals; private water sources such as common borewells; or evolving sources such as private or shared borewells/hand pumps. as a result, households in all settlements apart from s7 depend on multiple water sources (figure 7), indicating the insufficiency of the piped water supply to serve domestic needs. resettled area s2 has three wards, each consisting of different social groups. households in ward 3, near the dhanarjay (figure 2), are more prone to have a lack of access to safe drinking water. this ward consists mostly of sc households with tap water connections, but these taps produce no or low water pressure. consequently, they rely upon other open water sources such as the river, wells, and hand pumps. residents of this ward registered their complaints with jwil officials several times. however, a jwil official responded, we have acknowledged their complaints and know that taps are not producing enough pressure in turiya and musahar tola (ward 3, s2). we have analysed the situation several times and found that the pipe connection from the water treatment plant to their tola is properly functional. i think we should make a direct pipe connection from the plant to their tola to provide better drinking water flow. due to low pressure in taps, many households have dismantled or disowned their tap water connections. the last ward of s2 has become a site of abandoned technological artefacts. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [220] figure 6: abandoned tap connection in ward 3, s2 source: amit kumar srivastwa resettled area s2 provides a mixed picture of tap water accessibility, with assured tap water supply decreasing along the axis of caste-based social stature. households in wards 1 and 2 receive disrupted supply due to leakages or breakage. households in ward 1 mainly belong to dominant caste groups, which have the option of using hand pumps and borewells apart from tap connections. households in ward 2 are mostly from the obc and sc categories, and they meet domestic water needs partly through tap water and water shared with other hand pump owners. the local representative of ward 2, who also experienced a disrupted water supply through his household’s tap, said, the pump operator or jindal officials never visit this part of the village. you tell me how we should register our complaints? testimonies and data show that the idea of universal access to piped water supply has failed in hardiya. two important reasons underlie this failure. firstly, local state actors often quote norms provided by the phed and other state institutions as a basis for refusing tap connection requests from underprivileged social groups. secondly, even where tap connections have been made available, the repair and maintenance facilities flow along social [221] srivastwa and kabra hierarchy lines. local state actors are more efficient in repairing leaking pipes and correcting disruptions in upper caste wards than in sc and obc wards. the “modern infrastructural ideal” (graham and marvin 2002, breshinan and hesse, 2020) of universal access to piped water supply did not materialize in hardiya. instead, uneven provision of tap connections and water availability has created unequal relations between households/social groups and local state actors. however, heterogeneous water infrastructures are shaped not just by spatial and social relations but also by water quality. in hardiya, the presence of fluoride has resulted in changes in the settlement pattern and, subsequently, shaped household water availability, as described in the later sections. groundwater in hardiya is contaminated by fluoride, which has made its residents vulnerable to fluorosis (see section 5). negotiations for safe infrastructure and technology underlies the technological relations among households and between households and other (state and non-state) actors. infrastructural processes have thus created hybrid (furlong 2014) and contingent realities (dixon and whitehead 2008) in hardiya. 5. location of infrastructures and accessibility to the local state actors the settlements on both side of the national highway have varied access to clean sources of drinking water (figure 2). households in s1, s6, and s7 have more sources of clean drinking water than households in the other resettled areas. various state and non-state drinking water programmes cover s1, s6, and s7, except one, which cover s4. only one water tank has been constructed in s4 (figure 2), which was initially constructed for an sc tola in the old settlement. the location of a water infrastructure influences a household’s access to water, and access differs for households not just across settlements but also across different clusters within the same settlement. uneven infrastructural interventions made over time have created socio-spatial inequalities in accessing drinking water. all the local representatives and dominant social and political actors come from the old settlement. more often than not, these dominant actors act as service bearers for different developmental programmes at the local level and benefit from them. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [222] figure 7: households’ primary source of drinking water source: questionnaire-based, close-ended survey for instance, the pump operator of the hardiya water tank volunteered in different drinking water and fluoride removal programmes, which allowed him to work for state and non-state institutions in hardiya. working for different institutions simultaneously gives him access to knowledge systems, [223] srivastwa and kabra rules, regulations, norms, networks, and authority, which he exercises at his convenience and in line with his interests (gupta 2018). these systems provide expertise and allow him to mechanize the provision of drinking water supply. as agents of these state and non-state institutions, local state actors use their authority to manage, control, and negotiate drinking water provisions. the settlements near the water tank and treatment plant have more households using tap water as a primary source (s1: 64%; s6: 80%; s7: 100%). on the other hand, in the resettled areas, households have fewer or no clean drinking water sources (s2: 32%; s3: 53%; s4: 50%; s5: 14%) (figures 3 and 8). as discussed in section 4, households in resettled areas receive no or low pressure, and leakages and disruptions further impact the water supply. gaining no or limited access to local state actors further pushes households to shift to conventional water sources. however, this does not imply settlements with better access to clean drinking water and infrastructure have access to local state actors. uneven water supply provision flows on both sides of the national highway, and accessibility to local state actors also seems uneven at the settlement, cluster, and household levels. only all households in resettled area s7 use tap water as their primary source. our interviews reveal that this settlement was created during 2003– 2004, following a visit by the then–district magistrate, who observed a high incidence of fluorosis among the extremely vulnerable rajbanshi (st) community due to the excessive fluoride contamination of the groundwater. the officer offered the affected families a new site for relocation, combined with land for housing and secure access to clean water. several families accepted this offer and moved to s7, while others subdivided their households to maximize access to new housing. the location of s7, right opposite the water treatment plant (figure 2), ensures timely and adequate water supply as well as easy redressal of supply-related grievances, despite the socio-economic marginality of the residents. state and private water supply agencies showcase s7 as one of the project’s success stories, which further assists the community in maintaining their access to clean water. a resident of this settlement recalled an incident, two–three months ago, someone stole taps from most of the houses. these taps are made from brass and are costly to purchase. so we went to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [224] the jindal office (in the water treatment plant), and people there fixed it within three–four days. the location of the water treatment plant enables better water flow and pressure and, simultaneously, the spatial arrangement of s7 helps the households to approach jwil officials to register their grievances. resettled area s6 is just behind the water treatment plant (figure 2). here, 90% of households have tap connections (figures 5 and 7). however, this settlement has a common hand pump, a water tank installed by a non-profit organization, and a canal covering one side of the settlement. around 80% of the households use tap water as their primary source; if these connections experience leakages or disruptions, they move to other accessible sources. the other 10% have tap connections but it produces leakages often, so they also access water from other households’ taps. a plumber in the water treatment plant lives in this tola, and residents pass their grievances to higher officials through him. sometimes, if a household is willing to pay for the repair of tap connections, the plumber helps to fix taps and pipes without any charge. figure 8: social and spatial arrangement of the old settlement (s1) source: qgis [225] srivastwa and kabra in the old settlement (s1), every tola has a piped water connection except one. s1 consists of seven tolas, each presenting a different arrangement of socio-spatial hierarchies and access to tap water (figure 8). for instance, if sc households face leakages or disruptions, they can register a complaint with the pump operator, as he resides in this tola, and get their concerns resolved easily. next to the sc cluster is sc cluster 1 (sc1), and, as described in section 4, none of the households in this cluster have tap water connections. sc1 has a common hand pump, and households access it to store water for daily domestic requirements. a few households are dependent on their neighbours to access hand pumps. the sociotechnological relations of these clusters differ because of their relations with local state actors despite their identity as vulnerable sc groups. on the other end of sc1 is located the obc cluster. the water tank of hardiya is situated in this tola, and the pump operator visits the tank daily to record water meter readings and regulate the water supply. households in this cluster can access the pump operator on most days and register their grievances. however, people in this tola said that though the pump operator resolves their problems, sometimes grievances go unattended. a resident, in her interaction with the pump operator, aggressively said, how often do we have to tell you to fix the tap and pipes? you never listen to our complaints. see (pointing to her household’s tap) how much water leaks when we open the tap! in response, the pump operator said, i cannot provide new pipes or taps to you because it is not in my hand. you should go to the jindal office (in the water treatment plant) and register your concern there. i am not allowed to give these materials to existing connections. you can buy pipes and taps from the rajauli market. i only can arrange for a plumber to repair it. the last tola in the old settlement consists of muslim households. households here have tap water connections but most are dysfunctional. women in this cluster said, we have tap connections but mostly use hand pumps for our domestic requirements. we receive powder (chlorine) in our tap water, which tastes bitter, so we do not use it much. the location of infrastructure and local state actors, therefore, sociospatially determines the uneven provision of tap water supply and grievance redressal. the location of infrastructure configures the varieties of service ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [226] provisions available for different clusters and settlements. moreover, the spatial arrangement of social groups determines the varieties of tap water supply available and grievance redressal. therefore, location and accessibility create hydrosocial processes (banister 2014; björkman 2015) in hardiya, wherein people, institutional actors, and technologies are arranged around the control of water in daily life (boelens et al 2016). furthermore, drinking water infrastructures embody dualistic political assemblages (i.e., formal–informal, legal–illegal) (loftus 2006; truelove 2020), where power is produced through informal practices and negotiations (truelove 2019). these negotiations produce uneven social and political relations, further shaping access to drinking water infrastructures (mcfarlane and rutherford 2008; appel, anand, and gupta 2018). households across different settlements interact with dysfunctional tap water daily. this dysfunctionality emerges through the irregular maintenance of pipe connections at the household and administrative levels. therefore, it becomes crucial to understand how the problems of leakages, disruptions, and repair enable or restrict interactions between households and local state actors in everyday life (appel, anand, and gupta 2018). even though most of the clusters and settlements have tap water, damage, disruptions, leakages, and pressure lead to grievances redressal, and negligence of the same pushes communities to shift to other drinking water sources. for instance, in resettled area s5, where 72% of households are sc, only 14% of households use taps as their primary source of water. most of the tap connections in s5 are broken, uprooted, and leaking, and the residents use shared or individual hand pumps (63%) and borewells (32%) (figure 7). a resident of s5, who uses a shared hand pump, said, at the time of connection, the plumber fitted pipes adjacent to small sewages outside our homes. this pipe has no use because it is leaking now, and the sewage system brings filth and contamination into the pipes. households in resettled area s4 face a similar problem. however, 57% of households belong to dominant social groups and have strong social networks within the village. in many incidents of leakages and disruptions, these households called the pump operator and asked him to send a plumber to fix their taps. some households only use borewells for their domestic water requirements. for instance, a resident said, we do not like the taste of this water (tap water). sometimes it does not taste good. many times we saw these pipes producing white-coloured [227] srivastwa and kabra powder in the water. i think they (the pump operator and other actors) put excessive chlorine in the water. however, sc households do not have a similar network. for example, a resident, who is located at the end of s4, said, our taps have received dirty water for the last six months. i do not know where to register my complaint. if you have that information, please explain our situation to them (jwil officials). figure 9: broken taps and uprooted pipes in different settlements source: amit kumar srivastwa leakages and disruptions seem common across settlements, but grievance redressal impacts a household’s access to functional taps. interactions and negotiations with local state actors vary between households and settlements. these interactions produce uneven provision of tap water supply at the inter-settlement, intra-settlement or cluster, and interhousehold levels. accessibility to local state actors depends on whether the household has clusteror settlement-level representation in the water treatment plant and the household’s relationship with them. moreover, a strong socio-political network at the village, settlement, or household levels influences access to local state actors. social groups spatially arranged near the water tank or treatment plant at the settlement or cluster level can easily access local state actors to register complaints. households in resettled areas s2, s3, s4, and s5 have few interactions with local state actors. their narrative explains that many households either do not know the grievance redressal process or do not have access to local state actors. in both cases, these households shift to an immediately available water source, which can provide them with a stable water supply for their daily requirements. finally, uneven access to safe drinking water infrastructures and local state actors constructs multiple hydrosocial territories (björkman 2015; boelens ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [228] et al 2016) at the village, settlement, cluster, and household levels. these territories consist of heterogeneous infrastructures, both functional and abandoned, which provide or restrict safe water access to social groups based on their spatial conditions and relationship with local state actors. 6. uneven hydrosocial territories and interhousehold socio-technological relations social groups are not just defined, constituted, and bounded by space, culture, identity, or classand caste-based distinctions, water technologies existing historically in a society shape them into diverse socio-technical groups (bijker 2012). drinking water infrastructures are a physical signifier of how powerful actors territorialize a specific landscape, where social identity is formed and performed through socio-technological relations (dixon and whitehead 2008). heterogeneous infrastructural configurations are spatially spread through the constitution of different socio-technological relations (lawhon et al 2018). in this section, we discuss how households from different social groups negotiate water access when state provision of piped water supply fails or is inadequate. household dependence on many water sources in hardiya is a stark indicator of precarity among households belonging to vulnerable sections of society (meehan and strauss 2015). water unavailability at the household level and disruption in the tap water supply force people to cover long distances for their drinking water needs. dysfunctional and inadequate water sources create heterogeneity in water access among households. how vulnerable households negotiate with more powerful households and other sources for water access is critical to our analysis of hydrosocial territories. the uneven ability of different households to obtain the attention of local state actors pushes underserviced households to return to conventional sources of water or find new alternatives through inter-household negotiations, which have wider ramifications. a cluster of sc households in s2 from the turiya community was resettled on the banks of dhanarjay and traditionally fetched water from the river. however, water availability in the river has declined over time, pushing these households towards other water sources. a turiya woman, who made wooden baskets (a traditional caste-based livelihood), pointed to a dysfunctional hand pump and said, it is a government (public) hand pump that has stopped functioning for a long time. our household also has a tap water connection, but it gets no [229] srivastwa and kabra water. not once have we gotten water from the tap. we have no other option but to fetch water from the river. we fetch water early in the morning and late in the afternoon. however, the river seldom provides enough water; sometimes, we have to go to a nearby well to collect water. we have registered several complaints about our disrupted tap water connection to the person who works in the water tank. he said that the government will fix our connections soon, but it has been a year, and no one has come to help us. drinking water infrastructures have temporal lives (anand 2011), where minor disruption or damage leads to infrastructural dysfunctionality and further pushes households to adopt other strategies. unlike the turiya, in other social groups, households without adequate drinking water access depend on other households or community-level sources to access water. the ownership of these technological artefacts is diverse—they can be the private property of households, community-level structures, and infrastructures belonging to the state and large external non-state actors (including ngos and corporate entities). heterogeneous infrastructure regulates the behaviours of households and social groups. because of their dependence upon other households to access domestic water, many residents of hardiya are constrained in their social actions vis-à-vis other community members. according to a resident of resettlement area s5, we cannot access water from the taps, as last year, the state government started constructing a flyover, which damaged the main pipeline outside the cluster. our pipe got damaged six months after the installation, so we never utilized it. now, we share a common hand pump. sometimes it produces a bad quality of water or low pressure; then, we seek water from households with borewells. we do not have enough money to install a new hand pump. apart from large-scale water infrastructures like the phulwariya dam, these small-scale technological artefacts also shape inter-household material and social relations in hardiya. some households in hardiya depend on multiple drinking water sources by managing social relations, while others depend on one or two water sources by managing their spatial location. access to water infrastructures depends upon the household’s location and how many well-managed relationships households have within the village. access to drinking water, therefore, becomes a contested space where households’ social relationships form their access to water infrastructure—technology becomes a tool to generate power and a hierarchy among the households in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [230] their everyday lives. these social relationships are performed through human bodies, spaces, gendered subjectivities, and emotions (sultana 2011). these relationships produce specific moral economies (trawick 2001, 2002) as well as emotional and imaginative geographies (dixon and whitehead 2008; sultana 2011) within and across socio-spatial groups. 7. conclusion this article brings historical, geographical, developmental, bureaucratic, and everyday forms of infrastructure together to understand everchanging socio-spatial arrangements and relationships. it uses historical and geographical features as a methodological tool to understand infrastructures as a socio-spatial process that generates uneven access and power arrangements among households and with local state actors at the cluster, settlement, and village levels. infrastructural development in hardiya came as a promise to eliminate absolute scarcity (scoones et al 2019), but inadequate technological regulation worsened the situation, and inadequate tap water supply produced a dependence on heterogeneous infrastructures. these inadequacies are shaped by dysfunctionality in drinking water infrastructures and irregularities in services. by addressing the question of resource access and conflict, this article examines the conditions of leakages, disruptions, no or low pressure, breakage, repair, maintenance, and ruination. these conditions manifest partial or complete suspension of tap water supply daily. moreover, suspension or disruption affects the everyday schedule of people and opens the scope for negotiations among households and between households and the local state. over time, these negotiations produce various relationships and contestations, further rendering socio-political networks, hydrosocial territories, and uneven drinking water access and power arrangements. the location of infrastructures and local state actors further shape the material geographies of power, enabling access to some households while restricting it for others. in a complex social arrangement, the entanglement of communities, institutions, and infrastructures produces unequal socio-technological relationships between actors. scholarship in critical geography (ferguson and gupta 2002; mosse 2008; dixon and whitehead 2008; meehan 2014; gupta 2018) views technology and space as inseparable characteristics that configure spaces and linkages at different scales. this article contributes to this methodology by examining infrastructural processes. oral narratives further help trace household [231] srivastwa and kabra dependence on, and struggle over, spatially bounded heterogeneous infrastructures. the existing literature on the political ecologies of drinking water infrastructure (bakker 2012; anand 2017; truelove 2019, 2020; björkman 2015; appel, anand, and gupta 2018) mainly discusses the uneven power constellation of infrastructures in the urban realm. this article examines the assemblage of infrastructures, institutions, and local communities in manufacturing uneven access to safe drinking water in the rural sphere. it unpacks the divergent outcomes of a state scheme aimed at providing universal access to safe and clean drinking water. it finds that socio-political networks, infrastructure location, and local state actors enable or restrict tap water supply for different social and religious groups. this unevenness is multi-scalar and operates at the level of settlements, clusters/wards, and households within the same village, such that social groups like sc, obc, and muslims are impacted by these infrastructural processes. these groups often cope by returning to former or conventional drinking water sources. it further shows that apart from a household’s economic capability to purchase drinking water technologies and infrastructures, access to safe drinking water in rural locations can also be made possible by shifting back to conventional water sources. however, the socio-economic cost of this in terms of drudgery, water quality, and ability to resist oppression by more powerful counterparts tends to be high in the process. acknowledgements we thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and to the copyeditor for her meticulous attention to detail. we thank dr b. r. ambedkar university delhi (aud) for providing financial assistance for conducting fieldwork. we are grateful to akash singh for help with qgis mapping, and to our resource persons, himanshu, suraj, and anurag, for their help and support during fieldwork. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is not provided in a repository as the primary author of this research paper is currently pursuing doctoral degree. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [232] references anand, nikhil. 2011. “pressure: the politechnics of water supply in mumbai.” cultural anthropology 26 (4): 542–564. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15481360.2011.01111.x. ———. 2017. hydraulic city: water and the infrastructures of citizenship in mumbai. durham: duke university press. appel, 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infrastructural power and everyday water governance in delhi.” environment and planning c: politics and space 39 (2): 282–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419897922. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419897922 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 159–164, july 2021 notes from the field self-care or delay in seeking healthcare: reflections from the field shivanand savatagi basappa1 1. introduction “these days, i do not go to the hospital. if i have a fever or any other common disease, i take tulsi and drink hot water. i practise these remedies for two to three days. if the symptoms do not subside, then i go to the hospital,”2 said a participant from hd kote taluka in karnataka, when i asked him about his immediate response to health problems. i carried out the fieldwork described in this paper on 15–27 february 2021 to understand self-care practices among families who use traditional medicine in hd kote taluka, karnataka. this fieldwork was carried out as part of a larger research study on self-reliance in primary healthcare among families using traditional medicine in hd kote. here, i reflect on the selfcare practices of these families and examine the potential impact on health outcomes. i collected data through field observation and 15 in-depth interviews with families from rural, tribal/adivasi, and urban communities, using the purposive sampling method. the age range of participants was 30–60 years. 1 phd scholar, the university of trans-disciplinary health sciences and technology (tdu), 74/2, jarakabande kaval, post attur via yelahanka, bengaluru, karnataka – 560064, and the institute of public health (iph), 3009, ii-a main, 17th cross, krishna rajendra rd, banashankari stage ii, bengaluru, karnataka – 560070; bsshivabs@gmail.com. copyright © savatagi 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.479 2 exact quote in vernacular language (kannada): “ittichina dinagalalli nanu aaspatrege hoguttill. nanage jwara athava samanya kayile enadru bandare, tulsi matt bisi neerannu tegedukolluttene. idannu eradarind mooru dina tagotini, nanage kadime aagalilla andre aaspatrege hoguttene”. interview with a 48-year-old farmer, hirehalli-a village, hd kote taluka, karnataka, 17 february 2021. mailto:bsshivabs@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.479 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [160] of the 15 participants, seven were female and eight male. most of the male participants—seven of them—were engaged in agriculture, and the female participants were engaged in either coolie (daily wage) or household work. the kabini tributary of the cauvery, which flows through hd kote taluka, is their main source of irrigation water. 2. self-care in the context of health self-care is an integral part of promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative care and offers unique opportunities to keep ourselves healthy; it is also considered as a renewed approach to primary healthcare (who 2009). however, the tension between self-care and state-delivered primary healthcare has not been sufficiently addressed (levin and idler 1983), which raises scepticism about promoting self-care as a practice. hence, there is a need to reflect on what is self-care, whom it is for, to what extent it should be followed, and its position within the health system (webber, guo, and mann 2013). in lowand middle-income (lmic) countries like india, traditional medicine is considered an important resource for population health, especially primary healthcare (oyebode et al. 2016). homemakers play a significant role in the prevention of many diseases and the promotion of health through their nutrition-based interventions. intergenerational knowledge regarding the use of traditional medicine potentially adds value to self-care as it can help in making betterinformed decisions. 2.1 what is health, disease, and illness according to the participants? self-care for health is rooted in an understanding of proper dietary practices, consuming fresh air, physical activity, and other domestic activities that can prevent disease (levin and idler 1983). my field observations show that people had various definitions of health, including the absence of disease, being happy and satisfied, and meeting life needs. for instance, one interviewee, a resident of hirehalli b village, said, “health means doing good things and eating well, maintaining cleanliness, living in a good environment, getting good sleep, and having the ability to work efficiently.” 3 this statement covers the physical, psychological, environmental, and value dimensions of health. according to who, selfcare is “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability 3 exact quote in vernacular language (kannada): “arogya andre chennagiruvudu, chennagi uta, nidde maduvudu hagu kelasvannu maduva samrthyavannu honduvudu.” interview with a 40-year-old woman homemaker, at hirehalli b village, hd kote taluka, karnataka, on 17 feb 2021. [161] shivanand savatagi basappa with or without the support of a health-care provider” (who 2013). critical reflection on this definition shows that self-care is a comprehensive approach that includes the promotion, prevention, and maintenance of health. thus, self-care seems to be embedded within people’s understanding and practices concerning health. i also collected responses on reasons for disease or illness. one participant, a farmer in a village named mc tholalu, indicated that the use of chemical fertilizers was a major cause of disease and illness. he said, “sir, now everyone is using chemical fertilizers, but, earlier, they used organic fertilizers. the food used to be very tasty and there was no disease. now there are many different types of fertilizers, so now there are many diseases.” 4 this understanding of disease was common across all participants whose occupation was agriculture. participants’ beliefs about the reasons for disease varied across rural, urban, and tribal/adivasi communities. in urban communities, participants believed that diseases were caused mainly by food habits and reduced physical activity, while adivasis and tribals cited addiction to bad habits (e.g., smoking and drinking) as the predominant reason for disease. figure 1: self-care practices among study participants source: original work, diagram is formed based on the themes obtained from the preliminary analysis of the data the activities that participants undertook to take care of their health ranged from physical activity to spiritual practices, as figure 1 shows. urban, rural, 4 exact quote in vernacular language (kannada): “sir, evag ellaru rasayanik gobbar balastare, modalu novella kottige gobbar upayogistiddu, uta tumba ruche aagirtittu hagu yavude kayile irtiralilla. evag bere bere chemicals use madtare, adakke bahala rogagalu bandidave”. interview with a 60-year-old male farmer, at mc tholalu village, hd kote taluka, karnataka, on 21 feb 2021. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] and adivasi communities were aware of the importance of physical activity. however, their practices varied. for rural and adivasi communities, physical activity was a part of daily work, since they were engaged in agriculture and domestic activities. things were different in the urban context, as the lifestyle there involved less activity, and participants had to allocate a specific time to go for a walk, exercise, or practise yoga. personal hygiene included individual care and cleanliness of domestic animals and the surroundings, which was also considered part of self-care across all contexts. highlighting the importance of food, participants mentioned that they maintain their health by consuming “natural” foods that they grow in their own fields. among the villagers, the notion of healthy food was strongly associated with food being free from chemicals. apart from physical activity and consumption of natural food, most participants used home remedies to treat common health ailments; these included medicinal plants such as nagadali (ruta graveolens), dodda patre (coleus amboinicus), chitramoolika (plumbago zeylanica), ondelaga (centella asiatica), tulsi (ocimum tenuiflorum), hibiscus (rosasinensis), simiribu (simarouba), ginger (zingiber officinale), and pepper (piper nigrum). their first response to common illnesses was using these home remedies for two to three days, and if the symptoms did not subside, then they visited a hospital for further treatment. when i asked them to show me these home remedies, one participant took me around his village and showed me 10 plants that grew on the streets and in his field. thus, the health-related practices of these households were based on the local ecosystem. the participants’ approach to health was not about getting medicine, but how they live with their local resources and ecosystem and regulate their lifestyle accordingly. additionally, respondents also spoke about culture and tradition, spiritual practices, and values like honesty, trustworthiness, and responsibility as part of their self-care. thus, self-care originates from the interaction between various factors; it is a comprehensive approach that includes promotion, prevention, and curative aspects. 3. reflections according to the participants, health is not only a physical or biological state—it has to do with the ecosystem and integration of body and mind. while a small section of the participants had a narrow understanding of health as the absence of disease, the majority linked health with multiple factors. the individual definitions of health also varied depending upon the context, age, and life stage of the participant. therefore, for the participants, health is a multidimensional phenomenon embedded within the larger concept of well-being. the health behaviour of an individual is [163] shivanand savatagi basappa shaped by their everyday needs, which comprise bodily needs, economic needs, social relations, emotional needs, and therapeutic needs. self-care is a part of health behaviour and includes home-based solutions to health problems. it also entails having knowledge of the disease or illness and understanding our bodily responses—in other words, intellectual and embodied knowledge. thus, the ability of an individual to make use of local knowledge and resources seemed to be an important part of their definition of self-care. it was evident that the practice and understanding of self-care were contextual and influenced by various factors, such as knowledge, values, traditions and culture, individual skills, and environmental and health system factors. since health problems and suffering are obvious in communities, adopting coping strategies suggested by neighbours and other community members and accepting support from them are also considered as part of self-care. individuals with illnesses are likely to try multiple solutions that could be medical or non-medical. thus, it is difficult to categorize household practices as self-care or delays in seeking healthcare, as they may have varying degrees of effectiveness. the challenges of availability, accessibility, and affordability of institutional health interventions continue; there is still an ongoing debate about evidence-based practice versus practice-based evidence, and self-care falls in the latter category. of course, there is greater value attached to medical knowledge, but one modality of treatment or intervention is not always the best. there is a need to emphasize pluralistic healthcare approaches for better health outcomes. in the case of pluralistic healthcare approaches, individuals need to be able to make informed decisions regarding their selection of healthcare services. this ability holds good even for self-care practices. therefore, if communities make betterinformed decisions in their practice of self-care, they have the potential to produce better health outcomes and strengthen the health system. otherwise, there might be continued delays in seeking healthcare, which can lead to detrimental effects on health. acknowledgements i acknowledge the contributions of dr prashanth, dr unnikrishnan, and dr harini nagendra for their critical reviews. i also acknowledge the financial support from the indian council of medical research (icmr) through the senior research fellowship (srf) award; friends of hope trust, london, uk, for their phd fellowship support; and the institute of public health, bengaluru, and the university of trans-disciplinary health sciences and technology, bengaluru, for their tdu-iph phd fellowship award. i thank swami vivekananda youth movement (svym) organization for facilitating ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] my fieldwork, and i also acknowledge the support i received from all the study participants who shared their data. references levin, lowell s, and ellen l idler. 1983. "self-care in health." annual review of public health 4(1): 181-201. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pu.04.050183.001145 oyebode, oyinlola, ngianga-bakwin kandala, peter j chilton, and richard j lilford. 2016. "use of traditional medicine in middle-income countries: a whosage study." health policy and planning 31(8): 984-91. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czw022 webber, david, zhenyu guo, and stephen mann. 2013. "self-care in health: we can define it, but should we also measure it?" self-care journal 4(5): 101-106. world health organization. regional office for south-east asia. 2009. "self care in the context of primary health care." who regional office for south-east asia. accessed august 13, 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206352 world health organization. regional office for south-east asia. 2013. self care for health: a handbook for community health workers & volunteers. accessed august 13, 2019. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/205887 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pu.04.050183.001145 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czw022 https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/206352 https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/205887 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 1–2, january 2019 editorial environment, sustainability and equity kamal bawa  this first issue of the second volume of ecology, economy and society continues the tone set up by the first volume that focused on humanity’s predicament to reconcile economic development with the need to foster environmental sustainability and achieve equity and social justice in the use of commons. in this issue, two general commentaries question if sustainability in general and conservation of biodiversity in particular can be accomplished by the existing paradigms and approaches. the special section on ecological conflicts further highlights the inadequacy of existing institutions to address environmental justice to the detriment of both the environment and society. notes from the field continue the theme of divergence between the goals of the society and institutions designed to serve people. although most examples are from india, we know such conflicts and contradictions are pervasive everywhere. in fact, democratic traditions and institutions in india should however, as røpke argues in her essay the economic forces unleashed by the prevailing economic system may be too strong to move us towards a sustainable future based on environmental integrity and justice. interestingly, the editors did not intend the environmental justice or conflict resolution to be the themes of this issue though we admit that authors of the articles do not represent just a random sample of scholars interested in sustainability. it is clear that equity, justice and the rights of indigenous  coordinating editor (2018–19). university of massachusetts, boston, ma 02125-3393; and ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree), bengaluru, 560 064, india; kamal.bawa@gmail.com copyright © bawa 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.49 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.49 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] people remain dominant themes in discourses that seek to articulate and find solutions for our major environmental challenges. are we then making progress in addressing these challenges? yes, but at a very slow pace. journals such as ecology, economy, and society and our “sister” journal conservation and society help to make progress in this direction. certainly, what is needed is a radical transformation of the knowledge generating enterprises across the world but particularly in the global south— and at a very fast pace, because we have very little time. first, as has been apparent for many years, we require more academic centers that will foster interdisciplinarity. second, we must now move more rapidly towards transdisciplinarity, working with practitioners to find solutions to make an impact. our efforts must go beyond diagnosis and understanding of the problems. it is my hope that the future issues of ecology, economy and society will increasingly contain more articles on not only transformative knowledge and ideas but also how such ideas have a significant impact on resolving problems that lie at the intersection of ecology, economy, and society. ecology, economy and society—the insee journal 1 (2): 11 –17, july 2018 commentary an integrated framework for achieving sustainable development goals around the world jianguo liu  1. introduction one of the biggest global challenges is to achieve the united nations’ sustainable development goals (sdgs), agreed upon by 193 countries in 2015. many institutions and scholars have called for creating and synthesising knowledge for meeting the 17 ambitious goals (e.g., no poverty, zero hunger, biodiversity conservation, climate mitigation). some studies recognise synergies and trade-offs among the goals within a place (international council for science 2017), but little attention has been paid to sdg interrelationships among different places (liu 2017). the united nations states that sdgs should be achieved around the world. for example, sdg 1 aims ‘to end poverty in all forms everywhere’. at present, the scores of sdgs are vastly different among countries (sachs et al. 2017). for instance, the scores of sdg 2 (zero hunger – ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’) range from 22 (yemen) to 86 (sweden) (figure 1). the vast majority of countries in africa (e.g., sudan, chad, and niger) are among those with the lowest scores, together with some asian countries (e.g., india, pakistan, sri lanka) and latin american countries (e.g., el salvador, guatemala, honduras). japan, the us, and western european countries are among those with the highest scores on sdg 2. to achieve sdgs around the world, an integrated framework is required and many fundamental questions need to be answered. for instance, how can the sdgs be achieved everywhere? how do efforts for achieving the  center for systems integration and sustainability, department of fisheries and wildlife, michigan state university, east lansing, mi 48823, usa; liuji@msu.edu. copyright © liu 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.32 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.32 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] figure 1. scores of sdg 2 (zero hunger – ‘end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’) data source: sachs et al. (2017). goals in one place offset or enhance goal-achieving efforts in other places? i first introduce the metacoupling framework and then apply the framework to illustrate the realisation of sdg 2. 2. metacoupling framework the new integrated framework of metacoupling (human–nature interactions within as well between adjacent and distant places or systems; liu 2017) can help address the questions raised above. human–nature interactions shape all sdgs. the metacoupling framework builds on and expands research on coupled human and natural systems in which human and natural components interact with each other (liu et al. 2007). previous research efforts on coupled human and natural systems have generated some useful insights, but they typically concentrate on individual places (e.g., cities) (kramer et al. 2018). while some studies have indicated that human actions (e.g., timber harvesting and manufacturing) in one place can affect human well-being and the environment in other places through trade and emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases (ghg) (lambin and meyfroidt 2011; defries et al. 2010), they do not address sdgs explicitly. the metacoupling framework encompasses not only human–nature interactions within a system (intracoupling) or place (e.g., country, state, city, county) but also interactions between adjacent systems (pericoupling) and between distant systems (telecoupling). intracoupling may include timber harvesting and farming in a specific place. there are many types of pericouplings and telecouplings, such as trade, migration, species invasion, foreign investment, technology transfer, knowledge transfer, and tourism. [13] jianguo liu furthermore, there are interactions among intracoupling, pericoupling, and telecoupling (liu 2017). the metacoupling framework consists of five interrelated components (systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects). a metacoupled system includes two or more coupled human and natural systems linked through flows (e.g., movement of matter, energy, information, capital, water, organisms, and people). agents (e.g., farmers, traders, animals) are decision-making entities that boost or impede various flows. causes are reasons (e.g., ecological, hydrological, geological, socio-economic, political, cultural factors) behind a metacoupling that produces various effects (e.g., ecological, hydrological, biogeochemical, biological, socio-economic). 3. applying the metacoupling framework to sdgs the metacoupling framework can help organise and coordinate efforts to achieve sdgs within a specific place as well as between adjacent and distant places. for example, to eliminate hunger across the world (sdg 2), under the metacoupling framework one needs to consider human–nature interactions not only within a country at the national level but also relationships between the focal country and adjacent and distant countries. factors within the country may include food production and food demand. food demand is a function of per capita food consumption and population size. food production is influenced by many factors, such as available arable land, yield, labour, fertilisers, pesticides, water, crop varieties, policies, and harvest management. crop varieties largely determine food nutrients, while the use of agrochemicals such as pesticides and herbicides affects food safety. the costs of production may vary among contexts that have different conditions. regarding relationships between the focal country and other countries for achieving sdg 2, food trade and associated factors need to be considered. while food security has many dimensions, food quantity is fundamentally important. given the space limitation, this commentary focuses on food quantity. the quantity of food and related products traded (flows) depend on supply, affordability, demand, and relevant policies (causes). for importing countries, the affordability of importing food is affected by food price and expandable income. for exporting countries, the supply or availability of food is influenced by food production, infrastructure of transporting food from production areas to export ports, political stability, and other related factors. of course, trade policy and diplomatic relationships between trade partners influence the amount and timing of food trade. many agents are involved, such as producers, traders, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] policymakers, and consumers. as to effects of trade, the distances between importing and exporting countries may affect the economic and environmental costs (e.g., ghg emissions) of transporting food and the risk of food supply reliability. generally speaking, the more distant the trade partners, the higher the cost in transportation. trade between partners also generates spillover effects by affecting trade with other countries and emitting ghgs that drive global climate change. all countries produce food domestically as well as import and export food; however, net imports or exports vary drastically with four general patterns. one, many countries with low scores of sdg 2 (figure 1) import more than export (food and agriculture organization 2018). for example, yemen, which has the lowest score on sdg 2, imported 64 million tons of food over 2000–2013. russia and saudi arabia imported even more food than yemen during that period although they have somewhat higher scores for sdg 2. second, some countries with low scores on sdg 2, such as india and guatemala, export more than import. during 2000–2013, india and guatemala ranked 11th and 17th in net exports. at first glance, this may not make sense. however, these countries may rely on food exports to earn foreign cash or exchange for other goods and products even at the risk of exacerbating domestic food insecurity. this also demonstrates the complexity of achieving different sdgs simultaneously. third, some countries with the highest scores of sdg 2 import the largest amounts of food in the world. for example, japan ranked first in total net food imports during 2000–2013 even though its sdg 2 scores are among the highest. in fact, among the top net importers, seven countries (republic of korea, uk, belgium, germany, the netherlands, and italy, in addition to japan) are in the top 20 highest scores for sdg 2, including the top two (belgium and republic of korea). finally, some countries with high scores of sdg 2 export the largest amounts of food, such as the us, brazil, australia, canada, and france. thus, for food security, it is not just a matter of either producing enough food domestically or importing food. each strategy may have different costs associated with flows of energy and materials. as many as 66 countries are not self-sufficient under water and land constraints alone (fader et al. 2013). it is common to import materials and capital to produce more food domestically. for example, in brazil, most of the fertilisers used for food production are imported from other countries. in 2016, brazil imported nearly 25 million tons (or 73 per cent) of the fertilisers for domestic agricultural production (brazilian national fertiliser association 2017). of that, about 90 per cent of the potassium-rich fertiliser was [15] jianguo liu imported from distant countries such as canada, belarus, russia, and germany (foreign trade and services 2017). on the other hand, some countries such as the us and france achieve food self-sufficiency without imports (fader et al. 2013). however, such self-sufficiency requires sufficient land, water, nutrients, etc. there are trade-offs with both financial and environmental costs of using resources within a country versus importing materials from other countries nearby or far away. food production and demand also differ within a country. for example, many rural areas can produce food for self-sufficiency, but cities usually solely or mainly depend on food produced elsewhere. even an increase in urban agriculture does not produce enough food to meet the consumption demand of city residents (badami and ramankutty 2015). thus, to meet food demand among different areas, substantial food movement within a country is also needed. the example above focuses on applying the metacoupling framework to achieve sdg 2, but general approaches are applicable to address other sdgs and interactions among sdgs. for instance, for sdg 14 (life under water), it is important to protect not only water bodies such as oceans, but also terrestrial systems nearby and far away, because fertilisers and pesticides for meeting sdg 2 from terrestrial systems can flow into aquatic systems (zeng et al. 2015), thus compromising sdg 14 and other sdgs. 4. concluding remarks the metacoupling framework lays a good conceptual foundation to help achieve sdgs around the world. to turn the conceptualisation into reality, researchers in different places need to go beyond the traditional place-based and comparative studies. it is crucial to trace and integrate flows of people, information, goods, products, capital, energy, matter, and other entities such as organisms among different places. paradigm shifts from scattered and separate research to systematic and integrated research can help transform sustainability science and generate novel insights for understanding complex sdg relationships within as well as between adjacent and distant places. such new sustainability science is essential for developing effective policies and governance for realising intertwined sdgs across local to global scales. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] acknowledgements i would like to thank sue nichols and nandan nawn for their helpful edits, shuxin li for drawing figure 1, and the us national science foundation and michigan agbioresearch for funding. references badami, madhav g. and navin ramankutty. 2015. “urban agriculture and food security: a critique based on an assessment of urban land constraints.” global food security 4: 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2014.10.003 brazilian national fertiliser association (associação nacional para difusão de adubos). 2017. principais indicadores do setor de fertilizantes 2017 (main indicators of the fertilisers market 2017). http://www.anda.org.br/estatistica/principais_indicadores_2016.pdf defries, ruth s., maria uriarte, thomas rudel, and mathew hansen. 2010. “deforestation driven by urban population growth and agricultural trade in the twenty-first century.” nature geoscience 3 (3): 178–81. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo756 fader, marianela, dieter gerten, michael krause, wolfgang lucht, and wolfgang cramer. 2013. “spatial decoupling of agricultural production and consumption: quantifying dependences of countries on food imports due to domestic land and water constraints.” environmental research letters 8 (1): 014046. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014046 food and agriculture organization (fao). 2018. food and agriculture data (faostat). http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home foreign trade and services (ministério da indústria, ceesmoi). 2017. balança dos países 2015 [countries’ balance of trade 2015]. http://www.mdic.gov.br/index.php/comercio-exterior/estatisticas-decomercioexterior/balanca-comercial-brasileira-mensal-2?layout=edit&id=1210 international council for science. 2017. a guide to sdg interactions: from science to implementation. paris: international council for science. https://www.icsu.org/cms/2017/05/sdgs-guide-to-interactions.pdf kramer, daniel, joel hartter, angela boag, meha jain, kara stevens, kimberly nicholas, william mcconnell, et al. 2017. “top 40 questions in coupled human and natural systems (chans) research.” ecology and society 22 (2): 44. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-09429-220244 lambin, eric f. and patrick meyfroidt. 1 mar, 2011. “global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity.” proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 108 (9): 3465–72. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100480108 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2014.10.003 http://www.anda.org.br/estatistica/principais_indicadores_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo756 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014046 http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home http://www.mdic.gov.br/index.php/comercio-exterior/estatisticas-decomercio-exterior/balanca-comercial-brasileira-mensal-2?layout=edit&id=1210 http://www.mdic.gov.br/index.php/comercio-exterior/estatisticas-decomercio-exterior/balanca-comercial-brasileira-mensal-2?layout=edit&id=1210 https://www.icsu.org/cms/2017/05/sdgs-guide-to-interactions.pdf https://doi.org/10.5751/es-09429-220244 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100480108 [17] jianguo liu liu, jianguo. 2017. “integration across a metacoupled world.” ecology and society 22 (4): 29. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-09830-220429 liu, jianguo, thomas dietz, stephen r carpenter, marina alberti, carl folke, emilio moran, alice n pell, et al. 2007. “complexity of coupled human and natural systems.” science 317 (5844): 1513–16. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144004 sachs, j., g. schmidt-traub, c. kroll, d. durand-delacre, and k. teksoz. 2017. sdg index and dashboards report 2017. new york: bertelsmann stiftung and sustainable development solutions network (sdsn). http://www.sdgindex.org/assets/files/2017/2017-sdg-index-and-dashboardsreport--full.pdf united nations department and social affairs. nd. sustainable development knowledge platform. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs zeng, xiangfeng, xijuan chen, and jie zhuang. 2015. “the positive relationship between ocean acidification and pollution.” marine pollution bulletin 91 (1): 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.001 https://doi.org/10.5751/es-09830-220429 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144004 http://www.sdgindex.org/assets/files/2017/2017-sdg-index-and-dashboards-report--full.pdf http://www.sdgindex.org/assets/files/2017/2017-sdg-index-and-dashboards-report--full.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.12.001 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 5–12, july 2021 commentary making nature count: reflections on the dasgupta review umesh srinivasan1 and kartik shanker2 abstract: earth’s biodiversity is the ultimate engine of local and global economies and compromising the renewability of our natural resources will ultimately halt economic growth. despite this, humankind has continued to exploit natural resources such as fisheries and forests at highly unsustainable rates in the pursuit of flawed development paradigms and simplistic metrics such as gross domestic product (gdp). this has already led to the loss of natural habitats and the decline and extinction of species as well as consequences such as an increase in zoonotic pandemics. the economics of biodiversity, a recent report by sir partha dasgupta, addresses how the failure of our current institutions has brought us to where we stand and suggests ways by which we may reform our economic thought to mitigate the impacts on biodiversity. the report identifies important first steps: changing the way we measure economic “success”, ensuring that the renewal of natural resources keeps supply higher than demand, and restructuring institutional frameworks. these are necessary but potentially insufficient measures—tenure over land and water is likely to be crucial in addressing the challenges of the future. preserving ecological integrity to allow biodiversity to persist in the face of climate change is essential. keywords: biodiversity; ecosystem services; governance; resource management; sustainability. 1 centre for ecological sciences, iisc, third floor, biological sciences building, indian institute of science, bengaluru, karnataka – 560012; umeshs@iisc.ac.in. 2 centre for ecological sciences, iisc, third floor, biological sciences building, indian institute of science, bengaluru, karnataka – 560012; trustee, dakshin foundation, #1818, 5th main, 9th cross, sahakar nagar c block, bengaluru, karnataka – 560092; kshanker@iisc.ac.in. copyright © srinivasan and shanker 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.463 mailto:umeshs@iisc.ac.in mailto:kshanker@iisc.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.463 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] in 2012—a full eight years before the start of the ongoing covid-19 crisis—award-winning science writer david quammen warned us of the inevitable occurrence of human pandemics in his book spillover. the research on which this book was based is even older. indeed, for decades now, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the potential impacts of the loss and degradation of the natural environment. the increasingly intense contact between humans and wildlife, which stems from deforestation, agriculture, and livestock rearing, combined with increased global connectivity, has created perfect conditions for the spread of deadly pandemics. sars and ebola pointed to the potential impact of a zoonotic disease. but scientists’ warnings fell on deaf ears—governments and globalized economies measure success in a currency that fails to capture the true cost of humanity’s impact on earth. we are living through the result now. covid-19 is just the most recent and dramatic manifestation of a larger malaise, which is the subject of an independent review called the economics of biodiversity (henceforth teb) (dasgupta 2021). teb is a comprehensive, lucid, and frightening exploration of the enormous mismatches in the functioning of ecosystems and our current institutions, which are structurally incapable of, or unwilling to, acknowledge that earth’s biodiversity, which is the ultimate engine of economic growth, is ultimately finite. this has led to where we stand today— governments and markets continue to publicize gdp growth and quarterly profits to their citizens and shareholders, while the unsustainable extraction of natural resources has created a climate catastrophe and hastened the sixth-ever mass extinction of biodiversity on our planet. thankfully, and hearteningly, teb does not descend to the depths of formulating blinkered and counterproductive exercises that seek to place a monetary value on biodiversity (e.g., alongi 2002). instead, it provides an empathetic and well laid out treatment of how we have arrived at where we are and of the road ahead. none of this is new—by their very nature, reviews synthesize existing information and point the way forward based on the best evidence at hand. and the evidence itself has been clear for over half a century, if not more. there is no longer any doubt that a country’s gross domestic product (gdp) is an exceptionally poor indicator of economic growth, especially sustainable economic growth. there is nothing new about the climate crisis, except perhaps its current speed (itself an indictment of our failing institutions). in most parts of the world, agricultural practices disregard local climate, food is transported with no concern for climate change, and meat is produced in the most unsustainable manner possible. it is not as if the overexploitation and collapse of many commercial fisheries blindsided [7] umesh srinivasan and kartik shanker us without warning; this was expected. it is certainly not a profound insight that well-managed landscapes and seascapes are an immediate and necessary bulwark against biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. dating to plato (400 bc), or, more recently, to environmentalists such as aldo leopold (1949) in the mid-twentieth century, the idea of ecosystem services is not new; and it was formalized in the millennium ecosystem assessment in the early 2000s (millennium ecosystem assessment 2005). we must focus on the failure of our institutions and the crucial role of civil society and empowered citizenry. humanity’s dominant governance frameworks—which lurch from one election cycle to the next, tending towards centralization and technology-heavy silver-bullet thinking—are woefully inadequate in both their capacity to identify critical and pressing priorities and in their ability and agility to deal with them. the influential (and deeply erroneous) idea that markets could potentially self-regulate to limit environmental degradation is a stark example. how is it that our dominant economic paradigm demands a barrier-free world when it comes to trade, but this thinking does not extend to our ability to address global environmental, health, and other critical human challenges? while we hail the globally integrated marketplace, our collective expertise and insight still operate in silos—a compartmentalization that is encouraged by the very structure of our institutions. we have the knowledge needed to act, but our national and global governance systems fail repeatedly in integrating these diverse strands of knowledge into a basis for necessary action. some of this has to do with the sheer scale of the challenges that humanity faces. both climate change and the biodiversity crisis are problems that need pan-national, global responses. the solutions to our current predicament might lie in a three-pronged approach: first, ensure that demand does not exceed sustainable supply, which means that we must take less from the natural finite stocks of earth than we put back into it. two, change the way in which we measure consumption and economic progress by accounting explicitly for the impacts that economic activity has on biodiversity. finally, the first two can only happen if we radically restructure economic thinking itself. the first part of this approach is a daunting challenge that spans the entire gamut of demand and supply, from individual choices to societal and cultural priorities to governments and the international community. much has to do with incentives. at an individual level, if every person aspires for the standards of living of the global north, it would lead to the unsustainable extraction of our natural capital, as it does today. avoiding this will need a profound readjustment in the way individuals and societies value certain lifestyles over others. for governments, for instance, it is often ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] easier to demonstrate purely economic growth than it is to ensure universal health and hygiene. preventive healthcare has been shown to be far more economical and efficient than curative medicine, but the latter is favoured by industry and economic metric-oriented governments. for the market— and for the technology sector in particular—promising avenues that can mitigate the biodiversity crisis (such as the use of high-yield, genetically modified crops that can help reduce the pressure to cultivate highbiodiversity and high-carbon natural habitats) need better incentives. other approaches, such as payment for ecosystem services (pes), have gained traction in some parts of the world, but they need governmental and institutional support (redford and adams 2009), even though they might have their own pitfalls in implementation (büscher 2012). the second approach—changing how we measure economic “success”— has a long pedigree. simon kuznets, who created the concept of gdp as we know it in 1934, was himself well aware of its pitfalls: “the welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income…” (kuznets 1934, 7). the use of monetary income as an indicator of individual well-being has also been widely criticized. finally, how we think of the economy must change. the bedrock of the global economy is biodiversity: agriculture, livestock, fisheries, timber, even fossil fuels. none of these are infinite—economic growth will cease when biodiversity falls below the level at which it can replenish. our growing cultural distance from the natural world (kesebir and kesebir 2017) has accelerated this process. unfortunately, both development and conservation, particularly exclusionary approaches, only seek to increase this disconnect. the crux of our predicament, though, is the issue of property rights and systems of ownership of property— “ownership” both literally and in the sense of identity engendered by de facto rights over land, water, and the resources that can be harvested therein. given that our natural resources are ultimately “commons” shared by all of humanity, we cannot over-emphasize the importance of effective governance of shared resources, from hardin’s original (mis)conception of the tragedy of the commons (hardin 1968) to ostrom’s principles that emphasize the importance of trust, cooperation, and social capital in the management of common pool resources (ostrom 1990). however, the idea that “neither top-down nor bottom-up institutional structures work well” perhaps arises from historical ham-handedness in implementing initiatives at mismatched scales (dasgupta 2021: 494). for instance, bottom-up approaches, where communities assume stewardship of traditionally managed resources, can be far more effective in protecting biodiversity (from shortto medium-term threats such as overexploitation) [9] umesh srinivasan and kartik shanker than top-down statist interventions or market-driven outcomes such as privatization (gaymer et al. 2014). unlike state-mandated initiatives, bottom-up approaches are also far more flexible and responsive to sitespecific and highly local socio-economic and cultural mores (waylen et al. 2010). however, we need to centralize policies that deal with threats such as climate change, which operate over far larger spatial and temporal scales. the centrality of land (and water) ownership and management practices to both the local and global economy, and to effective biodiversity conservation, is now beyond any doubt. one of the key drivers of the success or failure of top-down versus bottom-up conservation approaches at any location is likely to be ownership—both material as well as cultural— over land, water, and other resources (burivalova et al. 2016; kelkar 2018). we need more creative forms of natural resource ownership and management that can assure tenure to local communities and customary practices while simultaneously ensuring positive environmental and biodiversity outcomes. however, an issue that teb does not address is the political ecology of biodiversity conservation. while inclusive rights-based conservation has gained traction, earlier exclusionary approaches continue to be in effect in many parts of the world. moreover, new movements like nature needs half and half earth3 (wilson 2016) have emerged, and, despite trenchant criticism (büscher et al. 2017), continue to have a following. in addition, biocentric approaches like compassionate conservation 4 (wallach et al. 2018) have also been gaining ground, though they could have negative social and ecological impacts (oommen et al. 2019). while teb rightly talks about empowering communities and engaging citizens, it does not specify the nature of this engagement, which will determine the long-term success of these actions. 3 the half earth movement proposes that half of all land and sea on earth needs to be protected to preserve biodiversity and the health of the planet. however, it has been heavily criticised on grounds of social justice in that it would disproportionately affect economically weak and politically marginalized communities. furthermore, it does not address current levels of resource extraction and consumption and offers no path forward for biodiversity in the human half. 4 compassionate conservation is the idea that individuals of any species (including nonnative invasive species such as feral cats) matter and must not be killed or harmed. it has been argued that this is an animal rights-based approach that is incompatible with the goals of conservation, which are to sustain species and ecosystems. in addition, adopting this approach could have negative consequences for many communities who live in proximity to dangerous animals and preclude opportunities for them to gain from the sustainable harvest of animals. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] a crucial ecological issue on which teb could have focused more strongly is habitat connectivity. climate change has already caused species to move across the globe in response to changing temperatures. fish are moving to deeper waters and cooler latitudes away from the equator; insects—such as agriculturally important pollinators—are also shifting their geographical ranges rapidly. increased barriers to the climate change-driven movement of species is highly likely to result in the extinction of large fractions of the biodiversity that humanity depends on for its survival. in addition to protected areas, therefore, connectivity between natural habitats should be an urgent and immediate priority. in the absence of such connectivity, climate change has the potential to disrupt human economies and wellbeing, not only due to its direct effects such as rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, but also due to the catastrophic loss of biodiversity. finally, teb does not dwell enough on the nature of knowledge generation, which continues to be dominated by western, white institutions, and has been called out for being systemically racist; meanwhile, within predominantly black, indigenous, and people of colour (bipoc) countries, it is biased towards the privileged and elite (chaudhury and colla 2020; shanker and oommen 2021; trisos et al. 2021). this influences the very nature of the questions we ask and therefore the inferences we reach about human–environment interactions and sustainability. the bottom line is that change is necessary at all levels, from markets to government to society. and if these reforms do not come soon, a pandemic will be the least of humanity’s problems. references alongi, daniel m. 2002. 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"effect of local cultural context on the success of community-based conservation interventions." conservation biology 24(4): 11191129. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01446.x wilson, edward o. 2016. half-earth: our planet's fight for life. new york: w.w. norton & co. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01460-w https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13126 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01446.x ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 115– 118, july 2018 report a report on the insee ninth biennial conference on sustainability, institutions, incentives: voices, policies and commitments nandan nawn  research on economics of the environment is carried out through mostly the orthodox or heterodox paradigm. the orthodox paradigm is rooted in the neoclassical framework, while the heterodox paradigm follows a more inclusive, transdisciplinary approach that includes political ecology, environmental history, and environmental sociology. this difference in quite evident in many locations of the global north, such as europe. it can be witnessed by means of simple and analytical indicators like the journals listed by professional societies: environmental policy and governance, by the european society for ecological economics (esee) and environmental and resource economics, by the european association of environmental and resource economics (eaere). the esee’s own journal environmental policy and governance characteristically includes papers on values, politics, and institutions even within its limited scope. the eaere’s own journal environmental and resource economics typically includes papers on optimal control, bargaining, experimental economics, marginal abatement costs, and dynamic efficiency. interestingly, environment and development economics is listed by both societies under ‘publications’. such compartmentalization into the orthodox and heterodox paradigms is virtually absent in the indian context in terms of structure or function. the indian society for ecological economics (insee) represents both paradigms—it has had an agricultural economist and a hydrologist as  head, department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, 10 vasant kunj institutional area, new delhi, india 110070; secretary, insee (2016–18); and organizing secretary, ninth biennial conference of insee; nnletter@gmail.com copyright © nawn 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.48 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.48 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] president. this inclusiveness is evident in the title of its journal, ecology, economy and society, and in the variety of the programmes it has organized. it was reflected in the theme of its ninth biennial conference, ‘sustainability, institutions, incentives: voices, policies and commitments’; and in the titles of parallel sessions—‘aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial ecosystems’ (sustainability); ‘governance of local common pool resources’ (institutions); ‘behavioural responses’ (incentives); ‘politics, resistance, and movements’ (voices); ‘urban housing and sanitation’ (sdgs and the global south); and ‘impacts of climate change’. at the conference, held over 7–10 november 2017, presented papers adopted a wide variety of methods and associated theoretical frameworks. a paper that explored the use of socio-economic and energy technology systems to limit climate change to an exogenously given level employed the computational general equilibrium (cge) model. another used a zeroinflated negative binomial model to evaluate the impact of floods on human development and income. several used varieties of other econometric models: one on assessing sanitation development for meeting the relevant sdg employed simple correlation; another on urban sanitation in indian slums used regression; one on irrigation used the institutional analysis and development (iad) framework; and another on the establishment of an industrial project adopted political economy. the organizers chose to foreground the fact that the goal of sustainability is intricately linked with human behaviour and anthropogenic pressures, which are often transmitted through institutions. this called for bringing together the natural sciences, social sciences, and governance in an interdisciplinary engagement. in choosing the theme, the organizers acknowledged the phenomenal rise in the importance of governance and, hence, institutions in the matter of public policy; this rise in importance traverses virtually all areas and, in particular, those at the interface of environment and development. the organizers felt that due attention is not paid to the important task of creating a space for discussing how individuals and groups voice their choices through formal and informal mechanisms and how they participate in decision-making. this prompted the choice of the kerala institute of local administration (kila) at thrissur as the venue, a state institution for local governance, located not only in a nonmetro city but also in a state that has witnessed movements and policy negotiations in the distant past (silent valley) and the recent past (western ghats) and is witnessing movements and negotiations now (athirappilly). this rich history of movements and negotiations was reflected in the programme. [117] nandan nawn local researchers made presentations in parallel sessions titled ‘economicecological systems in kerala’. in one panel, titled ‘environment, climate change, biodiversity and local governance’, and chaired by the director, directorate of environment and climate change, government of kerala, speakers ranged from the secretary of kerala state biodiversity board to the president of the meenangadi gram panchayat to representatives of the kerala sasthra sahithya parishad to the secretary of the forum of environment journalists in india. a second panel discussion was titled ‘setting the conservation and development agenda for the western ghats, india’ and moderated by a former head of the department of wildlife of the kerala forest research institute. it involved three officials of the government of tamil nadu: the additional chief secretary, the principal chief conservator of forests, and the chairman of the state environment impact assessment authority. in another panel, sponsored by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), authors of five chapters of the fifth assessment report of the ipcc presented their findings, and carried further the discussion on negotiating with the science–policy interface. in the discussion titled ‘is there a global environmental justice movement?’, panellists from spain and india explored how the involvement of different actors—indigenous communities, women leaders, and international non-governmental organizations—affects environmental justice movements. in the panel ‘marine fisheries resources and technology: some sustainability and equity issues’, ecologists and ecological economists discussed developments in methods of assessing fisheries resources and the influence of the notion of ‘ecosystem services’ in fisheries management. another panel discussed the role of ecosystem services in improving farm income while ensuring the health of the ecosystem. interdisciplinarity was at the core of two panels. in one, panellists were in conversation with each other via a human ecology framework, eschewing abstraction of nature from society (and vice versa) while recognizing that environmental issues are simultaneously technical, social, and political in nature. the other explored the experiences, opportunities, and challenges of doing citizen science in india in environmental and ecological studies. in the inaugural address, v k ramachandran (vice chairman, kerala planning board) showcased the environmental achievements in the state. in her plenary address, susmita dasgupta dealt with the implications of climate change ‘threats’ felt by those in the coastal zones, with particular reference to bangladesh. in the second plenary, eswaran somanathan discussed the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] roles developing country institutions—community, subnational, national, and global—can and do play in handling environmental matters. m n murty presented arguments on the use of declining discount rates for evaluating investment projects that have long gestation periods, such as for climate change mitigation. pavan sukhdev, in his remarks in the inaugural session, argued in favour of making changes in the ways in which accounting of human well-being is carried out. an inclusive wealth index is one such possibility, on which anantha duraiappah spoke. one of the insee’s mandates is the capacity-building of young researchers; it is carried out by organizing programmes in its conferences and also otherwise. there were four such programmes. a pre-conference workshop titled ‘researching in ecological economics’ offered training in designing questionnaires; sampling primary data from field surveys; operational challenges in implementation; and planning and execution of ecological economics research in tropical forests. a session was conducted on ‘strengthening capacity in coastal and marine biodiversity management’ in association with giz. a writer's workshop was conducted in association with springer. a learning game—cantor's world—organised in association with unesco-mahatma gandhi institute of education for peace and sustainable development was launched at this conference. this session aimed to show teachers of environmental economics how to use this game to explain the potential of the inclusive wealth index in negotiating with policy trade-offs at both a point of time, say, between health, education, and gdp growth, as well as across time. in association with the ipcc and the directorate of environment and climate change of the government of kerala, and to engage with the city of thrissur, seven curtain raiser events were organized in colleges (vimala college, dr john matthai centre, sacred heart college, and st thomas college) and university departments (college of forestry, kerala agricultural university; academy of excellence in climate change, kerala agricultural university). in each experienced insee members engaged with the students. performances by kerala kathakali and bamboo symphony orchestra, both involving local artists, enchanted the audience. a book exhibition-cum-sale by sage publications added more flavour, as did a photo exhibition titled ‘the city and the farms – agriculture in peri-urban bengaluru’ in association with the school of development, azim premji university. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 1–3, july 2021 editorial thinking ahead towards converging perspectives kanchan chopra 1 as this issue of the journal is published, at this crucial juncture in history, when the global pandemic seems to be relentless, the good news is that more holistic thinking and action on environmental issues is emerging all around. the agenda of humanity’s need to deal with climate change immediately has come to the fore. also, and importantly, the international panel for climate change (ipcc) and the international platform for biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes), the two inter-governmental agencies charged with the responsibility of designing action on climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, joined hands to publish a report (in june 2021) on the synergies and trade-offs between actions on climate change and biodiversity. even more significantly, perhaps, the undp report (2020), for the first time, compiled a country-wise human development index adjusted for planetary impact called the planetary human development index (phdi). this brings the planetary impact of development into focus in a big way. in india, the biodiversity collaborative, a major initiative supported by the government, brought together a network of institutions and individuals to promote biodiversity research and conservation to enhance human well-being. a national coalition for natural farming is due to celebrate the first year of its existence. 1 co-ordinating editor (2020-21), former director, and professor, institute of economic growth, university of delhi, new delhi – 110007; choprakanchan14@gmail.com. copyright © chopra 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.524 mailto:choprakanchan14@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.524 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] in a small though significant manner, the ground covered by the contributions to this issue resonate with these developments, both by way of reflections on some and provision of conceptual and policy underpinnings for others. a seminal event in early 2021 was the publication of a global review led by professor partha dasgupta titled the economics of biodiversity. this review reiterates that we are part of nature; human beings as well as the flora and fauna are embedded in it. through a well-documented and succinctly explained set of arguments, this report points out the practical manner in which we can guide human activity to remain limited to the “safe operating space” within the bounds of nature. this issue carries two commentaries on the dasgupta review—one offers an ecologist’s perspective and the other an economist’s. while taking due note of the depth and reach of the recommendations, both feel that the review could have paid more attention to pathways for institutional change and the role of bio-centric approaches, political ecology, and other new approaches to environmental problems. the two thematic essays in this issue exemplify different perspectives towards environmental policy. one of them, in the tradition of environmental economics, reviews the available information and identifies gaps that thwart the realization of ambient standards of environmental quality. using air pollution in delhi as an example, it provides a discussion on how to use available economic estimates for designing and using economic instruments such as pollution taxes and pollution permits in addition to using command-and-control approaches. the second thematic essay provides an overview of the literature on sociometabolic research. changes in bio-physical stocks and flows over time measure the impact of human activity on the environment. as development in the conventional sense (of production of more goods and services) takes place, the social metabolism of the economy as measured by these changes is altered. for example, for the first time in human history, more than 100 billion tonnes of materials enter the global economy every year, of which only about 8% is recycled, creating an enormous “circularity gap”. this perspective encourages us to use physical flows to study the impact on the environment. one of the research papers provides a partial application of a material export–import analysis of the nicobar islands. the authors study physical export–import flows in the archipelago to reflect on the social, economic, and ecological impact of the tsunami of 2004 and the subsequent process of recovery. this literature pinpoints what we are missing when we measure [3] kanchan chopra change only through monetary values. however, the question that remains unanswered is this: how does it provide direction to policy-makers? and how will it translate into the kind of change we need in human behaviour? as a counterfoil to the above, two research papers study individual and household behaviour in response to new technologies or new ways of packaging them. one looks at the solar energy option and asks: if a solar microgrid is introduced in a region as an alternative servicing system, how will it impact the demand for solar appliances? the total impact, sometimes referred to as “the frontier rebound effect,” is investigated in the context of a rural community in rajasthan. on a similar note, another paper studies farmers’ decisions with regard to the adoption of on-farm conservation measures and finds that the existence or otherwise of community-level measures has a significant effect on individual decisions. so do the decisions taken by others in the village. in terms of policy design, both these papers provide pointers towards a combination of strategies. in one case, a lower price for solar power needs to be coupled with a different packaging of technology. in the second, the nature of individual behaviour as nested in collective behaviour is highlighted. these in-depth, empirical explorations in disparate settings offer us clues on how to enable change. in summary, this issue of the journal reflects on and presents diverse approaches to the environmental, indeed existential, dilemmas that humanity now encounters. in the final analysis, each of these approaches throws light, through alternative lenses, on the same reality. how can we use them to converge on pathways for a nature-friendly future? that is the question that needs to be addressed now. and finally, the editorial board of ees and the executive committee of insee would like to express their grateful thanks to the foundation for ecological security for a generous grant that has supported the publication of the two issues of this volume of the journal. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 45–58, january 2021 thematic essay lonergan’s contribution to ecological economics terrance quinn  abstract: this paper provides a brief introduction to bernard lonergan’s economic model, whose main features will contribute to a “transdisciplinary ecological economics”. lonergan’s model was developed in the 1940s; however, some significant source documents only became available in the 1980s. it is worth looking at because it sheds light on current issues and may contribute to a needed “paradigm shift”. as in the searchings of contemporary ecological economics, the model calls for a new ethos. this paper touches on a few points for comparison between lonergan’s model and mainstream and ecological economics. keywords: bernard lonergan; ecological economics; capital goods; consumer goods; production chains; redistribution; omni-disciplinary. 1. introduction bernard lonergan (1904–1984) is mostly known for his work in philosophy, foundations of science, and theology. from early on, however, a primary interest of his was economics (shute 2010b, xxiii), to which he returned throughout his lifetime.1 part of his original motivation was to help toward understanding and resolving the crisis now known as the great depression (c. 1929–1939). as it happens, lonergan’s results in economics have largely been overlooked in mainstream, heterodox, and ecological  professor emeritus, mathematical sciences, middle tennessee state university, 1301 e. main street, murfreesboro tn 37132 usa; terrance.quinn@mtsu.edu. copyright © quinn 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.297 1 volume 21 of the 23 volumes of the collected works of bernard lonergan (university of toronto press) contains most of lonergan’s finished work on economics (lonergan 1998). regarding volume 15, some care is needed as it “is not… an archival record” (lonergan 1999, xii). see also shute (2010b). https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.297 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] economics. 2 but lonergan’s economic model could contribute to what some now consider a needed “paradigm shift” (spash 2019) in economics, ecology, and society. regarding chronology, “we do not know when lonergan made his key discoveries. [h]e first set them down in 1942, in ‘for a new political economy.’ … [in which] he lays out the fundamental set of dynamically related variables” (shute 2010b, xxvii). decades before ecological economics became a recognized area (røpke 2004), lonergan formulated a model that some would now consider “transdisciplinary” (costanza 2019). lonergan’s model incorporates “world process, the physical, the chemical, vegetal, and human potentialities” (lonergan 1998, 11). it regards “economic process” as part of human living and therefore as being in support of “human welfare”, where human welfare is conceptualized as pertaining to multicultural societies, cultures, and (tacitly) ecologies (lonergan 1998, 20). however, he also said that “not all is economic” (lonergan 1998, 11), which will be touched on in section 4. regarding the structural part of his model, he writes that: “[t]he object of our investigation will be the general rhythm [of economic process] inasmuch as it is foundation and material fabric; or inversely, we are to study the pulsating flow of human activity, except insofar as it is purely cultural” (lonergan 1998, 12). later, he writes: from economic theorists we have to demand, along with as many other types of analysis as they please, a new and specific type that reveals how moral precepts have both a basis in economic process and so an effective application to it. from moral theorists we have to demand, along with their other various forms of wisdom and prudence, specifically economic precepts that arise out of economic process itself and promote its proper functioning. (lonergan 2017, 103) lonergan’s model is to be based on facts and data obtained from observing how small and large businesses actually operate; the situations in villages, cities, and nations; actual banking; domestic and international production and supply chains; local and international finance; and instances of innovation and their real effects. a fundamental criterion to be met is that its conclusions be “a source of practical applications” (lonergan 1998, 10). 2 some of lonergan’s early work in economics first became available in the 1980s. for details on the complex provenance of manuscripts, see shute (2010a, 3–14, 213–216), shute (2010b, xiii-xxix), lonergan (1998, xv–xvi), crowe (1998), and lonergan (1999, xi–xii). there is a modest amount of literature on lonergan’s economics, which includes the following (peer-reviewed) publications: shute (2010a), shute (2010b) (historical, archival); burley (1989), burley and csapo (1992) (preliminary leads on structure); liddy et al. (2010) (searchings); anderson (2016), anderson (2001), anderson (2002), anderson (2012), brown et al. (2018), quinn (2018), duffy (2018) (searchings and actual contexts). [47] terrance quinn a basic feature of the model is that it is in some sense an inverse of newton’s discovery. newton discovered that the apparently different motions of planets and the moon were one type of phenomenon. lonergan’s insight was to work out the implications of what in some respects may at first seem obvious—that capital and consumer production are for distinct ends. that is, there are two types of production. in lonergan’s model, then, the economy is made up of two “sub-economies” (one for capital production and one for consumer production) that are linked and mutually dependent. the details, however, are not obvious. what are the linkages and correlations? a model is obtained that, among other things, does not define economic growth in terms of volume (or gdp). this is crucial because that notion of growth is now known to be problematic—ecologically, economically, culturally, and societally. among other problems, the gdp “merely measures the size of a nation’s economy and doesn’t reflect a nation’s welfare. … [or] the distribution of income across society” (kapoor and debroy 2019).3 some structural features of lonergan’s model follow from the observation that production occurs along “levels” (lonergan 1998, 244).4 there is, then, some overlap with schumpeter, whose work was well-regarded by lonergan. for instance, schumpeter observed that “[i]t is good to classify goods in ‘orders,’ according to their distance from the final act of consumption” (schumpeter 2012, 16). from archival material, it would seem that lonergan read schumpeter’s work “from the perspective of his own [already] elaborated view” (lonergan 1998, xxv, n. 10). as is well known, similar distinctions were made by kalecki (1990, 23): “we shall subdivide the economy into two sectors providing investment goods and consumer goods, respectively. in each sector, we include the production of materials and fuel will be allocated between the sectors according to the uses that are made of them in production”. kalecki’s work was one of the catalysts for lonergan’s later essay in circulation analysis (lonergan 1999, xli). these comments provide some preliminary historical context. note that neither schumpeter nor kalecki developed a system of defining correlations and dynamics. 3 for points of entry into the emerging literature, see also stiglitz (2020), coscieme et al. (2019), goldsmith (2019), and the economist (2019). 4 in this context, “use” is in the sense of “capital goods”, that is, as with tools used (often many times) in the production of other goods rather than intermediate goods in production (lonergan 1998, 249, 114–116, 246–250) and (lonergan 1999, 41–43)). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] 2. some key aspects of lonergan’s economic model the production of consumer goods begins with natural resources. along production chains, intermediate goods are moved along production chains toward becoming finished goods, and in that way contribute to consumer supply )c(s , which, in instances meets consumer demand )c(d . a production chain may be concentrated in a single business. for instance, a dairy farmer may do all the work of producing and providing milk directly to consumers. however, production chains are mostly collaborative; they can be local, regional, national, and international and can include various stages of wholesale distribution before the final sale, which removes finished goods from production. let all payments )c(d (expenditures) in all consumer production chains be denoted by )c(s)c(d )c(d → . there are also capital goods. in the same way, then, let )p(s denote capital supply that meets capital demand )p(d , and )p(d stand for all payments (expenditures) along all production chains for capital goods. in this case, )p(d)p(s )p(d  . let )c(m and )p(m represent payments for maintenance and replacement (and more, e.g., innovation) of capital goods used in the production of consumer goods and capital goods, respectively. if an individual contributes to the production of consumer goods, personal income is denoted by )c(i , and for work that contributes to production of capital goods, it is )p(i .5 there is also a zone of economic activity that does not directly contribute to production, which lonergan called redistributive. this includes, for instance, changing the ownership of finished goods;6 second-hand trade; changing the purpose of production; and banks helping production meet its diverse financial needs. note that the purpose of production is not a property of materials. the purpose is found in the usage of finished goods 7 and, 5 for example, if a painter earns wages for painting a home, their income is )c(i , while for painting a commercial property, their income is )p(i . see also note 7. 6 when a cow is purchased (or indeed, stocks or a multi-national corporation), banks and other lenders provide credit, with repayment plans. the world’s stock markets are secondhand trade within the redistributive zone and are not part of the production process. 7 if needed, milk originally intended to be food can be directed to non-food products (such as insecticides [audic, chaufer, & daufin 2003]) and vice versa. whether or not production is consumer or capital is always eventually determinate, but only (often long) after production and final sale. iron ore may go on to become parts of a home (consumer good), an oven in a bakery (capital good used for the production of consumer goods) or a truck [49] terrance quinn therefore, the classification of production as capital or consumer cuts across sectors. assembling these elements leads to the following diagram: figure 1: monetary relations: capital and consumer supply and demand and redistributive relations note: in this article, lonergan’s wording “monetary function” has been substituted with “monetary relation”. this is to avoid confusion with other common meanings of the word function (such as “work” or “operate”) payments )p(i and )c(m are called “cross-over payments”. the arrows do not mean that money necessarily changes hands. the emphasis is, rather, on intended purpose. for example, a farmer allocates an amount of money for the purchase of milk for consumption by their family. that money is poised to contribute to )c(d . if, however, a tractor needs maintenance then, prior to being spent, a portion of that money could be redirected to help cover the tractor’s maintenance costs. the purpose of that money is forthwith directed to )p(d . in some cases, over several production periods, often there is an approximate equality, )c(m)p(m)p(d + . an example can illustrate the point. if a tractor is used to transport hay for dairy cows, that usage contributes to consumer production. if, on a different occasion, that used in a mine (capital good used for both capital and consumer production, depending on production chains, final sales, and usage). this reveals the need for statistical method. i(p) )) i(c) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] same tractor is used to carry supplies needed to repair a barn, it is used in capital production. but there is only one tractor. hence, maintenance costs can be partitioned as )c(m)p(m + . in general, the proportions )c(m:)p(m are determined by usage. some capital goods are used for both capital and consumer production, some exclusively for capital production, while others exclusively for consumer production. for the economy as a whole, one needs to look at the actual combinations of maintenance, replacements, and purchases of new capital goods. it should be noted, however, that according to the model, approximate equality is not a mathematical identity. this provides a natural segue to discuss what lonergan called phases. in early human hunter-gatherer groups, there were regular patterns of production and consumption. there was also innovation. imagine a group living by water. they have spears, baskets for gathering, and other tools by which they secure necessities for survival and to support their way of life. at some point, for the first time, someone in the group uses a basket to capture several fish. the advantage is evident. before long, new methods and tools are developed to make “fishing baskets”; then, there is a new abundance of food, techniques for preserving fish are learned, the population grows, other adjustments are made in living routines, there emerge new divisions of labour, and, in some cases, additional leisure time allows for developments in crafts and art. this story is fictional but based on historical sources. indeed, similar transitions have occurred throughout history. on a larger scale, there was, for instance, the agricultural revolution in medieval europe: the invention, production, and use of the “heavy plow stimulated food production and, as a consequence, population growth, specialization of function, urbanization, and the growth of leisure” (andersen, jensen, & skovsgaard 2016, 1). the use of the heavy plough “led to prosperity and literally created a breeding ground for economic growth and cities—especially in northern europe” (lund 2013, 1). 8 lonergan points to the first and second industrial revolutions to further illustrate his point. recent examples include what happened following the invention of the automobile, airplane, rocket engine, and digital technology. in each case, there was innovation followed by lags and a buildup of capital production; then there were further lags and finally accelerations in the consequent production of consumer goods and services that eventually became part of the “standard of living”. in ecological economics, there are numerous definitions of standard of living. in the present context, lonergan’s 8 this is not to imply that there was not also poverty, disease, social difficulties, and great hardships. [51] terrance quinn model uses the term to refer to actual rates of production and final sale of consumer goods, for better or for worse (lonergan 1998, 23). (it is to be noted that rates of production and rates of final sale are distinct quantities.) by looking to real events, lonergan’s model identifies the possibility of four main phases (lonergan 1998, 23). the phases are: (1) static (when aggregate capital and consumer production rates are each more or less constant); (2) capital production expansion; (3) ordinary consumer production expansion; and (4) cultural, when capital and consumer production are mainly for supporting expansion of the “material fabric of culture” (lonergan 1998, 22). if it occurs, the static phase, as defined by lonergan, is a matter of fact, neither a conceptual term nor a mathematical limit. it is found, for instance, in a group of hunter-gatherers for whom the making of tools, the use of tools in making other tools (“capital production”), the use of tools for making clothing and shelter and obtaining and preparing food (“consumer production”) and so on do not significantly change from one year to the next. in modern times, the dynamics of the static phase are seen in any village, city, or nation, wherein neither production nor population are significantly changing over time. but for a modern economy, finance is also a factor. lonergan’s model implies that over time, cross-over payments (figure 1) need to be more or less equal (lonergan 1998, 46-48; 1999, 50, 69). otherwise, monies needed to sustain consumer production are drained in support of capital production (or vice versa) (lonergan 1999, 186) unless monies are added to the economy (lonergan 1998, 58–62). however, the equality “may be static or dynamic. when it is static, the crossovers are constant; …, and so there results the [static phase]. … [w]hen they are increasing or decreasing equally … there may be an expansion or contraction” (lonergan 1999, 77). neither tractor factories nor tractors are made for their own sake. according to lonergan’s model, capital production is for consumer production, and consumer production provides the material basis for a standard of living. cultural development can occur at any time. in the cultural phase, both types of production, at least for a period of time, reach a “continuity” (lonergan 1998, 47–50) which, de facto, supports whatever “development of cultural pursuits” (lonergan 1998, 27) happen to emerge. it is not automatic. the opportunity can be wasted “just as anything else can be wasted” (lonergan 1998, 22). the dynamics of the cultural phase are implicit when, for example, resources are directed to the widespread construction of places of worship, schools, universities, and art galleries. it should be noted, however, that in this phase, what is produced need not be so benevolent: “it finds [a] modern exemplar, from the economic viewpoint [figure 1], in the armament race and the economics of conducting war” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] (lonergan 1998, 25). with all of this in mind, we can get some sense of why, regarding modern general equilibrium theories, lonergan observed that: “the conception is exact, but it is not complete … it does not take into account the phases of the productive rhythms” [that occur] (lonergan 1998, 52).9 in freeman and louca’s (2002) study, the data provided is suggestive of mutual dependencies among different kinds of production. lonergan anticipated such results, but with precision. he observed that the four phases are merely “pure cases … first approximations” (lonergan 1998, 25; much as a sine wave is a “pure case” in fluid dynamics [lonergan 1998, 22; 1998, 25–26]) and that different phases can be “simultaneous” (lonergan 1998, 25). these are important aspects of the model. they reveal lonergan’s concrete heuristics, as well as the need for future developments. 10 thus, an agricultural region could be experiencing the effects of a surge in a new tractor technology while another region in the same domestic economy could be experiencing the effects of increased consumer production (consequent, say, to an emerging modernization of the dairy industry). another example—the development and propagation of cellphone technology—has involved (and continues to involve) sequences of surges at a global scale in both capital and consumer production. in lonergan’s model, understanding, supporting, and guiding phase dynamics is a means to an end. the goal of economic activity is not mere production but to have ranges of instances of two types of production that are sufficiently in sync to support local standards of living that, in turn, drive cultural and societal development. thus, lonergan draws attention to the benefit of leisure. the economy [...] must not direct its main effort to the ordinary final product of the standard of living but to the overhead final product of cultural implements. it must not glory … in adding industry to industry and feeding the soul of man with an abundant demand for labor. it must glory in … the deepening that adds aggregate leisure, to liberate many entirely and all increasingly to the field of cultural activities. (lonergan 1998, 20) whether by increasing, decreasing, adjusting, or phasing out particular production chains or by introducing innovations, changes will contribute to 9 there is some resemblance here to “punctuated equilibrium”, but while punctuated equilibrium is a conceptual model, phase dynamics are concrete and verifiable. 10 this is touching on future advanced work that will advert to local and global ebbs and flows (lonergan 1998, 27) and other “micro-, mesoand macro-oscillations” in capital and consumer production. thus, one may think of “economic series” as analogous to fourier series, with phase dynamics determined by local and global circumstances. [53] terrance quinn economic progress if they (a) contribute to human welfare—societal and cultural (lonergan 1998, 20) and (b) are (tacitly) ecologically sustainable. therefore, there is the need for and possibility of providing economic counsel locally, regionally, and globally. the effectiveness of such efforts will depend partly on understanding the fundamental dynamical relations (figure 1). also needed will be “widespread collaboration” (lonergan 1998, 26) among locally and globally informed economists, bankers, financiers, and community members. in particular, the “practical economist [will be] as familiar a professional figure as the doctor, the lawyer, or the engineer” (lonergan 1998, 37).11 3. ecological economics: two excerpts looking to the works of spash (2012, 2019) and costanza et al. (2016) gives some sense of the basic issues. but this is merely to give a preliminary indication of work that needs to be done. a detailed comparison of lonergan’s model with views in ecological economics would be a major collaborative undertaking. spash and smith (2019, 1) see “economies as emergent … from and dependent upon … society and ecology”. they observe that “there are different types of economy … something typically ignored by economists” (2019, 8). they further point out that “once both the possibility of and need for alternatives are accepted then questions arise as to the varieties of social structure, means of social provisioning and waste disposal, and relationships with nature and biophysical reality” (2019, 9). lonergan’s (1999, 4) model bears some resemblance in that it regards any economy as “a structure resting on the ecologies of nature and underpinning social and cultural structures”. the model also anticipates diversity, for developments are “according to the current conceptions and needs of the cultural field” (lonergan 1998, 25); “communities devise their own schemes of recurrence” (lonergan 1999, 4); and whatever the cultural and societal context, each economy “has its velocities and their changes of velocity [of production and consumption]” (lonergan 1999, 4). spash and smith (2019) speak descriptively of “types of economy” and focus on “social structure” and “biophysical reality”. in contrast, lonergan’s model partly focuses on answering the question, “how does an economy work, whatever the social structure and biophysical reality?” 11 in precise terms, this would concretize a metaphor attributed to keynes (1931): “if economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid” (mankiw 2006, 21). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] for another point of comparison, we can look to costanza et al. (2016). they aspire to obtain “a comprehensive, non-linear, systems dynamics model that can track both flows and stocks of built, human, social, and natural capital and make projections into the future under different policy scenarios” (2016, 351). they seek a “‘narrative of change’ … within existing socioeconomic and geopolitical circumstances” (costanza et al. 2016, 350) that is based on “current knowledge of how ecology, economics, psychology and sociology collectively contribute to establishing and measuring sustainable wellbeing” (2016, 352; emphasis added). there is an apt analogy: the structural component of lonergan’s model is to actual economics what the periodic table is to actual chemistry. it does not imply “systems dynamics” which, by definition, are remote to concrete circumstances. an essential component of lonergan’s model is an understanding of production processes and finance, whatever the community, culture, society, and policy scenarios. also to be noted is that, as sections 2 and 4 (below) reveal, the full model calls for new narratives of change and new knowledge, wherein many aspects of economic progress will not be measurable. lonergan’s hope for a locally, globally, and concretely informed economics is not for a structure that would be imposed. rather, it is for “a democratic economics that can issue practical imperatives” (lonergan 1998, 5) that can be communicated widely so that almost everyone can understand. 4. conclusion contemporary economic models distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics and define them differently. lonergan’s model includes the fact that in both contexts, choices are made by agents. economic events are defined by terms and relations, as expressed in figure 1. the model also looks to aggregates, for which statistical methods (lonergan 1998, 112, 158–9) will be needed to investigate the actual patterns of local and global production and “concomitant” (lonergan 1998, 9, 30, 144) monetary flows (lonergan 1999, 4–5). (the notion of concomitant is a key aspect of the model.) the numerous technical features of lonergan’s economic model have not been discussed. these technical features will prove critical in contemporary contexts and include adjustments in accounting, normatively distinct types of profit, the roles of the redistributive zone, identification of the world’s stock markets, 12 the structure of international trade, comparison with 12 see note 6. [55] terrance quinn orthodox economics, as well as large-scale models of global natural resources, and the extent to which lonergan’s model allows for a resolution of the problem of booms and slumps (an original motivation for lonergan). but perhaps enough has been said to generate interest in the challenging and collaborative task of interpreting lonergan’s densely written technically sophisticated texts on economics. note, however, that because of the concrete referents, lonergan’s model cannot be evaluated by merely comparing with other models. we will need to determine to what extent it bears out (or not) in actual businesses, production, finance, and innovation, locally and globally. lonergan’s full model (not merely the structural results) and contemporary searchings in ecological economics further reveal that in some respects, the problem is, indeed, “trans-disciplinary” (costanza 2019). although, in light of efforts to develop holistic views (spash 2012b; spash 2012a; gerber & steppacher 2014), and an evident practical bent for global welfare (costanza 2019), ecological economics is to somehow be “omni-disciplinary”. there are, therefore, fundamental methodological problems that will need to be addressed. as observed by hagens, “[w]e are desperately in need of a set of guideposts and principles that include not only ecology but also biology, psychology, physics and emergent behaviors” (hagens 2020, 14). what will ecological economics look like, in a concrete sense, as it matures toward becoming a globally effective “meta-paradigm” (costanza 2020)? these issues go beyond the scope of this brief review.13 references allerton, m. 2016. “functional collaboration in ecology.” in seeding global collaboration, edited by p. brown and j. duffy, 209–219. vancouver: axial publishing. andersen, t. b., jensen, p. s., and skovsgaard, c. v. 2016. “the heavy plow and the agricultural revolution in medieval europe.” journal of development economics, 118: 133–149. 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society–the insee journal 5 (1): 235-238 january 2022 book review revisiting regulations: air pollution and colonial urbanism ayushi chauhan* awadhendra sharan. 2020. dust and smoke: air pollution and colonial urbanism, india, c.1860–c.1940, delhi. orient blackswan. urban environmental histories of india predominantly focus on water and waste management. awadhendra sharan’s dust and smoke clearly deflects from these thematic concerns and explores the history and visualization of smoke as a nuisance in the sprawling colonial cities of calcutta and bombay. it is not, however, a simple tale of air pollution and its evolution into a health hazard. rather, the monograph discusses the colonial concerns regarding air quality that compelled them to tackle the challenges of economic waste in addition to developing a vision for * ph.d. candidate in the department of history at boston university. ayushi18@alumni.iitg.ac.in copyright © chauhan 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.509 mailto:ayushi18@alumni.iitg.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.509 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [236] hygienic cities, documenting health concerns, seeking technological interventions, and debating the social nature of air itself. dust and smoke comprises six main chapters that are richly referenced with archival findings, government reports, commercial advertisements, and a comprehensive list of newspapers. the book outlines the colonial authorities’ three-staged response to the problem of smoke: first, discussions around municipal interventions and a steady turn to involving english expertise; second, setting up smoke nuisance commissions, which worked on the twin principles of restricting smoke within time limits as well as prosecuting violators; and finally, a shift of direction to energy conservation, efficient utilization of resources, and direct colonial interventions to abate smoke. with the emergence of modern sanitary science in the nineteenth century, hygiene was regarded as both a “natural” and a “moral” issue. although smoke eventually became integral to european sanitary discourse, it was initially perceived as being unnatural and undesirable in british india. the modern understanding of smoke and sanitation paved the way for colonial intervention and regulation in indian cities. in the first phase of interventions on smoke abatement, the act of 1862 was introduced in bombay with the chief objective of attempting to reduce furnace smoke emanating from factories. soon after, in 1864, the government of bengal passed a similar legislation that directed factories “to consume or burn the smoke” (p. 58). interestingly, while the initial responsibility for abating smoke in calcutta was assigned to the boiler commission, bombay, it was later tasked to the municipal commissioner, an administrator. sharan argues that the initial smoke laws in british india were drawn from english standards rather than a local comprehension and understanding of smoke. moreover, smoke inspections in the 1860s and 1870s in calcutta and bombay focussed more on prosecution and penalties without providing the administrative machinery to actually reduce smoke levels within the city. british authorities tended to blame excessive smoke on the absence of suitable technology, country coal, and bad firing of smoke (p. 68). by the late nineteenth century, however, mill owners and british authorities began to challenge existing smoke laws, claiming that manufacturers did not provide sufficient evidence for administrators to properly monitor and prosecute smoke polluters. consequently, there was a percieved need to develop the required expertise to efficiently tackle smoke emissions. the turn of the century marked the beginning of a new phase, with advanced laws being formulated for a twin strategy involving persuasion [237] ayushi chauhan and prosecution, which was based on the expertise of the european mill managers. in calcutta, the law of 1862 was substituted with the appointment of a smoke nuisance commission to provide better monitoring of smoke, a clear limitation on the maximum amount of smoke that could be emitted per hour, and technical and skilled expertise. in bombay, however, rather than amending the law of 1864, the municipality’s role in enforcing the law was replaced by the smoke nuisance commission in 1912. new regulations were framed based on observations from calcutta; more importance and power were given to english experts, who dictated new regulations on the permitted degree and density of smoke as well as the time during which it could be emitted. even though warnings and prosecutions were relatively fewer in bombay, the overall reporting pattern remained similar to calcutta. commissions were quick to claim success in reducing industrial smoke, which drew global attention towards their achievements. however, sharan asserts that these claims were far from reliable, as the complaints surrounding smoke pollution continued to pour in from both cities. by the end of the second phase, the bengal and bombay commissions accepted that the cities being entirely smoke-free was a naïve idea, especially considering the contribution of industrial smoke. failing to provide a permanent solution to the smoke problem, the authorities sought to lay blame on railway locomotives and shipping, which, in any case, had been granted exception in the original act. the third phase steered away from focusing only on the volumes of smoke emitted, and concentrated instead on resource optimization, direct interventions based on expert advice targeting industries, and innovations in combustion engineering. commissions were repurposed towards ensuring resource conservation and the efficient use of “national resources”—fuel and coal. during wwi, between 1914 and 1918, there followed a further turn towards exploring new energy sources—electricity and hydro electrification. developing electric power was increasingly put forth as a permanent solution to the smoke nuisance, with electric grids coming up not only in calcutta and bombay, but also in karachi and ahmedabad. in the post-war years, the british mandate became more advisory than repressive, and commissions offered advice to factories with regard to furnace and chimney design. however, the amendment of 1916 permitted commissions to enter industrial premises without prior notice, after which the bombay authorities began to direct attention towards smaller industrial units and petty industries. unaware of the act, many small traders were subjected to fines and unexpected inspections. sharan contends that by the end of this final phase, soon after declaring calcutta and bombay as smokeecology, economy and society–the insee journal [238] free cities, the commissions resorted to large-scale prosecution of the perceived offenders, thus returning matters to the way they were at the turn of the nineteenth century (p. 193). through a careful study of these three phases, sharan insightfully expands our understanding of how the urban air imagery was shaped by industrial smoke laws in british india. beyond industrial contribution, the question of smoke from homes was generally avoided throughout the nineteenth century. to the colonial administration, the high mortality rates in cities in non-epidemic periods was predominantly caused by poor sewerage systems, the practice of purdah amongst women, poverty, and inadequate housing, rather than the quality of air as a disease factor (p. 228). in the immediate post-war years, however, domestic smoke received more attention in both calcutta and bombay and was increasingly linked to urban health. sharan observed that adoption of alternative energy sources such as gas and electricity by the growing middle classes were now be touted as solutions and were soon heeded to be the means to achieving city health, safety, and beauty. the importance given to the rising middle class, however, worked to breed administrative neglect towards the domestic smoke originating from poor working-class homes, which continued to inversely impact the skies of bombay and calcutta. dust and smoke: air pollution and colonial urbanism makes a compelling case of why we should examine the journey of smoke in india. at a time where air pollution is finally being given more importance, sharan's work urges us to reconsider the social nature of air in india and suggests that we step beyond colonial modernist and technocratic imaginary. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 119– 147, july 2021 research paper economic transformation of the nicobar islands post-tsunami: a material import–export analysis shaina sehgal1 and suresh babu2 abstract: natural disasters can have lasting impacts on regional economies. island economies, in particular, have protracted recoveries from disasters due to their location, size, and economic dependence on trading partners. as imports and exports are especially explicit and discernible in ports, islands facilitate investigations on the long-term effects of disaster relief, reconstruction, and redevelopment on trade. in this paper, we examine the transformational impact of the 2004 indian ocean earthquake and tsunami. we examine changes to physical imports and exports in the archipelago to reflect on the social, economic, and ecological impacts of the 2004 disaster and subsequent recovery. we analyse disaggregated physical import and export data for 2003–2017 from revenue ports in the nicobar islands in india along with data from field surveys and interviews conducted on the islands. we find that while the archipelago’s physical trade balance has been continuously growing since 2003, it increased at a higher rate after the disaster and thereafter stabilized to levels comparable to the pre-tsunami period. however, further analysis indicates that the nature and quantity of physical imports during this period, such as of fuel and construction materials, are unprecedented; and there are diverging trajectories of redevelopment within the archipelago. by highlighting the key features of the relief, reconstruction, and redevelopment efforts following the tsunami, we argue that the development policy and imports post-2004 have qualitatively transformed production practices and trade in nicobar and simultaneously reinforced historical trajectories of the development of certain ports and islands. 1 research scholar, school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmere gate, delhi – 110006; ssehgal.13@stu.aud.ac.in. 2 associate professor, school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmere gate, delhi – 110006; suresh@aud.ac.in. copyright © sehgal and babu 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.331 mailto:ssehgal.13@stu.aud.ac.in mailto:suresh@aud.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.331 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] keywords: physical trade; nicobar islands; economic transformation; natural disaster; tsunami. 1. introduction catastrophic events, particularly natural disasters, have altered the developmental trajectories of economies and transformed island nations and areas (pelling, özerdem, and barakat 2002). small islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, sea-level rise, and extreme disasters (mimura et al. 2007). climate change models indicate that the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of such disasters will continue to increase (ipcc 2007). natural disasters can cause simultaneous sectoral expansions and contractions in island economies. a study on sectoral redevelopment responses after cyclone incidences in 28 caribbean-basin countries between 1970 and 2006 found that the construction sector expanded (presumably due to reconstruction) while tourism, agriculture, and allied sectors suffered the most losses (hsiang 2010). furthermore, these significant sectoral impacts appeared to persist beyond the year of the initial event. empirical evidence indicates the negative short-run economic effects (direct and indirect) of natural disasters and the negative long-run effects of hydro-meteorological disasters (botzen, deschenes, and sanders 2019). small island developing states (sids) and offshore islands are especially vulnerable due to their small size, insularity, remoteness, and frequency of natural hazards that impact key sectors of their economy, such as agriculture, fishery, and tourism3 (pelling and uitto 2001). imports and exports are explicit and discernible in island settings because of the clearly demarcated ports of entry and exit. an analysis of trade on islands can provide insight into their economies. however, conventional analyses of trade pose significant methodological limitations to understanding embodied sociopolitical and ecological processes (schaffartzik et al. 2014). a significant development in trade analyses has been the move towards evaluating the physical dimensions of commodities, typically on a national scale (dittrich and bringezu 2010). analysing the movement of materials (as opposed to their monetary value) facilitates reconciling society and ecology with production and trade. this approach draws its theoretical basis from socio-ecological systems and social and industrial metabolism (martinez-alier and schlüpmann 1987; schandl and 3 the small island developing states (sids) are a distinct group of 52 small island countries that face unique social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities, while offshore islands refers to islands that are economically and politically subordinated to a mainland or main island. [121] shaina sehgal and suresh babu schaffartzik 2015). however, social (or societal) metabolic analyses have been critiqued for their methodological emphasis on material or energetic interactions between “nature” and “society” to the exclusion of analytical connections with social processes (fischer-kowalski and hüttler 1998; de molina and toledo 2014). novel approaches for finding ecological processes embodied in commodities, or in indirect flows of traded products, include using “cradle-to-product” coefficients for various commodities or input–output calculations for product groups (dittrich, bringezu, and schütz 2012, 33). contemporary advances in the field have also highlighted how the ecosystem is embodied in trade through analyses of virtual land use (würtenberger, koellner, and binder 2006), virtual water (ansink 2010), embodied carbon flows (sato 2014), energy flows, and ecological footprints (moran et al. 2009). these studies shed light on environmental variables embodied in traded commodities (especially natural resources) that are otherwise not visible in trade economics. the dominant theoretical models for explaining the indirect economic impacts of disasters and post-disaster recovery on the macroeconomy employ social accounting matrices, neoclassical growth theory, or endogenous productivity, and have been criticized for ignoring regional geography (botzen, deschenes, and sanders 2019). further, few studies use regional development models to measure economic impacts over multiple decades. we, therefore, follow a regional perspective to analyse the medium-term impact of the disaster and recovery process in an offshore island setting in the union territory of andaman and nicobar islands in india. the andaman and nicobar islands’ economy relies predominantly on tertiary (tourism and public-sector employment) and primary-sector activities (agriculture and fishery) (planning commission 2008). the share of the primary sector in the gross state domestic product (gsdp) has been decreasing steadily since 2014, while the secondary and tertiary sectors have been expanding (directorate of economics and statistics, n.d.-c.). however, the nicobar group’s economy relies mainly on the primary sector (dominated by coconut plantations) as economic possibilities in the nicobar islands are mediated by critical concerns pertaining to tribal welfare and environmental protection. the nicobar islands are a tribal reserve as per notifications under the andaman and nicobar (protection of aboriginal tribes) regulation, 1956 (anpatr), although some parts were denotified to permit the creation of revenue areas.4 in the tribal reserve 4 pigeon, megapode, isle of man, and parts of car nicobar, kamorta, and the great nicobar islands are excluded vide notification no. anpatr/3(1)/1, dated april 2, 1957, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] areas of the archipelago—basically all of the nicobar islands—there are additional levels of governance and politics that shape development and trade. anpatr has been pivotal in determining the role of local governance institutions (namely, the nicobarese tribal council and panchayats), which regulate developmental interventions by the state. in addition, environmental legislations that govern national parks and sanctuaries regulate the unbridled development of these islands. the nicobar islands are a hotspot for biodiversity and are, therefore, part of india’s protected area network. the nicobar islands have a turbulent history of colonization and postindependence settlements along with policies that effectively regulated and curtailed free trade. european trading companies, including the danish, austrian, and english east india companies, were largely unsuccessful at colonizing the nicobars between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (sehgal 2021). however, british colonization of the nicobars from 1869 onwards marked a distinct chapter with the creation of the nancowry penal settlement and implementation of trade regulations (vaidik 2010). car nicobar emerged as a key port due to interventions by the british colonial state in the pre-independence period, while campbell bay port and other revenue areas in great nicobar were created in the 1960s and 1970s for strategic reasons (singh 2003). the historical trade relations between nicobarese society, the state, and markets were unequal in terms of embodied labour (singh and ramanujam 2010). the island development policy acknowledges these historical legacies and contemporary concerns and conceives of a diversity of interventions (planning commission 2008). however, recent projects envisaged for the islands appear to have deviated from this understanding (sekhsaria 2021). the production and trade of horticultural and marine produce in the nicobar islands are deeply embedded in the cultural and ecological landscape of the islands. a key example is the coconut (cocos nucifera), which is a major crop of the nicobar islands. in addition to being an export commodity, the drupe, trunk, and leaves of the coconut palm have historically been used for food, fuel, medicine, shelter, trade, and rituals in nicobarese communities, as demonstrated through analyses of their diet, vocabulary, folklore, rituals, traditional medicine, and lifestyles (dagar and dagar 1986; roy and roy 1969; man 1886). nicobarese dietary staples historically include coconut, pandanus (pandanus leram), yams, fish, pig, and notification no. 62/72/f.no.81-9/71-j (1), dated april 20, 1972, issued by the andaman and nicobar administration, chief commissioner’s secretariat, printed in the andaman and nicobar gazette, port blair. [123] shaina sehgal and suresh babu poultry, and imported rice. recently, coconut plantations were ranked highest overall in analyses of the economic, nutritional, social status, ceremonial, functional, and substitutability attributes of important material resources in nicobarese society, indicating their centrality in nicobarese culture (chandi 2016). these production relations were impacted by the 2004 indian ocean earthquake and tsunami. the nicobar islands were the epicentre of an earthquake measuring mw 9.3 on the richter scale and were the first landmass to encounter the resulting tsunami waves that reached up to 1,000 m inland. this disaster took the lives of over 3,500 people and destroyed and inundated coastal villages and plantations (ministry of home affairs 2006; sankaran 2005; ramanamurthy et al. 2005). in view of the social and ecological underpinnings of nicobar’s economy, we pose the following research questions: 1. what were the transformations in nicobar’s economy after the 2004 disaster? 2. what are the social and ecological underpinnings of these changes? to reflect on the economic transformations in the nicobar archipelago and the associated social and ecological underpinnings, we study changes in physical imports and exports as proxies (disaggregated by port and key categories) and draw on field surveys and interviews we conducted on the islands. this study, to our knowledge, is the first of its kind to use port-wise cargo data available from indian port authorities to analyse physical trade at the sub-national or regional scale. the paper is organized as follows. in section 2, we briefly introduce the study area and dataset and outline our analysis. subsequently, the physical trade balance and important material imports and exports of the nicobar islands are disaggregated port-wise and analysed in section 3. the posttsunami redevelopment and trade are situated within the socio-ecological context of the islands and discussed in section 4, followed by a conclusion in section 5. 2. material and methods 2.1. study area the nicobar archipelago comprises 22 islands in the bay of bengal, between 92° to 94° e and 6° to 10° n, over 1,200 km off the east coast of india. they are separated by channels of open sea from the andaman archipelago in the north and indonesia in the south (figure 1). the nicobar islands were declared a tribal reserve as per the anpatr, which recognizes the rights of indigenous dwellers to their land and resources and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] regulates all trade by using permits.5 the archipelago has a population of 36,842 people (census of india 2011) comprising indigenous nicobarese and shompen communities, mainland indians and international refugees originally settled by the state, and a floating population of government employees and migrant labour. both the nicobarese and descendants of settlers cultivate and export coconut. the archipelago is designated as a district under the union territory of the andaman and nicobar islands. the nicobar district consists of three subdivisions (tehsils)—car nicobar, nancowry, and campbell bay—which encompass the northern, central, and southern groups of islands (figure 1 inset). car nicobar island is the district headquarters. there are four revenue ports in the nicobars—car nicobar, katchal, nancowry, and campbell bay. car nicobar and katchal are the eponymous ports of their respective islands. nancowry refers to the port on kamorta island in the harbour formed by the kamorta and nancowry islands, and campbell bay is the port on great nicobar island. figure 1: map of the nicobar islands in the indian ocean figure 1: map of the nicobar islands in the indian ocean source: author the islands have a tropical climate and experience both the south-west and north-east monsoons. the nicobar islands have a high degree of endemic flora and fauna across tropical rainforests, grasslands, mangroves, and coral 5 access to the tribal reserves in the andaman and nicobar islands is not permitted without a tribal area permit issued by the deputy commissioner of the relevant jurisdiction. [125] shaina sehgal and suresh babu reef ecosystems, and are part of the sundaland biodiversity hotspot (myers et al. 2000; saldanha 1989). of the total land area of 1,841 km2, 84% is protected forestland (directorate of economics and statistics, n.d.-c.). the protected areas in the nicobar islands form two national parks, four wildlife sanctuaries, one biosphere reserve, and seven community-protected marine areas (patankar et al. 2015). the nicobar islands are in a seismically active region. on 26 december 2004, these islands were the first landmass to be devastated by the indian ocean tsunami that followed an undersea sumatra–andaman mw 9.3 earthquake at 6:29 am ist on the subduction plate boundary (3.7° n, 95° e), where the indian and australian plates converge and plunge below the sunda plate (thakkar and goyal 2006). in that month, 55 more earthquakes with magnitudes of over 5 on the richter scale occurred in the vicinity of the nicobar islands (directorate of economics and statistics, n.d.-d). according to government sources, at least 3,513 people died in the nicobar islands (ministry of home affairs 2006). tens of thousands of people were evacuated to relief camps, with over 5,000 brought to the mainland (relief commissioner 2005). in the months that followed, villages and plantations were inaccessible, and residents were discouraged from returning to them. survivors had to cope with the loss of loved ones, homes, livelihoods, infrastructure, and years of protracted recovery. the earthquakes destroyed physical structures, and the tsunami decimated coastal villages and plantations. infrastructural damage to the power and water supply systems, ports, ships, roads, and bridges was estimated at ₹11 billion (usd 249.4 million) 6 (relief commissioner 2005). the islands experienced an uplift of 1–1.5 m in the north (diglipur, north andaman island) and a submergence of 3 m in the south (indira point, great nicobar island) (rajendran et al. 2007; rajendran et al. 2008). seawater ingress in several locations destroyed plantations, farms, and mangrove forests. the tsunami damaged 7,556 km2 of agricultural land in the andaman and nicobar islands, affecting 6,324 farmers (hassan 2010). over 70% of this damage was to the nicobar islands. 2.2. data collection and analysis we compiled the dataset from the annual reports for 2003–04 to 2016–177 brought out by the four revenue ports of the nicobar islands, i.e., car nicobar, katchal, nancowry, and campbell bay, maintained by the port 6 2005 inr to usd exchange rate of usd 1 = inr 44.1. 7 data on nancowry island for 2003–04 was unavailable. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] management board (pmb), andaman and nicobar administration. 8 we limited our study to the period 2003–2017 due to the unavailability of data for the pre-tsunami period, as several records stored in the pmb offices were destroyed during the 2004 disaster. the data were cleaned for an exploratory analysis in r (r core team 2018; grolemund and wickham 2017). the pmb records the mass of cargo loaded and unloaded in ports annually in a standard template (48 commodities in 23 categories). we calculated the physical trade balance, defined as imports less exports (measured in metric tonnes or mt), for the nicobar islands and examined the trends in imports and exports for all 48 commodities disaggregated by port. thereafter, we shortlisted commodities into seven categories: construction materials; agricultural commodities; food stuff; general cargo; petroleum, oil, and lubricants (pol) (including petroleum crude); scrap items; and others (for the list of commodities, see appendix, table a1). we also analysed secondary data on infrastructure from statistical publications of the directorate of economics and statistics, andaman and nicobar islands administration. the relevant results of our analysis are presented in the next section; the vertical dotted line in the graphs indicates the earthquake and tsunami in december 2004. the primary observations concerning production and trade were derived from interviews with farmers, local leaders, and government officials, as part of the authors’ respective doctoral research on the great nicobar island between 1999–2009 (sb) and 2014–2018 (ss). 3. results nicobar’s physical trade balance has been increasing since 2003–04 (or the financial year 2004), but it grew at a substantial rate after the earthquake and ensuing tsunamis in december 2004 (figure 2). there was a decline from 2007–08 till 2011–12, after which the physical trade balance appears to have stabilized to levels comparable to the pre-tsunami period. as an analysis of the physical trade balance alone obscures the qualitative transformation in economic processes, the quantities and nature of physical imports and exports are visualized in figures 3, 5, 6, and 7. 8 we consulted records at the pmb offices in port blair and campbell bay between 2016 and 2018. [127] shaina sehgal and suresh babu figure 2: physical trade balance in the nicobar islands (2003– 2017) figure 2: physical trade balance in the nicobar islands (2003–2017) construction materials were the principal category of material (or physical) imports into the nicobar islands every year between 2003 and 2017. agricultural commodities were the main physical exports from the nicobar islands, except for four years—the two years following the tsunami, and 2014–2015 and 2015–16—when they were surpassed by general cargo and construction materials, respectively, owing to trans-shipments to smaller islands. the nicobar islands largely export to port blair on south andaman island; they also export some agricultural and marine products to other islands within the group. we further disaggregated key imports and exports by the four revenue ports in the archipelago into four categories, i.e., construction materials, fuel, food stuff, and agriculture. construction materials such as bitumen, cement, stone, sand, steel, timber, and heavy machinery were imported in large quantities after the tsunami (figure 3). the quantity of construction materials imported for post-disaster reconstruction dwarfs all other imports to these islands. these materials have been used to create economic infrastructure, such as jetties, houses, schools, health centres, government schools, offices, and the extended road network on the islands (see table 1 and figure 4). however, the reconstruction efforts have not been evenly spread across the islands. for example, bitumen, cement, and finished steel imports into car nicobar were larger and took place before imports to other islands, as it was the nicobar district headquarters and the most populous island in the group (figure 3). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] figure 3: construction material imported into the nicobar islands (2003–04 to 2016–17) the construction of the economic and social infrastructure of the islands continued for over a decade after the tsunami. challenges associated with construction included the distance from the mainland (which made importing materials difficult), a very short dry season of four months for the construction work, and unavailability of jetties for cargo ships in nancowry tehsil. therefore, loading and unloading of cargo were largely done through stevedoring. select indicators of infrastructure built are given in table 1. permanent housing shelters and community buildings 9 were constructed by the central public works department after deliberations on their design with the tribal councils and panchayats. extension of medical and education facilities was also prioritized. the number of these 9 community buildings include community halls, recreation halls, and customary birth and death houses in the nicobarese villages. [129] shaina sehgal and suresh babu institutions in 2016–17 obscures the fact that there are now fewer villages in the nicobar islands, which has resulted in a concentration of administrative and development focus. in the campbell bay tehsil, for example, survivors from the eight nicobarese villages and hamlets on the west coast of great nicobar were eventually relocated to three permanent villages created on the island’s east and north coasts; the two east coast villages are connected by road. the newer and fewer villages in the nicobar islands have now been brought into a closer embrace with state-led development. figure 4: physical trade balance in the nicobar islands (2003–2017) pol products and liquified petroleum gas (lpg) are key sources of fuel in the nicobar islands, and their imports have increased rapidly in the posttsunami period (see figure 5). lpg cylinders are used as household cooking fuel, while petrol and diesel provide fuel for power generation, construction machinery (such as road rollers, earthmovers, asphalt and cement mixers), and transport vehicles. as seen in table 1, lpg connections on the islands have increased by 13 times between 2005–06 and 2016–17, while the installed power capacity has increased by 21 times. we observed that the number of private, government, and commercial vehicles on the islands, such as fishing boats, trucks, buses, cars, and motorcycles, have also increased. consequently, fuel imports into car nicobar, nancowry, and campbell bay ports are at unprecedented levels as compared to the pretsunami period; moreover, they are unlikely to decrease. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] table 1: select indicators of infrastructure in the nicobar islands category 2005–06 2016–17 housing permanent shelters na 7,001 health medical institutions10 41 46 education schools 70 59 school enrolment 7,103 6,587 fuel and power lpg connections 230 3,329 installed capacity 562 kw (kilowatt) 12,193 kw electrified villages 91 98 industry small-scale industries 71 72 telecommunication11 broadband connections 0 371 transportation country craft (fishing boats) 338 mechanized fishing boats 175 170 surfaced road length 85.23 km 282.23 km storage fair price shops 41 52 godowns and warehouses 8 17 source: directorate of economics and statistics (n.d.-a.; n.d.-b.; n.d.-e.; n.d.-f.); “status report of permanent shelters in a&n islands” (n.d.) 10 medical institutions include hospitals, community health centres, primary health centres, dispensaries, and sub-centres. 11 mobile telecommunication was introduced in the post-tsunami period. [131] shaina sehgal and suresh babu figure 5: fuel imports into the nicobar islands (2003–04 to 2016–17) food stuff is a critical import; it includes food grains, oil, salt, sugar, tea, fruits, and vegetables. food imports increased in the post-tsunami period due to relief efforts and stabilized thereafter (see figure 6). car nicobar receives the largest volume of food imports in the group as it is the most populous island in the archipelago. the quantum of wheat imports into campbell bay reflects its diversity in population and their food culture. agriculture and fishery (and stone quarrying to a limited extent) are the main export sectors of the nicobar islands.12 other exported items represent the movements of cargo or material flows from the islands but not those originating from it. these exports include construction material and general cargo for trans-shipments and scrap material from the islands, including debris from infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami which was removed from the islands from 2009 onwards (see appendix, figure a1). 12 commercial harvest of timber and non-timber forest products is not permitted in the nicobar islands and therefore absent from documented exports. from our fieldwork, we are aware that limited quarrying for rocks was permitted following the tsunami on the great nicobar island. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] figure 6: food imports into the nicobar islands (2003–04 to 2016–17) the rubber plantations of katchal were established by the rubber board in 1968 and transferred in 1983 to the andaman and nicobar islands forest and plantation development corporation limited (anifpdcl). anifpdcl was closed in 2017 after incurring losses since 2001, when forestry activities were suspended by a supreme court order (dhingra 2005; cabinet committee on economic affairs 2017). katchal also experienced the largest damage by area to its agricultural plantations (hassan 2010). consequently, the island was depopulated in subsequent years and has reduced material flows. [133] shaina sehgal and suresh babu figure 7: agricultural exports from the nicobar islands (2003–04 to 2016–17) while car nicobar leads the archipelago in copra exports, campbell bay has emerged as an exporter of desiccated coconut powder in recent years. this followed the establishment in 2011 of a small-scale desiccated coconut powder industry in a revenue village on great nicobar island, the exports of which are unfortunately not recorded separately in the dataset. the tonnage alone, therefore, masks the value of the processed goods that are exported and may even show a declining trend (such as in the recent copra exports from campbell bay). local respondents attribute the boost in fruit and vegetable exports from campbell bay in recent years to the tenant cultivators who came to great nicobar as migrant labourers for posttsunami reconstruction. several original plantation owners either emigrated to the mainland after the tsunami or leased their plantations and diversified into transportation and as contractors for expanding civil works (i.e., the infrastructure in table 1). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [134] 4. discussion the tsunami is widely considered a watershed moment for the nicobar islands and is categorized as a socio-ecological disaster in scholarship (tripathi 2018). the flows of relief material brought government and aid agencies in contact, resulting in uneasy donor-aid relationships; this period has been referred to as a “tsunami of aid” (ramani 2010). the nature of aid and implementation of humanitarian relief ran counter to nicobarese norms of reciprocity and effected social hierarchies within communities. thus, the influx of multilateral aid and protracted residence in relief camps after the 2004 disaster reconfigured nicobarese institutions and social structures such as the tuhet (ramanujam, singh, and vatn 2012). these social changes have affected traditional natural resource use and management in the post-tsunami period (patankar et al. 2015). as the creation, management, and harvesting of new coconut plantations are labour-intensive activities that are facilitated by reciprocal labour relations among kin, the social changes resulting from the tsunami have also altered the social embeddedness of nicobarese coconut production and trade (chandi 2016). physical imports into these islands between 2003 and 2017 were dominated by construction materials and fuel, which steadily increased on all islands in the post-tsunami period. the island infrastructure was rebuilt and expanded, and this redevelopment manifested as an improvement in the lives of residents. the infrastructural changes also enabled new consumption patterns in the nicobar islands, with larger volumes of consumer durables and assets such as transport vehicles and consumer electronics entering the marketplace. these are reflected in trends in general cargo imports, which is a catch-all category for the movement of household and commercial cargo material by passenger and cargo vessels in the islands. after the initial wave of relief material in the years following the disaster, there was a steady flow of general cargo imports into all four revenue ports in the archipelago. these results indicate the reinforcement of the economic dependency of the islands on the mainland, which is a common problem facing offshore islands (royle 1989). island studies scholars highlight how “islandness” is a central quality of islands, defined by boundedness, smallness, isolation, and fragmentation, which become amplified in compressed island spaces (baldacchino 2018). scholars therefore advocate rethinking conventional mainland economic models for islands in favour of those encouraging greater economic autonomy and selfdetermination (stratford 2017). post-disaster rebuilding is not an isolated project as it interfaces with the social and ecological systems of islands. the nicobar islands are a tribal [135] shaina sehgal and suresh babu reserve and biodiversity hotspot located in the indian ocean and, as such, economic production models and development policy have to contend with these social and ecological realities instead of considering them as constraints to production and trade. in the nicobar islands, therefore, the study of economic exchange alone is inadequate to understand historical and contemporary agrarian practices and exchanges (singh et al. 2001; reddy 1982). we discuss these aspects through the main sector in nicobar’s economy—agriculture. the export of key agricultural and plantation crops, such as coconut, betelnut, rubber, fruits, and vegetables, is dependent on social and ecological considerations; both considerations were reconfigured by the tsunami and post-tsunami relief and redevelopment. traditional coconut plantations thrive in coastal zones, can take 8–12 years to attain maturity, and thereafter provide consistent yields. as the tsunami destroyed coastal plantations, the export of perennial crops across the islands suffered and took over a decade to recover. the cultivation of annual fruit and vegetable crops by tenant cultivators in recent years has led to an increase in exports from great nicobar island. cultivators in katchal, little nicobar, and great nicobar also have to contend with crop-raiding by the endemic nicobar long-tailed macaque (macaca fascicularis umbrosus) (pal et al. 2018). coconut plays a central role in nicobarese culture and homesteads, in addition to being the archipelago’s main export. coconut and pandanus drupes are an important part of nicobarese food culture, providing food, cooking oil, and cooking fuel despite alternatives such as rice, cooking oil, lpg, and kerosene stoves. their persistence is partly due to their relevance in society as more than an economic commodity. coconuts play a significant role in ceremonies marking all phases of life—birth, coming of age, marriage, death, and afterlife. they are also an important source of livestock feed, chiefly for poultry and pigs, which in turn are also important for cultural practices. this affects coconut trade volumes from nicobarese plantations, as the other cultivator communities (in great nicobar) do not have similar demands on their output. a sub-community of tenant cultivators in great nicobar has increased the fruit and vegetable exports from campbell bay port in recent years and made the island a regular supplier to car nicobar.13 meanwhile, coconut cultivators in the revenue areas of great nicobar have found an alternative to making copra—they sell coconut to a small-scale coconut processing unit set up in a revenue village in 2011. this unit produces dry coconut powder using dehusked 13 imports of agricultural inputs also increased in the post-tsunami period (see appendix, figure a1). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] coconut drupes and ships a steady monthly production to port blair in cargo ships. while post-disaster recovery seeks to prevent any further loss of lives (with a focus on rescue and relief), subsequent redevelopment aims to remedy losses to livelihoods and assets through redevelopment (roy 2008). infrastructural development, however, has had a mixed impact on agricultural livelihoods. it has led to increased availability of farm labour and tenant farming and addressed logistical bottlenecks such as last-mile connectivity to plantations and frequency of shipping services. the expanding infrastructure has simultaneously resulted in revenue area cultivators moving out of agriculture and into civil contract works. as has been seen elsewhere, through the stages of recovery and redevelopment, political actors find opportunities for gaining or losing political legitimacy and effecting transformative changes to local economies (oliver-smith 1996). transformative changes are limited by institutional capacity and mediated through historical contingency and the resilience of the local culture (hunter 2016). the nature of key material exports has shifted; for example, the main type of coconut export from campbell bay port in great nicobar island has changed from copra to desiccated coconut powder since 2011–12, and this shift is not reflected in the otherwise declining copra exports (see figure 7). as it takes approximately twice as many coconuts to produce copra compared to desiccated coconut powder, the establishing of the industrial unit reflects a value addition to the coconut supply chain. processing increases the shelf-life of, and adds value to, the coconut, whether processed manually into copra or at an industrial scale into desiccated coconut powder. furthermore, the industrial unit has a consistent supply for cargo vessels vis-à-vis copra traders, which is important for the supply chain and ensures regularity of cargo vessels to campbell bay. reconstruction efforts were not spread evenly across the islands. there is a historical contingency to the metabolic build-up of materials flows for development at certain ports, such as car nicobar and campbell bay (singh 2003), and development interventions after the tsunami have further emphasized this trajectory. several key elements of trade that were historically insignificant in the nicobar islands have gained prominence in the post-tsunami years, and many of these changes, such as infrastructure development, have qualitatively transformed production practices and trade on the islands. along with the cultural transformation of the nicobar islands, observable in the disintegration of the tuhet system and the influx of consumer durables, mobile telecommunication, and internet services, these changes in production practices and trade have led to a reconfiguration of [137] shaina sehgal and suresh babu ecology–society relationships on the islands. overall, these changes signal a socio-economic transformation underway in the nicobar islands and merit further investigation. this study is a methodological exploration of the response of local or regional economies to environmental disturbances and identifies structural changes brought about by disasters. in situations where conventional economic analysis may be difficult, an approach encompassing physical trade can provide insight into social and ecological systems, especially where valuation is problematic. the valuation of environmental goods and services compresses complex and interrelated attributes of the environment into simplified monetary metrics and results in the loss of information that is non-randomly distributed in society (vatn and bromley 1994). 5. conclusion the relief, reconstruction, and redevelopment efforts following the tsunami have resulted in unprecedented changes in the nicobar islands, and our analysis of physical exports and imports points towards a transformation of the nicobar islands’ economy since 2004. in the post-tsunami period, imports were predominantly for relief and redevelopment. thereafter, the quantum of material imports stabilized. the resulting infrastructure and consumption patterns are shaping the new development trajectory of the islands. the metabolic impact of these new developmental trajectories is indicated by the substantial imports of and dependence on fossil fuels and construction materials from the mainland. we therefore argue that the development policy and imports in the post-tsunami period have qualitatively transformed production practices and trade in the islands. the primary exports from the nicobar islands are (cultivated and harvested) natural resources from the agricultural and marine sectors and building materials such as rocks briefly permitted for quarrying on great nicobar island. while the physical trade balance reflects changes on a regional level, it masks economic disparities across different island groups and categories of imports and exports. the post-tsunami relief, reconstruction, and redevelopment reinforced historical development trajectories of ports and islands in the nicobar group. the limitations to production on these islands, posed by protected forests, protected areas, and tribal reserves, are manifestations of legitimate considerations for conserving the environment and indigenous tribal cultures. consequently, economic development is only seen in certain sectors, such as in the increasing material exports from the marine, agricultural, and stone-quarrying sectors. furthermore, we see that the nature and value of the key material exports from great nicobar island ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] have changed; for example, the primary coconut product exported has changed from copra to desiccated coconut powder. this new value chain excludes nicobarese cultivators, and thus the politics of this redistribution needs further examination. in this paper, we investigated the transformational impact of the earthquake and tsunami of 2004, which includes the event itself as well as the relief, rehabilitation, and redevelopment efforts in the years that followed. the social and ecological embeddedness of production and trade in the nicobar islands was severely impacted by the 2004 disaster and subsequent interventions. aid and imports in the post-tsunami period have eroded nicobarese kinship systems and have physically modified the production systems into new metabolic regimes that critically depend on imports from mainland india. acknowledgements we acknowledge the support of the andaman and nicobar administration for this research, including the tribal area permits and logistic support provided by the offices of the deputy commissioner of south andaman district, deputy commissioner of nicobar district, and assistant commissioner of campbell bay tehsil. ss also acknowledges logistical support and assistance from the andaman and nicobar command and support for data collection from the port management board and directorate of economics and statistics, andaman and nicobar administration. our 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commodities imported and exported at revenue ports using a standard national template (48 commodities in 23 categories). these were revised into seven analytical categories, i.e., construction materials, agricultural commodities, food stuff, general cargo, petroleum, oil, and lubricants (pol) products (including petroleum crude), scrap items, and others, as per table a1. table a1: categories of exports and imports used in the data analysis no. commodities (pmb data) categories (pmb data) revised categories 1 petroleum crude* minerals pol products 2 pol products minerals pol products 3 thermal coal* minerals others 4 cooking coal* minerals others 5 lpg minerals lpg 6 bitumen minerals construction materials 7 others* minerals others 8 cement building materials construction materials 9 cement clinkers building materials construction materials 10 timber building materials construction materials 11 timber products building materials construction materials 12 sand building materials construction materials 13 stone products building materials construction materials 14 others building materials construction [145] shaina sehgal and suresh babu no. commodities (pmb data) categories (pmb data) revised categories materials 15 rice food grains food stuff 16 sugar food grains food stuff 17 wheat food grains food stuff 18 pulses food grains food stuff 19 iron ore* ores metals 20 feldspars* ores metals 21 others ores metals 22 fertilizer finished fertilizers others 23 rock phosphate* fertilizers others 24 fertilizer raw material (excluding rock phosphate)* fertilizers others 25 sulphur* fertilizers others 26 others* fertilizers others 27 liquid ammonia* chemicals others 28 phosphoric acid* chemicals others 29 other chemicals (solid and liquid)* chemicals chemicals 30 liquor chemicals liquor 31 fruit and vegetables (dry and liquid) fruit and vegetables (dry and liquid) agricultural commodities 32 edible oil edible oil food stuff 33 hard brigated iron* iron steel others 34 finished steel iron steel others ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] no. commodities (pmb data) categories (pmb data) revised categories 35 machineries machineries construction materials 36 other metal products* other metal products others 37 salt salt food stuff 38 tea tea food stuff 39 coffee* coffee food stuff 40 oil cake* oil cake others 41 frozen shrimp frozen shrimp food stuff 42 rubber rubber agricultural commodities 43 copra copra agricultural commodities 44 betelnut betelnut agricultural commodities 45 others (not specified above) others (not specified above) others 46 logs logs construction materials 47 scrap items scrap items scrap items 48 general cargo general cargo general cargo commodities with an asterisk (*) indicate negligible physical imports or exports in the dataset. we calculated a linear interpolation (i.e., a simple average) for missing values for figure 3 and figure a1, indicated by the dotted line in both series. [147] shaina sehgal and suresh babu figure a1: select physical imports and exports in the nicobar islands (2003–04 to 2016–17) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 143-146, january 2023 book review climate change adaptation and neoliberalism in bangladesh: a review of two monographs iftekhar iqbal dewan, camelia. 2021. misreading the bengal delta: climate change, development, and livelihoods in coastal bangladesh. seattle: university of washington press paprocki, kasia. 2021. threatening dystopias: the global politics of climate change adaptation in bangladesh. ithaca: cornell university press  history and international studies programme, universiti brunei darussalam, iftekhar.iqbal@ubd.edu.bn copyright © iqbal 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.890 mailto:iftekhar.iqbal@ubd.edu.bn https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.890 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [144] the extraordinary attention paid to bangladesh’s vulnerability to climate change is puzzling, especially when compared to other countries situated along the south asian coastal littoral. even the neighbouring indian state of west bengal and myanmar receive far less alarmist reviews than bangladesh, which is overwhelmingly singled out as the poster child of climate doom. it is as if climate change has picked a personal feud with the people of bangladesh. why is that so? two recent books, one authored by camelia dewan and the other by kasia paprocki, should be read as directly addressing this discursive slant, by offering insightful research and compelling ethnography. both monographs focus on the coastal regions that lie in the southwest of bangladesh. their aim, at heart, is to link global discourses of climate change with national development narratives through the trope of “adaptation”. by carefully studying and analysing several developmentoriented projects—such as embankment construction, shrimp aquaculture, and commercial agriculture—dewan shows how each of these initiatives tends to be shaped by the spectre of climate change. dewan explains that a group of “brokers”, including ngos, consultants, and government agencies—who are often funded by specific climate donors—get the high science of climate change translated into an alarmist discourse. the inevitable outcome of these “climate reductive translations” (p. 16) is the systematic establishment of an “adaptation regime”, which emphasizes that embankments must be in place to check rising water and salinity levels; shrimp cultivation must be increased to make the most of the higher level of salinity; and commercial agriculture should be promoted because subsistence agriculture is considered inadequate to increase the real income of the poor. dewan chronicles the environmental implications and the social and political consequences of these adaptation practices: waterlogging, displacement, disease, consumption of contaminated food, and enhanced inequality, among other ills. paprocki’s monograph adopts the same critical lens, scrutinizing neoliberal strategies that have been pushed by the world bank and other international agencies. in particular, she offers a detailed critique of the shrimp farming industry, which is being widely advocated as part of an adaptation regime. she focuses on the way the “naturalization of crisis” (p. 79) of climate change has become part of the knowledge system of adaptaion. despite her fairly searing critique, paprocki offers an optimistic view in exploring instances of successful agrarian resistance against the adaptation protocol and thus presents a nuanced understanding of the fragilities inherent in the neoliberal discourse. her comparison of the two neighbouring areas (around polder 22 and polder 23) shows how the suffering of the people of [145] iqbal polder 22 contrasts with the relative respite of those of polder 23—which was achieved through collective resistance. with an insightful note on the people’s insistence on “agrarian” as opposed to “political” climate justice, paprocki demonstrates that successful resistance is possible under neoliberal conditions. while there is little to disagree with in the findings of the books, some of the ethnographic data on which their findings have been based could be traced to similar events and contexts from as far back as the 1980s. for example, the displacement, violence, and even the killing of cultivators by commercial shrimp producers and speculators became a recurring feature when bangladesh’s export income from shrimp cultivation soared from $19 million in 1978 to $170 million in 1992–1993. moreover, in the same period, the area under shrimp cultivation increased from 20,000 to 120,000 hectares (haggart 1994, 66–67). put differently, since an overt nexus between neoliberalism and climate discourse had not yet crystallized in the 1980s, there must be other factors beyond neoliberalism that explain the ecological and social vulnerabilities in coastal bangladesh. it is not coincidental that the 1980s was also the starting point for the expansion of shrimp cultivation, following the indian government’s construction of the farakka barrage upstream on the ganga river. bangladesh has long maintained that the building of farakka has led to a decline of the deltaic sweet water regime and an increase in salinity levels in the region. besides, there is also considerable documentation showing an aggravation in the intensity of flooding and the severity of land erosion and an associated shrinkage of livelihood options for subsistence fishers and cultivators. other current and planned infrastructures along many of the 54 rivers that bangladesh shares with india are expected to further exacerbate the already stressed environmental and economic situation in wide swathes of the delta, including the study area covered by these two books (iqbal 2019, 26–31; 2022, 107–117). by marginalizing the extensive upstream interventions that have ecologically stressed the wider deltaic systems, ethnographers sometimes run the risk of buying into the narrative of many international funders. in a recent world bank report on bangladesh’s coastal resilience in the context of climate change, terms like “adaptation” and “shrimp” abound, but there is no mention of the ecological impacts of the farakka barrage or the teesta dams (kazi et al. 2022). in failing to adequately acknowledge the impacts of these large-scale hydraulic interventions on the ganga, both the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] monographs reveal a disconnect between their richly textured ethnographies and the region’s geopolitics. this quibble aside, both the books deserve high commendation— particularly as critiques of climate change adaptation strategies that have reenvisioned neoliberalism. the adaptation regime has become a discursive signifier of neoliberalism’s appropriation of climate change as a hegemonic tool. the intimate stories of the coastal people in bangladesh that dewan and paprocki explore add to a genre of scholarship that draws sharper links between the historical and environmental ethnographies of the region (jalais 2021; bhattacharya 2018; cons 2020). these monographs may inspire similar studies that investigate how neoliberal development projects aim to appropriate climate disourse to legitimize its continued presence. references bhattacharya, debjani. 2018. empire and ecology in the bengal delta. cambridge: cambridge university press. cons, jason. 2020. “delta temporalities: choked and tangled futures in the sundarbans.” ethnos. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1697334. haggart, kelly, ed. 1994. rivers of life. dhaka: bangladesh centre for advanced studies. iqbal, iftekhar. 2019. “governing mass migration to dhaka: revisiting climate factors.” economic & political weekly 54, no. 36. iqbal, iftekhar. 2022. “locating the riparian commons in eastern south asia.” in urban development and environmental history in south asia, edited by ian talbot and amit ranjan. new york: routledge. jalais, annu. 2021. forest of tigers: people, politics and environment in the sundarbans. new delhi: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003300946-10 kazi, swarna, ignacio urrutia, mathijs van ledden, jean henry laboyrie, jasper verschuur, zahir-ul haque khan, ruben jongejan, kasper lendering, and alejandra gijón mancheño. 2022. bangladesh: enhancing coastal resilience in a changing climate. washington d.c.: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/38004 https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1697334 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003300946-10 https://doi.org/10.1596/38004 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 99–101, january 2020 conversations: national mineral policy 2019 — balancing stakeholder interests and concerns editorial note: recognising diverse stakeholders in mineral policy — a trajectory over time nandan nawn  economic activity in india is supported by minerals extracted domestically. the significance of mining is also due to its impact on local livelihood opportunities — it generates some during extraction and transport, but it also puts a stop on many others; on some, forever. once a mine is exhausted, it requires fresh efforts to generate new livelihood opportunities. the need for remedial action to compensate for displacement, adverse impact on ecological and human health and other such is well recognised now. as it is well known, the supreme court in samatha vs state of andhra pradesh and ors (1997; appeal (civil) 4601-02 of 1997) is a forerunner on this matter, calling for the creation of a ‗permanent fund‘ to sustain local ‗development‘. churnings in the regulatory framework were certainly influenced by this and other decisions on mining, like sps & ors vs state of karnataka & ors. (2013; wp (civil) 562 of 2009), goa foundation vs uoi & ors. (2014; wp (civil) 435 of 2012) just to name a few. national mineral policy of 1990 considered mining to be the exclusive responsibility of the state; the 1993 policy, reflecting the changes initiated in 1991, paved the way for private sector participation. mines and minerals (regulation and development) act, 1957, was amended accordingly. in 2005, the planning commission set up a high-level committee (hlc) to review and suggest changes in the policy and regulations to augment investment — both public and private — in the mining sector, in a  managing editor and coordinator for this ‗conversations‘. department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, 10 vasant kunj institutional area, new delhi, india 110 070; nnletter@gmail.com. copyright © nawn 2020. released under creative commons attribution-non-commercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.91 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.91 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] changing climate. the preface of the hlc report recognised the difficulty in reaching a consensus among the stakeholders — ―mineral-rich states and states not well-endowed with mineral reserves, manufacturing industries with captive mines and standalone miners, exporters of minerals, and domestic industry based on the mineral‖ (planning commission 2006, i). the report‘s ‗conclusions‘ and ‗recommendations‘ recognised the need for ―the policy [to] [...] provide for environmental concerns and the needs of local communities to be fully taken into account in mining operations‖ (planning commission 2006, 183) — but to remain outside the list of stakeholders. national mineral policy of 2008 advanced this in recommending ―[s]pecial care [...] to protect the interest of host and indigenous (tribal) populations through developing models of stakeholder interest based on international best practice‖ (section 2.3) and alluding to a framework of sustainable development. it even acknowledged the need for a ―national consensus to fulfil its underlying principles and objectives‖ (section 11). mines and minerals (development and regulation) bill, 2011, introduced in the parliament, included a national sustainable development framework with ―systemic measures needed to be taken or built-in to increase sustainability of mining operations considering its entire life cycle, inter alia‖ (section 46(4)(iii)) [...] (j) consultative mechanisms with stakeholder groups right from premining stages through the life cycle and up to post-closure stages to ensure stakeholder groups involvement and participation in identifying and addressing the sustainability issue. a standing committee was set up by the 15th lok sabha on the 2011 bill. ―considering the wide ramifications of the bill‖, the introduction note called ―for soliciting the comments from the general public, stakeholders‖ (lok sabha secretariat 2013: vi). the report includes responses from the 'stakeholders' on each section of the bill and its recommendation. national mineral policy 2019 (nmp 2019), while marking many departures from its 2008 avatar, continues to underscore the need to achieve ―a national consensus among various key stakeholders and their commitments to fulfil its underlying principles and objectives‖. this ‗conversations‘ captures some of the trade-offs across selected stakeholders. kumar and ranjan share their anxieties on the availability of metals (including rare ones) as required by new technologies. kumar and basu differ on the interpretation of inter-generational equity. jain and basu shared their concerns on the extent of interests of the local population considered in the decision-making stages; it is a concern for the [101] nandan nawn environment for ranjan in the implementation stages. kumar expresses concern on incentives for the private sector to undertake exploration; for jain, it is the creation of ‗exclusive mining zones‘. kumar expresses concerns over the allocation of revenues from auctions of mineral rights to a state treasury instead of companies extracting minerals. he finds this reduces the probability of use of such revenues for local use, through csr, etc. auction-induced increase in costs of minerals will also impact the discovery of metals required for new technologies, increasing the import bill, he thinks. kumar proposes to differentiate the minerals on the basis of costs of exploration based on existing information and costs of extraction based on ‗bulkiness‘. to jain, ‗ease of doing businesses may receive priority over the other listed goals such as protection of the environment, conservation of ecosystems, the welfare of mining-affected local communities. he recommends setting up a minerals audit agency. ranjan warns on the serious environmental impacts of mining, taking cues from the experiences in other countries. he proposes restoration costs in the cost-benefit analysis for a better-informed decision, as one of the ways towards this end. for basu, implementation of inter-generational equity requires a more serious engagement than what the policy holds. among other suggestions, he calls for investing the entire rent as a corpus to yield income in perpetuity for the future generations as a dividend. admittedly, matters pertaining nmp 2019 traverse from vision to implementation, interspersed with institutional framework, technical knowhow, information gathering and availability, matters connected with finance, fiscal and foreign trade, besides balancing the interest of stakeholders — this ‗conversations‘ could address only some. given the wide ramifications of the mineral sector — across sectors, people and locations — more conversations will surely follow. references: lok sabha secretariat. 2013. ―the mines and minerals (development & regulation) bill, 2011.‖ 36th report of the standing committee on coal and steel (2012-13). new delhi: lok sabha secretariat. planning commission. 2006. ―national mineral policy: report of the high-level committee‖. new delhi: planning commission. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 135–138, january 2021 book review culture and land in the making of rural bengal deepak kumar  suhita sinha roy. 2019. the cultural economy of land: rural bengal 18601940. new delhi: tulika books. isbn: 978-81-9373-297-7, pp. x+186, inr 595 (hb). this book explores ―the small voices of history‖ by focusing on rural bengal, especially ―the small history of birbhum‖ (7) during the high period of british colonial rule. for roy, land is more than property and revenue: it is a form of knowledge that is inextricably linked with landscapes, habits, gender, festivals, and the sociology of power. though she acknowledges that economic factors are important as they relate to the productivity of the soil, the reclamation of land, emphasis on commercial crops, and monetization of the economy, she argues that these are not sufficient to explain the crisis in agriculture. for example, how did the numerically weak  (formerly) professor, zakir husain centre for educational studies, jawaharlal nehru university; a 502 raheja vista apt, road 12, nacharam industrial area, hyderabad 500076; deepakjnu2008@gmail.com. copyright © kumar 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.347 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.347 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] brahmins gain ascendancy in a peasant society? was there any breakdown of social institutions? while roy turns to ―local history‖ and micro-studies to examine changes in rural bengal, she also utilizes the notions of ―slow motion‖ and ―enlargement‖ as proposed by the philosopher and cultural critic walter benjamin. roy points out how in an essay in 1931 titled the ―small history of photography‖, benjamin used the analogy of a microscope to emphasize the need to identify different patterns and grasp otherwise hidden details. in a similar vein, this book pursues a fine-grained analysis that attempts to capture and reveal ―the enmeshed character of the economic, social, and cultural aspects of agricultural communities‖ (1–2). the first chapter is devoted to meticulously tracking the caste–land relationships in early nineteenth century birbhum by focusing on the emergence of landlordism (surul zamindari). with the gradually growing ability to buy land through loans (of course at exorbitant interest rates), erstwhile weavers, peasants, and even a family from the goala (cattle raisers) caste were able to assume the title of sarkar—indicating a higher status within the sadgop (a status higher than the cattle-raisers). this is how the notion of the bengali bhadrajati (gentlemen) took form within a rural setup. this upwardly mobile land-owning group, roy informs us, then sought the cultural endorsement of the brahmins. the new land-owning castes, however, soon revealed their dark side. they not only leased lands for cultivation at extortionate rates but also got forest communities such as the santals and mahtos to do the actual work of clearing forests and cultivating fields. though resentment and disquiet grew, the new landlords often used a mix of litigation and violence to suppress resistance. roy argues that upward social mobility went hand-in-hand with economic exploitation, deforestation, resistance, and violence, which were shaped by each other. the second chapter begins by asking if it was the ―rule of knowledge‖ rather than the ―role of knowledge‖ that shaped the colonial land regime. the ―natives‖, we are reminded, had their own repertoires of knowledge about local resources and environments. although their knowledge was largely experiential, it enabled the mandals, the village heads, to outwit the local zamindars often. company officials, as expected, distrusted these local officials and set about profoundly changing the rules of revenue assessment and collection. in due course, the peasants found themselves racked with oppressive laws that only amplified their suffering during recurring famines and epidemics. the poorer lower castes like the bagdi and bauri were compelled to leave their villages to find harsh work in collieries and railway construction. [137] deepak kumar the third chapter tries to identify links between seemingly ―disparate episodes of resistance‖ such as social banditry and the so-called criminal behaviour of the lower castes. the santal rebellion of 1855 was a volcanic eruption against the triumvirate of sarkar, sahukar, and zamindar (government, merchant, and the landlord). it was brutally suppressed, and the santals, unable to retreat into the forests and their settlements, turned into dispossessed labourers. interestingly, the santals were branded on the one hand as ―child-like‖ and on the other as ―savages‖. the violence was subdued, but resistance continued in the form of petitions. after the turn of the century, durga manjhi and later jitendra lal banerjee emerged as petition leaders. a new solidarity was sought, by evoking religious affinities, although divisions remained between the hinduised santals and the nonhinduised santals. even though c.r. das was a metropolitan leader, he was accepted and revered by the peasants of birbhum. but the gandhi-led noncooperation (1920–22) and civil disobedience (1930–31) movements failed to address india’s growing agrarian crisis. so, the anti-zamindar and mahajan (landlord and moneylender) plank was silently dropped. the modality of resistance was changing fast. militancy was considered acceptable by those who looked to soviet experiments at the cost of, as roy puts it, ―indigenous social formations and their histories‖. here, roy points to the limitations of nascent communist interventions. chapter 4 moves from high politics to everyday life in birbhum. here, the author introduces the notion of subtlety, which is described as turning ―the space of religious orthodoxy into a space of laughter‖ and where caste and gender can be interpreted alternatively as the ―tacit celebration of sexual transgression‖. cultural significance is noticed even in how huts and temples are structured. in view of the permanence of thakur (god), the thakurbari (temple) was made of brick, while the kothabari (brick house) was made of mud. this was not a sign of impoverishment but of dignified domesticity. educational activities were not limited to the brahmins alone. the muslim bhadralok (upper caste social elite) had hand-written copies of the quran while the vaishnavas (a prominent hindu sect) had padavalis (book of devotional songs). a lower caste teli (who pressed oil) ran a pathshala (school). a subtle challenge to orthodox vaisnavism came from the deviant bauls (itinerant musicians). in rural bengal, the snake was a totem for the oraons and mundas. so, different kinds of hindu goddesses such as chandi and manasa were worshipped. muslim pirs (sufis) were also popular. chapter 5 is devoted to the study of tarashankar bandyopadhyay not only as a laureate but a chronicler of rural bengal (anchalikta). as a patna native, i felt happy to note that tarashankar’s mother was from patna and was more ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] educated than her husband! the influence of this bhadramahila (urbane lady), roy points out, is writ large on her son’s success. tarashankar was both rural and urban, local and metropolitan, insider and outsider. his life can be seen as the lens that brings various aspects of rural living to life. a desire for freedom, a revival of a long-lost golden era, and socialism all find a place in his works. he even dabbled in politics and was imprisoned in 1930, but he was soon disillusioned with both factionalism and activism. literature remains his greatest legacy. i missed any reference to arogya niketan, the novel written by the celebrated writer tarashankar, which focused on rural health. in a similar vein, i wish more space had been devoted to the ideas of satinath bhaduri, bibhutibhushan bandyopadhyay, and phanishwarnath renu. despite the book’s excellent and compelling discussion on how notions of land shaped colonial rural bengal, one is still left with a few questions. did the british establish any experimental farms in birbhum as they had in many other places? equally, we would be keen to know if cattle fairs were held regularly or whether there were gradual changes in the tools of the chasha (cultivator). did sericulture help in creating viable livelihoods? this book has a comprehensive bibliography and is supported with substantial endnotes. however, there should have been a glossary of certain revenue terms like lakhiraj, baze-zameen, halbhanjan, etc. dr. sinha roy puts forward her arguments convincingly and fluently negotiates historical and literary boundaries. this book will be of interest to those researching agrarian history, local ethnographies, and culture studies. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 45-64, july 2021 thematic essay using economic instruments to fix the liability of polluters in india: assessment of the information required and identification of gaps sukanya das1, mn murty2, and kavita sardana3 abstract: the review paper highlights the informational requirements for the effective use of environmental policy instruments to achieve ambient standards of pollution in india. a section on the integrated urban air pollution assessment model is attempted to identify data requirements for, and information gaps associated with, using these instruments. we review the available information and identify informational gaps that thwart the realization of ambient standards of environmental quality. in india, command-and-control instruments are arbitrarily used to assign liability without taking cognizance of economic estimates. the available cost–benefit estimates of air and water pollution, combined with air quality modelling for urban areas and water quality modelling, are essential inputs for using environmental policy instruments to ensure compliance with ambient standards. we discuss how to use economic estimates while designing and using economic instruments such as pollution taxes and pollution permits, in addition to command and control. 1 associate professor, department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, plot no. 10, sankar rd, vasant kunj institutional area, vasant kunj, institutional area, new delhi, delhi – 110070; sukanya.das@terisas.ac.in. 2 retired professor, institute of economic growth, university enclave, north delhi, delhi – 110007; mn.murty71@gmail.com. 3 assistant professor, department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, plot no. 10, sankar rd, vasant kunj institutional area, vasant kunj, institutional area, new delhi, delhi – 110070; kavita.sardana@terisas.ac.in. copyright © das, murty and sardana 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.363 mailto:sukanya.das@terisas.ac.in mailto:mn.murty71@gmail.com mailto:kavita.sardana@terisas.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.363 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] keywords: ambient standards; taxes; permits; carbon tax; pollution. 1. introduction the government could use several policy instruments to hold polluters liable for the damage caused to the public through air or water pollution. these are economic instruments such as taxes and subsidies, pollution permits, regulatory instruments of command and control, and penalties. choosing between these instruments depends both on their efficacy in achieving the target level of emissions and on the relative size of welfare losses that pollutants produce, such as health damages to households (baumol and oates 1988). pollution taxes and pollution permits are price and quantity-based instruments, respectively. in a market economy with full information, they are the first best or pareto optimal instruments. however, the available literature shows that if there is incomplete information and uncertainty about the measurement of the benefits and costs of pollution abatement, there will be efficiency losses while employing such taxes and permits (weitzman 1974). therefore, there is a clear case for choosing between these instruments especially in the context of using them to reduce carbon emissions for climate change mitigation, etc. given the limitations concerning the informational requirements for effectively using these instruments, many variants are being used.4 a common practice is to use one or a combination of these instruments to achieve scientifically determined safe standards for air or water quality.5 apart from the direct environmental policy instruments already mentioned, the budgetary policy instruments of commodity taxes could be used to achieve environmental objectives (sandmo 1975). there could be additional taxes on polluting or carbon-intensive commodities to achieve environmental objectives over and above the taxes levied in lieu of general budgetary policy objectives of equity and efficiency (murty 1996). to use environmental policy instruments, the regulator or government requires information about the estimated welfare losses from pollution. based on this data, regulators can better design instruments that ensure that polluters face liabilities for the welfare losses from pollution. 4 see baumol and oates (1988) for a theoretical discussion of pollution taxes and permits. murty (2010) provides a less technical discussion of these instruments. 5 these are known as pollution tax, pollution permit, and command-and-control standards, depending upon the prime regulatory instrument used. see sterner (2003) for a discussion on the practical use of these instruments. [47] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana in environmental economics, estimates of welfare losses from air and water pollution can be either benefit-based or cost-based. benefit-based estimates account for health damages and loss of public environmental services as a result of pollution. cost-based estimates account for the costs that the polluter avoids or saves by doing nothing to reduce pollution.6 pollution taxes and permits incentivize polluters to use the following cost-minimizing production and abatement technologies: end-of-pipe treatment technologies, production process changes, input changes, changes in the quality of products, etc. however, in india, only command-and-control and penalty instruments have been used. these instruments are inefficient in that polluters have no incentive to minimize their abatement costs. pollution taxes and permits are ideal, efficient instruments because they minimize abatement costs by mandating a switch to cleaner technologies. to use these instruments, the regulator requires detailed estimates of abatement costs and potential damages and information on air and water quality modelling. there have been several central and state legislations to ensure environmental protection in india. 7 they provide for using the policy instruments described earlier to control air and water pollution and to maintain safe air and water quality standards. source-specific and ambient pollution standards for particulate matter (pm10), sulphur dioxide (so2), nitrous oxide (nox), carbon dioxide (co2), and other emissions for air pollution, and suspended solids (ss), biological oxygen demand (bod), and chemical oxygen demand (cod) for water pollution, are fixed by the regulator or government. the central pollution control board (cpcb) and state pollution control boards (spcbs) are empowered to use environmental policy instruments to make polluters comply with these 6 benefit-based estimates of welfare losses are made using specially designed valuation methods which are classified as stated and revealed preference methods (freeman 1993; mitchell and carson 1989). several studies have been conducted in india using these methods, some of which are discussed in this paper. cost-based estimates of welfare losses are calculated using the methods of theory of production: cost functions, distance functions, and by-production models. some of these estimates for india are discussed in this paper. 7 the indian parliament has enacted various legislations concurrently with, and as follow-ups of, constitutional amendments to protect and improve the environment. the most important among them are the wildlife (protection) act, 1972; the water (prevention and control of pollution) act, 1974; the water (prevention and control of pollution) cess act, 1977; the forest (conservation) act, 1980; the air (prevention and control of pollution) act, 1981; the environment (protection) act, 1986; the public liability insurance act, 1991; the national environment tribunal act, 1995; and the national environment appellate authority act, 1997. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] standards. however, thus far, the indian government and these agencies have been using only command-and-control regulations. command-and-control instruments do not make it clear to what extent polluters are complying with source-specific and ambient standards. indeed, ambient standards can more accurately assess damages to the public as a result of pollution. given the higher ambient standards of air pollution in urban areas, there is a permissible pollution load that needs to be achieved to realize them. the pollution load compatible with ambient standards can be obtained by considering source-specific pollution standards in terms of volume, level of activity, the scale of production, and the abatement technologies the polluter uses. the pollution load in an urban area depends on the amount of pollution emitted by each polluter and the number of polluters; this requires that source-specific standards be dynamic. information on air quality modelling8 is essential for fixing source-specific standards that are compatible with ambient ones and for using economic instruments. in the following sections, we discuss informational requirements for using regulatory instruments to control air and water pollution in india. in section 2, we provide a brief description of the integrated urban air pollution assessment model (iuapam), which could be used to estimate pollution levels in the national capital territory (nct) of delhi. in section 3, we review the information available in a number of research studies done in india that estimate welfare losses from air and water pollution. in section 4, we describe the command-and-control regulations currently used in india and how best the estimates of welfare losses can be used. in section 5, we discuss data requirements and gaps for using taxes and permits to control air pollution in india. in section 6, we consider methods for fixing liability for water pollution in india. finally, in section 7, we present a way forward, highlighting issues of immediate concern to environmental policy in india. 2. integrated urban air pollution assessment model iuapam the iuapam constitutes the following: 8 see section 2 for a discussion on air quality modelling and baumol and oates (1988) for a theoretical discussion on air quality modelling in the context of using pollution permits to reduce air pollution in urban areas. it explains that ambient pollution in urban areas comes from different sources. therefore, the effect of a certain source on ambient pollution depends upon wind direction, meteorological conditions, distance, etc. [49] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana (a) air quality modelling for urban areas (b) assessment of benefits and costs of air pollution reduction (c) exploration of strategies to reduce air pollution the information in the iuapam helps with designing emissions reduction strategies and judging their efficacy in determining the impacts on cost, air quality, and health. given the achieved air quality with a given abatement strategy, the model helps to estimate health damages avoided to populations exposed to air pollution. consider a more inclusive method of measuring air quality in an urban area in terms of pollution concentration at many receptor points (n) (baumal and oates 1988). identify the number of sources contributing to pollution (m) at each receptor point. the contribution of a source to the pollution at a given receptor point depends upon its distance from the receptor point and prevailing meteorological conditions in the urban area. let ei: i = 1,2 …m, quantity of pollution at source i qj: j 1, 2 …---n, air quality or pollution concentration at receptor point j dij: contribution of one unit of pollution from source i to pollution concentration at receptor point j the air quality or pollution concentration at receptor point j, qj, is given as i m i ijj edq    1 (1) there are nm  air quality diffusion coefficients (dij) in the model forming a nm  matrix. for practical purposes, the air quality at each receptor point could be an annual average, and the relationship between the pollution at a source and the air quality at a receptor point may be linear. developing a full matrix with information about diffusion coefficients may not be practical. a practical approach could involve dividing a big urban area into a small number of manageable zones, with a receptor point in each zone to measure air quality. in each zone, it could be assumed that the contribution of one unit (tonne) of pollution in the region to the pollution concentration at the receptor point is the same irrespective of the source of pollution. if the city is divided into s number of zones, the observed air quality in sth zone is given as ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] ssedq sss ,...,2,1,  (2) where es is the total quantity of pollution from all sources in region s, and ds is the contribution of one unit of pollution to the pollution concentration in region s, which is assumed to be constant. pollution concentration qs increases with the pollution load given the diffusion coefficient ds in a given region. in a scenario without regulations, the pollution concentration for the sth region has to be reduced from qs to q*, where q* represents the safe urban air quality standard, approved by the world health organization (who). therefore, the pollution load that has to be reduced in the sth region to comply with the who air quality standard could be obtained as sss dqqe /)( *  (3) using the information from this model about the pollution load reduction required (∆es), and the consequent improvement of air quality from the current level qs to who standards q*, the loss of well-being from air pollution in an urban region can be estimated. the estimates of the costbased and benefit-based shadow prices of air pollution discussed in this paper could be used along with air quality modelling information for estimating the loss of well-being. the cost-based shadow price (pc) is the cost to industry for reducing a tonne of pm10 emissions and the benefitbased shadow price (pb) is described as the reduction in health damages avoided by urban households per unit of reduction in pollution concentration (signifying a unit increase in ambient air quality). the costbased welfare losses (∆c) and benefit-based welfare losses (∆b) from urban air pollution could be obtained as )( * qqpb epc sb sc   (5) the information from this model could be used to design regulatory instruments of command and control; the economic instruments of pollution taxes and permits to deal with point source pollution; and subsidies and incentives for polluters to use appropriate production technologies to reduce pollution from non-point sources to realize the safe who air quality standard q* in a given region. the required reduction in emissions amounting to ∆es could be realized using any of these instruments. however, taxes and permits can achieve this required reduction at minimal cost, while command-and-control regulations are much more expensive. [51] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana to use command-and-control regulations, the regulator can determine the percentage by which the observed pollution load (qs/ds) exceeds the pollution load permitted by the who standard (q*/ds) in the region. then, the regulator could make it mandatory for each polluter to reduce their pollution by the required percentage points and, failing to do so, face penalties or closure. the regulator can use cap-and-trade regulations to reduce the pollution load to the permissible level or the who standard. initially, the allowable pollution load (permits) could be distributed among polluters based on their historically observed pollution levels. since a tonne of pollution, irrespective of its source, contributes the same amount (ds) to the ambient pollution concentration in the region, polluters could trade on a one-to-one basis. trade between lowand high-abatement cost polluters could help reduce pollution to the permissible level in the region at the least cost. the model could be considered for the national capital region (ncr), which consists of four regions: national capital territory (nct) of delhi, some districts in haryana, some districts in uttar pradesh, and some districts in rajasthan. the iuapam could be developed on the lines discussed above and used in the nct, especially to reduce particulate matter emissions. the nct planning board constituted under the nct planning board act, 1985, could coordinate between the governments of delhi, haryana, uttar pradesh, and rajasthan for this purpose. an interdisciplinary group of experts drawn from the cpcb and concerned spcbs, research institutes, and universities could be created to develop and implement this model in the nct. 3. some available estimates of the shadow prices of air and water pollution for india several studies have been done in india that provide estimates of welfare losses from air and water pollution. there are also many studies that offer estimated costs of air pollution and water pollution abatement. further, there are several scholarly studies that provide economic estimates of damages due to air and water pollution. murty, kumar, and dhavala (2007) use the generalized directional distance functions methodology to estimate the shadow prices of spm, so2, and nox using data from five coal-fired thermal power–generating plants belonging to andhra pradesh power generation corporation ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] (apgenco).9 this study uses panel data containing 480 observations of electricity produced, air pollutants generated (spm, so2, and nox), and coal and other inputs that the five electricity-generating plants employ. in the estimation, the electricity generated is considered a good output while the three pollutants spm, so2, and nox are considered bad outputs. on reviewing the shadow prices of spm, so2, and nox, it is clear that to reduce the emissions of a pollutant by one tonne, a representative firm has to spend inr 12,571, inr 4,956, and inr 17,698 (at 2018 prices), respectively. recent studies by jain and kumar (2018) and murty and nagpal (2019) derive estimates of the shadow prices of co2 emissions for the indian thermal power generation industry. murty and nagpal (2019) arrive at two estimates using a by-production model and distance function model with a weak disposability assumption. they use unbalanced panel data from 51 firms for the nine years between 2004–2015. the estimates at 2018 prices using the by-production model and the distance function model are inr 6,806 and inr 6,106, respectively. an effective carbon rate of eur 30 (inr 2,382.1 at 2018 prices) per tonne was reported in a publication by oecd (2018); this is considered the lowest damage estimate of carbon emissions. most european countries price carbon at this or a higher rate. it is suggested that to achieve the goals of the paris agreement, a carbon rate of usd 40–80 (inr 2,840–5,680 at 2019 prices) by 2020 and usd 50–100 (inr 3,550–7,100 at 2019 prices) by 2030 is required due to the accumulation of co2 emissions and the consequent increase in marginal damages over time. these estimates of co2 form a range of inr 2,840– 7,100 at 2019 prices. estimates of the damages resulting from air pollution to households in an urban area, based on current pollution levels above safe ambient standards, and the pollution load to be reduced for each pollutant, have to be obtained to estimate the benefit-based welfare losses. murty, gulati, and banerjee (2004) use the revealed preferences method of hedonic property prices to estimate the environmental benefits of reducing the spm concentration to the minimal national standards (minas) in the megacities of delhi and kolkata. the study estimates a typical household’s willingness to pay to reduce the level of ambient spm pollution to the minas standards level in delhi and kolkata to be inr 46,498 and inr 23,346, respectively, at 2018 prices. by extrapolating these estimates for the entire population of each 9 see murty and russell (2020) and chambers and färe (2020) for recent discussions on the methodologies of by-production models and distance functions for estimating shadow prices of pollutants or bad outputs. [53] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana city, the annual benefits come to inr 109,173 million for delhi and inr 73,719 million for kolkata, at 2018 prices. it is necessary to conduct similar studies to estimate the benefits of reducing pm10, so2, and nox to minas standards. additionally, there is an urgent need for air quality modelling information for megacities in india10 to ensure that polluters are held liable using command-and-control regulations to realize ambient standards. several studies have estimated the costs of water pollution abatement— shadow prices or marginal abatement costs (mac)—in india using the pollution abatement cost function methodology. 11 these studies were conducted during the 1992–1999 period. murty and kumar (2002, 2004) estimate the shadow prices of water pollutants for indian industries using the distance function methodology with the assumption of weak disposability. the data used in these studies are from a survey of waterpolluting industries in india done by the institute of economic growth, delhi. these data reveal the characteristics of the main plants and effluent treatment plants for the years between 1994 and 1995. estimates of average shadow prices or marginal costs of abatement per tonne of bod, cod, and ss for indian water-polluting industries are inr 57,427.92, inr 216,854.94, and inr 71,570.6, respectively, at 2018 prices. many studies estimate welfare losses from ambient river water pollution and groundwater pollution in india using environmental valuation methods. for example, markandya and murty (2000) attempted a comprehensive evaluation of the ganga action plan (gap), a project initiated by the government of india to clean the river and bring the water up to a bathing quality standard. this study estimated the user and nonuser benefits of a clean ganga using a contingent valuation method. nonuser benefits were assessed through a survey of urban households in all major cities in india. user benefits, including health benefits, were estimated through a survey of households along the river, covering major urban and rural areas. a typical household’s annual willingness to pay to improve the quality of water up to a bathing standard was estimated to be inr 1,501 for non user benefits and inr 1,593 for user benefits, at 2018 prices. the total annual nonuser and user benefits were estimated at inr 16,081 million and 22,044 million, respectively, at 2018 prices. 10 see section 2 for a discussion on air quality modelling. 11 the studies include those by gupta, murty, and pandey (1989), james and murty (1996), mehta, mundle, and sankar (1997), ganguli and roy (1999), goldar and pandey (2001), and appasamy (2002), among others. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] 4. using command-and-control regulations there are stack emission standards and ambient standards for air pollution and approaches to ensure the liability of firms depending on whether one considers the former or the latter. the stack emission standards for pm, so2, and nox in india are 115, 80, and 80 milligrams per cubic metre (nm3), respectively. the command-and-control regulations used to estimate the liability of each firm that exceeds the permissible pollution load are based on the pollution load that each firm needs to reduce to achieve industry-wise source-specific standards. this value is the product of the total pollution load in tonnes that the firm has to reduce and the shadow price of the pollutant. the pollution load to be reduced is the difference between the observed concentration of the pollutant and the recommended concentration as per industry-wise source-specific standards. the shadow price of the pollutant is the change in the abatement cost to the firm when one unit of the pollution load is reduced at margin. a review of studies done in india provides estimates of the shadow prices of pm, so2, and nox at inr 11,651.98, inr 4,592.98, and inr 16,403.52 per tonne, respectively, at 2018 prices. polluting firms’ immediate compliance with fixed stack emission standards does not necessarily ensure a change in the pollution load in an urban area to ambient standards. indeed, stack emission standards have to be changed dynamically, with the rising number of polluters, to maintain ambient standards. as discussed in section 2, information from air quality modelling for urban areas in india could be used to determine permissible pollution loads of pm, so2, and nox for maintaining ambient air quality standards. regular monitoring of polluting firms by pollution control boards would reveal the total loads of these three pollutants. the actual pollution load in the city may exceed the estimated pollution load for ambient standards, as explained by the iuapam model discussed in section 2. as per this model, if the load exceeds permissible standards by x%, the regulator using the command-and-control method could mandate an x% reduction of the pollution load of each firm. different approaches are needed to determine liability for water pollution depending on the polluter: big factories, small factories in industrial estates, and households in urban areas. big factories employ in-house treatment technologies and effluent treatment plants, small factories in industrial estates have common effluent treatment plants (cetp), and householdbased effluents in urban areas are treated in municipal sewage treatment plants. in the case of a big factory, the quantity of each pollutant (bod, cod, and ss) to be reduced to comply with source-specific standards could be estimated, given the observed volume of residual water, influent [55] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana and effluent quality, and standards. given an estimate of the unit cost of abatement or shadow price for each pollutant, the penalty for the factory could be fixed by pollution control boards using the command-and-control method. again, factories complying with fixed source-specific water pollution standards for polluters in a river basin does not guarantee ambient river water quality. as the number of polluters around the river basin increase, the pollution load to be reduced to maintain the ambient standards of the river increases. this necessitates dynamic source-specific water pollution standards. information on water quality modelling similar to the iuapam model discussed in section 2 for the river basin and dynamic source-specific standards for polluters is needed to fix the liability of polluters to uphold ambient river water quality standards. 5. using market-based instruments the command-and-control regulations described in section 4 are ineffectual, resulting in firms using cost-inefficient abatement technologies to comply with the standards. it is, therefore, vital to use pollution taxes, permits, and standards. these instruments provide incentives to polluting firms to choose cost-minimizing abatement technologies. 5.1 pollution taxes and standards this method requires the regulator or government to estimate the pollution abatement cost function that explains the polluters’ choices of cost-efficient abatement technologies. given an estimate of the marginal cost of abatement function and scientifically fixed safe environmental standards, the pollution tax could be determined and levied uniformly on all polluting firms. the pollution tax on a particular pollutant is fixed based on the marginal cost of abatement at the level of pollution corresponding to the standard. the tax imposed makes the liability of a firm higher than the cost of complying with the standards. therefore, the firm has an incentive to reduce pollution rather than pay a tax. some studies 12 offer a method of determining pollution taxes for the thermal power–generating industry to reduce air pollution using the estimated marginal cost of pollution abatement functions for spm, so2, and nox. pollution tax rates are derived for air pollutants for a representative thermal power plant in andhra pradesh, using the estimated mac functions and minas stack emission standards. given the emission standards of 115, 80, and 80 milligrams per nm3for spm, so2, and nox, 12 see murty and gulati (2006) and murty, kumar, and dhavala (2007). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] respectively, and the mac functions for each of these pollutants, the tax rates are estimated at inr 5,524.03, inr 54,000.71, and inr 14,616.69, respectively, at 2018 prices. 5.2 pollution permits and standards pollution permit trading is a quantity-based regulation for reducing pollution. implementing pollution permit trading requires the following: a cap on emissions, distributing emission permits among polluters, and ensuring monitoring and compliance.13 examples of successful emissions trading systems are so2 trading in the us and co2 trading in the european union. in case of local pollutants like particulate matter, given the ambient pollution standards for a city or a specified region (mg per cubic metre), permissible pollution loads from sources have to be identified and comply with ambient standards. for example, the total pollution load from sources in a region may far exceed the permitted pollution load for ambient standards. the permitted pollution load has to be fixed as a cap. information about air quality modelling for the region as per the iuapam model described in section 2 is needed to decide the cap on emissions.14 after deciding the target reduction or cap on emissions, emission permits are created, accounting for tonnes of emissions. these permits are distributed among firms based on their current emissions or through auctions. this, in turn, creates incentives for firms to engage in permit trading, with low-abatement cost firms supplying permits and highabatement cost firms demanding them. trading takes place until the marginal cost of abatement is equal among all firms, resulting in cost minimization to achieve target reductions. the success of the permit trading system depends on the regulator monitoring the actions of firms and, if necessary, resetting the cap or target reductions over time. given that particulate matter emissions are the main cause of concern in urban regions of india, pollution control boards and the government could design and implement permit trading systems to deal with this problem. at present, no country in the world uses cap-and-trade regulation to deal with particulate matter emissions. historically, this regulation is used in developed countries to deal with so2 and co2 emissions.15 in india, there are currently two capand-trade schemes: the renewable energy certificates scheme, and the bureau of energy efficiency’s (bee) perform, achieve, trade (pat) scheme. in addition, there was a study conducted in india to estimate the 13see duflo, pande, greenstone, and ryan (2010). 14see section 2 for details. 15sulphur dioxide (so2) emissions in the us and carbon dioxide (co2) emissions in the european union. [57] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana cost-effectiveness of a cap-and-trade programme for intra-firm trade to control particulate matter emissions.16 recently, the gujarat pollution control board (gpcb) launched a novel cap-and-trade regulation for particulate pollution in surat.17 those who are planning and executing this scheme observed that the most challenging problem was to get all the necessary information about particulate matter emissions from different sources in the region. first, this involved the development of protocols for the continuous monitoring of particulate matter coming from stacks and, second, the installation of a continuous emissions monitors system (cems). the cems constitutes a network of sensors installed at industries that sends live readings of stack pollution. the indian government has made it mandatory for 17 highly polluting sectors (such as pulp and paper, distilleries, sugar, tanneries, power plants, and iron and steel) to install cems. however, the study points out that the challenge is in getting the cems to produce reliable information, for which the gpcb has been making all possible monitoring efforts. continuous monitoring by gpcb is necessary so that the cems is calibrated to accurately detect pollution in stack emissions. 5.3 economic instruments to control co2 emissions greenhouse gas emissions have both domestic externality effects (health damage) and global externality effects (climate change). some specific institutional arrangements are required to use taxes and permit instruments to deal with these externalities. the literature shows that the optimal tax for a carbon-intensive commodity in a country can be broken down into revenue tax, local air pollution tax, and international carbon tax (murty 1996). there are many possible institutional alternatives for international agreements to tax carbon-intensive commodities to control local and global environmental pollution. harmonization of domestic taxes on carbonintensive commodities is one such option. however, such an arrangement could not result in optimal carbon taxes to reduce carbon emissions to the level of the global optimum. additionally, this arrangement could provide incentives to countries that are party to the agreement to freeride (hoel 1991a, 1991b). research shows that a uniform international tax on carbon 16see rita pandey (2004). 17the gujarat pollution control board (gpcb), in collaboration with the energy policy institute of the university of chicago (epic-india), the abdul latif jameel poverty action lab (j-pal south asia), and the evidence for policy design at harvard university (epod india), has been experimenting since 2011 on using emissions trading regulations for particulate matter emissions in surat, gujarat. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] emissions, agreed to by all member countries, may help reduce emissions to a global optimum. there is a clear choice between a carbon tax and carbon permits instruments in the context of using them to reduce carbon emissions or climate change mitigation by member countries. weitzman (1974) shows that if there is uncertainty about the benefits and costs of pollution abatement, there will be efficiency losses in the execution of tax and permit instruments. this is a likely hypothetical scenario that a regulator, say the world government in this case, has to encounter in making a choice between a carbon tax and carbon permits for climate change mitigation (stern 2007). to reduce carbon emissions to the global optimum level, member countries need to agree to use either an international carbon tax or a cap-and-trade regime. however, there is no agreement of this type so far among countries in spite of international discussions on climate change mitigation. instead, through the latest paris agreement on climate change, many member countries have agreed to nationally determined emissions reductions; india is party to this agreement.18 india has to consider using various domestic policies: taxes on carbonintensive commodities, subsidies for non-conventional energy sources (solar, wind, and hydropower), a uniform national carbon tax, and carbon permit–trading among polluters (trading between industries using fossil fuels, trading between indian states, etc.). given that india does not yet use the economic instruments of taxes and permits to deal with local pollution problems, it could use the budgetary policy instruments of commodity taxes and subsidies and even the inefficient regulatory instrument of command and control to reduce carbon emissions. the liability of polluters for co2 emissions could be fixed using command-and-control regulations, given the estimate of the shadow price of co2 emissions (inr 6,000 per tonne) reported earlier. 5.4 fixing the liability for non-point sources of air pollution 18 at the un framework convention on climate change in 2015, the parties communicated their intended nationally determined contributions for greenhouse gas reductions. india committed by 2030 (a) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 33–35% below the 2005 level, (b) to realize 40% of india’s power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, and c) to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of co2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover. however, it has to be noted that the estimated aggregate greenhouse gas emissions levels in 2025 and 2030, based on the intended nationally determined contributions by all parties, do not fall within the least-cost 2˚c scenarios. a much greater emissions reduction effort will be required to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2˚c above pre-industrial levels. [59] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana air pollution generated by road transport is a non-point source of pollution; hence, it becomes difficult to assign liability to a single major polluter and to charge a pollution tax. a study by pandey and bharadwaj (2004) describes various policy options that address taxes, fuel choices, and vehicular technologies to control vehicular pollution in india. murty and gulati (2006) and murty, dhaval, ghosh, and singh (2006) discuss a method for assigning pollution abatement liability to road vehicles. in these studies, the pollution abatement cost for various categories of vehicles is estimated as the sum of the cost of switching to prescribed vehicular technologies and using better fuels to comply with the stipulated emission norms. the high degree of correlation among the emission variables recorded in this study indicates that the transition from one emission control vehicular technology to another simultaneously ensures the reduction of emissions from all pollutants. the annual cost of abatement for a passenger car is estimated by taking the maximum of the abatement cost values for all emissions, i.e., for co2, nox, and hc (hydro carbon). the pollution emissions standards for the road sector adopted in india correspond to euro norms, which vary with the type of vehicle. subsequently, there exists a variation in vehicular technologies and fuel quality according to the different stages of the euro norms, i.e., euro i, ii, iii, iv, v, and vi. the study estimates the vehicle-wise pollution abatement cost by adding the cost of upgrading vehicular technologies and of using better quality fuel to conform to the prescribed emissions norms, as shown in table 1. for instance, the annual cost of abating pollution for a passenger car following euro iii norms can be approximated to inr 15,315 (inr 11,317 for the technology + inr 3,998 for fuel), at 2018 prices. therefore, regulators or the government could impose liability on vehicle owners for not following the prescribed norms (euro v or vi at present) using this method. table 1: estimates of the cost per vehicle for changing from pre-euro to euro 3 emissions norms (inr at 2018 prices) vehicle change in technology fuel cost total cost car 11,317 3,998 15,315 bus 36,664 20,478 57,142 truck 36,664 21,349 58,013 two-wheeler 9,847 1,736 11,583 three-wheeler 12,448 2,194 14,642 source: murty and gulati (2006) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] 6. fixing the liability of polluters for water pollution water-polluting firms in india are required to meet these water quality standards set by the cpcb: 35mg/l for bod, 250mg/l for cod, and 100mg/l for ssp. using the tax standard method, a pollution tax could be levied given estimates of the marginal cost of abatement for water-polluting industries in india and source-specific standards for each pollutant. as pointed out in section 3, numerous studies in india have estimated the marginal cost of water pollution abatement for different industries. for example, a study by mehta, mundle, and sankar (1994) recommends that the mac for relatively high-cost producers should serve as the basis for setting charges/taxes to ensure that producers find it cheaper to abate than to pollute. in this study, the authors recommend four options for experimentation by policymakers: (i) abatement charges with the government undertaking clean up; (ii) abatement charges with clean up contracted to organizations through competitive bidding; (iii) a tax proportional to the excess pollution for firms violating standards and subsidies for those exceeding the prescribed abatement standards; and (iv) a private permit trading system. this study estimates the mac function for water pollutants in the pulp and paper industry in india. it uses the abatement cost as a function of the quantity of treated water and pollution concentrations in the influent and effluent. this function estimates the marginal cost in inr per 100 gm reduction in the effluent bod. the average marginal cost per 100 gm of bod to achieve the minas level of bod (50 mg/l) is estimated to be inr 10.69, at 2018 prices. mac functions can be used to estimate the cost of a reduction in the effluent for a given level of influent and wastewater. given the minas standards for bod and the estimated mac function, the pollution control authority could set its charges at inr 6.33 per 100 gm of extra bod, at 2018 prices. a municipal sewage treatment plant in an urban area receives effluents from households and untreated effluents from industries. the municipality charges households in the form of a water pollution tax or cess as part of the price of the municipal water supply. given that pollution control boards collect penalties or fees from industries that do not comply with standards, they have to compensate the municipality for treating industrial and household effluents. in the case of river pollution, studies by markandya and murty (2000, 2004) consider several different mechanisms for financing the ganga action plan (gap) of the government of india for cleaning the ganga in a sustainable [61] sukanya das, m.n. murty, and kavita sardana manner. they are (i) a polluter pays principle, (ii) a user pays principle (with government involvement), (iii) a user pays principle (without government involvement), and (iv) funding from the general tax system. under the polluter pays principle, a water charge per kl is collected as a tax or as a part of a water tariff on all industrial effluents. the user pays principle with government involvement would mean a tax on all beneficiaries. this study estimates the annual willingness of a typical urban household to pay for ensuring bathing quality of the river water at inr 1,506 for non user benefits and inr 1,599 for user benefits, at 2018 prices. the total annual nonuser and user benefits are estimated at inr 16,130 million and inr 22,111 million, respectively, at 2018 prices. given that a typical household in india is willing to pay inr 3,104 annually at 2018 prices for bathing quality river water, a river cleaning tax of this amount for each household could be a feasible way to raise money to keep the river clean. 7. a way forward in india, the failure to control air and water pollution is attributable to the arbitrary use of command-and-control regulations for controlling industrial pollution and the use of incorrect approaches to deal with non-point sources of pollution like in the transport sector in urban areas. policy initiatives by the indian government have not taken into account economic instruments such as pollution taxes and pollution permits. as discussed in this paper, apart from the information in the environmental valuation studies, air quality and water quality modelling is essential to effectively use pollution taxes, pollution permits, and command-and-control instruments. the iuapam could potentially be used to control air pollution in the national capital territory (nct) of delhi. there is an urgent need for government and non-governmental initiatives to develop information systems for all major urban areas and river systems in india. without such information, policy instruments, including command and control, become ineffective, as in the current reality in india. more studies have to be done in major urban areas in india to estimate health and other welfare losses for households and industry-specific pollution abatement costs due to air and water pollution. these estimates, along with an estimate of the pollution dispersion coefficient matrix, become important inputs for using iuapam to determine the liability of polluters in an urban region. controlling pollution from non-point sources of pollution like road transport vehicles and water pollution from agriculture requires designing specific approaches. one approach to fixing the liability of vehicular traffic ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] is 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of violence joan martinez-alier  and brototi roy  the term ecological distribution conflicts (edcs) was coined about 20 years ago by ecological economists (martinez-alier and o’connor 1996) to describe social conflicts born from the unfair access to natural resources and the unjust burdens of pollution. the ultimate cause of such conflicts is the growth and changes in the social metabolism (the flows of energy and materials) concomitant with economic growth. in political ecology, the terms socio-environmental conflict, environmental conflict or edc are interchangeable. despite the processes of technological change and ‘ecological modernization’, unfair ecological distribution appears to be inherent at different scales to world capitalism, defined by k. w. kapp (1950) as a system of cost-shifting. in environmental neoclassical economics, the preferred terms are ‘market failure’ and ‘externalities’, a terminology that implies that such externalities could be valued in monetary terms and internalized into the price system. if we accept commensurability of values, then ‘equivalent’ eco-compensation mechanisms could be introduced. instead, the environmental social sciences such as ecological economics and political ecology advocate the acceptance of different valuation languages to understand such conflicts and the need to take them into account. while ‘economic distribution conflicts’ in political economy describes conflicts between capital and labour (profits vs. salaries), or conflicts on  guest editor and coordinator for this special section. institute of environmental science and technology, autonomous university of barcelona, spain; joanmartinezalier@gmail.com.   institute of environmental science and technology, autonomous university of barcelona, spain; brototi.econ@gmail.com. copyright © martinez-alier and roy 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.53 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.53 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] prices between sellers and buyers of commodities, or conflicts on the interest rate to be paid by debtors to creditors, the term edc in ecological economics and political ecology stresses the idea that unequal or unfair distribution of environmental goods is not always coterminous with ‘economic distribution’ as, for instance, rents paid for by the tenant farmers to landlords, or the international terms of trade of the south american economy, or claims for higher wages from mining unions opposing company owners. ‘ecological distribution conflicts’ is then a term for collective claims against environmental injustices. there are different valuation languages deployed in such conflicts, and economic compensation is only one of them. in such conflicts, incommensurable values come into play (conde and martinezalier 2016). the three articles in this special section have some aspects in common. all three deal with edcs in india and accept incommensurability of values. the methodology used in the articles is a mix of fieldwork and secondary literature review, along with insights from the ejatlas (temper et al 2015; temper et al 2018). all three articles also attempt to look at the means, methods and manifestations of violence in edcs in india. the article by arpita bisht draws on her doctoral thesis and her previously published overview article on “ecological distribution conflicts over mineral extraction in india” (bisht and gerber 2017). in this previous work, she had focused mainly on metal mining. here she focuses on another important element of the social metabolism of indian economysand and gravel extraction for the construction industry and for other industries. india has given some terms to the global vocabulary of environmental justice (martinez-alier et al 2016), and one of them is, in english, the term “sand mafia”, used by activists and journalist. apart from the ecological harm, as it endangers several species of flora and fauna and alters the patterns of access to river beds and beaches by local people, the striking facet of sand ‘extractivism’ in india is the violence associated with the activity. through comparative analysis of different instances of violence that arise, bisht concludes that the sand mafia was born from the nexus between local politicians and extractive agents, as well as from the high profits which miners make from illegal activities which create unequal power dynamics. this economic activity leads to violence against a broad range of social actors from activists to police officers to peasant leaders, and involves verbal and physical harassment and several cases of murder of people trying to stop the activity. power determines which valuation languages [29] joan martinez-alier and brototi roy predominate – money triumphs in this case (illegally gotten money) over environmental and livelihood values. the second article in this section is by eleonora fanari. an italian by birth, she had spent more than five years in india, during which time she was also learning and working with the environmental organization kalpavriksh in pune. she has travelled in pursuit of her research interest in what we call in the ejatlas “biodiversity conservation conflicts”. by this we mean conflicts arising between conservationist organizations and the local people, of which sadly there are many examples in india (as also in africa and other world regions). in her article, fanari notices how conflicts due to biodiversity conservation projects have been growing elsewhere in the world as well as in india. there can be a confluence of conservation and local interests and values (as in the case of the conflict on silent valley in kerala some decades ago) but often environmental protection is implemented at the expense of indigenous communities living within and around such biodiversity spots, which in india are sometimes tiger reserves. the study analyses the violent process of relocation and displacement from some of the best-known protected areas of india, and examines the laws and regulations that legalize the relocation of communities from their ancestral land, in contrast with the legal recognition of community’s forest rights under the forest rights act (fra). the third article, by brototi roy and joan martinez-alier, also deals with violence in some edc s in india. the subject is enormous. their source is mainly the ejatlas (which held nearly 300 cases from india in december 2018 in a total of 2660 cases worldwide). from the many cases of environmental conflict included in this and other inventories (roy, 2018), they select only a few in odisha and tamil nadu for examining “extreme violence against environmental defenders” (a variable for which india appears to score at the world average) to other forms of violence: structural, cultural and ecological. the authors draw on work by grettel navas et al. (2018) on violence in environmental conflicts in central america, and use the notion of slow or silent violence in protracted conflicts that have to do with deteriorating human health because of pollution (as from use of endosulfan in kerala, or sulphur dioxide from copper smelting in thoothukudi in tamil nadu, or in patancheru near hyderabad – all of them are present in the ejatlas), comparing it with cultural and structural violence in cases of dispossession of adivasi population. the article concludes by asking for increased south-south collaboration in academicactivist co-produced research on environmental justice movements, research that would throw light on the realities of violence, which sometimes escape the lens of ecological economics and political ecology. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] acknowledgements this special section is a contribution from the envjustice project, funded by the european research council (erc) advanced grant (no. 695446). references bisht, a. and j.f. gerber. 2017. “ecological distribution conflicts (edcs) over mineral extraction in india: an overview.” the extractive industries and society 4 (3): 548–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.03.008 conde, m and j. martinez-alier. 2016. “ecological distribution conflicts.” ejolt glossary. http://www.ejolt.org/2016/04/ecological-distribution-conflicts/ kapp, k.w. 1950. the social costs of business enterprise. cambridge: harvard university press. martinez-alier j. and m. o’connor. 1996. “ecological and economic distribution conflicts.” in getting down to earth: practical applications of ecological economics edited by r. costanza, j. martinez-alier, and o. segura. washington, dc: island press/isee. martinez-alier, j., l. temper, d. del bene, and a. scheidel. 2016. “is there a global environmental justice movement?” journal of peasant studies 43 (3): 731-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 navas, g., s. mingorria, and b. aguilar-gonzalez. 2018. “violence in environmental conflicts: the need for a multidimensional approach.” sustainability science 13 (3): 649–660. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0551-8 roy, b. 2018. “ecological distribution conflicts in india: a bird’s eye view.” ecologia política 55: 24-31. temper, l., d. del bene, and j. martinez-alier. 2015. “mapping the frontiers and front lines of global environmental justice: the ejatlas.” journal of political ecology 22 (1): 255-278. https://doi.org/10.2458/v22i1.21108 temper, l., f. demaria, a. scheidel, d. del bene, and j. martinez-alier. 2018. “the global environmental justice atlas (ejatlas): ecological distribution conflicts as forces for sustainability.” sustainability science 13 (3): 573-584. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0563-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.03.008 http://www.ejolt.org/2016/04/ecological-distribution-conflicts/ https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0551-8 https://doi.org/10.2458/v22i1.21108 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0563-4 ecology, economy, and society–the insee journal 6(2): 121-145, july 2023 research paper the political ecology of an environmental crisis in the brahmaputra valley, assam mitul baruah* the concept of progress is to be grounded in the idea of the catastrophe. that things “just go on” is the catastrophe. it is not that which is approaching but that which is. ―walter benjamin, central park (1985 [1939], 50) abstract: political ecology as a framework for studying nature–society relations has come a long way since the 1980s, both in terms of its thematic canvas as well as theoretical robustness. research in political ecology on hazards on the other hand has not grown as impressively, even though humanity is witnessing increased risks and disasters in the anthropocene. indeed, disasters are no longer “extreme events” and have come to be regarded as normal occurrences. this paper delves deeper into the question of the political ecology of hazards and vulnerability by focusing on a case study from majuli river island in india’s northeast. it critically investigates the twin disasters of flooding and riverbank erosion in majuli by paying attention to the role of the biophysical features of the brahmaputra river system as well as the political economic forces at play, with a special focus on the role of the state. the paper draws on fieldwork conducted in majuli over several years. it foregrounds the role of the state in the reproduction of the majuli hazardscape and calls for a nuanced, disaggregated analysis of the postcolonial disastrous state. keywords: brahmaputra valley, majuli, hazardscape, flood, riverbank erosion, disaster, political ecology, the state. 1. introduction this article presents a political ecological analysis of a disaster in assam. the relationship between the fields of political ecology and hazards research is deep-rooted, particularly in the anglophone world. some of the foundational work in political ecology critically engaged with questions of hazards and * assistant professor of sociology/anthropology and environmental studies, ashoka university, haryana, india. mitul.baruah@ashoka.edu.in. copyright © baruah 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1054 mailto:mitul.baruah@ashoka.edu.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1054 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] vulnerability (blaikie 1985; blaikie and brookfield 1987; watts 1983a, 1983b). this body of work showed how far from being “natural”, disasters had a social calculus. it located disasters within larger political economic contexts and examined them from a historical materialist perspective. recent scholarship on hazards has engaged more directly with frameworks of political ecology (mustafa 2005; oliver-smith 2004; pelling 2012; sultana 2010, among others). however, the scholarship on hazards and vulnerability remains inadequate, lacking critical perspectives on several important areas, even as the environmental crises grow bigger in the anthropocene. one such area is the role of the state, and as this article demonstrates, a critical political ecological approach can help us gain deeper insights into the relationships between disasters and the state. drawing on ethnographic research conducted in majuli river island in assam, this paper critically investigates the role of the state in the reproduction of disaster and vulnerability, and in doing so, it attempts to re-theorize the postcolonial state in the specific context of hazardous geographies. located in the upper reaches of the brahmaputra, surrounded by the mighty river on the south and the subansiri on the north, majuli is one of the largest river islands in the world. the island is predominantly rural and is home to over 1,60,000 people belonging to diverse ethnic groups. majuli is also the nerve centre of the satras, medieval-era vaishnavite monasteries, that have significantly influenced the sociocultural and spiritual landscape of assam. historian arupjyoti saikia (2019, 25) describes majuli as “the best illustration of the extreme instability and volatility” of the brahmaputra river system, characterized by complex geological, geomorphological, and hydrological processes. what is now a river island was once part of the land formation on the southern bank of the brahmaputra. a series of geological processes and the unique fluvial dynamics of the brahmaputra river led to the formation of this river island (saikia 2019). majuli consists of a large, spindle-shaped landmass and dozens of smaller islands, locally known as chaporis or chars. the former represents a remnant floodplain—a relic island—that developed due to a process of sudden channel diversion and a branching of the brahmaputra, triggered by tectonic activities and associated mega flood events that took place in the early part of the eighteenth century (baruah 2022). the chaporis on the other hand are products of the fluvial dynamics of the river. it is important to note that the brahmaputra is the second largest sediment-laden river in the world, next only to the yellow river in china (goswami 1985). roughly 70% of the sediment carried by the brahmaputra [123] baruah is retained in its channel (goswami 1985),1 causing the rise of riverbeds and the formation of riverine islands throughout its course (see figure 1). these chaporis are “hybrid environments” (lahiri-dutt 2014a; also see lahiri-dutt 2014b; lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013) or “fluidscapes” (mukherjee and ghosh 2020), part water and part land, and are constantly in a flux—floating, sinking, and reappearing. such mid-channel landforms are characteristic of the ganges–brahmaputra–meghna system (lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013). in majuli, these are lived-in geographies, often home to people who were forced out of the main island by flood and erosion. they have worked to develop an agrarian economy in these volatile landscapes, in the middle of the mighty brahmaputra. figure 1: map of majuli source: map prepared by joe stoll, syracuse university cartography lab, the author in 2015. over the years, the island has gone through massive transformations due to the twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion. from a landmass of roughly 1,255 sq km in 1901, majuli has reduced to about 421 sq km today (sarma and phukan 2004). in the process, over 10,000 families have been rendered homeless within the island, while many families have migrated to other parts of assam. the volatility of the brahmaputra, as mentioned above, 1 this is due to the weight of the sediments as well as the declining velocity of water after it leaves the himalayan region and flows through the plains of assam (cf. lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013, 31). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] and a highly potent south asian monsoonal regime are critical factors behind the flooding and erosion in majuli and the brahmaputra valley as a whole. the sandy soil along the riverbanks is particularly erosion-prone (sarma and phukan 2004). furthermore, the formation of new islands in the upper reaches of the brahmaputra in recent years has impacted the flow regime of the river downstream, thereby accelerating processes of erosion in places like majuli (lahiri and sinha 2014). for instance, a roughly 300 sq km island by the name dibru-saikhowa has come up between dibrugarh and tinsukia upstream, with potentially dangerous implications for majuli and other places downstream (lahiri and sinha 2014). however, as this paper contends, it is the interventions, or the lack thereof, by the state that have rendered the twin processes of flooding and erosion in assam far more disastrous. the paper undertakes a critical investigation into the role of the state in the reproduction of disaster and vulnerability in majuli. the paper is divided into four sections. section 2 presents an in-depth examination of the majuli hazardscape. it begins with a historical overview of flood and erosion control approaches in assam, followed by a discussion on how hydraulic infrastructural elements, such as the embankments, have reproduced vulnerability in the majuli landscape. section 3 unpacks the “disastrous state” in majuli by looking closely at some of the forces behind the specific functioning of the state. this section presents rich ethnographic details to show the nature and logic of the everyday state in action in majuli. overall, the paper attempts to enrich the political ecology scholarship on hazards as well as research in state theorizations. 2. the production of a hazardscape2 as we sat on the verandah of mrigen kutum’s house in sumoimari village, located barely 100 meters away from the river, all we could see were a fleet of tractors, jcb excavators, dumper trucks, and rollers, deployed by the brahmaputra board for the construction of hydraulic infrastructures to check riverbank erosion. we could see boulder spurs, geo-bags, geo-mattresses, and rows of reinforced cement concrete (rcc) porcupines, but not the river. in kutum’s description, the river has been turned into a “heavily bandaged wound” by these infrastructures. most sumoimari households are located on the riverside, that is, outside the embankment, while a small section is in the 2 a hazardscape is an analytical framework that explains hazardous geographies as coproduced by the material processes of vulnerability and discursive formation, that is, how these geographies are “viewed, constructed, and reproduced by the expert/technocratic discourses about them” (mustafa 2005, 566). drawing on the idea of “landscape” in cultural geography, this concept further highlights how hazardous geographies are not just sites of vulnerability and suffering, but they also open up spaces for contestations and struggles over wider social justice (mustafa 2005). [125] baruah countryside or inside the embankment. it made a huge difference as to which side of the embankment one lived, but i will return to this subject later. for septuagenarian kutum who has lived all his life in sumoimari, the village has changed enormously. he attributed most of these transformations to the flood and erosion control measures—not the disasters themselves—that the state has adopted over the years. kutum was particularly critical of the embankments: we had our best time before the mathauris (embankment) were built. everything used to be ubhainadi (abundant): food grains, fish, and all other essentials. but ever since the embankments came up, our fields stopped receiving timely water and alluvium. this has destroyed our agriculture. the embankments have also severed our ponds and beels from the river, thus depriving them of both freshwater and fish. moreover, floods now wreak havoc on the island, as they are mostly flash floods occurring due to embankment breaching, which was not the case earlier. before, the floodwater used to come in gracefully and recede sooner. kutum grew up in a majuli of the pre-embankment era when the brahmaputra and the subansiri flowed through the island freely every year during the monsoon, nourishing its agricultural fields and replenishing the wetlands. back then, the tuni river, a natural anabranch of the brahmaputra, also traversed the island vigorously, enriching its biodiversity. although the embankment that runs through sumoimari now was constructed in the mid1990s, the village has witnessed the impacts of embankments since the late 1950s, when the first set were built in majuli. for mrigen kutum, the embankments and the cognate infrastructure were thus more than just a set of infrastructural elements; they were a force, as it were, that reshaped his world in front of his eyes. hence his strong critique of these interventions, and in it, he was not alone. as i travelled the length and breadth of the island interacting with people from different walks of life, i kept hearing story after story about the devastating impact of embankments, spurs, and other such infrastructural elements on people’s lives and local ecologies. sometimes, people shared wisdom about the river and its intricate ecologies that far surpassed what the sophisticated fields of hydrology and river engineering can tell us. for instance, on one occasion, an elderly person in sumoimari told me the following: nadikhon bor komal. moromere subo lage. (the river is very delicate. it should be touched with love.). i was awestruck by the profundity of this seemingly simple statement. unlike the world of river engineering that considers rivers as entities that can be harnessed, tamed, and altered at will, this remark by the villager reminds us of the living entity that a river is—a delicate being that requires love, not ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] techno-engineering. how should we really touch a river? it is this question of the touch that i turn to now, first by looking at the flood and erosion control in assam historically. 2.1 a brief history of flood and erosion control in the brahmaputra valley in assam, “flood control” has always been a top-down process. historically, the assamese peasantry did not consider a flood a calamity; instead, they welcomed it and relied heavily on annual flooding for their livelihood. the state, on the other hand, has always viewed a flood as a hazard that needs to be controlled. flood control as a systematic state intervention in assam dates back to the ahom period, although centralized management of water resources in general far preceded the ahoms (saikia 2019).3 it was during the reign of suhungmung (also known as the dihingia raja, after the dihing river) in the sixteenth century that widespread embankments or bunds were built for flood control, and subsequent ahom rulers expanded this initiative. the embankments allowed the ahom state to expand wet rice cultivation into the brahmaputra floodplains (guha 1967). flood control, however, gained further momentum during the colonial period.4 as early as 1827, only a year after the british takeover of assam from the burmese,5 david scott, the east india company’s first commissioner of assam, proposed that part of the revenue collected from assam be allocated for flood control measures, such as embankments (barooah 1970, 101). thus, very early on, the company administration began investing large amounts of money in repairing the ahom era bunds, which they believed to be highly dilapidated. work of such scale demanded a considerable labour force, and the company ensured that through an unprecedented mobilization of the assamese peasantry who did not have a choice but to follow the instructions. in addition to such large-scale repair work, the company also undertook the construction of new embankments and the excavation of canals and ditches along the brahmaputra and its tributaries (see figure 2). for the british, it was imperative to have complete control over the brahmaputra and its tributaries in order to reclaim the floodplains and maximize land revenue. this was seen as crucial to continuing the 3 the ahoms, descendents of the shan branch of the tai or thai family of south-east asia, ruled in assam for a long period of 600 years, from 1228 to 1826. the legacy of the ahom period is still prominent in all spheres of assamese society and culture. for more details about the ahom dynasty and their contribution to assam, see baruah (1985). 4 this was the case in the country as a whole. see, for instance, d’souza (2006), mishra (1997). 5 as per the terms of the treaty of yandabo, signed between the british east india company and the burmese on february 24, 1826, the burmese agreed to cede assam, along with a few other territories, to the british. this was the beginning of the colonization of assam. [127] baruah accumulation cycle of colonial capital. henry cotton, the chief commissioner of assam, was explicit about the need to harness the vast riverine tracts in assam and put them to “productive” use: [t]he millions of acres of culturable land now lying waste represent millions of rupees which might be dug out of the soil but are now allowed to lie useless like the talent wrapped in a napkin (cotton 1897, cited in saikia 2013, 11). figure 2: drone footage of a section of an embankment in salmora, majuli source: ron bezbaruah and the author the case of assam was emblematic of a much deeper phenomenon: the colonial fetishization of flood control. as rohan d’souza (2006) has shown, similar processes were already underway in bengal and the orissa delta. in its pursuit of endless capital accumulation, the colonial administration had to find ways to secure land revenue from “the river’s temperamental depredations” (d’souza 2006, 101). hence, “the idea of running protective embankments to separate field from river” became an “administrative fetish” for the colonial state (d’souza 2006, 101). it is important to note that up to the late nineteenth century, the assamese peasantry viewed flooding as largely beneficial, and instances of catastrophic floods were also rare. in fact, the government of india conducted a detailed inquiry in 1893 on the subject of flooding and embankments in assam, which established that the demand from the peasantry was overwhelmingly for ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] localized flood-control measures, such as the restoration of existing natural drainage systems, and not for embankments (saikia 2019, 268). for the colonial state, however, the vast riverine tracts of the brahmaputra valley were extremely suitable for jute cultivation. thus, within a short period of time, floodplain reclamation for jute cultivation became rampant, and in the process, the valley was radically reconfigured. by the early twentieth century, jute was the highest export earner for the government of india, and assam was second only to bengal in jute production. the massive conversion of the fragile riverine tracts into jute fields led to the reworking of their ecologies, rendering them highly vulnerable to floods and erosion. “flood” itself acquired a new meaning now since flood-induced damage became much more visible when jute fields were destroyed (saikia 2013). hence, embankments gained unprecedented salience in the colonial government’s efforts to control floods in the valley in the twentieth century. fast forward to the post-independence era. the historic 1950 earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 on the richter scale had a catastrophic impact on the brahmaputra valley landscape. suddenly, the riverbeds rose significantly, by several metres in some places; some old, iconic channels disappeared and were replaced by new ones; landslides and sedimentation gained unprecedented momentum; and the chapori geographies in the belly of the river were drastically altered. it was as if the brahmaputra riverscape had undergone a complete overhauling all of a sudden. riverbank erosion, too, attained a different scale after this mega event. since 1950, assam has lost over 400,000 hectares of land to riverbank erosion, which amounts to roughly 7.5% of the state’s total geographical area.6 this has also led to significant widening of the brahmaputra, up to 15 km in some places (goswami 1985). such massive reconfiguration of the river changed the nature of flooding and erosion in the valley forever. the mega floods that followed the 1950 earthquake—the 1952 and 1954 floods—wreaked havoc all over assam. in its desperation to find a solution to the flood crisis the state was facing, the assam government enacted the assam embankment and drainage act, 1953, which came into force in 1954, paving the way for the rapid proliferation of embankments throughout the state. within two decades of the execution of this act, the assamese state built over 4,500 kms of embankment, the third largest in the country at that time. much as in the brahmaputra valley as a whole, in majuli, too, the embankments have been at the heart of the state’s flood and erosion control measures. as per assamese chronicles (tamuli-phukan 1944), the first 6 this information was taken from the website of the ministry of water resources, government of assam (https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-management). https://waterresources.assam.gov.in/portlets/flood-management [129] baruah embankment in majuli dates to the ahom king pratap singha (1603–1641), also known as burha raja or the old king. it was during his reign that an embankment was constructed at meragarh,7 near present day bongaon (see figure 1), connecting the northern and southern borders of his kingdom (nath 2009, 255). remnants of the meragarh embankment are still present, but this remained the only embankment in majuli for a long time. it was only after independence that the number of embankments started increasing. built in 1952–1953, the 34.5-km haldhibari–bessamora dyke along the brahmaputra was the first one on the island in the post-independence era. a series of embankments came up after that, both along the brahmaputra and the subansiri, leaving the island with a wide network of these structures (see figure 3). today, the island is surrounded by over 115 km of embankment. although most of them were built within the first three decades of independence, construction and repair work continued throughout the twentieth century. in fact, as recently as 2013, a proposal was submitted by the majuli division of the water resources department (wrd) to the central water commission (cwc), new delhi, for a massive reinforcement of embankments on the northern bank of the island. thus, there seems to be no stopping the state’s fetish for embankments. the following statement by a high-ranking engineer in the wrd best echoes the state’s obsession with embankments: i would argue that there are actually two assams: one before the 1950 earthquake and one after. the post-1950 assam owes its sanskriti and sabhyata (culture and civilization) to the embankments, and by extension, the water resources department. had it not been for the embankments along the brahmaputra and its tributaries, the post-1950 assam would have been a miserable landscape—flooded, fragmented, and wild. […] the embankments have been and will be the savior of modern assam. such a statement may appear bizarre, but the truth is that this is the dominant sentiment within the agency. during my fieldwork, i spoke with wrd officials from different levels—from the chief engineer to the junior engineer (je) at the field level—and i never came across anyone denouncing the embankments. previously, the wrd was responsible for both flood and erosion control in majuli. however, faced with popular discontent with the agency due to its failure in preventing erosion in the late 1990s, the assam government was compelled to re-evaluate its capacity to handle the alarming rate of erosion in 7 the word garh means a bund or an embankment. near meragarh, one can find more ahom era relics, such as the iconic rawnapar pukhuri, a large tank, which is also an important tourist attraction today. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] majuli. in 1999, the government approached the board, a statutory body under the ministry of water resources, government of india, to intervene in the protection of majuli from riverbank erosion. since then, the board has been the main agency addressing the crisis of riverbank erosion in majuli. the board started implementing its three-phased scheme, protection of majuli island from floods and erosion, in 2005. what is interesting about this scheme is that the embankments remained one of the key interventions. even though the board proposed a range of other measures, such as permeable rcc porcupine screens and dampeners, boulder spurs, and sand-filled geo-bags and geo-mattresses, the raising and strengthening of embankments still remained a dominant intervention. such a “tech-fix approach” (wisner et al. 2004, 230) has rarely proven to be effective in controlling flood and erosion in majuli. rather, it has worsened these disasters, a phenomenon that wisner et al. (2004, 206) described as the “the paradox of flood control”. figure 3: a map of embankments in majuli source: the water resources department, majuli division (with permission). 2.2 infrastructures and vulnerability when i arrived in majuli in late 2012 to begin my fieldwork, the island was still recovering from a flood that had caused devastation earlier that year. behind this catastrophic flooding was one simple factor: the breaching of embankments. they were breached in as many as five different places [131] baruah throughout the island, catching the rural population off-guard and causing an instant deluge. sonowal kachari village, located on the easternmost corner of the island, was one of the worst-affected villages in the whole of majuli. the embankment breached right in front of this village causing havoc. several families lost their homes and cattle overnight. tuniram sonowal, one of those who suffered losses, said: ghar to bar jautijugia koi banai loishilu. eku norol, ratir bhitorot marubhumi hoi gol. (i had built my house as if it would last forever. but nothing remained, and it all turned into a desert overnight.). sonowal seemed to have used the word “desert” both literally and figuratively. as the embankment breached, the river deposited huge loads of sand instantly all over the village, giving it the appearance of a desert. at the same time, “desert” here also symbolizes loss, barrenness. sonowal went on to tell me how he had built a large house with as many as 75 poka khutas (concrete pillars), which got washed away overnight, along with roughly five dozen of his cattle. for rural families like sonowal’s, a loss of this magnitude is irrecoverable. for months following this flood, his family lived in a makeshift tent, and it was only about a year later that they rebuilt their home, which was obviously not comparable to their previous house. the embankments are built to control floods, but they are prone to breaching, leaking, and toppling. whenever an embankment is breached, there is total mayhem. thus, for people living in flood-prone areas, the embankments are a greater cause of worry than the flood itself. between 1969 and 2012, for instance, the island experienced 13 mega flood events, while low-intensity floods continued to affect the riverside villages every year, sometimes multiple times a year.8 during this period, the island has also lost huge landmasses to riverbank erosion. the old ahatguri mouza (revenue block) in lower majuli has almost entirely disappeared, the chaporis in the middle of the river are constantly being eroded, and a multitude of families have been rendered homeless on the island. the state’s techno-fix approach to disasters, which often finds expression in the form of embankments and cognate infrastructural elements, has been particularly responsible for these devastations on the majuli landscape (figures 4). in majuli, the embankments have produced a distinct spatiality of risk and vulnerability. they have divided the island into two distinct zones: countryside versus riverside, also known as the bhitor anchal and bahir anchal —that is, inside and outside region (see figure 2). the countryside represents the largest and 8 this information is based on a household survey that i conducted in 110 households across three villages in majuli in 2013–2014. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] the more prosperous part of the island. it has some of the more productive agricultural lands, particularly suitable for paddy cultivation, and it also has a significant share of the island’s wetlands. the countryside is also the business and administrative hub of the island. the riverside area is relatively less prosperous and has poorer infrastructure. it is also densely populated, with a predominance of the missing community. this region also includes the chaporis, that is, the more ephemeral parts of majuli. far from preventing floods and erosion, the embankments have rendered both these spaces much more vulnerable than before, and in distinct ways. figure 4: riverbank erosion ravaging part of salmora village in majuli source: author because of the embankments, the countryside does not experience annual flooding anymore, which may have given the population there a sense of security. this is, however, a false sense of security. in fact, the embankments have threatened the safety and security of the countryside in several ways. first, embankment breaching has become far too common in majuli, resulting in disastrous floods, whenever they occur. second, the embankments have blocked the natural inlets and outlets for water on the island. as a result, the countryside now faces a severe crisis of waterlogging post-monsoon every year, which leads to a variety of problems, such as stagnant wetlands with depleted fish stock, drinking water contamination, and the spread of malaria and water-borne diseases. third, due to the [133] baruah embankments, the fields in the countryside are now deprived of annual alluvium (polosh) that floodwater used to bring in earlier. it is not surprising that the farmers in the countryside are increasingly applying chemical fertilizers and pesticides in their fields, with potentially dangerous implications in the long run. figure 5: flood as an everyday phenomenon in areas outside embankments source: author in the riverside areas, conversely, the embankments have created a condition of permanent flooding (see figure 5). during the monsoon, the brahmaputra and its tributaries naturally swell up, more so now as the embankments have narrowed the course of the rivers. before the embankments were built, this water was distributed throughout the island, but now it cannot enter the countryside unless an embankment is breached. as a result, the riverside remains largely submerged during and long after the monsoon. with farmlands and grazing lands inundated for most of the year, people in the riverside face serious livelihood challenges. the effects of such low-intensity, everyday flooding in the riverside areas are many. for instance, tube wells in most riverside villages get submerged, causing an acute shortage of potable water. in addition to the health risks, the potable water crisis puts an extra burden on womenfolk, exposing them to greater risks. similarly, toilets in many rural households get submerged, which, too, has serious healthand gender ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [134] specific implications (baruah 2022). furthermore, the damage caused to the roads and bridges in the island’s interior affects people’s mobility, thereby rendering day-to-day activities extremely difficult. yet the state seems to view such conditions as the norm and does not make any effort to address them. the people are largely left to fend for themselves. hemanta das, a resident of dakhinpat kaibarta village, described the living conditions in the riverside areas as follows: we are victims of the embankment in multiple ways. unlike the bhitor anchal, our areas are flooded every year, and for a longer duration. being a nadi-kaxoriya gaon (riverside village), people in our village own very little land, which, too, is often inundated and not suitable for agriculture. […] much more upsetting to me is the fact that we now have to live with these huge ponds right in front of our houses, which were dug for the purpose of building and repairing the embankment. in the monsoon, these ponds usually overflow, and the entire area becomes like a drain. at that time, we can’t even access the road and it is a particularly dangerous situation for our kids. basically, we are squeezed between the river and a drain. figure 6: a boulder spur in sumoimari village, majuli source: author the riverside communities thus have to endure vulnerabilities of many kinds induced by the embankments. as hemanta’s account makes abundantly [135] baruah clear, life in the riverside zone is miserable irrespective of flood or erosion— they are “squeezed between the river and a drain”. for the chapori dwellers, it is worse. by confining the courses of such a massively sediment-laden river, the embankments have added to the volatility of the brahmaputra and its sediment dynamics downstream. in the process, the geographies of the chaporis have been rendered much more ephemeral, and life there is highly uncertain. people in these chaporis are constantly on the move, in search of a more secure place and a home. the inventory of hydraulic infrastructure in majuli is elaborate. a whole range of infrastructural elements—earthen, concrete, metallic, and other mixed—have proliferated in majuli over the past few decades. let me at this point briefly highlight the case of two more of these—the boulder spurs and the rcc porcupines (see figure 6 and figure 7)—and how they, too, have worsened the crises instead of solving them. spurs or groynes are anti-erosion measures constructed transverse to the river flow and extend from the bank into the river. the spurs are meant to keep the flow of the river away from the erosion-prone bank and are supported by a launching apron to prevent scouring under the water and the consequent toppling of the structure.9 the construction materials and design of a spur can vary depending on whether it is permeable or not. in india, the construction of spurs as a bank revetment measure dates back to the raj. d’souza (2006, 124), for instance, talks about a stone spur—the naraj spur—constructed along the mahanadi river in orissa in 1856–1863, which, “it was hoped, would restore the vitality of the mahanadi by redirecting the waters back into its main channel”. however, as d’souza (2006, 124) noted, “[within] a few years of operation, it became evident that the naraj spur failed to be the elegant solution. the delta, thus, despite the surgical stab of a spur into its clotted head remained rancorous and in mourning.” later, the naraj spur was converted into a barrage. in majuli, the spurs are a relatively recent intervention. the board proposed building five boulder spurs in majuli as part of its scheme. the construction of these spurs began in 2009– 2010 under phase ii and phase iii of its scheme. at the time of this research, the work was still ongoing. given that they have not been completed yet, it may be too early to write an obituary of these spurs, but there are enough early signs to doubt their efficacy. for instance, during the 2012 flood, spurs no. 1, 2, and 3, located between salmora and afalamukh on the southern tip of the island, were partially toppled even as they were under construction. boulders from these spurs were washed away, causing havoc in the 9 see the 2012 handbook of the central water commission, government of india, for more technical details about spurs as well as various other flood-control and anti-erosion measures. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] neighbouring villages.10 because of these risks, some people in the riverside villages referred to the spurs as “mrityubaan” (weapons of death). not only are the spurs unlikely to protect the island from erosion, but they may also render the downstream areas as well as the riverbanks on the other side much more susceptible to erosion, since the river now hits these places with far greater force. figure 7: rcc porcupines in the river near dakhinpat village, majuli source: author rcc porcupines are another widely used intervention by the board in majuli. first introduced in 2004 as part of the board’s “immediate measures” to check erosion, they saw massive scaling up in the next decade. an rcc porcupine is a prismatic-type permeable structure, comprising six rcc columns, joined together with iron nuts and bolts to form a tetrahedral frame. the individual units are connected using wire rope and placed on the ground in such a way that they are able to withstand the force and intensity of flow, especially during the monsoon. the primary function of these structures is to reduce the velocity of the flow along the bank by posing a partial obstruction to the flow and thereby inducing sediment deposition. they are 10 this information is based on my field observations and interaction with several families, in all three sites, that were affected by the toppling of the spurs. [137] baruah generally laid in different forms—as screens, spurs, and dampeners. in india, rcc porcupines have been deployed both in the brahmaputra and the ganges. thus far, there have been no systematic studies on the efficacy of these structures. in majuli, too, one will have to wait to see the outcome of these measures. according to the board, it has reclaimed about 18 sq km of land in majuli between 2004 and 2011, largely due to siltation caused by the rcc porcupines (government of india 2012, 12). the local communities, however, seemed to have rejected the rcc porcupines entirely. salmora resident dulal bora’s song expressed the general mood on the island about rcc porcupines. the song went like this: “porcupine, porcupine kona hahok potan dan…” (porcupine, porcupine/ giving fake rice to blind ducks…).11 many people on the island thought the rcc porcupines were a sheer waste of public money, while others complained that these structures obstructed navigation and fishing activities. it was perhaps a sign of the widespread rejection of these structures that nuts and bolts of rcc porcupines were regularly stolen. sometimes, the entire unit of a porcupine would disappear, with the rcc posts finding their way into the black market. 3. unpacking the disastrous state it is clear from the above discussion that the state has not been successful in protecting majuli from floods and erosion. although measures such as embankments and cognate infrastructural elements have proliferated on the island in the past few decades, they have failed to create a sense of security among the riverside communities. the erosion of the island continued unabated, and there has not been any let-up in the flood situation either. the case of majuli exemplifies the flood and erosion crises that the brahmaputra valley is facing as a whole. from rohomoria upstream to south salmora downstream, via palasbari, lahorighat, and many other places, the stories of devastation and loss due to floods and erosion are endless. why does the state, then, continue to follow the same old colonial approach to tackling floods and erosion? in other words, how do we make sense of a state that is producing more disasters while trying to control them? 3.1 beyond the accumulation of capital 11 this retired schoolteacher is locally well-known for his songs, poems, and assamese literary writing in general. his song on the rcc porcupine was a long one, with specific details on how the porcupines were a futile intervention by the government. he had composed a number of songs and parodies, with a humorous take on various interventions by the state in majuli. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] the relations between (colonial) capitalism and river engineering have been a subject of numerous studies globally (biggs 2012; colten 2005; evenden 2004; swyngedouw 1999). in india, rohan d’souza’s (2006) drowned and damned: colonial capitalism and flood control in eastern india remains one of the finest historical treatises on flood control during the raj. vital to d’souza’s work, focused on the mahanadi river in orissa, was locating flood control in orissa within a capitalist political economy that was uniquely colonial. “the colonial quest for transforming indian society”, d’souza (2006, 14) argued, “turned significantly on the need and urgency for instituting capitalist property, capitalist social relations, and its production and accumulation imperatives, which then inevitably translated into several scales of environmental change”. for a colonial state, too determined to transform and harness nature as part of its drive for capital accumulation, a floodvulnerable landscape was a necessity that required constant interventions and transformations. hence, embankments gave way to canals, which in turn gave way to multi-purpose river valley development (mprvd), despite repeated catastrophes and popular dissent. arupjyoti saikia’s (2013, 2019) rich historical account of colonial floodplain management in the brahmaputra valley also placed revenue concerns of the empire at the centre. for the colonial administration, saikia argued, the “reclamation” of the brahmaputra floodplains was necessary, as it offered huge potential for cash crop cultivation (of jute and tea, in particular). flood control enabled this land reclamation. while saikia’s and d’souza’s works remain invaluable for our understanding of colonial flood control in eastern india, in both these accounts, the conceptualization of the state seems rather simplistic. the state in their analysis appears to be a unitary entity, driven singularly by its accumulation imperative. while this may be true about the colonial state and may also explain the postcolonial state to some extent, as a large body of work now shows, the state is far from being unitary and state–society relations are much more complex and at times arbitrary (carswell and neve 2020; corbridge et al. 2005; ghertner 2017; glassman and samatar 1997; gupta 2012; sharma and gupta 2006; truelove 2021). with reference to the postcolonial state in northeast india, political scientist sanjib baruah (2020, 8) has talked about “hybrid political regimes”, which meant a “de facto informal partnership” between state and non-state armed actors. in majuli, where the non-state actors include both armed and unarmed groups, the latter consisting of, among others, contractors, student unions, the satras, and cronies of political leaders, such partnerships are widespread. i have discussed in greater detail elsewhere the nexus between engineers, contractors, and politicians in majuli and how that affects processes of environmental governance (baruah 2022). [139] baruah let me now present to you an anecdote from the field to explain the arbitrary functioning of the state in majuli: kai was an influential person in majuli, a close relative of a political leader at that time. his sprawling house in the village was always busy, functioning like the de facto office of a few government agencies in majuli. the day i was invited to his home for lunch, the gathering was relatively small—a select group of local contractors, a few bureaucrats and engineers, and a handful of local elites. i sat quietly, listening to their conversation and nodding occasionally with a few words. “the brahmaputra should be sold to china, they would do a much better job of managing it”, said an engineer. “all these public protests are sheer waste of time. they should be banned. somebody should eliminate x (referring to an activist)”, said a contractor. their conversation touched on a range of topics. eventually, an elaborate lunch was served—red rice, smoked pork, fish curry, and rice beer. post-lunch, the contractors, the engineers, and kai sat down with files, maps, and other documents in the courtyard. over the next couple of hours, they made a list of several projects in majuli for next year, under a particular department, and the names of contractors against each of these projects. in a way, the department’s work plan for the island for the next financial year was finalized at this meeting. the contractors present in the lunch/meeting received the lion’s share, of course. although the official sanction of these projects will require various procedures, as one of the contractors told me, they are “formalities”. “the real sanction”, he added, “is what we are doing here now”. a few months later, a protest broke out in a village on the easternmost corner of the island over a wrd project. this riverside village was devastated by the 2012 flood, as the embankment was breached and partially washed away right in front of this village. the protest concerned a “retirement bund” on this embankment. as it turned out, this was one of the projects that featured in the discussion at kai’s lunch. given the urgency and the scale of the work, it had been allotted to a group of contractors instead of a single contractor. however, the work was progressing extremely slowly, and its quality so compromised that the village community was worried about another catastrophe in the upcoming monsoon. hence, they took to the streets. in response, high-ranking bureaucrats from the wrd headquarters visited the site immediately, and the contractors were assigned stricter deadlines to complete the project. but most of the contractors were based in guwahati (assam’s capital city), busy implementing much larger projects elsewhere, and the retirement bund in majuli was the least of their priorities. so, some of them washed their hands off quickly by “sub-contracting” the project to other contractors who were locally based. as i later found out, this process of sub-contracting made a few more rounds. each time the work was sub-contracted, its quality suffered, as the new contractor lacked resources and experience. three years later, this embankment was breached once again, and a similar saga of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] devastation began in several riverside villages all over again. (baruah 2022: 78–79) this episode gives us a closer look at the functioning of the everyday state in majuli. as we have noticed, the government agency in question did not follow due procedure in finalizing its annual work plan. instead, plans were drawn up in an informal, arbitrary manner at the residence of a political leader, in the presence of a group of well-connected contractors. projects were allotted arbitrarily to this select group of contractors. so, when it came to implementing these projects, the contractors managed to circumvent the state easily. a second example may help illustrate the hybrid political regime at work in majuli. the non-state actor in this case is an armed group—the united liberation front of assam (ulfa). founded in 1979 with the goal of liberating assam from the union of india, ulfa was a hugely popular force in assam in its early stages.12 in majuli, the group had a strong popular base in the 1980s through the mid-1990s. the swampy, inaccessible geography of the island made it the militants’ most preferred base. however, the tragic incident of the murder of social activist sanjoy ghose in 1997 proved to be ulfa’s undoing in majuli. a well-regarded development professional and human rights activist in the country by that point, ghose came to majuli in 1996 as part of the association of voluntary agencies for rural development, north east (avard-ne).13 avard-ne initiated a variety of developmental activities in majuli, and ghose soon became a household name on the island. ulfa, however, suspected ghose of being a spy for the indian government, and on july 4, 1997, he was abducted in broad daylight from a village not too far from the administrative headquarter of majuli and was subsequently killed—his body was never recovered. ghose’s murder had a lasting impact on majuli. the news of his death was picked up by national and international media instantly, and avard-ne quit majuli shortly after. this incident gave majuli such adverse publicity that the island remained a prohibited place for ngos and activists for a long time. thus, the chances of any alternative engagement with the island’s myriad challenges, including floods and erosion, seemed to have been nipped in the bud. this marked the beginning of ulfa’s loss of popularity on the 12 for a more in-depth understanding of ulfa, see bhattacharya (2014), das (1994), and mahanta (2013), among others. parag das’s rich body of work, both fiction and non-fiction, provide us a critical understanding of the early stage of ulfa and the assamese society of that time. notable among das’s work include sanglot fenla, roughly translated as revolution’s army (1993), swadhinatar prastab (proposal for independence), 1993, and rastrodrohir dinalipi (a seditioner’s diary), 1992. 13 see ghose (1998) for a collection of some of ghose’s writings on assam. [141] baruah island. combined with this incident was the increased state repression of the outfit, which not only broke its back, but also took a toll on its popularity, as the local population was too terrified to extend support to the militant group. it was perhaps under such circumstances, i argue, that ulfa had to change its ways of functioning drastically. a force that was once dreaded by corrupt officials, politicians, and contractors now started protecting them as long as it received a share. put simply, rampant corruption within government agencies—there are innumerable allegations of corruption against both the wrd and the board—has a lot to do with the nature of relations between these agencies and various non-state actors. to understand how the state has addressed the flood and erosion crises in the valley and why one must pay attention to the corrupt nexus between the state and non-state actors and how the postcolonial state has been renegotiated and reconfigured through these nexuses. furthermore, the island geography of majuli has also had a role in shaping the relations between the state and non-state actors. as an island, employment opportunities within majuli are limited, more so given the constraints on people’s everyday commute to the mainland for work. this has made the local population highly dependent on the state. the “islandness” (baldacchino 2006) of majuli has also resulted in strong social ties between different sections of the people as well as between government officials and the people, thereby affecting the functioning of the state (for more on this, see baruah (2022)). such mutual interdependence has made it generally very difficult for communities to dissent against the state. in a nutshell, unpacking the disastrous state in majuli requires paying attention to both the questions of the accumulation imperative of the capitalist state as well as the everyday state and its complex relations with various non-state actors. 4. conclusion drawing on the case study of majuli, this article presented a political ecological analysis of disaster and vulnerability in the brahmaputra valley. it showed how the twin processes of flooding and riverbank erosion have reshaped the majuli landscape, causing tremendous damage to local ecologies and livelihoods. in explaining the crises in majuli, the article paid attention to the unique biophysical characteristics of the brahmaputra river system as well as political and economic forces, with a special focus on the role of the state. at the heart of the indian state’s flood and erosion control measures in assam have been the embankments and the cognate hydraulic infrastructure. such an approach first adopted by the colonial state, was carried on by the postcolonial state with even greater fervour. unfortunately, the outcomes ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] have been anything but positive. majuli, for instance, has continued to shrink, and flood events, too, remained a recurring phenomenon, thereby increasing the vulnerability of the local population. the article shed light on the question of what may have been some of the forces driving the state to pursue measures that have clearly failed in protecting majuli, and the brahmaputra valley as a whole. in doing so, the article presented new ways of understanding the postcolonial state in disastrous geographies. it showed that the idea of capital accumulation alone is inadequate to make sense of the postcolonial state. instead, the capitalist state also needs to be situated within the postcolonial specificities of bureaucratic arbitrariness; corruption; everyday functioning of government officials, which is sometimes driven by communal ties rather than the idea of a “rational” state; and, above all, the role of various non-state actors. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research is available in a repository and the hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. doi or accession number) are stated in the paper. conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references baldacchino, godfrey. 2006. “islands, island studies, island studies journal.” island studies journal 1 (1): 3–18. https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.185. barooah, nirode k. 1970. david scott in north-east india, 1802-1831: a study in british paternalism. new delhi: munshiram manoharlal publishers. baruah, swarna lata. 1985. a comprehensive history of assam. delhi: munshiram manoharlal publishers. baruah, mitul. 2022. slow disaster: political ecology of hazards and everyday life in the brahmaputra valley, assam. taylor & francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003051565 baruah, sanjib. 2020. in the name of the nation: india and its northeast. stanford university press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503611290 bhattacharyya, rajeev. 2014. rendezvous with rebels: journey to meet india’s most wanted men. harpercollins. biggs, david andrew. 2012. quagmire: nation-building and nature in the mekong delta. university of washington press. blaikie, piers. 1985. the political economy of soil erosion in developing countries. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.185 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003051565 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503611290 [143] baruah blaikie, piers, and harold brookfield. 1987. land degradation and society. london: routledge. carswell, grace, and geert de neve. 2020. “paperwork, patronage, and citizenship: the materiality of everyday interactions with bureaucracy in tamil nadu, india.” journal of the royal anthropological institute 26 (3): 495–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13311 colten, craig e. 2005. an unnatural metropolis: wresting new orleans from nature. louisiana state university press. corbridge, stuart, glyn williams, manoj srivastava, and rené véron. 2005. seeing the state: governance and governmentality in india. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511492211 das, samir kumar. 1994. ulfa: united liberation front of assam: a political analysis. ajanta publications. d’souza, rohan. 2006. drowned and dammed: colonial capitalism and flood control in eastern india. oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195682175.001.0001 evenden, matthew d. 2004. fish versus power: an environmental history of the fraser river. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511512032 ghertner, d asher. 2017. “when is the state? topology, temporality, and the navigation of everyday state space in delhi.” annals of the american association of geographers 107 (3): 731–50. ghose, sanjoy. 1998. sanjoy’s assam: dairies and writings of sanjoy ghose. edited by sumita ghose. penguin books india. glassman, jim, and abdi ismail samatar. 1997. “development geography and the third-world state.” progress in human geography 21 (2): 164–98. https://doi.org/10.1191/030913297667309393 goswami, dulal c. 1985. 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ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 165-168, july 2021 book review rethinking delhi, when ecological consciousness crosses paths with bourgeoise imaginaries avishek ray1 amita baviskar, uncivil city: ecology, equity and the commons in delhi, new delhi: sage-yoda press, 2020, pp. xvi–243, ₹ 1195, isbn: 978-93-5328940-9 (hardcover). in the wake of the “urban turn”, the city-space is increasingly being imagined as mappable, griddable, and segregable, and is being territorialized into urban “enclaves”. territorial techniques of urbanization, which schiller and çaglar (2018) call “city-making”, give rise to proprietorship and create imaginary border(land)s within the city. such enclaves realign the geographies of the city, and in so doing, create an “enclavist” identity not only for those who imagine the city thus, but also for the commons in the city. amita baviskar’s uncivil city: ecology, equity and the commons in delhi addresses the politics and nuances of the privatization and commoditization of the urban commons in delhi. “places are made 1 assistant professor, department of humanities & social sciences, national institute of technology, nit road, fakiratilla, silchar, assam – 788010; avishekray@hum.nits.ac.in. copyright © ray 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.457 mailto:avishekray@hum.nits.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.457 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [166] meaningful,” baviskar insists, “by the memories they accumulate, as much as by the everyday practices that animate them” (p. 1). this book combines personal memories with rich ethnographic detail to shed light on a range of practices that strip delhi off its urban commons and transform it into what baviskar calls an “uncivil city”. the book is divided into nine chapters. chapter 1 lays down the central problématique—how “selective and superficial framings of environmental issues derive from economic and political inequality” (p. 18). it uses different sites in delhi—homes, workplaces, streets, the river, and the ridge—to illustrate how ecological consciousness emerges from disparate understandings of the environment across class and space. chapter 2 discusses the conflicting nature of spatiality and issues of marginality in the context of delhi’s transformation into a “planned city”. it demonstrates how the master plan, executed by the delhi development authority (dda) in 1962, has reoriented the coordinates of spatiality, sociality, and labour in the city. chapter 3 deals with how bourgeois environmentalists played on the notion of “public interest” and, with the aid of appropriate judicial interventions, helped shut down factories and firms in delhi; far from achieving environmental goals, this ended up further disenfranchising out-of-work industrial workers and other urban poor. this, baviskar argues, “added epistemic violence to the structural violence of the plan” (p. 19). chapter 4 examines how, during the 2010 commonwealth games in delhi, privatization of public wealth and resources was facilitated through the mobilization of an affective resonance—baviskar calls this “the fragile facade of civil solidarity”—stemming from “anxieties about national honour and prestige” (p. 19). chapters 5 and 6 look at how the discourse around certain non-human actors—cows, cycle-rickshaws, and the yamuna river—play out in the context of delhi’s intended ascendance towards being a “world-class” city. chapter 7 considers the curious case of delhi’s sacred grove, mangar bani, in the context of urban environmentalism, and how it has become a symbolic site for two sets of competing aspirations: that of urban developers and the public. chapter 8 discusses alternative claims on delhi’s ecology—the subaltern voices that are unheard, if not actively silenced—that run contrary to the bourgeois environmentalist discourse. chapter 9 concludes with a discussion on how the bourgeois environmentalist discourse turns a blind eye to climate change and serenely evades the consequences of the crisis. the book offers a welcome break from a chronological style of writing. baviskar approaches delhi’s shift from a “planned” city to a “world-class” city using certain compelling themes. the book is an easy read, but the narrative—spanning ecology, politics, history, and sociology—warrants [167] avishek ray patience and provokes thought. baviskar has a flair for discussing complex matters lucidly and supplementing them with anecdotes. her writing is stimulating and engaging and forces the reader to think critically about the complex historical, political, and cultural dynamics of delhi, the diverse meanings of which reflect and reproduce broader socio-spatial contestations in contemporary times. indeed, these contestations yield different actors (and networks) with distinct dispositions and aspirations— and, more importantly, competing environmental concerns—many of which find their spatial outlet in delhi. this book does a wonderful job of exploring delhi-based lifeworlds that articulate new expressions of territoriality and novel possibilities for social stratification, based on a contingent understanding of nature, as well as the historical dynamics that generate them. in short, the contestations over delhi’s meaning—as a literal and figurative “place” amid feuds over environmental and ensuing territorial claims—come across clearly in this book. the most interesting aspect of the book is how it integrates two diverging paradigms, the ecology in and the ecology of the city—a contrast best illustrated in pickett et al. (1997) and grimm et al. (2000). it views delhi’s urban ecological politics through the lens of an actor–network, as an integral part of a socioecological system beyond the biotic–abiotic binary. however, the book offers limited insight on the practicalities of urban commoning practices: collaborative and solidarity networks based on anticapitalist principles of ecology and ethics. in other words, it has much to say on the ecology in and the ecology of the city, but very little on the ecology for the city, which may translate to “knowledge to action” (childers et al. 2014). baviskar “began writing these essays ... almost 20 years ago” (17). indeed, all the chapters except for the introduction and the conclusion are reproductions of her previously published articles. baviskar’s key finding that delhi’s urban environmentalism is territorially governed and essentially elitist is by now a fairly well-established proposition. many of her interlocutors cited in the book have already established this. in this book, baviskar’s notion of the “uncivil city” is squarely juxtaposed with the imagination of a “civil city” of yesteryear. however, the imagination of delhi-from-the-past as an idyllic “civil city”, that “with a careless generosity, welcomed all—different species of living as well as different classes of people” (8–9), has not been historically substantiated. at best, such traditionalist nostalgia seems only to arouse an acute sense of loss. but baviskar does acknowledge that “it’s easy to be nostalgic ... from the vantage point of a place of privilege” (p. 7). it is germane in this context to consider that baviskar too recently changed her affiliation from the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [168] publicly funded delhi university to the privately managed ashoka university, which, for me, contravenes the persuasiveness of some of the arguments she presents in the book. however, in a recent piece, she writes, “the public versus private distinction needs a lot more nuance, and waving it like a flag only distracts attention” (baviskar 2021), although this nuance does not come through in the book. here, the antagonism between the public and the private is way too stark. despite some concerns, this book does a reasonably good job of illustrating how urban ecological consciousness crosses paths with bourgeois imaginaries and renders delhi an ambivalent site where territorialization and cultural differentiation are sanctioned, enacted, and contested. it should be of interest to scholars of urban ecology, sociology, history, and politics. references baviskar, amita. 2021. "ashoka and after: the universities we believe in." the wire, march 25. https://thewire.in/education/why-singling-out-ashoka-doespromoting-universities-in-india-no-good. childers, daniel, stewart ta pickett, j morgan grove, laura ogden, and alison whitmer. 2014. "advancing urban sustainability theory and action: challenges and opportunities." landscape and urban planning 125: 320-328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.022. grimm, nancy, j grove, stewart ta pickett, and charles l redman. 2000. "integrated approaches to long‐term studies of urban ecological systems." bioscience 50(7): 571-584. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_8. pickett, stewart ta, william r burch jr, shawn e dalton, and timothy w foresman. 1997. "integrated urban ecosystem research." urban ecosystems 1(4): 183-184. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018579628818. schiller, nina glick, and ayse çaglar. 2018. migrants and city-making: dispossession, displacement and urban regeneration. durham: duke university press. https://thewire.in/education/why-singling-out-ashoka-does-promoting-universities-in-india-no-good https://thewire.in/education/why-singling-out-ashoka-does-promoting-universities-in-india-no-good https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.022 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-73412-5_8 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018579628818 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 245-248 january 2022 book review nature and indigeneity: towards an environmental history of adivasi society dipsita dhar nirmal kumar mahato, sorrow songs of woods: adivasi nature relationships in the anthropocene in manbhum, primus books: new delhi, 2020, isbn 13: 9789390022472 nirmal kumar mahato’s sorrow songs of woods is a richly textured ethnographic and historical account of the adivasi or indigenous people of manbhum. territorially speaking, manbhum was a single district in british india, but it currently sprawls across the states of bihar and west bengal. essentially, mahato provides an environmental history of the adivasi people by setting up a dialogue of sorts between the official archive and a range of indigenous sources, including myths, oral accounts, and lived experiences. the author is keen to emphasize that his study is a critique of the outsider, uppercaste, and elitist gaze, by stating that he is no stranger to manbhum and that he speaks for his community. sorrow songs of woods,  phd candidate, centre for studies in regional planning and development, jawaharlal nehru university, dipsita.dhar@gmail.com. copyright © dhar 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.598 mailto:dipsita.dhar@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.598 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [246] hence, seeks to directly challenge former writings that characterize adivasi people as being economically inferior, underdeveloped, culturally simple, and sometimes even criminal. however, the monograph is careful not to take on a patronizing tone nor romanticize the social and ecological worlds that shape adivasi people. the first chapter deals with the development of the adivasi sense of place. while the book provides ample descriptions of the natural features of manbhum through the frames of geology, geomorphology, and climate, mahato is keen to avoid the charge of environmental determinism. instead, he describes the indigenous worldview as being based on a careful weaving of physical settings such as forests and climate and a range of livelihood and subsistence activities. that is, according to mahato, the adivasi people construct a type of social nature rather than passively adapting to their environmental endowments. mahato also describes how the adivasi people organized themselves into a distinct political community within densely forested tracts in the pre-colonial period. notably, the community featured a complex network of chieftainships, with a pre-eminent raja, whose capital was located at patkum, linked to 17 semi-autonomous chiefs. during the mughal dispensation (1526–1764) in the region, there was very little actual control exercised over the forests and the adivasis. however, the arrival of british colonialism in the late eighteenth century dramatically altered the situation for the worse, as they sought to settle the forests as zones for cultivation and instituted an oppressive and severe land tax. consequently, between 1769 and 1833, the adivasis organized five major revolts, compelling the british administration to reorganize manbhum under the south western frontier agency (swfa) in the hope of regulating the “wild, imperfectly civilized” adivasi people (p. 29). the second chapter explores the internal, occupation-based social hierarchy within adivasi communities. two predominant divisions, in particular, are identified: the first being the kherias and birhors, who are forest dwellers who practise shifting cultivation and who were previously hunters– gatherers. the second are the santhals, mundas, oraons, bhumijs, koras, and kurmis. interestingly, these groups practise a form of endogamy or prohibition of marriage with inferior adivasi communities (p. 35). for mahato, these discriminatory belief systems raise several questions; primarily, he speculates whether this form of casteism was drawn from surrounding hindu societies or was it brought on by occupational and productional relations. the author contends that from the fourth century ce onwards, various hindu beliefs and rituals began to find social traction in manbhum. the chieftains, in particular, began identifying themselves as rajputs or [247] dipsita dhar kshatriyas and often engaged in matrimonial ties only within their ranks, actively seeking to distance themselves from the rest of the community. these rajas even went on to ensure the settlement of brahmins on their lands to draw upon their ritual legitimacy. on the other hand, despite adopting several non-tribal beliefs and values, the adivasi people retained notions about sacred geographies. from the selection of village site to the maintenance of sacred groves and water bodies, indigenous knowledge systems were rooted in philosophies strongly centred on conservation. there were other levels of differences as well. the adivasi people had distinct aesthetics with regard to floor painting, scrolls, murals, and tattoos. they also established their own medicinal practice named horopathy or medico-ethnobotany, which relied on the available flora to manage diseases. the third chapter discusses the varied social and economic impacts of british colonial rule. it primarily examines how company rule completely transformed the indigenous economy. economic organization centering on collective endowment and communitarian ideas of production and consumption were replaced with private ownership. consequentially, adivasi people who had previously inhabited roles on a spectrum ranging from hunter–gatherers to subsistence cultivators were now forced to become settled agriculturalists and even attempt commercial farming. the succeeding chapter provides a more comprehensive account of the social and ecological transformation brought on by the british. feudal practices such as debt bondage were normalized; increased cultivation led to a rapid change in the soil cycle, causing a nutrient imbalance in the region resulting in less productivity, and, eventually, famine; the exploitation of water bodies reduced irrigational possibilities through natural percolation; and extreme deforestation led to the rapid drying up and silting of ponds. the impact of deforestation, however, was not limited to desertification, drought, and temperature rise alone. according to mahato, there was a striking reduction in indigenous knowledge handed down generations as well. the lush forests are significant sources of biodiversity that enable a vast range of community-based medicinal practices that are at risk of being permanently lost. the last chapter deals with political mobilization in the manbhum region, beginning in the late eighteenth century to the present day. the early nineteenth century saw rebellions around land, liquor, and, consequently, forest rights. the rural reconstruction project proposed by gandhiji gave adivasis a chance to remobilize during the freedom movement. gandhi’s advocacy for a self-reliant, self-controlled village society, where power is decentralized, was an ideal imagining of adivsasi “community life”. the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [248] promise of dignity through autonomy energized mass participation by these communities. while they participated in the non-cooperation movement with great rigor, their voices were not given due importance by the uppercaste hindu leaders in congress. the dislocation of the adivasi landscape (p. 178) led to economic, social, and political marginalization, which was followed by the establishing of a hegemony in the region by the upper castes of bengal, bihar, and odisha. the cultural silencing of the adivasi middle classes, who desperately wanted to integrate into the “national” imagination, created pathways for further sanskritisation. however, the mahatos eventually “de-scheduled” themselves after the mahato kurmi mahasabha movement (1983), and the santhals organized a saphor or a revitalization movement to assert their indigenous culture. this is an exceptional monograph that traces a series of socio-ecological and political shifts in manbhum. while many previous writings see forests as only a resource, mahato emphasizes that for the adivasi, it is their home. the only critical remark, however, is that there could have been more discussion on the notion of the anthropocene. nonetheless, sorrow songs of woods should definitely be considered a valuable addition to the growing literature on the conversation surrounding adivasi people in india. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 149-152, july 2022 report a report of the online course on “climate, community and conservation” neha mishra, anindita roy saha, and nawin kumar tiwary the interconnectedness of climate, community, and the environment is a subject of active interdisciplinary discourse against the backdrop of the current climate crisis permeating across prevalent social stratifications. it necessitates a thorough understanding of the relationship between climate and community, and consequently, the roles played by communities in environmental conservation. to tackle climate change, action is required at all levels of society, from businesses and policymakers to educators and individuals. as key providers of higher education, universities and colleges are important promoters and advocates of the global agenda at a local level for sustainable development. with a commitment to building a sustainable future through education, the centre for earth studies and the department of environmental studies, indraprastha college for women, university of delhi, organizes nationallevel online courses on related themes. climate, community and conservation was the second national online certificate course conducted from 21 august to 17 september 2021 for undergraduate and postgraduate students, research scholars, and environmental practitioners. the course was conducted on the pattern of moocs with online seminars and  assistant professor, department of environmental studies, indraprastha college for women, university of delhi, delhi, india. nehamishra2706@ip.du.ac.in  associate professor, department of economics, indraprastha college for women, university of delhi, delhi, india, asaha@ip.du.ac.in  assistant professor, department of environmental studies, indraprastha college for women, university of delhi, delhi, india. nktiwary@ip.du.ac.in copyright © mishra, saha and tiwary 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:nehamishra2706@ip.du.ac.in mailto:asaha@ip.du.ac.in mailto:nktiwary@ip.du.ac.in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] presentations by the faculty of the host institutions and eminent experts from various universities and organizations, such as the university of delhi, indian institute of technology (iit), indian institute of science (iisc), world resources institute (wri) bengaluru, wildlife institute of india (wii) dehradun, united nations university, nature conservation foundation (ncf) mysore, and so on. the course was spread over three sub-themes, namely, climate crisis, climate and community, community and conservation. the course was inaugurated with a keynote address by prof. maharaj k pandit, former dean, faculty of science, and head of the department of environmental studies, university of delhi. this internationally acclaimed expert on the himalayas explained the uniqueness of the himalayan ecosystem and the associated evolutionary divergence and migration of human populations. the negative impacts of various anthropogenic pressures require a trans-national effort involving due deliberations between policymakers and experts. prof. nh ravindranath, iisc bangalore, provided information on the magnitude and impact of the climate crisis in the form of increasing extreme weather events that may have repercussions on food security, submerge coastlines, and enfeeble natural resilience infrastructure. dr mukunda dev behera, iit kharagpur, spoke about the role of climate in the evolution of biodiversity on the planet, the devastating impacts of climate change on biodiversity, and the possible solutions through coordinated global efforts and local actions. he highlighted the need to invest in early warning systems, implement disaster risk reduction strategies, and opt for nature-based solutions for climate and disaster resilience. the second theme investigated the delicate relationship between climate and communities. currently pressing issues like climate migration, sustainability of forests and rural and urban communities, and circular economy solutions for sustainable cities and communities were some of the major topics of discussion. dr architesh panda, united nations university, stated that it is the shared responsibility of governments and communities to tackle the growing challenge of climate disruptions, which is already affecting the sustainable development of communities all over the world. climate-induced migration may have a significant impact on rural–urban dynamics and increase pressure on cities and metropolitan areas, which are powerhouses of economic growth, contributing about 60% to the global gdp while generating 70% of global carbon emissions and 60% of resource consumption. the lectures further brought forth the recent problems faced by cities concerning environmental quality, resilience, and [151] neha mishra, anindita roy saha, nawin kumar tiwary livability, thereby suggesting that tackling these problems requires collective action that brings together science, state, and society. india’s progress in sdg 11 was assessed and key areas that require work identified. the lectures emphasized contemporary topics such as circular cities that apply the concept of a circular economy, becoming digitally enabled, generating sustainable prosperity, improving livability, and developing resilience. dr ulka kelkar, director of the climate program at wri india, talked about low-carbon development pathways for india that are economically robust and environmentally sound. she used a systems dynamics model to illustrate energy consumption and emissions if circumstances proceed in a “business as usual” manner for the next 30 years. the suggested pathways to a lowcarbon future and climate change mitigation include decarbonization of electricity, energy conservation, circular use of materials, emissions sequestration, etc. the lectures specified that there is a need to focus on enhancing our developmental strategies to make economic growth climateresilient. the third theme aimed at discussing the role of the community in conservation efforts. that community participation along with scientific interventions can play a pivotal role in environmental conservation was established through the lectures delivered by experts and practitioners. prof. ruchi badola, wii, elucidated the crucial role played by indigenous knowledge and indigenous communities in the revival and restoration of degraded ecosystems. special reference was made to the national mission for clean ganga. the lectures in this series provided fundamental principles and methods of working on conservation projects. various case studies of environmental conservation involving communities through conservation projects were discussed. dr m ananda kumar, ncf, described human– elephant conflicts as a major conservation issue across asia. he showcased how long-term research may enable scientists to understand the relationships between people and wildlife while identifying the reasons for human–wildlife conflicts (kumar et al 2014). ms karishma pradhan presented a case study on the hornbill nest adoption program (hnap) conducted in collaboration with the ghora-aabhe society and arunachal forest department in pakke tiger reserve, arunachal pradesh—a haven for hornbills in northeast india, which has four of the nine identified species. the role of long-term research and monitoring (ltrm) was also deliberated as a significant tool for testing and developing theories and understanding complex ecological and evolutionary processes. the month-long course aimed at sensitizing, training, and mentoring a diverse cohort of interdisciplinary students, researchers, and practitioners ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] and equipping them to find innovative solutions to environmental challenges. it was curated to shape and train future decision-makers and thereby help bring about positive societal transformations for the impending challenges of the current century. references kumar, m ananda, and ganesh raghunathan. 2014. “fostering human–elephant coexistence in the valparai landscape, anamalai tiger reserve, tamil nadu.” saarc forestry centre: 14. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 73–76, july 2018 conversations 1: water governance environmental flow concepts and holistic applications in river basin governance angela h arthington  the global decline in freshwater biodiversity – and the degraded ecological condition of riverine, wetland, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems – is largely caused by pressures from pollution, habitat degradation, excessive abstraction of surface water and groundwater, the barrier effects of dams, and modified flow regimes. as freshwater ecosystems degrade and species are lost, rivers and estuaries lose productivity; invasive plants and animals flourish; natural resilience weakens; and human communities lose important social, cultural, and economic benefits. the concept of environmental flows (e-flows) has emerged as a scientific resource and policy framework to protect or restore the freshwater regimes that sustain aquatic ecosystems and the ecological services they provide to society. as bandyopadhyay (2011) so succinctly states, ‘environmental flows are a critical contributor to the health of these ecosystems’ and the ‘long-term absence of environmental flows puts at risk the very existence of dependent ecosystems, and therefore the lives, livelihood and security of downstream communities and industries’. environmental flows have recently been defined as ‘the quantity, timing, and quality of freshwater flows and levels necessary to sustain aquatic ecosystems which, in turn, support human cultures, economies, sustainable livelihoods, and well-being’ (arthington et al. 2018). aquatic ecosystems included in the scope of e-flows include rivers; streams; springs; riparian zones, floodplains, and other wetlands; lakes; coastal water bodies,  professor emeritus, australian rivers institute, griffith university, brisbane, australia. arthington pioneered holistic e-flow assessment frameworks and applications in the 1990s, and continues to advise and publish on e-flows nationally and internationally. a.arthington@griffith.edu.au copyright © arthington 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.37 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.37 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] including lagoons and estuaries; and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. this definition of e-flow embodies recognition of the dependence of ‘human cultures, economies, sustainable livelihoods, and well-being’ on healthy, resilient freshwater-dependent ecosystems. it is consistent with the united nations (un) sustainable development agenda 2030 and its sustainable development goals and targets (un 2015), all of which promote the wise use of water, other natural resources, and global life support systems for human and environmental benefits. the first methods to estimate e-flows were simple hydrological rules, such as minimum flows or baseflows, or the retention of an arbitrary proportion (percentage) of annual river flows for environmental purposes. however, simple hydrological rules such as a fixed percentage of flow are totally inadequate to protect the biodiversity, ecological processes, and ecosystem services of interconnected riverine, wetland, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. the entire flow regime in all its complexity and variability in space and time must be considered in agreements over the allocation of water for ecosystems and for human uses. a broader (holistic, ecosystem) approach to e-flows emerged in the 1990s. holistic e-flow assessments recommend the water requirements of diverse aquatic and riparian flora and fauna; ensure hydrological and ecological connectivity; discourage exotic and translocated flora and fauna; and ensure ecosystem functions such as trophic structure and productivity. these ecosystem frameworks include the flow needs of connected aquatic ecosystems such as riparian zones, floodplains, estuaries, and groundwaterdependent ecosystems. each river needs an e-flow regime described in terms of flow magnitude (discharge); seasonal or other patterns of flow timing; the frequency of particular flows (e.g., baseflows, channel maintenance flows, floodplain inundation events, end of system flows); and overall flow variability (poff, tharme, and arthington 2017). these facets of an e-flow regime protect or restore certain ecological attributes and processes. understanding and quantifying eco-hydrological relationships in the interconnected surface and groundwater parts of a river system lays the foundations for contemporary environmental flow management. as shah aptly comments in this conversation, ‘without taking a unified view of surface and groundwater and understanding their inter-connections at the river basin level, we will not be able to save our rivers.’ environmental flow requirements vary with location along a river—from river to river, basin to basin, and region to region—depending on climate, hydrology, geomorphology, and landscape characteristics as well as the social-ecological characteristics of the river basin. spatial patterns must be accommodated in basin-scale e-flow assessments. the desired socialecological benefits are achieved by sharing the available basin water—in [75] angela h arthington space and time—according to a balance decided by collaborative decisionmaking and trade-off processes. the challenge is to agree on a desired future state of the river basin’s aquatic ecosystems, including their societal, cultural and spiritual values, and then to agree on a socially acceptable level of water diversion at basin scale. environmental flows form an essential component of integrated water resources management (iwrm) at the basin scale. basin water plans may involve a mixture of conservation objectives (e.g., to protect the species and ecosystems of relatively unimpaired reaches or sub-catchments) and restoration objectives (e.g., returning a more natural flow regime in areas impacted by dams and water extraction). understanding the range of options across a large river basin can be complex; it requires a negotiated agreement over the balance between river ecosystem protection in some parts of the basin and the level of flow and ecosystem restoration in regulated reaches or tributaries within each social-economic context. australia’s murray-darling basin plan offers a fascinating ongoing case study of basin-scale ecosystem conservation in some catchments, and restoration in many others, using e-flows and other strategies (e.g., ensuring fish passage). knowledge for transdisciplinary governance in this conversation ghosh has called for a change in india’s water governance policy narrative ‘from a reductionist paradigm to a more holistic paradigm based on transdisciplinary thinking’. to achieve this will require significant advances in transdisciplinary knowledge of river basins ‘combining fluvial geomorphology, engineering, hydrology, hydro-geology, ecological sciences, tectonic sciences, ecological economics, law, international relations, political sciences, sociology, social anthropology, humanities and culture, and institutional theory’. the living ganga programme (2007–2012) and the groundbreaking upper ganga e-flows study embody the holistic perspective now being promoted in india. this eflows study is remarkable for its special emphasis on the social-cultural, religious, and livelihood importance of this river – cultural bathing rituals during kumbh events cannot be performed unless river flows are sufficient and water levels adequate. applying a more holistic paradigm to water management and governance in india can help to lead and inform similar developments in e-flows science and management throughout south asia. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] references arthington, angela h., anik bhaduri, stuart e. bunn et al. 2018. “the brisbane declaration and global action agenda on environmental flows.” frontiers in environmental science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00045 bandyopadhyay, jayanta. 2011. “deciphering environmental flows.” seminar 626, october. http://india-seminar.com/2011/626/626_jayanta_bandyopadhyay.htm poff, n. l., r. e. tharme, and a. h. arthington. 2017. “evolution of environmental flows assessment science, principles, and methodologies.” in water for the environment: from policy and science to implementation and management, edited by a. horne, a. webb, m. stewardson, b. richter and m. acreman, 203–236. elsevier press. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-803907-6.00011-5 un. 2015.transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00045 http://india-seminar.com/2011/626/626_jayanta_bandyopadhyay.htm https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-803907-6.00011-5 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 59–69, january 2021 special section: the commons: a revisit celebrating jodha: and revisiting the commons harini nagendra,  pranab mukhopadhyay,  rucha ghate  abstract: narpat s. jodha (1937–2020) passed away at the age of 83 years. he is best remembered for his contribution to research on the commons and livelihoods in semi-arid regions in india. his work has transcended geographical boundaries and has won him worldwide recognition. his passing away provides an occasion to revisit the commons issue for multiple reasons, mainly that the livelihood issues that triggered the study of the commons still remain. despite all the livelihood benefits that the commons provide, it is widely acknowledged that the commons in india are under threat, which throws open multiple questions: is it due to the absence of secure property rights among local communities or the result of weak governance mechanisms? we also recognize that research on the commons has moved beyond livelihood issues to gender perspectives, digital commons, urban issues, and health. keywords: commons; narpat s. jodha. 1. life and works of n.s. jodha narpat s. jodha (1937–2020), born in rajasthan, india, has left behind a rich legacy of work on common pool resources (cprs), having pioneered work in an area that was an unfashionable research domain at the time. his  school of development, azim premji university, burugunte village, sarjapur hobli, anekal taluk, bangalore 562125, india; harini.nagendra@apu.edu.in.  goa business school, goa university, taleigao plateau, goa 403206, india; pm@unigoa.ac.in.   foundation for ecological security, anand; c-616, athashri, off pan card club, road, baner, pune 411 045, maharashtra, india; rucha@ncf-india.org. copyright © nagendra, mukhopadhyay and ghate 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.396 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.396 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] long journey in academic writing began in 1966 (jodha 1966) and ended in 2019 (bhatta et al. 2019). he completed his masters in economics at the delhi school of economics (mukhopadhyay and ghate 2020) and his phd in economics at the university of jodhpur in the late 60s (jodha 1967). he was honoured as a fellow of the world academy for art and science in 2001. he also served as the president of the indian society of ecological economics (insee) and the president of the international society for the study of the commons (iasc), both during the period 2004–06. he was also the conference president of the indian society for agricultural economics in 2008. he began his work life at indian council for agricultural research-central arid zone research institute (cazri), jodhpur, in 1963 and went on to join the indian agricultural research institute, new delhi. he later moved to different consultative group on international agricultural research (cgria) organizations, most significantly international crops research institute for the semi-arid tropics (icrisat), hyderabad. his work is widely cited. although the most cited of his papers was published in the journal science (kates 2001), the article that he is best remembered for is from the 1980s (jodha 1986), which he authored when he was working at icrisat. his study, based on 80 villages in 21 districts in 7 states, highlighted the significance of cprs for employment and income generation among the rural poor. it claimed that the income that poor households derived from cprs ranged between 15% and 23% of their total income. the finding that drew the attention of many in the field was that cprs contributed more to rural livelihoods than many anti-poverty programmes. jodha also flagged the fact that the area under cprs was declining, which would negatively impact the livelihoods of the rural poor. while trying to understand his academic journey, we turned to the most popular web search engine that captures the academic footprint of all researchers these days—google scholar. as anyone in this field would know, the multiplicity of author names is a nightmare for bibliometric analysis. jodha‘s articles can be found under four different names—n.s. jodha (over 6,000 search results), narpat jodha, narpat s. jodha, and narpat singh jodha—making collating his legacy difficult. his early work was on agriculture in semi-arid regions. starting from the 1960s he regularly published in the indian journal of agricultural economics and economic & political weekly. he worked simultaneously on agriculture, poverty, and natural resources in the early part of his career. by the early 1990s, he had expanded his spatial domain to the mountains and how communities were dealing with issues concerning livelihoods and resources. [61] harini nagendra, pranab mukhopadhyay, rucha ghate his shift in research focus from semi-arid to mountainous regions was probably driven by his shift from icrisat to the international centre for integrated mountain development (icimod). one of his lasting contributions was a synthesis of observations and inferences from different studies by icimod and others in mountainous regions across nepal, india, bhutan, bangladesh, china, and pakistan. his work on mountain specificities in the context of cprs was considered seminal; in it, he discusses […] limited accessibility, high degree of fragility, marginality, diversity, and nature endowed niche resources….. to elaborate, limited accessibility, relative isolation and distance-based closedness, force a community‘s crucial dependence on local resources and hence their protection while using, including through group action. fragility favoured (conservation focused) diversified land use with emphasis on extensive type of usage promoting collective stake in fragile (degradable) resources. marginality, both physical and socio-political, promoted social cohesion for collective self help and risk sharing. (jodha 2007, 125) thus bringing out the important component of a community‘s natural resource base. his work on community management of natural resources in fragile mountain regions is also widely regarded as seminal (jodha 2002). he recorded the use of indigenous technologies to adapt to high-risk, lowproductivity environments; the gradual decline in traditional resource management systems; and the need for an integrated approach to deal with these specificities while designing policies for such fragile areas. while jodha attributed a central role to communities in cpr management, he also emphasized the importance of regulatory institutions. he accepted that the absence of regulatory institutions, combined with rapid population growth (jodha 1985), might lead to a ―tragedy of the commons‖, as predicted by hardin (1968). the paper by jodha, like several other studies, suggests that the effects of rapid population growth are mediated by institutional factors and could be overshadowed by pressures arising from changing market conditions. one of jodha‘s concerns was that socioeconomic change is inadequately captured by social science research, partly due to the researchers' perceptions and partly because of inadequate research approaches and tools (jodha 1988). cpr research has exploded over the last three decades or so. many researchers have contributed to this domain, including ostrom (1990). interestingly, her research interests and region of interest (nepal) overlapped with jodha‘s significantly. however, cpr research today ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] explores newer areas and themes that build on the shoulders of these pioneers. in this short collection for the special section of ecology, economy and society—the insee journal, we have three contributions examining three different aspects of cprs. adhikari (2021, this volume) provides an overview of cprs, the theory, and the concepts. he also examines the international debate on the commons, its limitations, and the management challenges it poses. chorran et al. (2021, this volume) focus on rajasthan‘s cprs—a research area that was central to jodha‘s work—using ostroms‘s socio-ecological systems (ses) framework (ostrom 2009). they conceptualize the problem of livelihoods and cprs in the context of climate change and provide evidence of how communities adapt through ecological restoration. murali et al. (2021, this volume) focus on spiti valley—a mountain region that was also an area of research interest to jodha later in his life. they bring a gender perspective to natural resource management, specifically of water, in this resource-scarce region. murali et al.‘s work represents the newer areas being explored by researchers in cpr research. 2. gender and cprs unfortunately, despite the vital role played by women in cpr management across india, which early seminal work on gender in india has shown, postindependence cpr policies have rarely been gender-responsive (tyagi and das 2018). these policies fail to recognize both the importance of women in cpr management and the need to design supportive institutions that facilitate the continued participation of women. they seem unresponsive to the existence of deeper structural issues that need to be addressed to enable women‘s groups to have sufficient voice and agency in the capitaldominated market economy of the twenty-first century. cpr research on gender must necessarily expand into other arenas, seeking to connect to larger pan-indian societal challenges such as rural land grabbing and the gradual erosion of potential commons-related livelihoods and subsistence in many parts of the country (doss, summerfield, and tsikata 2014). these structural changes have shaped the broader challenges of food insecurity and forced rural–urban migration, as was witnessed across india during the migrant crisis at the time of the nation-wide lockdown in early 2020. cpr studies on gender have begun to cross-connect with this broader nationwide reshaping of land, economy, and natural resources. for instance, a recent nation-wide study showed that the loss of commons land is largely driven by two processes—private capture by influential households within [63] harini nagendra, pranab mukhopadhyay, rucha ghate villages and state-driven consolidation and transfer of commons land to private interests, fueled by a development agenda (thapliyal, mukherji, and malghan 2019). inequality, including gender inequality, is closely associated with the loss of cprs, though causal relationships are hard to establish. across india, the collapse of cprs has transferred the burden of stallfeeding cattle and collecting firewood and water from increasingly distant sources onto women and girls (vij and narain 2016). this has important repercussions for india‘s economy as well, making it increasingly difficult for rural indian women to participate in the formal or informal workforce (rao 2018). such an expansion of scope and focus will be essential for gender studies of the commons to provide fundamental explanations of the underlying dynamics that shape many of the current, deeply unjust, large-scale changes that we witness today, leading to wide-ranging insights that have policy impact. 3. urban issues the other area that has seen significant contributions in recent years is urban cpr issues. despite the fact that developing countries in the global south are still largely rural, they have been urbanising at a faster rate than developed countries of the global north over the past several decades (nagendra et al. 2018). as the population in south asia becomes increasingly urban and the poor migrate to urban spaces for their livelihood, the role of urban commons needs to be looked at from multiple dimensions. with some estimates indicating that india will become more than 50% urban in a couple of decades (nagendra et al. 2018), cpr research in india must significantly expand its focus to consider urban commons in detail. across the urban gradient, from large cities to small towns, urban ecological commons have been taken over by the state and local municipalities (mundoli, manjunatha, and nagendra 2017) as ‗waste‘ government property to be converted into schools, bus stations, and housing colonies, and by private real estate interests (parikh 2020) for high-end apartments, malls, and corporate campuses. the accelerating land grabbing, fueled by public and private interests, has sharply eroded spaces for the commons in cities. given the scarcity of land in india‘s cities and the multitude of interests and actors staking a claim on scarce resources, urban commons have become sites of intense contestation, exclusion, and even violence. cpr research in cities increasingly views the commons through a lens of eco-marxism, political ecology, and feminist studies (rao 2020). in mumbai, for instance, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] cattle grazers, salt pan workers, koliwadi fishers, and migrant workers foraging for fuelwood are excluded from access to mangroves, protected forests, lakes, parks, streets, and footpaths by urban visions of ‗modern‘ city restorations that have no space for traditional commons users, considering them both unsightly and unhygienic (parthasarathy 2011). similar patterns of exclusion have been documented in cities across india, including delhi, chennai, and bangalore. yet, there is still hope. polycentric governance systems, drawing on collaborations between local governments and community groups, have a role to play in lake restoration movements in bangalore and many other cities (nagendra and ostrom 2014). peri-urban farming communities in areas like gurgaon have been able to self-organize the use of waste water flows from the city as a resource, mediating water insecurity and forging new norms and practices of cooperation for waste water sharing (narain and singh 2017). environmental placemaking around restored urban ecological commons appears to be a route by which diverse migrants from different socioeconomic backgrounds forge an emotional connect to the city, deriving a strong sense of place and investing in commons action (sen and nagendra 2020). further research is needed to understand the factors shaping the processes and outcomes of commons transformation, both as the loss of cprs and the forging of new forms of urban collective action. in particular, we lack an understanding of transformations in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and towns as most urban commons research in india has so far been in larger metropolitan cities, with rare exceptions (zimmer, véron, and cornea 2020). 4. digital commons digital and information commons are another domain where issues of property rights are discussed intensely. as information and communications technology (ict) began to gain ground across the world, for example, with the development of the internet and collaborative approaches towards open-source software development, new digital commons began to emerge. these were maintained by communities of software developers and creative minds in line with principles of collective creation, sharing, and free availability for third-party users. these ideas, and the underlying spirit of the commons, clash with another growing tendency—to create proprietary software that requires a paid (often substantially expensive) licence to use and operate. as seminal work on the information commons—an area of work that emerged after around 1995— has shown, multiple users of the digital commons began to notice discussions around issues such as the norms of sharing, free riding, conflict, and overuse, which had been discussed extensively in cpr literature (hess and ostrom 2011). [65] harini nagendra, pranab mukhopadhyay, rucha ghate although there has been very little work on the digital commons in india, recent work from other countries has important implications for the increasing tendency to equate online communications with efficient progress in many corporate and government circles without an adequate understanding of the potential challenges. at a time when e-governance is gaining momentum across india and is being pushed as a model of efficiency, transparency, and anti-corruption, studies such as these have important implications for urban and rural india. other global research analyses the increasing challenge of consolidating the influence of the world‘s largest technology companies—facebook, amazon, google, apple, and others—who are being investigated by governments in north america and europe for how they capture, store, analyse, and disseminate the massive volumes of digital data that they access on a daily basis and to what use they put them. given their increasing monopoly over many forms of public data, currently, they seem to have the power to set many of the de facto rules for data use, a situation that rightly alarms many scholars of the digital commons (prainsack 2019). concerns have also been expressed about the increasing consolidation of big data, which includes the personal data of citizens, opening up new possibilities for surveillance by public authorities (lyon 2014). new property rights on data are needed to help protect users against the exploitation of their privacy and individual rights by private and public agencies, and theories of the commons can have an influential role to play in devising such new legal systems of rights (fia 2020). while some work has been done in this regard in india, there is potential to vastly expand the scope, focus, and relevance of commons research to digital and information commons issues, which are of vital importance in contemporary times. unfettered use of public data will otherwise result in data grabbing and the enclosure of data commons by a few powerful interests, rather than ensuring that big data remains available for public use as data commons, as the initial rhetoric and promise suggested (purtova 2017). 5. health as a common concern finally, another emerging area of work on the commons is the health commons. although the need for robust, inexpensive, accessible community-based health services across india, and indeed across the world, is self-evident, commons research has played a relatively small role in shaping debates on public health so far. yet, research on the health commons is steadily gaining ground in recent years, though to a limited extent in india. despite the increasing privatization of healthcare across the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] world, health commons research argues that a market-driven system will not maximize public health. healthcare driven by private markets (as so much of healthcare is increasingly becoming in india, for example) limits patient choice, makes the medical system intentionally opaque, and results in classic commons-type enclosures, excluding marginalized communities from access (nonini 2007). a second challenge where commons research can play a role is in understanding how to move from micro-commons or small-scale community health programmes towards the provision of largerscale regional healthcare. ideas of polycentricity can play an influential role here, with multi-level horizontal and vertical stakeholder collaborations that keep in mind design principles identified by ostrom (smith-nonini, 2006). in addition, research on the health commons stresses the need to go beyond a focus on good strategic practices such as polycentricity towards normative commons approaches, for instance, where participation becomes an inherent value, and, finally, towards political approaches of campaigning and advocacy building for the transformation of public health towards greater civil society engagement and commons action. these insights have tremendous value for india. in conclusion, this special section pays tribute to the tremendously influential role played by narpat s. jodha in shaping commons and cpr work in india. he conducted path-breaking work to document and bring to light the need to ensure a central role communities in the management of ecological cprs across india while highlighting for policymakers the vital role played by cprs in the daily lives and livelihoods of rural communities. the three research papers in this section demonstrate why issues concerning the commons, as studied by jodha and so many others, continue to play an influential role in india today. in addition, in this introductory note, we examine other emerging issues of the commons, which were not as prominent in the times when jodha conducted his research. these include the need for an expanded focus on gender marginalization and new issues such as urban and peri-urban cpr management, digital and information commons, and health commons. while some work has been done on urban and peri-urban commons in india, the volume of work is relatively small compared to the larger focus on the rural commons. with india on a steady path towards urbanization, we cannot ignore the central importance of urban cprs in shaping just, equitable, and sustainable cities. this demands more research. further, there has been minimal research on digital and information technologies from a commons perspective. these are assuming an increasing significance in contemporary india, with the growing influence of large players like google, facebook, and amazon in shaping public behaviour and the [67] harini nagendra, pranab mukhopadhyay, rucha ghate potential for increasing citizen surveillance with the consolidation of public datasets. we need greater societal conversations and scholarly examinations of the norms of the common use of big data, and commons theory can play 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marshlands, lakes, and rivers, the natural is inextricably enmeshed with the social production of urban landscapes. there is clearly nothing primordial or pristine in these forms of urban nature. conversely, to put it in heynen’s provocative words, ‘there is truly nothing unnatural about urban ecosystems …’ (2014, 600).1 even oceans, so wild and seemingly autonomous, have been shifted and shaped at their interface with land by processes of urbanization. chennai has, over the course of its formation, reshaped its coastline, unintentionally building for itself the generous expanse of sand that is today the marina beach. until the late 19th century, the city’s coastline comprised a series of dunes and ridges edged by a narrow strip of mud that teemed with mudskippers and was regularly inundated. the construction of the harbour in the northern part of the city in 1881 began a process of sand accretion to its south that, over time, pushed the ocean outward by up to 2.5 km, creating a wide sandy beach in the central section of the city, even as it ate away stretches of coastal land in the north. urban ecology, then, is not only an account of the interface between the city and its natures; it is about the co-production of urban nature and society or, in swyngedouw’s (1996) formulation, the production of  madras institute of development studies, 79, second main road, gandhinagar, adyar, chennai, tamil nadu, india 600 020; karen.coelho@gmail.com copyright © coelho 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.33 1 here he draws on david harvey’s assertion that ‘there is nothing unnatural about new york city’ (harvey 1996, 186; emphasis in original) https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.33 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] ‘socionatures’, a process that implicates history, technology, and power. while this process is at work in almost all ecological systems known to humans, as the field of political ecology has been pointing out since the 1980s (blaikie and brookefield 1987), there are some distinctive features of urban ecologies that demand new or different analytic categories, lenses, and methods. this essay sketches some of these features and their implications, employing five intersecting rubrics—hybrids, boundaries, histories, values, and peripheries. together, these frames build an account of how the urban engine (or metabolism, in the language of urban political ecology), with its distinctive pace and drivers, assembles dynamic entities that defy easy categorization and carry powerful political stakes. the essay draws on a selection of empirical work across indian cities (including my own writings on chennai) and on the theoretical contributions of urban political ecology, to argue for a more complex understanding of urban nature as constituted through historical projects of urbanization, and of environmental sustainability as inseparable from questions of social justice. 2. hybrids urban spaces and systems are deeply hybrid productions. they are assembled by, on the one hand, projects of socio-spatial engineering, capital accumulation, and advanced consumption, and on the other hand by nature, working in at least two separate registers, first as a relatively autonomous empirical force, and second as a complex of socially constructed values: resource, factor of production, or object of consumption. the new entities thus assembled challenge established boundaries and categories. at the cremation site of nigambodh ghat on the yamuna river in delhi, writes baviskar (2014), urban pollution had sullied the holy river so thoroughly that water from the river ganga was piped into the site by the bharatiya janata party government in the late 1990s. was the sacred river here then jamna ji or ganga ma? plans to bring the ganga to flow in/for the yamuna are near finalization in other urban centres like agra and varanasi as well (vt staff 2018). baviskar (2018) also describes two urban forests in/near delhi that represent two distinctive socionatural hybrids. first, the sacred grove of mangarbani on the edge of the city—a stretch of dense, apparently undisturbed forest—emerges in legal terms as a collection of private plots poised to be sold to developers. its past, as village commons parcelled out to landowners to prevent its use by landless dalit households, spells its imminent future of gurgaon-style real estate urbanism, unless elite environmentalists from gurgaon and delhi can prevail. the threatened unmaking of this forest contrasts sharply with the official making of the [21] karen coelho urban forest on the delhi ridge, where plantations of the imported thorn tree prosopis juliflora, a legacy of colonial engineered greenery, alternate with manicured parks where urban walkers, joggers, and lovers can engage in leisure, exercise, or clandestine romance. chennai’s famed pallikaranai marsh is another urban hybrid. once a vast and wild expanse of freshwater swamp on the southern edges of chennai, it is today a thoroughly socialized element of the city’s urban landscape, intertwined with the information technology corridor, slum resettlement colonies, and other projects of the city’s southward expansion. over the course of 30 years it has been transformed from a dynamic 14,000-acre complex of water sinks and drainages—lakes, swamps, inlet and outflow channels—to a scattered patchwork of marshy plots spread over 1,500 acres where birds still roost, trapped between luxury residential and commercial complexes, golf courses, garbage dumps, railway stations, and road corridors. like other cities, chennai has periodically made and unmade water in the landscape. the city’s celebrated buckingham canal, for instance, is an engineered waterway that was cut through tracts of coastal land in the 19th century for navigation purposes. in the 1960s, after navigation on the canal had decisively failed, city managers proposed closing it and reclaiming its land for roads (see krishnamurthy 1964). and in the 1980s an elevated urban railway was built into and along its course, turning half its width into land in its central city segments. somehow still surviving, the canal is today hailed as an important ‘natural’ drainage channel for the city (sridhar 2015). acknowledging the socionatural hybridity of urban forms implies recognizing the agency of the natural, technological, and, in the language of urban political ecology, ‘more-than-human’ dimensions of urban ecologies. drawing from latour’s actor network theory, urban political ecology draws attention to the actions of non-human actants—from dogs and drains to effluents and embankments—in the assemblages that fuel urban metabolism and produce effects of power in the landscape. 3. boundaries a second important facet of urban ecology is an ongoing drawing and redrawing of boundaries and categories of its component entities. the casting of specific geographies, demographies, or economies as urban often involves defining or dissolving boundaries based on norms, criteria, and cut-offs that differ across contexts. (for a discussion of different metrics that are or can be employed to define urban centres in india, and the dramatically different profiles of urbanization that they yield, see jana ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] (2016)). but the process of urbanization also entails socionatural transformations that remake categories of land and water in line with shifting rationalities and drivers. in chennai, numerous centuries-old engineered tanks and lakes known as eri—seasonal water bodies that, along with their interconnecting channels, created and established an irrigation-cumdrainage system for the region— were eliminated from the 1960s on by processes of urban expansion through in-filling. significant actors here were state agencies like the madras metropolitan development authority and tamil nadu housing board, which drew up formal schemes to enhance the supply of land for housing, infrastructure, and institutions through filling vast expanses of these waterbodies, often at considerable cost. when one such scheme was challenged in court in 1993 by an environmental non-governmental organization, the government’s defence was to claim that the lakes in question were defunct, ‘abandoned and useless for groundwater recharge’ (tnhb 1993). such re-inscriptions of water as land, or the denial of water, have led to the destruction or disappearance of water bodies across urban centres in india. the urban eye on nature, sharply interested and interventionist, sees like the state, in categorical metrics (scott 1998). waterlines are notoriously smudgy, with the demarcation of water from land on shorelines, lake edges, riverbanks, or floodplains being more a shifting seasonal zone than a line (d’souza 2006). but urbanization processes have classically proceeded through authoritatively asserting the categories of land and water on these reluctant interfaces, and reinforcing the boundaries with signboards, concrete, projects, and finance. baviskar (2011) and follman (2016) document how large tracts of the river yamuna’s floodplains in new delhi were handed over against the protests of environmental groups for construction of the commonwealth games village by a supreme court judgement that simply declared that ‘the site in question is neither a “floodplain” nor a “riverbed”’ (supreme court of india 2005, cited in follman 2016). these erasures are also sometimes signalled preemptively. jayaraman (2016) writes of a signboard standing up in the middle of a marshland, proclaiming ‘this land is the property of kamarajar port’— indicating the intent to reinvent the tract of water as land. urban political ecology, then, trains attention on the construction of ecological entities through acts of boundary assertion and recategorization. [23] karen coelho 4. histories the urban ecological lens also reveals historically shifting frameworks through which urban nature is conceived and valorized. from the late 1990s, as discourses of environmental governance and ecological management became part of world-class projects in indian cities, the era of turning water into land in chennai was succeeded by one of restoring and reclaiming water under ‘eco-restoration’ schemes. lakes, rivers, and tanks became transformed in the eyes of urban society from nuisances to assets (coelho and raman 2013). as urban river waters remained intractably diminished in flow or inseparable from sewage or effluent, it was the ‘waterfront’—the land, rather than the water—that came into focus. in this era, then, eco-restoration projects were framed around goals of beautification, greening, and real estate enhancement (baviskar 2011; mathur 2012; coelho and raman 2013). many histories, some long and many short, are implicated in the production of urban socionatures. the everyday urban eye is innocent of history; it takes the landscape at face value. however, the distinctive temporalities of the urban—and its accelerated pace of change or transformation— produces a rapid overwriting of spaces and histories where older land uses, settlements, and spaces are demolished, built over, and sooner or later forgotten as the new forms acquire a life of their own. the negotiations and struggles that were part of this appropriation are smoothed over by the everyday working of the new form. histories of the urban are thus as much about violent erasures and forgetting as about creation and transformation. the green park rolling pleasantly alongside the river conceals a recent past as a dense hub of auto repair and body workshops where hundreds of urban workers made their livelihoods. the massive citicenter mall standing entrenched on the banks of the buckingham canal in chennai carries no hints of the violent demolitions that cleared the land for its construction. the crowds of young customers and moviegoers streaming in and out of it are serenely unaware that only slightly over two decades ago, hundreds of families watched bulldozers reduce to rubble homes that embodied decades of slow investments in taming the wilderness of the canal banks and making it habitable. although the past protrudes through the concrete in the form of an old shrine or an aquatic shrub missed by the bulldozer, it takes less than a generation to wipe these pasts out of memory. traces of erased waterbodies sometimes live on in the urban landscape, if only in the form of street names like ‘lakeview’ or ‘lock street’ found in the midst of arid concrete jungles. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] 5. value the machine of urban metabolism generates value and produces waste. in the process, it not only engages and transforms land, water, and human and non-human entities, it also dialectically shifts the categories and meanings of value and waste. values of urban forms and spaces are not only differentially distributed across territories but remain unstable over time. as seen above, shifting values of urban nature disrupt or dismantle certain histories and legacies of urbanization. as the concept of ‘ecological value’ has taken on a specific meaning in contemporary indian urbanism, associated with projects of beautification and the manufacture of ‘usable nature’ for recreation and aesthetics (baviskar 2011, 2018; coelho and raman 2013), neglected backyards along rivers, creeks and canals—long invisible to capital and sidelined by the state—are propelled into prominence as frontage or high value real estate (baviskar 2011, 2018; coelho and raman 2013). some hybrid socionatural infrastructure like urban canals, bridges, or drains—designed and built at specific historical junctures for specific purposes—may survive awkwardly in the shifting course of urban history long after their original values—techno-functional, ecological, aesthetic, or social—have declined. chennai’s buckingham canal is one such complex. as its navigation function declined through the early 1900s to the mid1900s and it slowly degenerated into a dysfunctional urban drain, its banks became a hinterland in the city’s landscape. concomitantly, they also became the site of stealthy urbanization by subaltern groups in the shadow of the formal city, over time producing some of the most fecund hubs of small-scale industrial and commercial livelihoods and affordable housing in the city (coelho 2017). yet, since the 2000s, as the canal has been inserted into new imaginaries of elevated roadways, walking and cycling paths, and waterfront parks, along with a growing discourse about its drainage functions, many of these spaces have been, or are under imminent threat of being, demolished. the contemporary revalorization of urban waterways has everywhere dislodged or destroyed ecologies of livelihoods and subaltern settlement. a distinguishing feature of the current era of eco-restoration projects in indian cities, whether in delhi, ahmedabad, or chennai, is that they are increasingly motivated by and overtly designed around the eviction of urban poor settlements from the banks, selectively targeting them as encroachers and polluters (mathur 2012; baviskar 2011; coelho et al. 2010, 2013). ecorestoration projects thus emerge today as sites of enormous human tragedy, among the most exclusionary interventions in contemporary urban transformation. [25] karen coelho the term ‘encroachment’ is a keyword of the contemporary moment, indexing a selective stigmatization of property-less subaltern settlers on the edges of urban water bodies while implicitly sanctioning more egregious appropriations of these spaces by elites who have obtained illegal title documents through means at their disposal. this framing is endorsed by sections of the urban middle classes who have become increasingly hostile toward the presence of ‘slums’ in the city, seeing them as aesthetic disturbances or eyesores (baviskar 2004; coelho and raman 2010). economic and ecological visions of development converge in world-class cities where both clean rivers and slum-free cities are ushered in through the single solution of removing slum dwellers en masse to ghettos outside the city. the framework of urban ecology thus illuminates the production of hierarchy and discrimination in urban landscapes. the contributions of urban political ecology have been particularly important in demonstrating how flows and circulations of capital, nature, discourses, and social processes systematically work to differentially value places and people. urban metabolic processes and their hybrid productions create an uneven geography of value, designating certain people and places as ‘waste’ (gidwani and maringanti 2016), which in turn allows for particular types of violence—neglect, discrimination, or appropriation—to be perpetrated on them. the marking of people and places as waste, they argue, is and has always been crucial for the expansion of capital, both justifying and enabling its appropriation of spaces and its abjection of peoples. they show how the waste-recycling hub of bholakpur in hyderabad—framed in public discourse as contaminated, squalid, and marginal—is nevertheless critical to the reproduction of the urban economy. bholakpur and places like it are ‘toxic sinks, where the waste generated as part and parcel of a capitalist space economy is interred by stigmatized bodies who frequently hail from historically vulnerable groups’ (2016, 114). but again, ‘wasting’ and valuing proceed in dialectic fashion: ‘capitalist economies produce places like bholakpur as receptacles of waste, only to cannibalize them at a later moment when land values rise, shifting the imperative to inter waste to other locations’ (114). 6. peripheries these dialectics of devalorization and revalorization underpin, and are also unleashed by, urban expansion to newer territories. urban peripheries have received considerable attention in recent scholarship as complex, dynamic spaces where the distinctive forms and features of southern urbanisms are unfolding. on metropolitan edges, undeveloped tracts with low market ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] value, typically in ecologically fragile or hazardous locations like wetlands or floodplains, become attractive to capital at some point in its search for new frontiers of accumulation. here, then, capital, land, water, and state policy are engaged to create a zone of speculative expansion. to put it in the words of ranganathan (2015), ‘wetlands are a form of land with high consequences for capital’s becoming/being.’ peripheries are thus spaces of radical diversity, where zones of relegation—dumping grounds for all kinds of waste and devalued bodies, human and non-human—are closely juxtaposed with zones of promise where capital prowls for speculative profits in deregulated and flexibly governed territories. urban peripheries have been characterized as a seam connecting “natural” and built space, the authorized and unauthorized city, the accomplished city and the city-yet-tocome. these frontiers are where the workings of urban ecologies are most evident, where circulations of capital, state action, and social meanings shape the boundaries between land and water, the values of built space and social categories—all these creating assemblages of vulnerability to various socionatural risks, including water stress and flooding, air pollution, and traffic accidents. ranganathan (2015), for example, maps the uneven production of flood risk in bangalore’s peripheries by analysing storm drains as socionatural assemblages, historically produced through interlocked human and non-human action, including state engineering projects, flows, and fixities of real estate capital, and informal developments in wetlands. ranganathan (2015, 1305) argues that ‘the intensifying relationship between capital and storm drains in the new millennium has enabled a new and dangerous agency to storm flows’. meanwhile, the mushrooming of large slum resettlement ghettos on the peripheries of most metropolitan cities of india is giving rise to a new urban social geography, a spatial apartheid which renders the urban working classes fringe inhabitants of urban centres that they helped to build and continue to service. this is also a geography of caste, as these peripheral settlements are found to have large concentrations of scheduled caste (sc) families. these resettlement sites display an exceptional vulnerability to floods through a combination of factors acting in concert, including state action and inaction, infrastructures built and not built, projects of large capital, permissions that violate plans, and outright illegalities (coelho et al. 2013). all these cohere around a politics of value which configures certain lands, ecologies, and people as of lower worth than others. but peripheries are not found only outside the city. caldeira’s analytic framework of ‘peripheral urbanization’ (2016) refers not only to spatial location, and not necessarily or mainly to marginality—it refers to a mode of production of space distinguished by ‘auto-construction’ (where spaces are built from the ground up by their occupants as opposed to being [27] karen coelho consumed as ready-made commodities); a transversal rather than direct engagement with official logics of capital, property, and law (as they are typically excluded from formal circuits); and the generation of new kinds of politics and citizenship claims. peripheral urbanization, as caldeira shows, produces highly heterogeneous spaces marked by inequality and precarity. these spaces are subject to constant, if sometimes slow-paced, change, both in the form of incremental improvements and enhancement of the quality of built space and, consequent to this, an almost inevitable displacement, as the improved spaces are taken over by external actors— state or market—followed by a reproduction of the peripheral urbanization process elsewhere. finally, taking the periphery as key to understanding how urban ecologies are formed brings us to reconsidering our definitions of the urban itself. recent scholarship (e.g. brenner and schmid 2015) challenges us to drop the spatially bounded city as an object of analysis in favour of the urban as an ongoing and ever-widening process of transformation of nature, economies, and social relations through the workings of capital. angelo and wachsmudt (2012) argue that a ‘methodological cityism’ which privileges the city as the site of urbanization obscures much of what is distinctive about the contemporary urban world. arguments that posit a spillover or generalization of urbanization processes beyond cities (as in ‘planetary urbanization’ or ‘urban age’ theses) appear to be borne out in the current indian context. factories, power plants, refineries, and even ports move out of cities, transforming the pace and thickening the flows of capital and communications across non-contiguous spaces and, sometimes, creating counter-flows of labour from urban to rural areas (chandrashekar 2011; coelho and vijayabaskar 2014). new elite residential or educational enclaves spring up in rural areas, bringing urban consumption cultures with them. corridors between cities see a rise in land prices and a spread of urban forms along their length. the framework of urban ecology encompasses these diverse axes of circulation and transformation, best captured in the term ‘urban metabolism’, even in spaces that are not the city. 7. conclusions why urban political ecology? what do we gain from this framework? what implications does it carry for urban practice, politics, or governance? discourses of green, eco-smart, sustainable cities have been smoothly incorporated into global circulations of capitalist urbanization as manifested in multilaterally funded multimillion-dollar projects such as the ganga action plan and various river restoration projects across indian cities. yet ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] these projects continue to fail, both on social and environmental fronts, leaving us on one hand with recidivist dirty rivers and on the other with low-income urban communities denied decent drainage even as they suffer the most severe effects of river pollution. environmental and social values are pitted against each other rather, rendering just and inclusive ecorestoration an impossibility. urban political ecology can intervene in this context to demonstrate the inseparability of nature, history, and politics in processes of urbanization. adopting the lens of urban political ecology should lead us to question purist claims that privilege ‘natural’ entities in urban landscapes as a priori or given, while simultaneously urging us to recognize how nature and nonhuman actors inevitably shape the outcomes of human interventions. recognizing the limits of state policy and social engineering, and the relatively autonomous agency of natural and non-human actors, may be a first step in building humility and reducing hubris in the march of urbanization. in practical terms, an urban political ecology approach would dictate that any ecological intervention in the urban context, whether restoring a lake or a river, building a home, factory, bridge or drainage system, by state agencies, firms, non-profits or local residents, requires a rigorous analysis of the range and complexity of socio-natural relations embedded in the landscape, and the potential discriminatory effects and differential values that the intervention would produce. and finally, by highlighting histories of urban production, urban political ecology can not only help to assert non-property claims on urban space in terms that still carry some legitimacy (such as customary or grandfathered rights), but can also draw attention to the value of the investments and stocks built up over time in these incremental productions. urban political ecology can educate the urban eye. acknowledgement i thank nityanand jayaraman and pradeep kuttuva who read and commented on drafts of this article. references angelo, h., and d. wachsmuth. 2014. “urbanizing urban political ecology: a critique of methodological cityism.” international journal of urban and regional research 39 (1): 16–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12105 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tenzinchorran@gmail.com.  fes, anand; bhavanarln@gmail.com.   block eb, plot 44, 1811b rajdanga main road, east kolkata township, kolkata 700 107, india; shreya.karmakar1996@gmail.com.  fes, anand; himani@fes.org.in.  fes, a-160, near s bhilwara, rajasthan 311 001, india; debarupahghosh96@gmail.com.  fes, anand; pratiti@fes.org.in. copyright © chorran, kuchimanchi, karmakar, sharma, ghosh and priyadarshini 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.376 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.376 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] keywords: common property resources; local governance; vulnerability to climate change; collective management of natural resources; secure property rights. 1. introduction india is particularly vulnerable to climate change, as around two-thirds of its population is rural and depend on climate-sensitive natural resources (chatterjee et al. 2005). the increasing need to secure the livelihoods of these communities has therefore set the stage for climate change adaptation through social, institutional, physical, and structural alterations (carabine and lemma 2014; hijioka et al. 2014). however, these adaptation strategies do not necessarily translate into reduced vulnerability of human systems, and, therefore, it is highly important to engage with people with different knowledge, experiences, and backgrounds to jointly address the challenges in framing adaptation approaches (preston and stafford-smith 2009; tompkins et al. 2010; eakin et al. 2012). rajasthan shows the highest climate sensitivity among all regions in india due to more severe and frequent spells of drought (rathore and verma 2013). this adds another layer of vulnerability to existing rural developmental challenges, as 75% of the state’s population is dependent on climate-sensitive sectors for its livelihood. further, the state has only 1.2% of india’s water and cultivable land resources, and over 20% of rural rajasthan is landless (rathore 2005). these conditions limit crop production, making livestock rearing and dependence on common property resources (cprs) such as forests, pastures, waste lands, and natural water bodies, critical. access to cprs is an important determinant of economic well-being in rural communities across india (jodha 1986; jodha 1992; beck and ghosh 2000; beck and nesmith 2001; lesorogol 2008; wolford et al. 2013; thapliyal et al. 2019). cprs are non-exclusive resources whose usage rights and obligations are shared by all members of the community (ostrom et al. 1988; ostrom 1990; bromley and cernea 1989; janssen and anderies 2013). cprs therefore constitute an important component of the rural landscape in india, especially in rajasthan, where they have socio-cultural, economic, and ecological significance. the commons-livestock-agricultural complex provides stability and security to rural households in an unpredictable environment (rao et al. 2015). studies conducted at the village level estimate that cprs contribute 12–23% to the incomes of rural households (jodha 1990). [91] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini in spite of the poverty-alleviating nature of cprs (jodha 1992; reddy and chakravarty 1999; agarwal 2001, ibisch et al. 2010), they continue to record declines in land quality and size (jodha 1985; mwangi and wardell 2012). although there is a risk of large-scale resource exploitation in case control of cprs is transferred to communities, one must acknowledge that these communities used to have traditions of shared norms and mutual trust, and their behaviour in the experiments shows that communities still tend to be non-exploitative, non-commercial, and cooperative when prioritizing, planning, and managing resource sustainably (mcginnis and ostrom 2014). while literature on rural communities and climate change adaptation exists in the indian context, studies on rural communities, cprs, and adaptation to climate change are limited (bantilan et al. 2012; aryal et al. 2020). in view of this, in our paper, we study how the restoration of cprs through environment stewardship initiatives at the local level can contribute to climate-resilient rural livelihoods. we studied six villages in udaipur and bhilwara districts, rajasthan. we applied ostrom’s socio-ecological systems (ses) framework (ostrom 2009) to understand how the complex social and ecological components of a system interact against the backdrop of a changing climate and resource usage. 2. materials and methods 2.1 study area and sample we conducted this study in the state of rajasthan, which is located in the north-western region of india (figure 1). the foundation for ecological security (fes) has been working in seven districts in rajasthan since 1988, covering a total of 5,590 habitations, undertaking work towards conservation of natural resources, particularly cprs, through the collective action of local communities. hence, for this paper, we deliberately chose six villages across two districts—udaipur and bhilwara—based on the following criteria: i) over ten years of conservation work and ii) the availability of two-point data on ecological and socio-economic indicators over a period of five years. we present the characteristics of the villages in table 1. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] figure 1: location of the study [a) india map showing the state of rajasthan; b) location of the study districts in rajasthan state; c) location of the study talukas within each district] source: adapted from administrative atlas of india, census of india, 2011, and local government directory, 2015–16. [93] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini table 1: the characteristics of the districts and chosen villages udaipur district: agro-ecological region: northern plains (and central highlands), including the aravallis, hot semi-arid eco-region; average rainfall: 624.9 mm; temperature range: 0o–48o; soil type: red gravelly soil and red sandy soil. village name demographic profile types of cpr and area sultanji ka kherwara, jhadol block* o population: 150 hhs. o caste composition: obc (75%); st (24%): fc (1%). o farmer composition: landless (7%); marginal (55%); small (37%); medium (1%). o livestock profile: cattle(17%); buffalo (2%); sheep (1%); goat (80%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (75%); wage employment (20%); off– farm employment (5%) forest land: 140 ha. cheetarawas, sayara block o population: 150 hhs. o caste composition: st (100%). o farmer composition: marginal (98%); small (2%). o livestock profile: cattle (32%); buffalo (2%); sheep (2%); goat (64%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (100%), forest land: 190 ha. dheemri, phalasiya block o population: 185 hhs. o caste composition: st (100%). o farmer composition: marginal (3%); small (97%). o livestock profile: cattle (53%); sheep (1%); goat (46%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (75%); wage employment (10%); off– farm employment (15%). forest land: 88 ha. contd... ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] bhilwara district: agro-ecological region: northern plains (and central highlands), including the aravallis, hot semi-arid eco-region; average rainfall: 597.2 mm; temperature range: 7.3o–46o; soil type: shallow black soil, mixed red and black soils village name demographic profile types of cpr and area mala ka kheda, mandalgarh block o population: 40 hhs. o caste composition: obc (90.8%); st (9.2%). o farmer composition: landless (0%); marginal (50%); small (25%); medium (25%). o livestock profile: cattle (14%); buffalo (14%); sheep (29%); goat (43%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (86%); wage employment (9%); off– farm employment (6%). two managed grazing land: 30 ha and 15 ha. mukan garh , mandalgarh block o population: 230 hhs. o caste composition: sc (57 %); obc (37%); fc (6%). o farmer composition: landless (1%); marginal (52%); small (26%); medium (17%). o livestock profile: cattle (21%); buffalo (19%); sheep (9%); goat (60%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (85%); wage employment (14%); off– farm employment (1%). forest land: 50 ha. managed grazing land: 30 ha. unmanaged revenue waste land: 18 ha. kekariya , mandalgarh block o population: 110 hhs. o caste composition: obc (85%); st (5 %); sc (5%); fc (5%). o farmer composition: landless (4%); marginal (89%); small (5%); medium (2%). o livestock profile: cattle (35%); buffalo (25%); sheep (6%); goat (33%). o livelihood profile: agriculture and livestock rearing (82%); wage employment (12%); off– farm employment (6%). forest land: 100 ha. managed revenue wasteland: 30 ha. unmanaged revenue waste land: 150 ha. sources of data: imd (2019); fes data platform (2019); fes internal database 2013–2019; hydrogeological atlas of rajasthan 2013 (gor 2013); agriculture contingency plans for bhilwara and udaipur districts (goi 2012a, 2012b). notes: 1. major crops, i.e. maize, pulses, sorghum, barley, wheat, and mustard, are the same for all sites. 2. * block is the lowest administrative division in india. 3. list of acronyms: obc – other backward castes; st – scheduled tribes; sc – scheduled castes; fc – forward castes or general category; hhs – households. [95] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini 2.2. data collection process fes uses a range of scientific survey formats to monitor ecological, social, and economic changes in its project areas over time. from among these, we selected three data sources for the time period 2013–2019 to build a comprehensive narrative on various aspects of the study. the data sources we used include: i) socio-ecological monitoring: fes uses international forestry resources and institutions (ifri) survey instruments to obtain socio-ecological data at the village level. ifri facilitates multi-country, multi-year data collection and analyses data about forests, people, and institutions using a combination of research methods (ifri 2013). ii) annual ecological monitoring: fes uses a comprehensive ecological monitoring approach to assess changes in the ecological condition of cprs under community protection. it conducts regular annual ecological assessments through geographic information system (gis) and community participatory methods on several parameters to track changes in community-managed cprs and unmanaged cprs. however, we restrict our study to biomass, vegetation density, and biodiversity aspects. iii) secondary data and independent studies on climate change adaptation: to link various climate change adaptation perspectives, we gathered data from two studies we had conducted in rajasthan, covering aspects of the communities’ perception of climate risks, the impacts they faced, and their adaptation responses. 2.3 theory our study’s aim stems from ostrom’s social-ecological systems (ses) framework (ostrom 2007; 2009), which suggests that socio-ecological outcomes are a function of the complex interactions among the diverse social and ecological components of that system. building on the same stream of thought, in this paper, we apply a modified version of ostrom’s ses framework to analyse our findings (see figure 2) on how local stewardship initiatives help systems adapt to extreme climatic events. to summarize, ostrom’s framework consists of four major subsystems— resource systems, resource units, governance systems, and actors. the interplay between these separate subsystems is mediated by complex interactions that produce outcomes that again feed back into the system to improve its functioning, robustness, and resilience. the focal ses interacts with social, economic, and political systems—and related ecosystems— considering them external variables that affect the system’s vulnerability and adaptability in the long term. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] figure 2: application of adapted version of ostrom’s ses framework source: adapated from ostrom (2007; 2009) [97] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini we therefore considered the six study villages to be six different sess. we studied the socioeconomic and political context of each ses using the variables of livelihood and economic development, demographic trends, and market linkages, which gave insights into the socioeconomic status of households (hhs), their cultural background, and societal evolution. to understand the related ecosystems, we integrated climate variabilities and the impacts faced by communities living in the ses, as climatic variations have an effect on both, the social and ecological components of a system. the resource systems within each ses were the cprs used by the communities, i.e., forests in the case of udaipur district and grazing lands, revenue waste lands, and forests in the case of bhilwara district. here, we studied both biophysical aspects, i.e., location, size, productivity, and storage characteristics, along with social aspects, such as humanconstructed facilities, as factors that determine the access rights and dependency patterns of hhs on the cprs in the ses. for resource units, we mapped the types of products and changes in dependency patterns over time. we also mapped the characteristics of the products (mostly vegetation) in each location, by paying attention to their growth, as it affects the region’s micro-climate. under governance systems and actors, we looked at local relevant actors, community leadership, knowledge systems, and dependency on the resource, as they influence local stewardship initiatives that work to conserve cprs. in governance systems, we also look at administrative systems, local rules and systems, and the role of associated stakeholders. to understand interactions, we looked at patterns of resource use and dependency on cprs; forest–livelihood interactions; community perceptions about the condition of resource systems; use of technology; deliberation processes; conflict points; self-organizing activities; and networking activities, as they are important indicators of local stewardship. and lastly, for outcomes, we analysed social, ecological, and climate adaptation performance measures, based on which we elaborated how crucial actors and governance systems are maintaining the ses’s equilibrium to absorb and respond to shocks. 3. results 3.1 the socio-cultural and economic setting in the study sites in udaipur district, the three study sites we focused on were cheetarawas, located in sayara block, dheemri located in phalasiya block and sultanji ka kherwara, located in jhadol block. cheetarawas and dheemri are predominately tribal habitations, while sultanji ka kherwara has a predominantly obc population. the main sources of livelihood for households (hhs) in these sites are agriculture, livestock rearing, sale of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] forest produce, and wage labour. they also see a high rate of rural–urban migration, mostly for off-farm employment. as udaipur district falls in the southern aravalli hill region, which is predominantly forested, the forests hold great social and cultural significance for the inhabitants. all three study sites are located around 50–70 km away from udaipur city, while the nearest town markets are around 10 km away. though remotely located, udaipur city stills plays a significant role in accessibility to larger markets and other urban services. in bhilwara, the study sites, mala ka kheda, mukan garh, and kekariya, are all located in mandalgarh block. here also, agriculture and livestock rearing are the main livelihood sources for hhs. these sites have access to various marketplaces within their gram panchayats (8–12 km), mandalgarh town (20–35 km), and bhilwara city (40–65 km). good road connectivity provides ample opportunity for hhs in the region for marketing dairy products and employment in the large–scale textile industries in bhilwara. in addition to this, high mineral availability, such as limestone deposits, is also attracting attention from the cement mining and marble industries. due to these factors, the status of migration is quite low in the study sites in bhilwara as compared to udaipur. 3.2 cprs: use and vulnerability to climate change in udaipur, the reserve forest area was the main cpr. cheetarawas, dheemri, and sultanji ka kherwara have access to about 190 ha, 88 ha, and 140 ha of reserve forest lands respectively; these fall under the forest department’s jurisdiction, but a village forest protection and management committee (vfpmc), constituted under the joint forest management arrangement, manages them. these forest areas are shared by other habitations, making them a highly contested resource. the forest tract in cheetarawas, located on the fringes of kumbhalgarh wildlife sanctuary, is dense and mature, with abundant wild flora and fauna. meanwhile, the forests of dheemri and sultan ji ka kherwara have more shrub-like vegetation. in all three sites, the forests hold important cultural and social significance and act as an important source of several forest products, fodder, fuel wood, and water for the inhabitants. all three sites have a history of massive deforestation by various actors and are further impacted by frequent droughts and reduced rainfall over the years. however, local environment stewardship initiatives (which we discuss further in section 3.3) have helped restore these forest resources, considerably stabilizing the livelihoods of tribal and other poor hhs in the region. the inhabitants of the region harvest and sell a range of forest produce, namely custard apple (annona squamosa), tendu leaves (diospyros melanoxylon), java plum (syzygium cumini), indian jujube (ziziphus mauritiana), date (phoenix dactylifera), goose [99] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini berry (phyllanthus emblica), khair (acacia catechu), baheda or myrobalan (terminalia bellirica), dyer’s oleander (wrightia tinctoria), ratanjot (jatropha curcas), umbiya (miliusa tomentosa), flame of the forest (butea monosperma), bamboo (dendrocalamus strictus), and a variety of fodder grasses. in the bhilwara study sites, there were three different types of cprs: the reserve forest managed by the village forest protection management committee (vfpmc); grazing land managed by the village pastureland development committee (vpdc); and unmanaged revenue waste land under the jurisdiction of the revenue department. all the hhs in the study sites are dependent on all the cprs; however, the availability of products from each cpr varies considerably, influencing their dependency patterns. forest lands, spanning across 50–100 ha, were once a good source of fuel wood and fodder for the community, but due to strict governance and restrictions, imposed by the forest department, the communities are unable to access these lands and have a higher dependence on other types cprs for fuel wood and fodder. revenue waste lands, which are mostly unmanaged, have been neglected, and are used indiscriminately for fuel wood, fodder, forest produce, and timber. continuous degradation over the years has depleted these resources, reducing their availability considerably. the village pasture lands and revenue waste lands span across 30 ha, 35 ha, and 40 ha in the villages of mukan garh, mala ka khera, and kekariya, respectively. over the past five years, the dependence of communities on managed grazing lands has increased, especially for fodder consumption; their dependence on cprs for timber has reduced but has remained the same for fuel wood and intangible benefits. our interaction with hhs at both sites revealed that their dependency on the sale of forest produce has increased over time. in the udaipur sites, we found increased dependency on certain forest produce, such as custard apple, bamboo, baheda, and palash, due to a higher market value, particularly in cheetrawas. although in recent years migration has increased in the region, the forests continue to be a good source of income for a certain section of hhs. in bhilwara, the greatest dependency across all the study sites was on managed grazing lands compared to other cprs. this can be attributed to the higher availability of fodder due to better management practices. from the forests, tendu leaves, amla (goose berry), ber (jujube), and certain species of fodder have become economically significant for the socioeconomically weaker hhs, as they help meet their subsistence needs. dependence on cprs for fodder in both the udaipur and bhilwara sites have increased manifold between 2013 and 2019, while dependence on cprs for timber and fuel wood species have somewhat reduced in the bhilwara study villages, specifically with the introduction of several ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] government schemes that propose cleaner and greener alternatives to timber for house construction and fuel wood for cooking. in this context, already marked by several issues, changes in rainfall and temperature and the occurrence of extreme events not only have an ecological impact on the cprs—they also influence how communities may use or manage resources, exacerbating already existing vulnerabilities. independent studies on climate change adaptation in both sites indicated that communities identified a range of climate risks in the region (see table 2). in the udaipur sites, the major climate risks they perceived were erratic rainfall patterns, dry spells, and cyclonic storms. in bhilwara, hhs reported erratic rainfall patterns, high-intensity rainfall, and a rise in temperature. based on participant perceptions, the sites in udaipur were more affected by changes in climate phenomena than the sites in bhilwara. however, in both sites, hhs reported that climate risks have intensified over the last five years. table 2: climate risk perceptions of communities in the study sites climate risks identified impacts perceived udaipur bhilwara reduced overall precipitation m l dry spells h m erratic rainfall patterns h h high-intensity rainfall l h rising temperature m h rising winters temperatures l l increase in drought situations m l delayed onset of the monsoons l l cyclonic storms in monsoons h l note: acronyms: scale: h = high impact, m = medium impact, l = low impact in terms of impacts (see table 3), in the udaipur sites, the major impacts reported by the hhs seemed to have a direct bearing on their natural resources, as cyclonic storms uprooted trees, destroyed forest conditions, and increased the incidence of forest fires. this impacted the availability of forest produce, fuel wood, and fodder. with regard to livestock, they reported an increase in disease incidence and a reduction in crop residues due to crop loss. regarding agriculture-related impacts, they reported crop loss in the germination and harvest stages, an increase in pest attacks and diseases in crops, and a reduction in crop yields. the impacts of climate risks on agriculture and livestock were similar across all sites in bhilwara. however, high-intensity rainfall caused the breakage of watershed structures, leading to flash floods and waterlogging. hhs also [101] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini reported that reductions in fodder and fuel wood were more predominant in the unmanaged cprs. further, hhs in both the districts felt that increasing temperatures during the summer months caused heat stress, which prevented hh members from working outdoors for longer hours. workers, especially women, lacked the physical strength required to work in government wage programmes or agricultural fields in the heat, depriving them of their daily wage and livelihood. 3.3 local environment stewardship and common property resources conservation in all the study sites, separate committees were present to govern the different cprs. in case of forest lands, vfpmcs were organized under the joint forest management arrangement; vpdc was formed for managed pasture lands as per the rules of the rajasthan panchayati raj act; and tree grower’s cooperative society was constituted for managing revenue waste lands. the committees in all study sites consisted of locally relevant actors, such as community resource persons, village representatives, or members of the executive body of the village institution. they had specific bye-laws that defined the rules for accessing, using, withdrawing, and managing the cprs. these committees also developed annual regeneration plans, taking into consideration the diverse needs of different social groups in the village, including women, which encouraged the participation of multiple stakeholders in the conservation and management of cprs. however, there were cases of both strong and weak institutional governance in the study sites as the evolution of institutions is non-linear in nature (see table 3).for example, the vfpmc in cheetarawas was very strong and had been managing the forest land for about fifteen years. however in the last five years conflicts among the communities have become frequent, and the rules are poorly enforced due to internal and external factors. this has impacted the conservation and management efforts. while efforts are being made by the institution to reduce conflicts, encroachments still exist and the regeneration rate of forest resources is also comparatively low. contrary to this, the forests of dheemri and sultanji ka kherwara reflected the positive results of consistent cpr co-management practices by communities, resulting in improved vegetation density and green cover. the forest in dheemri was deteriorating with the rampant felling of trees in the 1960s and 70s. the community soon realized the importance of a healthy ecosystem and decided to protect their forests. in an effort to prevent people from cutting trees, a few of the community members went to a nearby temple called kesariya jiand performed the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] table 3: household responses to climate change adaptation climate change impacts adaptation responses by communities u b cpr related decrease in availability of certain tree and fodder species damage to trees through uprooting/ breakage increased collective action in cpr management increased plantation activity in forests implementation of harvesting rules p p p p p p reduced surface water bodies smc work in private lands smc work in cprs p p p p breakage of watershed structures causing flash flooding repair of structures increased smc works in cprs and other areas a a p p reduced fodder in grazing/revenue waste lands rules and regulations to protect and regenerate lands a p livestock related increased disease incidence in livestock shift in species composition or breeds increased veterinary care p p p p sudden disease outbreaks in poultry reduced poultry rearing shift in species composition a p p a reduction in crop residues due to crop loss agroforestry shift to livestock or mixed farming conservation of common lands p p p a p p agriculture related crop loss in the germination and harvest stages double sowing crop diversification increased dependency on forest products p p p p p p increase in pest and disease attacks in crops increased usage of chemical pesticides look at weather forecasts p a p a reduction in crop yields new crop alternatives increased dependency on forest products higher dependence on wage work increased dependence on pds increase livestock production p p p p p p a p p p reduced groundwater use of water-efficient systems water budgeting initiatives at the village level well deepening p p p p p p sources: independent studies on climate change adaptation by fes, 2015–16. note: acronyms: p – present; a – absent; cpr – common property resources; scm – soil and moisture conservation; u – udaipur; b – bhilwara. sacred ritual of kesarchidkaav (throwing saffron along the forest boundary). since then, there has been no felling of trees, and the community believes [103] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini that if anyone causes harm to the forest, they will be punished by god. today, the forest is divided into various management units, wherein each habitation has user rights over a separate forest patch. the management units, demarcated by streams, are in proportion to the population of each habitation, such that the benefits are equitably shared. similarly, in kekariya, a patch of revenue waste land was leased to the community by the revenue department. with proper management and strong governance practices, the degraded land was finally revived and converted into grazing land. today, it provides myriad benefits to the community. in kekariya and mukan garh, the rules governing the management of grazing lands allow villagers to collect only dry twigs that fall from trees for use as firewood. the grazing land is closed for four to five months during the monsoons to allow grass and new regenerating plants to grow. the cutting of branches and grazing of animals is strictly prohibited during this period. in mala ka khera, the committee closes access to grazing lands for two years after plantation activity. in case the rule is broken, the village institution imposes graduated sanctions. across all the villages, the penalty for breaking rules depends on the extent of damage done and also on the economic background of the offender. the fine is usually fixed at inr 2,000 for vulnerable people (socially excluded, landless, marginal, small landholding farmers), while it may shoot to as high as inr 15,000 for offenders from comparatively privileged backgrounds. after the payment of the fine, the lower and poorer castes are allowed to take the branches that they have chopped off the trees. 3.4 cprs and adaptation to climate change in this section, we elaborate on the interactions between hhs and cprs, examining outcomes in terms of social and ecological returns and how they have helped these communities adapt to climate change (see table 3). we found that the results of the local stewardship initiatives for cpr conservation differed significantly in the two study sites, depending on differential governance systems, resource conditions, and other local factors. in cheetarawas, in spite of the high incidence of conflicts and low regeneration rate of forest products, there has been a significant improvement in the availability of forest resources, since the vfpmc was formed, thus providing benefits to communities, particularly buffering them from losses in agriculture and livestock production. the increased sale of certain forest produce in the past five years provided poorer hhs an average annual income of inr 5,000–40,000 per household, depending on the kind of forest produce they sold and its availability. one such example is the collective marketing of custard apple, which earned people in cheetarawas inr 3,75,000 in 2019, benefitting several hhs. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] in bhilwara, all study sites showed increased vegetation density in the managed grazing lands, thus leading to an increase in the availability of fodder and water resources. this resulted in increased livestock holding capacity per hh, and large farmers in particular showed a greater preference for rearing buffaloes. therefore, there is a strong presence of dairy cooperatives, either within the village or in the nearby gram panchayat. the average quantity of dairy sales per hh in these villages was around 200–350 litres per month, which generated an average household income of inr 1,25,00–2,00,000 annually. also, they generate various dairy products, including curd, ghee, paneer, and butter, for self-consumption. the availability of more fodder in the managed cprs helped the hhs continue dairy production, thereby helping them cope with crop loss and the reduced availability of crop residues and manage disease incidence in dairy animals better. other responses that we observed in both sites with regard to cprs and efforts by the local community to reduce the impacts of climate risks in the region involved increased plantation, soil and moisture conservation activities, further tightening of the management, and new harvesting rules to enhance regeneration efforts. in bhilwara, as high-intensity rainfall was an issue, the management undertook the repair of damaged watershed structures and the construction of new ones. this not only helped reduce general water scarcity and flash flooding, but it also helped in further regeneration of vegetation in the grazing lands. further, this increase in community-led collective action to manage cprs helped in checking water run-off and in improving the soil and moisture regime in the region. for instance, in mukan garh, the construction of water harvesting structures has contributed to groundwater recharge and an increase in the water column in wells by about 15–20 feet. this has had a cascading effect on agriculture and livestock-based livelihoods, as is reflected in the increased productivity of wheat and maize over the past few years. the use of water-efficient systems and water-budgeting initiatives in both the districts further helped offset losses in crop production. as their incomes became stable, hhs managed other losses in agriculture by increasing their use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, diversifying their crop (i.e., a shift from maize to wheat, and from chilli to mustard), double sowing, and selling forest produce. when it came to livestock, regeneration of cprs helped in securing dairybased livelihoods, particularly in bhilwara, despite drought-like conditions and erratic rainfall patterns that caused losses in crops, both in terms of [105] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini income and crop residues. further, though the communities reported high disease incidence in livestock, the availability of abundant fodder helped keep the incidence low and manageable through better nutrition. bhilwara also saw an increase in livestock keeping. from the ecological perspective (see table 4), in the udaipur sites, our data revealed that there was a 35.8% increase in the above ground biomass in dheemri and sultanji ka kherwara, whereas there was a 14.6% decrease in cheetrawas. we saw a similar trend in the species diversity index and number of species. in the former, the community’s efforts to protect cprs were visible both ecologically and in its subsequent returns towards enhancing livelihoods, while weak local management and governance led to lower regeneration in cheetrawas. table 4: ecological outcomes of local stewardship initiatives in the study sites particulars udaipur bhilwara type of resource systems forest land* forest land** grazing land forest land rwl study year ’14 ’19 ’14 ’19 ’14 ’19 ’14 ’19 ’14 ’19 number of species 25 22 21 32 12 12 11.5 15 10 9 shannon diversity index 2.6 2.4 2.4 2.7 1.7 1.2 1.7 1.8 1.8 1.7 above ground tree biomass (tons/ha) 140.9 120.2 24.8 33.7 10.2 11.8 21.8 30.7 4.2 5.2 no. of trees (0–5 cm dbh class) 212 333 629 784 391 546 741 1063 173 184 no. of trees (> 10 cm dbh class) 454 451 49 82 42 49 62 151 24 30 sources: ifri dataset 2013 and 2019. note: acronyms: dbh – diameter at breast height; * cheetrawas, ** dheemri and sultanji ka kherwara in bhilwara, however, we saw an improvement in natural resources in all cprs in 2013–2019. we found a 21–54% increase in standing biomass in both forests and community-managed grazing lands in all three sites. there was also an increase in tree density, but a decrease in the diversity index, which revealed an increase in only dominant species. the waste lands, however, showed different results—there was an increase in standing biomass, but it mainly consisted of the invasive species, prosopis juliflora; ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] there was otherwise a reduction in species diversity, density, and fodder availability. 4. discussion and conclusion the communities in the study sites in both districts are located in varied geographical regions and landscapes. though agriculture and livestock production are their primary occupations, we found that they showed a high dependence on cprs to maintain their basic needs, as a supplementary source of income (particularly poorer hhs), and for profitable livestock rearing. our findings showed that goods and services obtained from cprs, such as fuel wood, fodder, and forest produce met both, the income and daily subsistence needs of the poor and marginalized. thus, by undertaking various restoration activities on cprs, which were once stressed and degraded, they improved groundwater levels, biomass production, and biodiversity, which led to overall stabilization in farm-based livelihoods. this was more evident in bhilwara compared to udaipur. further, productive cprs and their regeneration efforts supported livestock rearing by smallholders (ali 2007) in bhilwara, which helped buffer against crop losses and helped them continue dairy production even under drought-like conditions. in addition to this, we can consider the shift to buffalo rearing in the region as a sustainable and lucrative adaptation to climate change. this is because buffaloes can be reared on fodder from cprs and do not require high-quality green feed like crossbred/exotic cows, whose fodder is otherwise produced with precious ground water. while cprs, when managed properly, can transform and improve rural livelihoods, extreme climatic events, coupled with mismanagement practices and lack of collective effort at the community level, can have negative impacts on them, thus affecting food security and increasing poverty and social inequality—as we have seen in cheetrawas, even though it is a densely forested area. further, we also observed that the condition of the cprs (see table 4) also influenced the rate of migration—less productive cprs in the udaipur sites can be linked to higher migration (despite their remoteness) than bhilwara. in such a situation, climate risks in the region add an additional layer of risks, increasing the existing vulnerability of socio-economically weaker sections, as they are most dependent on cprs (bantilan et al. 2012). we thus conclude that cprs act both as a stable source of livelihood as well as a safety net against risks arising from climate change. [107] t. chorran, b. r. kuchimanchi, s. karmakar, h. sharma, d. ghosh, p. priyadarshini in order to ensure that the benefits from cprs are sustainable in the long term, it is important to govern and manage them judiciously. we find that when local communities have secure property rights over cprs and manage them collectively through self-governing local institutions, the result is enhanced household resilience through the reduction of poverty and social inequalities as well as improved ecological health (dupar and badenoch 2002). we conclude that processes that support local self-governance need to be strengthened and are central to local adaptation to climate change — as we have seen in many instances where cprs have buffered the impacts of climate change. in other words, our paper emphasizes the need for integrating climate vulnerability and related adaptation strategies at the local level by means of collective action to boost local institutions to improve their planning and implementation of developmental activities (agarwal 2008). for centuries, cprs, except forests, have been considered to be of no economic value, while the traditional use of these lands has supported the livelihoods of economically and socially backward rural communities for decades (jodha 2000). further, cprs in any form are storehouses of biodiversity that have contributed significantly to water and nutrient flow, and hence have enhanced the resilience of farming systems and livestock breeding for generations. these have been further strengthened through local tenurial arrangements (gaur et al. 2018). although mostly unmanaged, there are village-specific bye-laws to govern crp management and use, and these need to be strengthened through linking institutions and by coordinating responses across the government, the private sector, and civil society to enhance the inherent adaptive capacities of these communities. therefore, we have highlighted the need for viewing forests, pastures, and waste lands as durable community assets, which when managed collectively, aid local-level climate change adaptation processes. these adaptation strategies are strengthened by aligning the objectives of meeting livelihood security while maintaining the access and availability of natural resources. the decentralized governance of shared resources, therefore, aids collective decision-making, and the principles of inclusion and equity, sharing of responsibilities, and access to benefits have acted as a common denominator across all existing village institutions in both the districts. lastly, the application of the ses framework in analysing the interactions and outcomes of social and ecological systems provides valuable insights into the nature of governance systems across the study sites and the degree of local environment stewardship practised. in bhilwara, for instance, different rules exist for the management of various cprs. in the udaipur villages, on the other hand, the inability to address local-level conflicts in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] resource use and the lack of proper monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms have created stark differences across the forest conditions in the two blocks. the extent of collective action, strength of village institutions, and variations in rules and sanctions determine the state of vegetation cover and product availability for each cpr, and consequently, its capacity for livelihood resilience. in fragile systems, as we saw in the case of cheetarawas village, institutions for reducing climate risk and promoting adaptation may be too weak to empower communities in complex decisionmaking, particularly in instances of resource conflict. hence, resolving institutional challenges in the management of natural resources—including lack of coordination, monitoring, and enforcement—would be a big step towards more effective climate governance (hijioka et al. 2012). the need now is therefore to 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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.05.001 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 31–65, july 2018 research paper modelling the economics of grassland degradation in banni, india, using system dynamics mihir mathur  and kabir sharma  abstract: this is a study of the interactions between the ecology and economy of the banni grassland, located in the district of kutch, gujarat, india. the study focuses on modelling the economic impact of grassland degradation in the banni from 1992–2015 and simulates future scenarios up to 2030 using system dynamics. the specific sectors being modelled are the area spread of the invasive species prosopis juliflora, palatable grass, the populations of livestock as well as the livestock and charcoal incomes of banni. an economic valuation is done by discounting the future earnings of the pastoral (milk, livestock sale, dung manure) and charcoal economy under two scenarios 1) base case (business as usual), i.e. keeping current policies constant and 2) p. juliflora removal policy (prp) i.e. where a decision is implemented to remove p. juliflora from banni. under the bau scenario, modelling results indicate that the banni grassland is headed for severe fodder scarcity due to the shrinking area under grassland. under the prp scenario, banni is able to revive its grasslands and increase the present value of future earnings (up till 2030) by 62 per cent. a delay of five years in the decision to remove p. juliflora results in a 28 per cent reduction in earnings indicating the policy’s time sensitivity. the model serves as a test bed for generating what-if scenarios of the banni grassland. keywords: grasslands; livestock; system dynamics; economics; land degradation  founder director, desta research llp, new delhi; mihir09mathur@gmail.com.   founder director, desta research llp, new delhi; sharmakabir@gmail.com this study was carried out in year 2016, when the authors were working at the energy and resources institute (teri), new delhi, as a part of the project ‘economics of desertification, land degradation and drought in india’ funded by ministry of environment, forest and climate change, government of india. then, mihir was associate fellow, center for global environment research and kabir was research associate, modelling and scenario building. copyright © mathur and sharma 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.34 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.34 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] 1. introduction changes in ecosystems, climate, and peoples’ livelihoods are all interdependent. the way in which biological resources are converted into goods and services, as inputs and outputs of the economy, contributes to shifts in local livelihoods and to climate change (perrings 2010, 3). the loss of biotic species, reduced biomass, and, thereby, reduced carbon sequestration contributes to climate change and impacts the livelihoods of people dependent on such resources, especially grasslands and forests. interventions designed at the policy or community level to induce changes in ecosystems often generate economic and social feedback by changing the livelihoods and lifestyles of resource-dependent communities after a long time delay. this is more so in the case of large-scale changes made to convert forests to croplands or grasslands to forests. one such example of this coupling between humans, the economy, and ecosystems is seen in tropical semi-arid grasslands, wherein the livelihoods of dwelling communities are deeply interlinked with ecological dynamics (reid et al. 2005, 56). in india, in recent times, there has been the tendency of policymakers to misconceive grasslands for degraded forests or wastelands; planting up grasslands or converting these to industry deeply impacts the social-ecological dynamics of these regions (vanak et al. 2017). in the banni grassland in kutch, gujarat, seeding in the 1960s of prosopis juliflora (p. juliflora), an alien invasive woody species, has over time greatly hampered grass production and the traditional livelihoods of nomadic pastoralists who have lived there for generations (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 76–77). in the context of climate change it is even more important to understand the dynamics between the socio-economics and ecology of such systems—to effectively address conflicting climate goals, such as increasing carbon sinks through afforestation while conserving pastoral livelihoods and grassland biodiversity, and to reach informed decisions on their management (xu et al. 2014). in such a scenario, a systemic understanding—seeing the social-economic and ecological dynamics together as one system—is critical. this warrants the use of systems thinking and system dynamics simulation modelling methods. through this paper the authors demonstrate the potential of system dynamics for modelling complex social, ecological, and economic interlinkages in coupled human-natural systems such as banni. the aim of this study is to estimate the economic cost of grassland degradation in banni over a 15-year period (2015–2030). it achieves this through modelling the dynamics and feedbacks between the grassland, p. juliflora spread, livestock populations, and the economics of the banni grassland. [33] mihir mathur and kabir sharma the model highlights the interdependencies between different sectors and between variables within each sector. the model helps in developing a deeper understanding of the complexities of banni and serves as a tool for generating what-if scenarios for various policies. the study highlights the need for further research on the ecological and economic parameters of banni, and presents a case for the development of a decision support tool for developing sustainable management plans of the banni grassland. 1.1 banni grassland the banni grassland, once known as asia’s best tropical grassland (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 6), spans an area of approximately 2,500 sq km in the district of kutch on the northern border of bhuj block (koladiya et al. 2016, 9). the grassland has been degrading; productivity dropped from 4,000 kg per hectare in the 1960s to 620 kg per hectare in 1999 (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 76). while the evidence is still inconclusive on whether the dominant cause is increasing salinity or the spread of the invasive species p. juliflora, the most cited reason by the pastoralists (maldharis) is the spread of p. juliflora. livestock rearing is the primary occupation of the people, and grassland degradation poses a serious problem for sustaining the pastoral economy. the banni grassland is divided into ugamani banni or east banni; vachali banni or central banni; and aathamani banni or jat patti, or west banni (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 12). its geographic area has been estimated, variously, at 1,800 sq km to 3,800 sq km (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 125); this study uses the recent estimate of 2,500 sq km (koladiya et al. 2016, 20). the dominant community is the livestock-breeding maldharis. many communities among them—raysipotra, halepotra, pirpotra, hingorja, sumra, mutva, node, etc.—migrated several generations ago from sindh, marwar, and baluchistan. the other community is the meghwals, and their main occupations have been leather tanning and shoemaking and making artefacts from leather (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 14). 1.2. the banni grassland—a brief history the mainstay of the maldhari community of banni has been livestock breeding. before independence the maldhari communities lived a nomadic life and often wandered into what is now pakistan for grazing their livestock (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 51). banni is largely flatland. as it is often flooded in the monsoon, especially west banni, even spurring intra-banni migration, it is sometimes referred to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] as a seasonal wetland (mehta et al. 2014, 18). the government forest department reports about 254 small and large wetlands (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 41). in may 1955, banni was declared a protected forest under the indian forest act, 1927 (mehta et al. 2014, 20). climatically, it is an arid or semi-arid zone; annually, it experiences around 300–353 mm of rainfall on average (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 114; geevan et al. 2003, 21). 1.2.1. prosopis juliflora p. juliflora is a species native to south america, the caribbean, and mexico. the forest department first introduced it over an area of 31,550 hectares along the border between banni and the great rann of kutch in 1961 to control the ingression of the rann (salt marsh) into other land (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 83). but the invasive nature of p. juliflora and its spread over the past 55 years has led to the loss of native vegetation, including grassland; today, the maldharis cite it as one of the dominant causes of grassland degradation. in the summer, when grasses are in short supply, the livestock feed on p. juliflora pods. seeds, rejected in their fecal matter, receive both manure and moisture in this way, and quickly take root and germinate (kumar 2015, 47). this helps p. juliflora spread further. the open grazing system accelerates the process (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 83). p. juliflora apportions resources and also has allelopathic properties. due to these reasons its spread has reduced the area under indigenous plants and grassland in banni (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 81). the loss in grassland productivity has raised the amount of fodder that the maldharis purchase and, thus, livestock expenses for the economy. pastoralists opine that the grasslands would recover if p. juliflora—locally gando baval, or ‘mad’ acacia—were to be removed. 1.2.2. dairy the banni buffalo and kankrej cattle are the dominant large livestock species in banni. traditionally, banni was not a dairy-farming economy; its pastoralists were livestock breeders and involved in the trade of the banni buffalo and kankrej cattle and bullocks. only after dairies began collecting milk in 2009–2010 did the pastoralists start selling milk in large quantities. in 2010, banni’s buffalo was recognized by the national bureau of animal genetic resources as a distinct breed; and this increased its value and spurred its rearing (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 98). consuming the pods of p. juliflora is fatal for kankrej cattle; therefore, their population has been decreasing (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 87) although, in recent years, the [35] mihir mathur and kabir sharma maldharis have observed that the kankrej have been adapting to p. juliflora and surviving in areas that are dense with it. the banni buffalo is unaffected by p. juliflora, and their numbers have grown, which has helped the dairy business since buffalo milk (which has greater fat content) fetches higher prices. 1.2.3. charcoal making the maldharis practice charcoal making to earn additional income and harvest the wood of p. juliflora for this purpose. it is illegal to cut p. juliflora in the grassland, as it is classified as a protected reserve forest. when this ban was lifted between 2004 and 2008, the maldharis took to removing p. juliflora trees from the roots for making charcoal, which led to a huge reduction in the area under p. juliflora, as uprooting the trees freed up land and allowed grasses to grow. it is hard to calculate the exact increase in charcoal production in this period, but it is estimated at as high as 10 times (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 100). in 2008, this ban was re-imposed— some suggest because indigenous trees were also being harvested for charcoal; others suggest that the charcoal traders’ cartel influenced it because they were unable to exercise control over production and supply of charcoal (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 101). the ban persists, but charcoal making continues. 1.3. research objective the main research objective of this study is to model the economics of grassland degradation in banni due to the invasion of p. juliflora. it focuses on the issue of grassland degradation, its key drivers, and what impact the removal of p. juliflora would have as a solution for halting grassland degradation. the study’s objective does not include modelling climate change impacts on these future scenarios, although a sensitivity analysis of rainfall variation has been carried out. 2. research methodology: system dynamics banni’s ecological and economic system is interdependent and highly dynamic. thus, the research method uses system dynamics modelling to develop a base case and policy scenarios of banni. system dynamics is a modelling approach aimed to understand the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems over time using stocks and flows, internal feedback loops, and time delays (mit 1997). beginning at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) in the 1950s and 1960s (forrester 1958; urban dynamics 1969), system dynamics as a method unveils the counterintuitive ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] nature of complex systems and uncovers relationships between variables that are responsible for the behaviour of a system over time. system dynamics offers the potential for generalization since it provides a more transparent and consistent description of the underlying causal processes of the system (gallati and wiesmann 2011, 8). this is especially useful for developing policy insights and systemic decision-making. system dynamics and systems thinking have been used to study grasslandlivestock systems worldwide. some have been used to understand socialecological dynamics in the agro-pastoral sahel (rasmussen et al. 2014; sendzimir et al. 2011; prado et al. 2014). others have been used to model natural resource-based poverty traps in the context of small-holder farmers in highland kenya (stephens et al. 2011). it has been used in biodiversity conservation in semi-arid savannas in central and southern africa (perrings and walker 1999), and in understanding the dynamics of urbanization and environmental policy on the future availability of grazing resources in the mongolian plateau (allington et al. 2017). in india, system dynamics has been used to understand the dynamics of social-ecological systems, most pertinently in studying the effect of p. juliflora on diverse agents in a national park (dayal 2007), and in studying the grassland systems of kutch, including banni, from an ecological-economic perspective (geevan et al. 2003). various aspects of the banni grassland have been studied and documented (koladiya et al. 2016; jagruti et al. 2017; shah et al. 2010), no study attempts a bottom-up ecological-economic model, and only a few studies integrate the ecology and socio-economics. two such integrated studies (bharwada and mahajan 2012; geevan et al. 2003) have been used as base papers for this study. this paper aims to partially fill this gap in the process of meeting its aim of studying the economics of grassland degradation. we present a description of our system dynamics model, built in a bottomup manner for the specific case of the banni grasslands, taking inputs from academic experts, the maldhari community, as well as ngos working in banni. the model considers banni as one system and does not model the spatial differences within it. this model comprises livestock (banni buffalo and kankrej cattle); grassland and p. juliflora; and the pastoral and charcoal economy. we model the impacts of drivers of livestock growth and p. juliflora growth, their impact on the local environment, and the consequent multiple feedbacks that could impact the future of these sectors. the model runs from 1992 to 2030, recreating the major dynamics seen between 1992 and 2014 and simulating future scenarios up to 2030 under a base case; policy implementation of p. juliflora removal; and a five-year-delay in the [37] mihir mathur and kabir sharma implementation of the policy of removing p. juliflora. the paper presents the higher order causal loop diagram of the simulation model, its model description, key feedbacks and assumptions, and the simulation results and insights generated, respectively. the higher order causal loop diagram (figure 1) shows higher order linkages of our system dynamics model. there are two balancing loops (livestock–fodder–livestock, livestock–p. juliflora–grassland–livestock) and two reinforcing loops (livestock–total income–profitability–livestock and livestock–p. juliflora–total income–profitability–livestock). figure 1: higher order causal loop diagram of the simulation model the first balancing process (balancing loop b1) is concerned with the spread of p. juliflora. the growth in the area under p. juliflora is aided by the presence of livestock, which act as vectors, carry the seeds, and help in their widespread dispersal. as the area under p. juliflora goes up, the area under grassland comes down—leading to a negative impact on livestock due to falling fodder availability. on the other hand, an increase in livestock numbers raises the fodder requirement. with limited grassland, fodder availability falls, the maldharis purchase more feed and fodder, input costs rise, and the profit per livestock falls. if it falls below a threshold, it results in a stress sale of livestock for recovering losses, balancing out the livestock ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] numbers. as the livestock numbers drop, the fodder requirement falls, and livestock profitability rises. these dynamics form balancing loop b2. more livestock would yield more milk, thereby increasing income and forming reinforcing loop 1, r1. higher prices for banni buffalo milk constitute the key driver for the growth of profitability. the other reinforcing loop, r2, is concerned with the charcoal income earned from p. juliflora. the p. juliflora spread is accelerated by the presence of livestock; they act as vectors, and increase the area under p. juliflora charcoal-producing potential, and income, which makes further stocking of livestock possible. but the increase in the area under p. juliflora reduces the grassland area and fodder, as discussed in balancing loop b1. interestingly, thus, livestock is a common driver for both the reinforcing and balancing loops. currently, the reinforcing loops r1 and r2 are dominant, as maldharis are earning enough from milk sales, livestock sale, dung, and charcoal to sustain their livestock, even with grassland degradation and the consequent fodder deficit. good milk income and the presence of dairies in banni provide maldharis the economic incentive to retain and grow their livestock numbers. however, balancing loops b1 and b2, less impactful presently, could become dominant in the future, and greatly impact dynamics. policy testing is done for a case of p. juliflora removal, which is shown as an external variable in figure 1. the removal of p. juliflora could potentially reverse the current trend of grassland degradation and increase grassland area and fodder availability. 2.1. simulation model and sector description the model comprises three interconnected sectors: livestock (buffalo and kankrej cattle), p. juliflora and grassland, and the economy. important parameter values are provided in the annexure. the total area of banni is taken as 2,500 sq km, i.e. 250,000 hectares (koladiya et al. 2016, 20). of this, 90 per cent is taken to be total possible productive land (includes grassland, p. juliflora-dominated area, and the area under other vegetation), while 10 per cent is taken to be wasteland where palatable grasses cannot grow (wasteland includes extreme saline land). in 1992 (the base year), the area of land dominated by p. juliflora is taken to be 41,180 ha (koladiya et al. 2016, 20) while grassland area equals total productive area (less the area under p. juliflora). during princely rule, the banni grasslands had a more structured, customary regime of governance and management, including certain grazing [39] mihir mathur and kabir sharma regulations (e.g. kinds of animals and the period of grazing) which were followed by the maldharis (geevan et al. 2003, 27). in those times, banni was more like a managed common property resource. these governance structures have weakened since; and now different communities use banni for various purposes (constructing resorts, experimenting with rainfed agriculture). uncontrolled growth of buffalo herds also implies exploitative use of the grazing land. the grassland system has evolved into an open access resource, and it has been considered as such in the model. the dynamics between grassland and the area under p. juliflora is the key factor for changes in the grassland. the spread of p. juliflora is the main driver of land use change. as the area under p. juliflora grows, it invades the area under grassland. the normal spread rate of p. juliflora is taken to be 8.5 per cent per year of the total area under p. juliflora (vaibhav et al. 2012, 3). however, this spread rate is enhanced by the presence of livestock which act as vectors, the seeds being carried by them and the passage through the digestive tract facilitating quick germination (geevan et al. 2003, 17; kumar et al. 2015, 47). this has been modelled as a multiplier through a graphical function in our model—the impact increasing with increase in livestock population, and ultimately levelling off at an assumed maximum. the graphical function is given in figure 2. the growth of p. juliflora is limited by the total land area available. in the model, it is assumed that maldharis use the above-ground wood of p. juliflora for charcoal making, which does not reduce the area under p. juliflora. only once before has the p. juliflora area came down when the ban on making charcoal from p. juliflora was lifted and people uprooted the trees entirely. this was between 2004 and 2008, and has been modelled using a time-based “if-then” function. the difference equation governing the change in area under p. juliflora in a time interval ∆t (annually in our case) is given below. tr l ap neapap −      −= ]1[ where, n = normal annual spread rate of p. juliflora e= multiplier on normal spread rate due to presence of livestock vectors (graphical function shown in figure 2) ap= area under p. juliflora l= total productive land area r= clearing of area under p. juliflora through uprooting (during period of uplifting of the ban and under the p. juliflora removal policy) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] figure 2: impact of livestock on p. juliflora spread rate the grassland biomass production in a year is calculated from the grassland area (total productive land less area occupied by p. juliflora) and the grassland productivity, the latter being a bellshaped function of the rainfall. personal interviews revealed that the grassland productivity of banni is high in a specific bandwidth of rainfall, and lower on both extremes (low and very high rainfall). rainfall data for the grassland is taken from three different sources, because publicly available data (free of cost) for all required years was not found at any one source. the website of the india meterological department (imd) gives weather data for kutch district from 2012 to 2017 (imd, n.d.). bharwada and mahajan (2012, 143) collate rainfall data for 1981 to 2010 from two sources, gujarat institute of desert ecology (guide) (up to 1994) and the irrigation department and rudramata dam site 1994 onwards (see pg. 143, appendix 9). the gap in data for year 2011 and 2012 is filled in from gavalli (2015, 5). rainfall data at the banni grassland’s spatial scale is not available for the model time period. for the business as usual (bau) scenario, the rainfall pattern for 2015–30 is taken to be a repeat of 2001–15, to account for the cyclic variation that exists in banni’s rainfall (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 143). however, realizing this to be insufficient, sensitivity runs by changing rainfall parameters for 2015–2030 under three scenarios is done. similar sensitivity runs are performed by changing the grass productivity parameter. both are presented in the results section. further, a parameter ‘fodder deficit’ is calculated, as the ratio between the fodder available in banni in a particular year less the fodder requirement in that year divided by the fodder requirement. this ratio is important as it determines the input cost (feed and fodder purchased from outside banni) for sustaining the livestock economy. as the deficit increases, the livestock input cost increases. this ratio also determines the migration of livestock from banni in fodder deficit years, explained below. [41] mihir mathur and kabir sharma 2.1.1. livestock dynamics this sector consists of populations of the two large ruminants: the banni buffalo and kankrej cattle. small ruminants such as sheep and goats, though present in banni are excluded due to their relatively smaller share of the total livestock (less than 10 per cent). for both the livestock (buffalo and cattle), modelling has been done by making ageing chains i.e. breaking down the populations into calves and adults, considering a maturation time and taking different death rates/retiring times for both stocks. calves are born to a certain fraction of the adults every year. some calves die before they transit into adults according to a calf death rate. there is also a retiring time for the adults after which they stop producing milk and giving birth to calves. to manage the frequent droughts in banni, the maldharis have adopted two dominant coping mechanisms. one is migrating out of banni with their livestock for the dry period and the second is by increasing the sale of livestock in dry years. based on discussions with maldharis, it is estimated that if the fodder deficit crosses 30 per cent in a certain year, 30 per cent of the livestock leaves banni, and if it crosses 50 per cent, 50 per cent of livestock leaves banni. also, the livestock that migrate outside accumulate in stocks of migrated livestock which come back when the deficit falls below 10 per cent. a maximum residing time of two years is given to the migrated stock of adult livestock after which the migrated stock permanently migrates out of the banni periphery. the second coping mechanism is sale of livestock in dry years. a livestock sale multiplier is built using graphical function which depicts the impact of falling profitability on the flow of livestock (stress) sales. this sale multiplier depends on the net income per livestock. as the profit per livestock in a year becomes negative, the stress sale multiplier increases and later levels off. the values are provided in figure 3. the banni buffalo ageing chain is composed of two main stocks: calves and adults. the stock of buffalo calves has one inflow (births), two outflows (calf deaths, maturation to adult buffaloes) and one bi-flow (calf migration). the births are governed by a certain fraction of the adult buffaloes which give birth to a calf every year (approx. 50 per cent of the total adult stock). 50 per cent of the births are female and 50 per cent male. the model considers only females, as males are generally not reared. the fraction of buffalo calf death every year is taken as 20 per cent (after discussions with maldharis). maturation time from calf to adult is taken as 3 years. the adult lifetime is taken as 20 years and sale rate of buffaloes is assumed at 1 per cent per year (based on interviews). the coupled ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] figure 4: impact of p. juliflora density on kankrej death rate difference equations governing the changes in stocks of buffalo calves and adults are given below for a time interval ∆t (annual in our case). tmc tm c dcfgbc       −−−= tspbmbrb tm c b       −−−= where, c= stock of calves b= stock of adult buffaloes f= fraction of adult buffaloes giving birth in a year g=fraction of females in the births r = retiring time of adult buffaloes d= death rate of calves tm= maturation time s=normal sale fraction per year m= sale multiplier function from fodder deficit (figure 3) p=sale multiplier from net income per livestock figure 3: impact of net income per livestock on buffalo and kankrej sale the kankrej ageing chain and equations are very similar to the buffalo ones, having birth fraction, lifetime, maturation time, fodder requirement etc. the main difference is that there exists a practice in banni of purchasing kankrej calves every year and as the kankrej calves are very valuable, the stress sale function due to profitability (a function of [43] mihir mathur and kabir sharma livestock profitability, similar to buffaloes above) is of kankrej calves and not adults. another distinguishing feature is that the kankrej cattle population is negatively affected by p. juliflora, as the cattle are unable to digest the pods and die on consuming them. this relationship is shown through a graphical function where the death multiplier increases due to increase in p. juliflora density. the values for two graphical functions discussed in this section are provided in figure 3 and figure 4. 2.1.2. the economy dynamics this sector consists of livestock based income and charcoal based income. the model considers a uniform economic agent, the maldharis, earning both from livestock based income and from charcoal based income. the milk income is composed of income from milk, dung, and livestock sale. the milk income is derived from the milk produced by the cows and the buffaloes, the livestock sale income from the fraction of cows/buffaloes sold in a year (which is a function of the profitability in a year, which is linked to rainfall, as described later in this section), and the income from dung sale from the existing number of livestock in a year. forecasting future prices, at local level, has lot of uncertainty which would add to the complexity of carrying out an economic valuation of banni grasslands. hence, prices have been assumed to be constant at 2015 levels. there are costs of rearing livestock (largely of feed and fodder purchased from the external market) which were calculated based on interviews, and are factored into the calculation of net incomes. the charcoal annual income is derived from the annual charcoal production. charcoal production in a year has been differentiated according to history. before the ban on charcoal production was lifted (i.e. before 2004): the charcoal production is taken as 2,400 sacks of 40 kg each per day for 240 days in a year (based on discussions with local ngo and personal interviews with maldharis). during the time when the ban was lifted (between 2004 and 2008): the charcoal production is increased by 10 times as compared to before the ban (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 100), and 3) after the ban was again imposed (i.e. after 2008): the charcoal production is taken as 4,800 sacks of 40 kg each produced per day for 240 days in a year, the same as during the pre-ban period. a feedback function is created to increase the rate of production in the event of a fall in profits from livestock. the charcoal production numbers are difficult to collect from field owing to its fuzzy legal status. thus, we believe the model numbers are conservative and underestimate the actual quantum of charcoal activity and income. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] figure 5: impact of fodder deficit on livestock input cost summing the income from livestock and charcoal less the costs of livestock rearing and dividing by the total livestock population, a number for net total income per livestock is calculated. this number creates a feedback and governs the stress sales of adult buffaloes and kankrej calves. as the net total income per livestock in a year goes negative, the stress sale multiplier increases, increasing the income from sales in the year, and reducing the buffaloes and cow numbers, both of which in the real world help the maldharis to cope. the remittances, in the form of income from milk sales from migrated livestock, are considered in the model, and both the costs of rearing them and revenue from their milk sale are included. it is assumed that the cost of rearing the livestock remains the same even after migration, and thus migration is important for the maldharis in order to be able to have access to feed and fodder, which falls in dry years within banni’s geographic boundary. 2.1.3. key feedback relationships there are six cross-sectorial feedback loops which govern the dynamics of the model. 1) impact of fodder deficit on livestock input cost. as the fodder deficit increases so does the livestock input cost, reflecting the need to purchase fodder from outside. the relationship is given in figure 5. 2) impact of net income per livestock on livestock stress sale rate. as the profit per livestock becomes negative, the stress sale of livestock goes up, reflected in an increase in stress sale fraction. this is depicted in figure 3. 3) impact of fodder deficit on temporary livestock migration. if the fodder deficit lies between 30 per cent and 50 per cent in a certain year, 30 per cent of the livestock leave banni, and if it crosses 50 per cent, 50 per cent of livestock leave banni. if fodder deficit is 10 per cent or lower, the livestock migrate back to banni. 4) impact of livestock on p. juliflora spread rate. as the livestock population increases it leads to increase in the spread rate of area under p. juliflora. this is depicted in figure 2. [45] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 6: impact of net income per livestock on charcoal production 5) impact of p. juliflora density on kankrej death rate. as the p. juliflora density (area under p. juliflora ÷ total productive area) increases it leads to an increase in kankrej death rate. however, it has been observed by the maldharis that kankrej has adapted to survive in p. juliflora dense areas. thus the death multiplier evens out at high levels of p. juliflora. this is discussed in figure 4. 6) impact of profit per livestock on charcoal production. as the profit per livestock becomes negative, charcoal production starts increasing to compensate for the losses. this is depicted in figure 6. 2.2. model assumptions 1. prices for milk, livestock, feed, charcoal, and dung manure are kept constant at 2015 levels. forecasting future prices, at local level, has lot of uncertainty which would add to the complexity of carrying out an economic valuation of banni grasslands. hence, here it is assumed to be constant at 2015 prices. 2. no limit on external supply of feed, fodder, and water. today, an external supply of feed and fodder is an integral part of banni’s economy and is assumed to be available for purchase at a cost. water is available in banni through pipelines coming in from outside the banni boundary, and is assumed to remain sufficient for the duration of model runs. 3. exclusion of small ruminants (e.g. sheep, goat etc.). buffalo and cattle constitute most of the banni livestock. in 2011 their share was around 92 per cent of the total livestock (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 88). hence, considering the small proportion of small ruminants they are excluded from the study. 4. ecological impacts of p. juliflora removal: the model does not capture the ecological impacts of removing p. juliflora from banni grassland as the scientific and practical knowledge on it is found to be inconclusive. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] figure 7: base case livestock population: 1992–2030 3. results 3.1. base run: business as usual scenario the business as usual scenario i.e. base run simulation, indicates that the total livestock population (sum of buffaloes and kankrej) in banni would fall between 2016 and 2030 (figure 7). the primary reason for this is increasing livestock stress sales and out migration due to reducing area under grassland and consequently decline in fodder availability. two consecutive years of poor rainfall (2019–2020) are the reasons for the steep fall in livestock numbers in year 2020 similar to what was observed in year 2004. thus, livestock variability could be higher in periods of fodder scarcity. the shrinking area under grassland, due to p. juliflora spread, is a cause of concern for banni (figure 8). if current conditions persist then by year 2030 the model shows that the area under grassland will reduce to approx. 27,000 hectares from 92,000 hectares in 2015, a reduction of around 70 per cent. the primary reason for reduction in grasslands is the increase in spread of area under p. juliflora. the model runs indicate that the area under p.juliflora will reach 198,000 hectares by year 2030. [47] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 8: base case land use change. all figures in hectares: 1992–2030 figure 9: base case net livestock income: 1992–2030 the period 2004–2008 shows a dip in area under p. juliflora and an increase in area under grassland. this is due to the lifting of the ban on charcoal making which caused an escalation in removal of p. juliflora from the roots. because of this, the grasses recovered, increasing the area under grassland. after the ban was again imposed, it led to growth in area under p. juliflora while the grasslands continued to shrink. our base case simulation runs indicate that the net livestock income is projected to fall in future years. the decline in net livestock income is mainly due to falling livestock population and increase in livestock input costs, mainly feed and fodder (due to an increased fodder deficit). these input costs spike due to fodder deficit which increases in the later years due ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] figure 10: fodder deficit – base case to reducing area under grassland. the input costs are projected to go up mainly because of increase in external inputs of feed to compensate for the fodder deficit. grassland biomass depends on the extent of rainfall and grassland productivity. the variation in rainfall greatly influences the extent of grassland productivity and ultimately how much grass grows in that particular year. as can be seen in figure 10 the fodder deficit is expected to spike and rise in future years. this is mainly due to reducing grassland area coupled with some low rainfall years which lead to low grass production. the future trend indicates increase in fodder deficit. it is worth noting that in the future years the fodder deficit is never able to fall back to zero as seen in past years. this is a cause of concern because it puts continuous pressure on maldharis to buy feed and fodder from outside banni thereby steadily increasing the input costs for livestock maintenance. the base case runs present a sorry picture for the livestock economy of banni. if the current spread of p. juliflora continues then the area under grassland could reduce to the point that livestock rearing becomes uneconomical for the maldharis of banni. this could be detrimental since livestock forms majority of the income of banni. moreover, the loss of these fragile grasslands would have numerous other impacts-for biodiversity, for biodiversity-based ecotourism and possibly for bird migration as well. also, since it is a low rainfall region, finding alternative land-based livelihoods which can compensate for livestock income loss could be very difficult. [49] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 11: total livestock under p. juliflora removal policy figure 12: land use under p. juliflora removal policy 3.2. policy testing: p. juliflora removal against this backdrop, we have modelled the impacts of a potential p. juliflora removal policy (prp) either decided by the community or the government. the p. juliflora area removal rate is kept at 20 per cent per annum and the policy becomes active from year 2016 and takes full effect after a delay of 3 years. in this scenario the livestock population is estimated to increase between 2016–2030 (figure 11). the main cause for the rise in livestock population is the increased fodder availability due to increase in area under grassland (figure 12) due to removal of p. juliflora, increasing ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] figure 13: fodder deficit under p. juliflora removal policy retention of livestock over sales and migration. also removal of p. juliflora reduces the death multiplier on kankrej, allowing the kankrej cattle to grow more. it is projected that the area under grassland would go up to 184,000 hectares by 2030 while the area under p. juliflora would reduce to 41,000 hectares and continue to fall. this would increase the grass availability leading to an increase in banni’s livestock carrying capacity. a key assumption is that grassland area currently occupied by p. juliflora still has grass seeds and that in event of complete removal of p. juliflora the grasses would start growing almost immediately. this was observed to happen in 2004–2008, and nearly all the maldharis we interviewed believe that this is indeed the case. under the prp scenario the net livestock income is projected to increase after a steep dip in year 2020. this increase is mainly attributable to increase in area under grassland and subsequent rise in availability of fodder (seen in figure 13). as can be seen from figure 13, the fodder deficit variable returns to zero for multiple years, thus the fodder availability from banni itself is able to sustain the livestock, making livestock rearing more profitable by reducing costs. this leads to rise in livestock population due to increased livestock carrying capacity while the input costs remain low due to abundant fodder availability. increased livestock leads to increase in milk output, dung income, and income from livestock sale, all leading to increases in net livestock income (figure 14). [51] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 14: net livestock income under p. juliflora removal policy figure 15: total livestock population projections 3.3. comparing the scenarios here, the two scenarios are superimposed on each other to give a comparative picture, as shown in figures 15 and 16. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] figure 16: net livestock income projections (inr) as can be seen in figures 15 and 16, p. juliflora removal has a positive impact on the livestock population of banni, mainly due to grassland area regeneration. the net livestock income levels also increase. in the following section we discount the future earnings to calculate the cumulative present value under base case and prp scenario from year 2015–2030 using a discount rate of 10 per cent. the difference between the two can be assumed to be the partial costs of grassland degradation induced by p. juliflora spread in the banni1. 3.4. economic valuation of income flows from 2015 to 2030 as per the base run model results the total net annual income of banni in year 2015 is around inr 250 crores. the net livestock income, under the base case, is projected to continuously decline. the sum of present value of livestock and total net income from 2015–2030 comes to inr 1,295 crores and inr 1,500 crores respectively (ref. table 1). if prp is in place then the pv (present value) increases to inr 2,230 crores and inr 2,432 crores. this indicates that p. juliflora removal has a positive multiplier of 1.7 on the economy of banni. here it is assumed that the p. juliflora removed is not used for charcoal making which if it was then the net impact could have been even greater. 1 we assume that these are the partial costs, because we do not include other costs such as of loss of biodiversity, loss in tourism incomes and other ecosystem services provided by the grasslands. [53] mihir mathur and kabir sharma one more policy run is done to test the impact of a five year delay in the decision to remove p. juliflora and the impact this would have on the pv. table 1: economic analysis of base case and policy runs sr. no. present values (10 per cent discount rate) net livestock income net total income 1. base case inr 12,950,355,676 inr 15,019,191,894 2. p. juliflora removal policy (prp) @ 20 per cent p.a. inr 22,304,942,323 inr 24,326,493,926 3. policy multiplier (prp÷base case) 1.7 1.6 4. difference i.e. costs of grassland degradation (no. 2 minus no. 1) inr 9,354,586,647 inr 9,307,302,032 5. per ha costs of grassland degradation (no. 4÷2,50,000 ha) inr 37,418 inr 37,229 table 2: economic costs of policy delay sr. no. present values (10 per cent discount rate) net livestock income net total income 1. prp with 5 year delay inr 16,914,549,394 inr 18,984,784,140 2. loss due to delay -32 per cent -28 per cent the costs of delaying the implementation of p. juliflora removal policy are substantial. the pv for net livestock income comes down by 32 per cent while the total net income comes down by 28 per cent due to the delay in policy implementation (ref. table 2). this indicates that prp is a time sensitive policy decision and any delays would result in economic losses for banni. 3.5. sensitivity analysis three rainfall scenarios are modelled to test the sensitivity of rainfall on the overall results of the study. in the first scenario we assume that the rainfall for 2016 to 2030 would remain same as 2001 to 2015. in the second scenario we introduce stochasticity (using the randbetween function in ms excel) in the future rainfall keeping the range of the minimum and maximum values same as observed between 1992 and 2015, the historical duration of the simulation model. in the third scenario we use the min and max values from the range of rainfall data from year 1901 to year 2015. the data for year 1901 to 2002 is taken from india water portal (india water portal, n.d.). the minimum value is lower while the max value is higher in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] figure 17: grass productivity sensitivity runs this case as compared to the other scenarios, while the mean value is higher. thus, this scenario could be considered as an overall higher mean rainfall scenario. the results are discussed below (ref. table 3). the values for annual rainfall for the three scenarios are given in the annexure. the sensitivity analysis reveals that rainfall variability has an impact on the livestock net income and overall income of banni, and the income levels go up in the third scenario which is a high rainfall scenario. but the prp policy multipliers remain almost the same, thereby not impacting the policy analysis significantly. same is true in case of testing the impact on prp delay. thus, rainfall variability does not change our policy recommendations even though the model shows sensitivity towards the rainfall parameter. further, figure 17 shows the sensitivity of net livestock income towards the grass productivity parameter. three sensitivity tests are performed, 1) bau, 2) high grass productivity and 3) low grass productivity. as can be seen the net livestock income shows sensitivity towards the grass productivity parameter. at a higher grass productivity, the net livestock income increases (red line) while with a lower grass productivity, the income is lower (pink line). however, the shape of change remains the same i.e. growth, peak, and then decline. this indicates that the model is sensitive towards grass productivity, but variation in this parameter does not alter the shape of future projections. table 3: present value analysis of rainfall scenarios sr. no particulars scenario 1 scenario 2 scenario 3 net livestock income net total income net livestock income net total income net livestock income net total income 1 base case inr 12,950,355,676 inr 15,019,191,894 inr 13,572,232,336 inr 15,555,073,054 inr 14,504,560,716 inr 16,487,401,434 2 p. juliflora removal policy inr 22,304,942,323 inr 24,326,493,926 inr 24,412,126,383 inr 26,394,967,102 inr 26,675,015,207 inr 28,657,855,926 3 policy multiplier (2÷1) 1.72 1.62 1.80 1.70 1.84 1.74 4 5 year delay in prp policy inr 16,914,549,394 inr 18,984,784,140 inr 17,818,453,327 inr 19,801,294,045 inr 18,957,456,833 inr 20,940,297,551 5 difference -31.9 per cent -28.1 per cent -37.0 per cent -33.3 per cent -40.7 per cent -36.9 per cent 4. discussion the general perceptions of the people of banni, on the reason for grassland degradation point to the growth of area under p. juliflora. it is also widely believed that if the p. juliflora is completely removed then the grasses would come back. a majority of maldharis have indicated their preference to remain as livestock breeders and pastoralists because they consider it to be their traditional, profitable, and sustainable occupation. our model results are consistent with their perceptions and claims. the economic valuation indicates that p. juliflora removal is a favourable policy option for sustaining their livestock economy and halting grassland degradation. the results indicate that livestock profitability goes up in event of p. juliflora removal and that in order to sustain livestock as the main occupation of maldharis the land area under p. juliflora needs to be cleared. however, our results cannot verify their claims because the model presents a simplified representation of banni. the model provides a glimpse into the future possibilities that exist for maldharis and the landscape of banni based on the use of plausible assumptions and parameters. rainfall is a key variable that determines grass productivity, so variation in rainfall could also change the income dynamics, as is seen through the sensitivity analysis. this is particularly important for banni since the livestock sensitivity to grass availability is very high and p. juliflora density greatly influences the grass availability. 4.1. cost of p. juliflora removal there has only been small scale intended p. juliflora removal for grassland restoration carried out in banni, the extent of this being smaller than even a village boundary (there are more than 50 villages in banni). thus, extrapolating the costs of p. juliflora removal based on small scale removals done in past to whole of banni seems inappropriate. moreover all of those efforts were community driven and supported by local ngos. thus there exists no data on the cost of a formally organized large scale removal programme, and thus it becomes hard to account for the effects of economies of scale from the data of the small scale removal. however for the purpose of this study, an estimate of p. juliflora removal is calculated below, taking the example of a small scale removal case. an area of around 300 sq.m was cleared of p. juliflora by a local ngo with community participation in east banni. the cost of p. juliflora removal was about inr 2 lac. if we use this example to estimate the cost of p. juliflora removal per hectare, a value of inr 6,000 is arrived at. taking this as a constant value, the model simulates the cost of prp over the period from year 2016 to 2030 as and discounting (at 10 per cent) to get the present value, a value of inr 57 crores is arrived at. comparing with the increase of inr 935 crores [57] mihir mathur and kabir sharma in net total income due to prp, it is evident that the cost of prp can be recovered and that prp is still a favourable policy option. moreover, with the ready market available for excavated charcoal and wood, the costs could further come down. on another point, in the absence of forest rights being granted(current scenario), the possibility of community based implementation of the decision of large scale p. juliflora removal is unrealistic. thus, unless a government authority decides to carry out a large scale removal it is very unlikely that this would happen anytime in the future until forest rights are given. 4.2. limitations and further scope of research this study needs to be strengthened with more data and information about the interlinkages between land, biomass, livestock, and economy of banni. there are information gaps with respect to the grass productivity, fodder availability in different seasons, extent of seasonal livestock migration due to fodder deficit, the role of salinity, charcoal production, future price estimates etc. in order to strengthen the results of such a modelling exercise, these gaps need to be addressed through empirical field research which can then serve as inputs to a further disaggregated system dynamics model. there is also the unresolved issue of entitlement of land ownership, between the local community, the forest department, and the revenue department. this makes studying the political ecology of banni pertinent, since these factors would also have a bearing on the 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(forest) blanks: the past, present and future of india’s savanna grasslands.” in transcending boundaries. reflecting on twenty years of action and research at atree, edited by a. j. hiremath, n. d. rai, and a. siddhartha, 88–93. bangalore: atree. xu, guangcai, muyi kan kan, marc metzger, and yuan jiang. 2014. “vulnerability of the human-environment system in arid regions: the case of xilingol grassland in northern china.” polish journal of environmental studies 23 (5): 1773–17. annexure rainfall scenarios year scenario 1 scenario 2 scenario 3 1992 507 507 507 1993 106 106 106 1994 729 729 729 1995 326 326 326 1996 174 174 174 1997 259 259 259 1998 464 464 464 1999 450 450 450 2000 195 195 195 2001 540 540 540 2002 110 110 110 2003 700 700 700 2004 147 147 147 2005 139 139 139 2006 485 485 485 2007 641 641 641 2008 177 177 177 2009 370 370 370 2010 655 655 655 2011 650 650 650 2012 350 350 350 2013 652 652 652 2014 291 291 291 2015 450 450 450 2016 540 397 592 2017 110 264 433 http://a-a-r-s.org/acrs/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/e3-1.pdf http://a-a-r-s.org/acrs/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/e3-1.pdf [61] mihir mathur and kabir sharma 2018 700 172 250 2019 147 326 634 2020 139 718 729 2021 485 512 483 2022 641 592 486 2023 177 330 473 2024 370 233 307 2025 655 252 204 2026 650 566 644 2027 350 377 720 2028 652 287 319 2029 291 472 461 2030 450 282 220 mean value 408.31 393.51 423.64 scenario 1 = future rainfall (2016 to 2030) same as past (2001 to 2015) scenario 2 = future rainfall (2016 to 2030) with stochasticity based on 2001 to 2015 rainfall data scenario 3 = future rainfall (2016 to 2030) projected with stochasticity based on rainfall data from 1901 to 2015( having a higher mean) parameter values and sources s no. parameter value taken sources and explanations where necessary 1. initial value (1992) of adult buffaloes 12,580 taken as 75 per cent of the total buffalo population in 1992 (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 87) 2. initial value of buffalo calves 4,194 taken as 25 per cent of the total buffalo population in 1992 (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 87) 3. fraction of adult buffaloes giving birth every year 0.5 discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis 4. buffalo calf death rate 20 per cent p.a. data from personal interview with experts and pastoralists 5. buffalo calf maturation time 3 years discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis 6. normal buffalo sale rate 1 per cent p.a. 7. buffalo lifetime 23 years (3 yrs. as calf and 20 as adult) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] 8. fodder requirement per adult buffalo per day 30 kg 9. fodder requirement per buffalo calf per day 7.5 kg 10. fraction of milk producing buffaloes 50 per cent 11. initial value (1992) of adult kankrej 4,544 taken as 75 per cent of the total kankrej population in 1992 (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 87) 12. initial value (1992) of kankrej calves 1,514 13. kankrej birth rate 50 per cent of adult kankrej cattle give birth every year discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis 14. kankrej calf death rate 20 per cent p.a. 15. average kankrej calf sale rate 60 per cent p.a. 16. average male kankrej purchase rate 25 per cent p.a. 17. kankrej calf maturation time 3 years 18. kankrej lifetime 12 years as adult and 3 years as calf 19. fraction of milk producing kankrej 50 per cent p.a. 20. fodder requirement per kankrej adult per day 15 kg 21. fodder requirement per kankrej calf per day 5 kg [63] mihir mathur and kabir sharma 22. buffalo sale multiplier due to profitability increases from 0 to 30 per cent with profit per livestock falling from inr 0 to inr -5000. parameterized using sensitivity runs: variables that are difficult to elicit through a survey or field estimation are determined through a series of plausibility tests. parameters for such variables are assumed and tested through simulations. if the simulation outcome shows high deviation from real life trends then the parameters are optimized through sensitivity runs until the simulations generate plausible/verifiable with past data behaviour over time 23. kankrej sale multiplier due to profitability increases from 0 to 20 per cent with profit per livestock falling from inr 0 to inr -5000. parameterized using sensitivity runs 24. impact of p. juliflora on death rate of kankrej increases from 0 to 20 per cent and tapers off as p. juliflora density doubles parameterized using sensitivity runs 25. rainfall rainfall from 2015–2030 assumed to be the same as from 1999–2014. rainfall data for 1992–2010 taken from (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 143), for year 2011–12 taken from, (gavali 2015, 5) and for 2013–14 taken from imd website for kutch district from http://hydro.imd.gov.in/hydr ometweb/(s(lmae0jvse31sb04 5m2gxd5i1))/districtraifall.as px 26. initial value (1992) of area under p. juliflora 41180 ha koladiya et al. (2016, 20) 27. the total productive area of banni 225,000 hectares 28. normal spread rate of p. juliflora 8.5 per cent vaibhav et. al (2012) http://hydro.imd.gov.in/hydrometweb/(s(lmae0jvse31sb045m2gxd5i1))/districtraifall.aspx http://hydro.imd.gov.in/hydrometweb/(s(lmae0jvse31sb045m2gxd5i1))/districtraifall.aspx http://hydro.imd.gov.in/hydrometweb/(s(lmae0jvse31sb045m2gxd5i1))/districtraifall.aspx http://hydro.imd.gov.in/hydrometweb/(s(lmae0jvse31sb045m2gxd5i1))/districtraifall.aspx ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] 29. impact of livestock on p. juliflora spread increasing from 1 to 2 when livestock population increases from 25,000 to 100,000 parameterized using sensitivity runs 30. charcoal production 4,800 sacks of 40 kg each produced per day discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis 31. impact of profit per livestock on charcoal production as profit per livestock falls below 0, this function begins to increase from 1 and goes up until 2 at a loss of inr 5000 per livestock parameterized using sensitivity runs 32. average milk production per buffalo per day 12 litres discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis milk production per buffalo ranges from 8 litres to 20 litres a day. average taken as 12 litres a day. 33. milk price per litre of banni buffalo milk graphical function varying from rs.19 per litre in 1992 to rs. 40 per litre in 2015. kept at 2015 prices in future. historical milk prices taken at 2015 constant values. 2015 milk price taken from personal interviews with dairy industry. 2010 milk price taken from bharwada and mahajan 2012, 71) 2000 milk price taken from (geevan et al. 2012, 56) table 6.9 1992 milk prices are assumed. 34. average milk production per kankrej per day 9 litres discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis milk production per kankrej cattle ranges from 6 to 14 litres a day. average taken as 9 litres a day. [65] mihir mathur and kabir sharma 35. milk price per litre of kankrej cattle milk graphical function varying from rs.10 per litre in 1992 to rs. 18 per litre in 2015. kept constant at 2015 prices in future. historical milk prices taken at 2015 constant values. current prices for 2015 taken from personal interview, while earlier prices are re-calculated to reflect 2015 constant values 36. charcoal price rs. 5/kg taken constant discussions with local ngo, sahjeevan, personal interviews with maldharis 37. price of dung rs 1,500 per truck load bharwada and mahajan (2012, 74) 38. quantity of dung sold one truck load every 15 daysone truck load from 100 livestock 39. kankrej sale price rs 10000 average price varies from rs 12,000 to rs 30,000 for a pair of bullock. taken as average rs. 10000 per kankrej. (bharwada and mahajan 2012, 65) 40. buffalo sale price varying from rs 38,000 in 1992 to rs75000 in 2015 (post-breed registration). constant at rs 75,000 in future. current buffalo price for year 2015 range from inr 50,000 to inr 300,000. mode value of sale price taken as inr 75,000 and then normalized for the past years taking into consideration the rise in price due to buffalo registration in year 2011 41. input cost for milk producing buffaloes graphical function of fodder deficit. varies from 10000 at 0 fodder deficit to 140,000 at 100 per cent fodder deficit at 50 per cent fodder deficit the cost of feed for milk producing buffalo is estimated to be rs. 70,000/per annum. the numbers are adjusted to reflect fall and increase in fodder deficit and its corresponding impact on feed cost due to increase in supply 42. feed cost for nonmilk producing buffaloes one-third of no. 36. discussions with local ngo sahjeevan and maldharis ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 109-122, january 2023 research paper attributing vegetation recovery during the indian summer monsoon to climate drivers in central india vikram chandel and tejasvi chauhan abstract: increasing droughts and heat waves as a result of global warming pose a major threat to forests and croplands in india. monitoring the dynamics of vegetation during a drought and its recovery is essential for the indian socioeconomy and biodiversity. we investigate vegetation recovery from a stressed state in the pre-monsoon (may) period to the end of the monsoon period (september). we then attribute net change during the monsoon period to climate drivers such as temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. to delineate non-linear interactions, we use an information-theoretic metric to understand the relative association of climate variables with vegetation productivity on a daily scale. we found that premonsoon vegetation stress is influenced by soil moisture (r = 0.8, p < 0.01), which is driven by variations in temperature and precipitation. during the monsoons, precipitation contributes to vegetation recovery from pre-monsoon stress through soil moisture recharge while inhibiting vegetation productivity by limiting the amount of radiation available for photosynthesis. linear regression shows the significant negative dependence of vegetation recovery on precipitation (β = –0.7, p < 0.01) and positive dependence on soil moisture (β = 0.4, p < 0.1) indicating radiation limitation on photosynthesis. we also found that post-monsoon vegetation recovery is independent of pre-monsoon vegetation stress (p > 0.1). mutual information showed the stronger, non-linear dependence of vegetation recovery on soil moisture than on precipitation, which is a contrasting result that highlights the importance of including non-linear measures in analyses of natural systems. our results show that vegetation recovery in central india is driven by soil moisture during the indian summer monsoon and is independent of pre-monsoon vegetation stress.  interdisciplinary programme in climate studies, indian institute of technology bombay, india. vikram.chandel63@gmail.com  department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology bombay, india. chauhan.tejasvi9@gmail.com copyright © chandel and chauhan 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.927 mailto:vikram.chandel63@gmail.com mailto:chauhan.tejasvi9@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.927 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] 1. introduction the frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of droughts has been increasing in india due to global warming (mishra, shah, and thrasher 2014; gupta and jain 2018). droughts are often accompanied by heat waves, leading to increased mortality due to heat stress (rohini, rajeevan, and srivastava 2016; panda, aghakouchak, and ambast 2017; mazdiyasni et al. 2017). apart from affecting human life, droughts adversely affect vegetation by changing carbon fluxes, causing soil water storages, and disrupting ecosystem services. consequently, food production (zhang et al. 2017) in the country is threatened. prolonged droughts can lead to irreversible shifts in vegetation phenology, thus threatening the biodiversity of a region (clark et al. 2016; wendling et al. 2019). vegetation responds to drought conditions at varying time scales depending on its physiology, and this response that vegetation has to any stressor can be quantified using different metrics (vicente-serrano et al. 2013). resilience is defined as the ability of a system to return to its original state after a disturbance (scheffer et al. 2009). resilience can be measured as the time taken by a system to return to its original state after a disturbance. resistance is defined as the ability to persist and resist change during a disturbance (nimmo et al. 2015). it can be quantified as the deviation of processes and variables from the mean state during a disturbance; the more the deviation, the less the resistance. recovery is the process by which an ecosystem retreats toward the pre-disturbance state (fraccascia, giannoccaro, and albino 2018). these metrics help us study the response of different vegetation ecosystems ranging from croplands to tropical rainforests. forests serve as carbon sinks in the global carbon cycle (soepadmo 1993; whitehead 2011; martin et al. 2001). understanding the response of forests to drought is important for understanding carbon cycles and any potential adversities to biodiversity. drought and heat stress cause large-scale tree mortality, which affects the forest phenology and the carbon cycle and turns forests into carbon sources (ciais et al. 2005; anderegg, kane, and anderegg 2013; ma et al. 2016; 2015, li et al. 2019; jiao et al. 2020; schuldt et al. 2020; senf et al. 2020). the drivers of recovery in a forested ecosystem are climate variables, forest type, and forest stock volumes (anderson-teixeira et al. 2013, luo et al. 2022). an ecosystem requires an optimum amount of soil moisture, soil nutrients, air temperature, and solar radiation for a speedy recovery. soil moisture is recharged by precipitation and depleted by evapotranspiration driven by the air temperature and vapour pressure deficit in the [111] chandel and chauhan atmosphere. the optimum temperature for photosynthesis in an ecosystem depends on the biodiversity of the ecosystem (bonan 2015). sunlight is an essential ingredient in the process of photosynthesis, and cloudy days result in a decline in photosynthetic rates due to a lack of direct solar radiation. here, we focus on the interplay of climate variables such as soil moisture, temperature, and precipitation in driving vegetation recovery. we use the leaf area index (lai), to measure the state of vegetation. lai is defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground area in broadleaf forests and as half the total needle surface area per unit ground area in coniferous forests. the recovery rate of vegetation system can be measured by the rate of photosynthesis. gross primary productivity (gpp), a proxy for the photosynthetic rate, is the amount of chemical energy produced by primary producers during photosynthesis. we use both lai and gpp to study vegetation recovery and its climate drivers in a forested ecosystem. figure 1: study region lies in central india, bounded by 20°n, 77°e, 23°n, and 82°e source: authors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] we selected a biodiversity-rich forested region in central india (figure 1a), bounded by 20°n, 77°e, 23°n and 82°e. the region encompasses the melghat tiger reserve, satpura national park, pench national park, and some agricultural areas. we investigate the ecosystem’s recovery from a stressed state in the pre-monsoon (may) period to the end of the monsoon period (september). we analyse deviations in the vegetation amount during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods and attribute the net change during the monsoon period to climate drivers such as temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. we also examined the dependence of postmonsoon vegetation stress to pre-monsoon vegetation stress. to delineate non-linear interactions, we use an information-theoretic metric to understand the relative association of climate variables with vegetation productivity on a daily scale. 2. data and methods we use the leaf area index (lai) obtained from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (modis). this product has a spatial resolution of 500 m and a temporal resolution of eight days. we used rainfall (p) (pai et al. 2014) and temperature (t) gridded data from the indian meteorological department (imd). we used the global land evaporation amsterdam model (gleam v3) dataset to determine soil moisture (sm) (martens et al. 2017). we also used daily gross primary productivity (gpp) data from fluxsat v2.0, which is a combined dataset of the fluxnet eddy covariance tower site data and satellite data from modis (joiner and yoshida 2020). 2.1 vegetation stress we use percent anomaly in the month of may (δmay) as an indicator of stress in vegetation. we look at the percent anomaly after the monsoons and calculate the δsep for september. both δmay and δsep (figure 2) can take positive and negative values. we use may and september, as during the monsoon period, satellite products like lai are unreliable due to frequent cloud cover. [113] chandel and chauhan figure 2: (a) schematic diagram representing vegetation anomalies proposed for measuring vegetation recovery; (b) climatology of the leaf area index (lai) over the study region source: authors’ analysis 2.2 information theory uncertainty (or variability) of a time series which can be classified into ‘m’ different states can be quantified using shannon’s entropy as (1) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] where is the probability (or relative frequency) of the state and h is bound as . h can be normalized using to form hnorm. in dynamical systems, in any interaction between two variables uncertainty regarding one variable reduces when we have information about another. this reduction in uncertainty is called mutual information (mi) and can be computed as (2) where is the joint entropy computed using the joint probabilities of x and y in equation 1 or 2. mi is bound as . it can measure non-linear associations between variables and hence has been argued to be a measure of true statistical independence (knuth et al. 2013). to compare the associations between various components inside a system, mi can be normalized as which indicates the percentage of variance of one variable that be explained using another. in this work, to compare the linear and non-linear dependencies of vegetation on precipitation, soil moisture, and temperature, we compute pairwise normalized mutual information ( of daily datasets of soil moisture (sm), temperature (t), and precipitation (p) with gross primary productivity (gpp) to understand the association of hydrometeorological variables with vegetation productivity for the various above-discussed transitions of vegetation stress from may to september for our study region. we partition each time series into 11 bins and compute pairwise using equation 3 for each year separately and then compute the average for the years falling in the above-discussed transition types. 3. results figure 3 shows the climatology of precipitation (p), temperature (t), soil moisture (sm), and gross primary productivity (gpp) in the study area in central india (figure 1). central india receives rainfall during the indian summer monsoons (ismr) in june–september (jjas). the pre-monsoon period sees high temperatures along with minimal rainfall, while the onset of ismr provides respite from the heat of summer. the region experiences temperatures as high as 40°c during april and may, which reduce on the arrival of the monsoons and vary from 30–35°c during and after the monsoons. gpp (figure 3), a measure of photosynthesis, remains low in the pre-monsoon period due to the unavailability of soil moisture and rises [115] chandel and chauhan with an increase in soil moisture after the onset of the monsoons. since gpp is influenced by the air temperature and the amount of radiation and moisture available, if the condition of air temperature and radiation is fulfilled, it is mainly driven by water availability. we observe similar behavior in our region as the seasonal variation of gpp is similar to variation in sm. figure 3: the climatology of precipitation, temperature, and soil moisture and gross primary productivity source: authors to understand the recovery of our system, we see the magnitude of stress in vegetation in different years (figure 4). the negative values of percent anomaly (δ) indicate stress in vegetation. δmay varies from -20% to 25%. we performed pearson correlation of δmay with precipitation, temperature and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] soil moisture during the pre-monsoon period of march, april and may. we found that temperature has a correlation of –0.7 (p<0.01) which signifies that hotter pre-monsoon period puts stress on vegetation. we found positive correlation of delta with soil-moisture (0.80; p<0.01) and precipitation (0.62; p<0.01), which implies that these variables reduce the stress in month of may. figure 4: scatter plot of percentage anomaly in may lai (δmay) and corresponding change in september (δsep ) in same year source: authors δsep varies from –30% to 25% across the years (figure 4). to understand the dominant hydro-meteorological drivers of vegetation productivity during monsoon, we performed a linear regression of δsep with cumulative precipitation anomalies, mean temperature anomaly, and mean soil moisture anomaly during jjas. we found that δsep has a significant (p-value < 0.05) association with soil moisture and precipitation with coefficients –10.1 and 6.2 respectively. negative coefficient between p and gpp is counterintuitive and indicates a reduction in vegetation productivity due to radiation limitation imposed on photosynthesis by cloud cover. hence, high [117] chandel and chauhan (and continuous) precipitation can lead to a loss of vegetation productivity. sm on the other hand has a positive coefficient with gpp as soil moisture recharged by precipitation takes time to deplete and can aid photosynthesis when solar radiation is available. the negative anomaly in september is present for both positive and negative values of δmay (figure 4). this demands further investigation to find out whether δsep depends on δmay or not. to investigate, we added δmay as an additional predictor to the above regression. we did not find any statistically significant coefficient for δmay and there was no change in the coefficients of climate other variables. this shows that variations in δsep are insensitive to variations in δmay . since linear regression fails to capture nonlinear associations, we employ information-theory based metrics to capture the non-linearities. figure 5(a) shows average normalised shannon’s entropy of p, t, sm, and gpp across all years. shannon’s entropy quantifies the variability of a time series. p and sm are the variables with the lowest and highest entropies, respectively, with the entropy of p at around 40% and that of sm at 90% of the maximum possible value of log(m). entropies of t is slightly lesser than sm with values between 80%–90% of hmax. entropy of gpp is between 60%–70% of hmax. while shannon’s entropy measures the variability, mutual information (mi) measures the amount of variability that can be explained between any two variables in the system. mi measures non-linear associations as well, and, hence, is a better measure of association between any two variables. to understand the dynamic association of hydrometeorological variables with gpp, we computed mutual information between these variables. figure 5(b) shows the average normalised mutual information (minorm) of p, t, and sm, with gpp, where minorm is ratio of mi to maximum mi to enable comparison across multiple variable pairs (see methods). minorm indicates the percentage variance of a variable that can be explained by another variable. sm has highest mi with gpp, varying from 20% to 25%, showing the strong association between variability in soil moisture and variability of vegetation productivity in the region. while linear regression showed the almost equal (and opposite) strength of association between gpp and p and sm, mi shows that gpp has a stronger association with sm—the association is almost twice as strong as than with p. different relative strengths of association across linear regression and mi indicate strong nonlinear associations that linear regression fails to capture. the extra strength of the association between sm and gpp, hence, comes from non-linear interactions. the overall positive association between sm and gpp offsets the negative coefficient of p seen in the linear regression and hence leads to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] positive vegetation productivity. this shows that for our study region, recovery of vegetation from stressed pre-monsoon conditions has a strong dependence on soil moisture. figure 5: (a) average normalised shannon’s entropy of p, t, sm, and gpp across all years; (b) average normalised mutual information (minorm) of p, t, and sm, with gpp where minorm is the ratio of mi to the maximum mi to make it useful for comparison across multiple variable pairs source: authors (a) (b) [119] chandel and chauhan while our study provides novel insights on the vegetation dynamics of forest regions, it ignores agricultural areas that are heavily affected by human interventions such as irrigation. dynamics of vegetation may differ in the presence of anthropogenic stresses, which needs further examination. the independence of september vegetation from may vegetation may not hold for extreme events such as forest fires, heatwaves, and prolonged droughts. during such events, vegetation may cross a tipping point and experience irreversible changes. precipitation shows a negative correlation with vegetation productivity, which is counter-intuitive. since precipitation in our study also acts as a proxy for solar radiation, including data such as photosynthetically active radiation (par) will provide more accurate inferences. 4. conclusions our study tries to measure the recovery of vegetation from pre-monsoon stress between the months of may and september using deviations from climatology. since good quality observed datasets are not available for the monsoon period, our approach is a novel method to characterise vegetation recovery and attribute it to climate variables using datasets for the months of may and september, which are mostly available. we tried to attribute vegetation stress to climate variables and found that pre-monsoon monsoon vegetation stress depends on soil moisture, which is driven by variations in temperature and precipitation. since pre-monsoon precipitation is sparse, heat waves during the pre-monsoon period can deplete soil moisture rapidly. during the monsoons, precipitation contributes to vegetation recovery from pre-monsoon stress through soil moisture recharge, while it also inhibits vegetation productivity by limiting the available 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with significant potential for producing solar energy. in 2013, a private investor set up a solar microgrid in the village and distributed energy-efficient appliances. its goal was to give poor households access to modern energy services. the study data were collected through a survey conducted among randomly selected households in the village. the survey found that such an electricity provision service had multidimensional benefits: flexible use of the energy service, more effective time allocation among women, more study time for students, improved indoor air quality, and safer public places. given the initial unmet demand for modern energy in the village, technological interventions supported by policy has helped to expand consumption possibilities and new demand for services has emerged. the household-level frontier rebound effect is estimated to be more than 100%, reflecting a one-and-ahalf times increase in the demand for illumination services among rural households. frontier rebound effect estimates help quantify the benefits of solar microgrids and energy-efficient appliances for households in rural areas. the results of this study are consistent with existing literature that suggests that efficient appliances and 1 assistant professor in economics, faculty of arts and social studies, st. xavier’s university, action area iii, newtown, kolkata, west bengal – 700160; c.debalina12@gmail.com, debalina.chakravarty@sxuk.edu.in 2 bangabandhu chair professor, asian institute of technology, 58m009 paholyothin highway rd, khlong nueng, khlong luang district, pathum thani-12120, thailand; and professor of economics (on lien) and founder advisor global change programme, jadavpur university, 118 raja s.c. mallik road, jadavpur, kolkata, west bengal 700032; joyashreeju@gmail.com, joyashree@ait.asia. copyright © chakravarty and roy 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.140 mailto:c.debalina12@gmail.com mailto:debalina.chakravarty@sxuk.edu.in mailto:joyashreeju@gmail.com mailto:joyashree@ait.asia https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.140 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] access to electricity will increase the energy demand manifold and satisfy the growing and largely unmet demand for energy. keywords: modern energy services; energy-efficient appliances; frontier rebound effect; rural household; solar microgrid. 1. introduction the indian government has implemented several initiatives to promote and accelerate the scaling up of rural electrification and efficient appliances use through new institutional arrangements and policy support. solar microgrids are considered an alternative service delivery model to grid electricity in remote villages that either do not have grid connectivity (thirumurthy et al. 2012; world bank 2008) or where it is neither feasible nor cost-effective. while on an average grid electricity is less expensive than off-grid options, the levelised cost per kwh of grid extension rises steeply beyond a certain distance from the central facility (world bank 2010; bruckner et al. 2014). therefore, microgrids are seen as a cost-effective solution for rural electrification in india (venkataraman and marnay 2008). it is important to scrutinize past experiments for lessons that may help us better understand which policy interventions will aid the speedy advancement of such initiatives and boost the demand for such electricity among rural households. this can help us assess the microgrid capacity required and how quickly supporting infrastructure needs to be built. the first mention of solar microgrids at the policy level in india can be found in the decentralised distributed generation (ddg) scheme proposed by the ministry of power as part of the rajiv gandhi grameen vidyutikaran yojana (rggvy), 2005. this programme’s goal was to electrify villages where grid connectivity is neither feasible nor cost-effective and to supplement power provision in areas where the grid supply is available for less than six hours a day. in 2014, rural electrification gained momentum with deen dayal upadhyaya gram jyoti yojana (ddugjy) and the integrated power development scheme (ipds), which emphasized solar energy and introduced a smart metering system to enhance end-user access. in addition, the indian government also designed a policy instrument for subsidy allocations to encourage private investors to enter the electric services market through private microgrid systems in rural areas. a microgrid is an integrated, local system that generates electricity and transmits it to end-users (residential and commercial users) within a limited geographical region. a microgrid operating on renewables like biomass, wind, and solar photovoltaic (pv) technology can help increase power quality, reliability, efficiency, and sustainability (kaundinya et al. 2009). the [67] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy argument in favour of renewable energy-based microgrids and energyefficient appliances is mostly driven by the scarcity of non-renewable fossil fuel–based energy and its impact on human health and climate change. microgrid systems also provide more reliable electricity, as outages or interruptions in supply can be quickly identified and corrected. additionally, transmission and distribution costs are low with microgrids and very little electricity is lost during transmission (hirsch et al. 2018). in india, a large number of rural households without access to grid electricity or any other reliable energy source depend on firewood or fossil fuels to meet basic energy needs like cooking and illumination. the detrimental health and environmental impacts of these fuels are well known (johnson and chiang 2015; parikh 2011). therefore, reliable access to cleaner energy sources is crucial in terms of the environment and climate change mitigation (millward-hopkins et al. 2020; world bank 2008; gea 2012; alliance for rural electrification 2011); in addition, it stands to contribute towards meeting multiple sustainable development goals (sdgs) by improving households’ health and quality of life (unep 2017). however, it is difficult to estimate the level, pattern, and growth of total energy demand at the community scale. this makes it difficult for private companies to invest in microgrids (williams et al. 2015; wang and huang 2014). therefore, to plan and design better solar microgrids, it is essential to understand the demand for such grids and how they benefit users and the community. contemporary literature on energy demand indicates that when a certain energy service becomes more technically efficient, energy demand in total increases and not just for that particular energy service. this is called the “rebound effect” (chakravarty et al. 2013; sorrell and dimitropoulos 2008; vikstrom 2008; greening et al. 2000; saunders 2000; roy 2000). this happens because users interpret energy efficiency increases as the increased availability of energy services at the same price; in other words, as the effective prices of energy services reduce, consumers respond by demanding more of that energy service. the literature suggests that the rebound effect can be partial or full or may backfire (roy 2000; roy et al. 2013; lin and liu 2013a; lin and liu 2013b; lin and liu 2015; druckman 2011; saunders 2000; sorrell 2009). but these outcomes are dependent on whether the demand increase is relatively lesser, equal to, or greater than the magnitude of energy efficiency improvement. the frontier rebound effect is a special case that the literature describes as an increase in the total energy demand due to improved efficiency as a result of a technological innovation within a particular energy service—such as in the case of fuel-efficient cars in mobility services or led bulbs in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] illumination services (jenkins et al. 2011; saunders 2013). the literature also shows, through empirical studies, that when one energy service becomes cheaper and more easily available, consumers devise new and innovative ways to use that energy (saunders and tsao 2012), which leads to an increase in the total energy demand. this is an extreme case of the rebound effect caused by the increased availability of opportunities for energy consumption and discovery of unforeseen opportunities for substitution. this increased consumption can have a significant impact on economic activities. this phenomenon is often seen in developing countries with constrained energy access and a lot of unmet demand (roy 2000; chakravarty et al. 2013). the presence of such an effect indicates that unmet demand falls faster with an increase in the social well-being of the beneficiary (saunders 2013; freeman 2018). this case study explores solar microgrids as an alternative electricity service provision system in human settlements with high unmet demand. the study also examines the role of energy-efficient appliances in such environments. the case study was based on the village lakshmipura-jharla in india, where a single solar microgrid system was set up by a private investor. the details of the study are covered in section 2. section 3 discusses the estimated frontier rebound effect based on the available data. section 4 presents a discussion of the results, and section 5 provides concluding remarks. 2. the case study site the first commercial-scale solar microgrid (and energy-efficient appliances programme) was set up in 2012–2013 as a private–public partnership (ppp). gram power (a private solar microgrid company based in india) set up its pilot project in the village lakshmipura-jharla in the tonk district of rajasthan, which was unconnected to the grid. high levels of solar irradiance3 made it an apt location for the project, and in march 2012, a microgrid with a capacity of 2kw was set up. one of the authors visited the village in july 2013. the study site is located 1 km from the relatively wellconnected village of khareda, which, in turn, is located 150 km from rajasthan’s capital city, jaipur. in 2003–2004, a start-up introduced the ‘jugnu’ system, wherein individual solar lanterns were distributed to village households at the subsidized price of ₹7,000 ($111)4 per unit. however, these lanterns could only provide four 3solar irradiance is a measure of the solar radiation (power per unit area on the earth’s surface) produced by the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation (ipcc 2007). 4all conversion in this study is calculated using the exchange rate: usd 1 = inr 63 (average exchange rate for the year 2013). [69] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy hours of light a day, leading to high unmet demand. then, in 2012, a private company set up a solar microgrid in the village and provided households with smart meters that allowed them to access 24x7 uninterrupted electricity supply. they also provided households with two energy-efficient 14 w or 16 w compact fluorescent lamp (cfl) bulbs. at the time, the cost of a bulb was around ₹70 when bought in bulk. the bulbs were distributed at a subsidized price of ₹15 per bulb as per the bachat lamp yojana (2012) to microgrid-connected households. the private company installed and operated the microgrid in collaboration with the state renewable energy board under the ministry of power and the development impact lab (dil), university of california, berkeley, usa, provided scientific knowledge. private investors provided 80% of the total cost of installation in return for import duty exemption for certain components in the system. the remaining 20% was contributed by the indian government under the jawaharlal national solar mission (2010). the objective of the ppp model was to leverage private investment to expand the supply capacity and meet new energy demand through renewable sources such as solar (world bank 2008; gea 2012; alliance for rural electrification 2011; unep 2017) (table 1). unlike solar lantern systems that are meant for use within the home, microgrids provide uninterrupted power service 24x7 at a community level. the latter provides flexibility to end-users in their choice of appliances and has better social, environmental, and economic benefits compared to lanterns while reducing costs by utilizing economies of scale (table 1). despite these well-established benefits, there exist some practical barriers to solar microgrids—for example, the poor availability of skilled technicians, lack of timely maintenance and monitoring, etc. (fowlie et al. 2018). in our case study, we found that the private partner was committed to overcoming these known barriers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] table 1: solar microgrid systems: benefits and barriers benefits and barriers reference s actors producer & distribut or end-user other benefits economic low cost of raw energy, reduces transmissi on loss planned electricity consumption local employment generation, economic development dieckman n 2013; chen et al. 2011 social improvement s in health, study time, cooking time, communal activities, etc. fowlie et al. 2018; world bank 2008 environme ntal less greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions, less local pollution, less non-renewable energy use dieckman n 2013; kamel et al. 2015; molina and mercado 2010; vachirasri cirikul and ngamroo 2011 barriers lack of improved technolog ies, efficient monitori ng systems, and expertise higher electricity tariffs regulatory barriers cea 2012; chakravart y 2016 source: compiled by authors from various sources [71] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy 3. end-user benefits of the solar micro-grid: estimation of the frontier rebound effect estimating the frontier rebound effect can show how an increase in the efficiency of any appliance changes end-user behaviour and affects their total energy consumption (chakravarty et al. 2013; sorrell and dimitropoulos 2008; vikstrom 2008; herring 1998, 2006; greening et al. 2000). khazzoom first mentioned this effect in the early 1980s when discussing household energy consumption (wei 2010; sorrell 2007; allan et al. 2008; allan et al. 2006; herring 2006; saunders 2000a; khazzoom 1980). the literature shows that end-users respond in the same way to energy efficiency as they do to a decrease in energy prices (sorrell and dimitropoulos 2008). therefore, the rebound effect is equivalent to the percentage change in the demand for energy services, i.e., the perceived reduction in price due to efficiency improvements in energy-using appliances (berkhout et al. 2000; sorrell 2007; saunders 2005; sorrell and dimitropoulos 2008; frondel et al. 2008; binswanger 2001). the change in energy service demand due to a change in perceived price can be greater than 100% in magnitude, which is identified as the frontier rebound effect. energy efficiency gains create opportunities for undertaking new economic activities using the same supply of appliances. in parallel, the demand goes up for new energy-embedded products (jenkins et al. 2011; saunders 2013). for example, tsao et al. (2010) analysed 300 years’ worth of historical data about lighting appliances and fuel-use from three continents and discovered that despite advances in appliances and fuel-use efficiency, energy consumption has been increasing. evidence from past studies in india shows a widely varying rebound effect (roy 2000; roy et al. 2013; chakravarty and roy 2017). there was superconservation or a negative rebound among sufficiently conscious urban consumers (chakravarty and roy 2017); however, “backfire” (roy 2000; roy et al. 2013) was more likely in households with unmet energy demand. sorrell (2007; 2009) observed that backfire due to the frontier rebound effect is most likely to occur with general-purpose technologies as they usually have a wide scope for improvement and elaboration. these generalpurpose technologies complement existing and potential new technologies, particularly when energy efficiency gains can be made at an early stage in the development and diffusion of the technology. the opportunities created by these technologies can have significant, long-term effects on innovation, productivity, and economic growth; the subsequent increase in economywide energy consumption further increases these effects. to understand the frontier rebound effect of the microgrid system, we compared the benefits accrued to households from solar microgrids against ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] a benchmark situation, i.e., households’ illumination consumption via domestic solar lantern systems. to estimate the frontier rebound, we used the following equation (1) (roy 2000; saunders 2012, 2013; freeman 2018): where, q represents energy service consumption and p represents the price (implicit) of the energy service. specifically, where, is the energy service consumption at the current time point and is the energy service consumption at the base time point. again, where, is the energy service consumption at the current time point and is the energy service consumption at the base time point. the rebound was estimated for the illumination service as in this case study efficient appliances were introduced for lighting purposes only. the impact of electricity access could be estimated as the frontier rebound effect using equation (1). thus, we were able to estimate the total increase in energy service demand resulting from the energy access intervention by comparing the pre-microgrid and post-microgrid situation. in the rebound estimation, the price mentioned in equation (1) represents the estimated price per particular “service” (e.g., illumination/cooking/heating). to estimate these prices per service, we used service-specific expenditure data. we also estimated the expenditure both before and after the introduction of the solar microgrid. we estimated the cost of a domestic solar lantern system using annualized monetary expenditures (e(q)) divided by the quantity of consumption (q) (filippini and pachauri 2004). e(q) is the total annualized cost of consumption derived from the capital cost and operating cost (including maintenance) borne by households. capital cost includes investment and interest charges. to estimate what part of the unit cost can be attributed to capital investment, we used the method suggested by culp (1979).5 5 here, (*) [73] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy data were collected from users who owned domestic solar lantern systems. the solar microgrid expenditure and energy consumption data were directly collected from the energy meters and payment receipts. the number of households and the names of the heads of households were first collected from the village panchayat office; then, every alternate house from the village was selected for the survey. if the selected house was vacant, or its members were unavailable or unwilling to participate in the survey, the next house was selected. each household was given the option of exiting the survey at any time to minimize bias and erroneous responses. in conducting the survey, standard survey ethics were followed. consent was taken from each of the stakeholders (the educational institute based in the us, private start-up, households) before the purpose of the study was explained.6 a key aspect of the survey was collecting data on the energy service demand pattern of households before and after they had access to the solar microgrid and efficient lamps, and how these corresponded to their energy bills. both types of information were collected through direct interviews based on a pre-formatted, tested, and piloted questionnaire. since the appliance usage patterns of households influence electricity demand, the technical specifications of the appliances were very important in this study. therefore, the questionnaire7 also collected information about the types of appliances used in households, the number of appliances, their specifications, wattage consumption, usage time in both summer and winter, whether they were energy-efficient or not, and their initial cost. apart from this, the questionnaire also had qualitative questions on how households perceived the impact of electrification. 4. results and discussion the total population in the study village was approximately 100 people living in 22 households. the average family size was roughly five members. eleven households responded to the interview. the village is situated on the banks of the river banas, which forms a moderately rich fertile plain. where, t is the operating time period/lifetime of the equipment and is considered as 10 years for this calculation, and i, is the rate of interest and is assumed to be 8% for the present calculations, given the then prevailing market interest rate for long-term deposits in india. however, we also use a 3% rate (savings bank interest rate prevailing in 2013) to arrive at a range rather than a single number. 6we declared that all data and information were to be used for academic purposes (phd thesis of the first author and any academic publication out of it) with due acknowledgment to the funding sources and that no information would be shared for commercial purposes. 7 the questionnaire is provided in the appendix. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] we estimated the magnitude of the rebound effect by studying how access to efficient lighting and a solar microgrid changed energy-use patterns and the socio-economic impacts of the same. 4.1 the socio-economic structure of the village cultivation was the major occupation in the study village. about 70% of the households in the village were engaged in cultivating different varieties of pulses. a few individuals worked as marginal labourers (21%) in various menial jobs like construction, long-distance truck driving, and intermediate short distance non-motorized cart driving (7%). some households received a secondary source of income from wage earnings during the nonagricultural seasons. it was difficult to determine their exact incomes because householders did not have fixed monthly incomes, salary slips, or registered labour incomes. our survey data revealed that two households were below the poverty line and the rest were only marginally above it. all the households were in the low-income category. the income from marginal labour was approximately $6.35 per day (₹400).8 the cultivation workforce was mostly from within the family, and they mainly practised subsistence farming where they produced crops for their consumption. the average monthly expenditure per household was $97.5 (₹6,142.5). the minimum and maximum reported monthly expenditures were $31.75 (₹2,000) and $174.6 (₹11,000), respectively. among the villagers, 62% were male and 38% female; 54% were adults and 46% were below 18 years of age. only two adults had a formal education. those under 18 years, however, attended school at khareda regularly. all the households had a residential unit with an average carpet area of 871 sq ft. the predominant materials used to construct house walls were mud and unburnt bricks (93% households), whereas the predominant material used to make the roof was asbestos (86% households). about 14% of residential units had tiles on their roofs. most of the residential units were single-storied buildings with one or two rooms and an open balcony in front of the rooms. villagers used this balcony as a kitchen and living and dining space. we present some village characteristics vis-à-vis the state in table 2. 8 all conversion rates are for the year 2013. [75] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy table 2: socioeconomic status of the study area study area state: rajasthan country: india principal crop cultivated pulses barley, wheat, gram, pulses, and oil seeds wheat, rice, pulses, and jute main source of livelihood cultivation and labour cultivation cultivation average monthly family expenditure $97.5 (₹6,142.5) $50 (₹3,200) $18–21 (₹1,175–1,350) gender ratio (female: male) 666:1000 861:1000 940:1000 literacy rate very low (2% approximately) 61.44% 74% predominant material of the wall mud and unburnt bricks stone: packed with mortar burnt brick predominant material of the roof asbestos cement stone/slate concrete source: census of india (2011); ministry of statistics and programme implementation (2012) 4.2 access to energy sources at the time of the survey, households were either using energy sources available in the market or their own sources. they were using kerosene, wood fuel, dung cakes, solar microgrid electricity, and battery power. each household had one ration card issued against the name of the male head of the family, which gave them access to the public distribution system (pds). each household, or each ration card, was allocated four litres of kerosene per month. kerosene is widely used in cooking (lam et al. 2012), but in the surveyed village, households used wood fuel and dung cakes for cooking and kerosene for agricultural purposes like operating irrigational pump-sets and spraying fertilizers. kerosene was not used for cooking also because there was a cultural preference for chulah (mud-oven) cooked food. for lighting, all the households have been using solar panels and lanterns since 2003–04. while the lanterns only provide a maximum of four hours of illumination service per day, under the new solar microgrid system, a household has access to round-the-clock electricity for illumination and space-cooling (fans or room coolers could be connected). if necessary, and if they could afford to pay, they could also connect other household appliances like televisions, buttermilk machines, grinders, etc. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] table 3: major energy services and their sources of energy energy service lighting (illumination) space-cooling other energy services pre-solar microgrid electricity access solar panel with a domestic lantern system (4 hr/day) [90%] none [0%] (personal hand fan only) none [0%] post-solar microgrid electricity access solar microgrid electricity [77%] (24 hrs/day) change in usage consumption increased [77%] new electric ceiling fans installed [65%] buttermilk machines and televisions were purchased and installed in 5% of the surveyed households source: household sample survey note: percentage of households is in parentheses. the solar microgrid gave households access to both illumination and cooling services. earlier, households could not have possibly used appliances like fans or coolers/heaters because of affordability issues. 4.3 solar microgrids and electricity access the solar microgrid system installed in the study village was of 2 kw capacity. households paid in advance for the energy service. a 100% advanced payment helped the producer ensure that there was demand for the installed capacity, and people were used to such arrangements because they were familiar with mobile phone recharge services. the households adopted the payment system without any hesitation. the producers engaged a technician to collect the money. based on the specific needs of households and the amount paid, the power company’s controller used the house’s consumer identification number to set the individual household meter through a wireless network. a connection used for a minimum of two lights bulbs could be recharged at $0.80 (₹50) and a minimum of two lights and one fan at $2.78 (₹175). on average, in a month, a household spent $0.32 (₹20) on recharges, and the modal value of recharge payment was $0.80 (₹50). this was possible because monthly recharges were not mandatory. a household could recharge again after the amount was exhausted. thus, there was no specific monthly electricity bill in these households. households could decide on their service demand level according to what they could afford at that time. [77] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy before getting access to the solar microgrid, most households had just one or two solar lamps from the 2003–04 programme. they had been using these appliances for nine to ten years. a few of them needed replacement appliances (14%). during the survey, we observed that the solar microgrid company had provided all village households with new microgrid connections with two 6 w compact fluorescent lamps (cfl) worth $28.57 (₹1,800) free of cost. if a household used a 6 w cfl for one hour, it cost $0.0024 (₹0.15) under the solar microgrid scheme. similarly, if they used a 40 w fan for one hour, it cost $0.059 (₹0.37). so, a household paid $0.40 (₹25) per unit (kwh) of solar microgrid electricity. this amount is nearer the electricity rate in the us ($0.48/unit or ₹30/unit in march 2013) and is much higher than the cost of india’s grid-connected electricity ($0.13/unit ₹8/unit in march 2013, on average). it is worth mentioning that the price of grid-connected electricity in india in 2013 included a subsidy of 20–50% at the consumer end. the installation cost of a solar microgrid system is two-and-a-half times higher than setting up a connection to the centralized grid electricity supply system (cea 2012). in the case of energy-efficient appliances, the capital cost or initial purchase cost is also a significant catalyst for energy consumption. however, energyefficient technologies have a higher initial cost that acts as a barrier to faster adoption, especially in developing countries (fowlie et al. 2018; gea 2012; toman 2003; bruckner et al. 2014). therefore, the estimation process needs to consider the fixed capital cost and variable costs and calculate the annualized cost for each type of equipment for energy access. in a supply-constrained scenario, comparing the costs of two competing systems (domestic solar lantern systems and microgrid connectivity systems) generates interesting results. the annualized cost per unit (kwh) of electricity from a community-scale solar microgrid is still much lower than the cost of the electricity generated from the solar home lantern system (table 4). this is due to the up-front cost of the individual solar panel for the domestic lantern system. so individual households with access to community-scale solar microgrids benefit from economies of scale and get electricity at a cheaper price when compared with the domestic lantern system. in monetary terms, our estimates show that individual households can save approximately $0.21 (₹13) on one unit (kwh) of energy if they switch from individual pv-based systems to microgrid systems. annually one household can save around $142 (₹8,946) by using the solar microgrid. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] table 4: energy sources and their corresponding costs, services, appliances in use, and average time of usage energy sources domesti c solar panel lighting systems solar microgrid electricity time of access (hrs) 4 24 annualize d cost per kwh energy ($) 0.95* 0.74** 0.64* 0.59** services provided lighting only lightin g coolin g entertainme nt cooking other appliance s in use solar lamp cfl, night bulb fan, cooler television, radio, dvd player buttermil k machine mobile chargin g duration of use in a household (hrs/day) 4 4-6 (cfl) 3–5 (night bulb) 2–6 (fan) 2–4 (cooler ) 2–4 (television) 1–1.5 2–4 source: estimates based on household sample survey data note: *estimated using 8% of the discount rate. **estimated using 3% of the discount rate. therefore, for the end-users in our case study, it is economic to use community-scale microgrid electricity. this has been shown in other literature as well (chaurey and kandpal 2010). our survey revealed that with 24x7 access to the solar micro-grid, households preferred to keep one light bulb outside their homes illuminated for at least eight hours after sunset for security reasons. when you consider that the domestic solar lamps only provided four hours of illumination, it is easy to see that access to energy from the microgrid and efficient electric appliances doubled the consumption of energy services in the sample households. above 90% of respondents agreed that the socio-economic condition of end-users has improved with 24x7 access to electricity from the solar microgrid.9 the demand for entertainment services via television and radio 9rest of the 10% of the respondent choose not to specify anything. [79] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy use have also increased. people are less afraid of insect attacks at night; public places feel more secure; women can cook food even after sundown, which gives them flexibility when it comes to other chores and has allowed them to do more productive work; students have more time to study as they can study at night too. in the village we studied, the basic need was illumination as the village layout was open enough for there to be natural ventilation. demand for household appliances for food preparation went up when a new appliance—the buttermilk machine—was purchased by some of the households. the uptake rate was as high as 77%, signifying that what was once accomplished using women’s physical labour was now being done by modern electric appliances. table 5: the perceived impact of 24x7 electricity perceived impact of efficient electrification yes (% of responses) no (% of responses) don't know (% of responses) indoor environment becomes less smoky 100% 0% 0% increase in demand for lighting/cooling 100% 0% 0% increase in study time for children 100% 0% 0% more time allocation for daily primary jobs like cultivation 100% 0% 0% better livelihood practices with electricity 100% 0% 0% others 90% mentioned other benefits such as increased access to entertainment services via television and radio, less fear of insect attacks at night, and flexible cooking times source: estimates based on household sample survey data 4.4 avoided direct emission the total demand for energy in the village was 2 kwh per day, as determined by the maximum capacity of the system. if this same amount of energy had been generated by a centralized, thermal electricity grid, 3.56 kg of co2 would have been produced per day (1,299 kg of co2 per year), assuming an emissions factor of 0.89 tons of co2 for every megawatt-hour of electricity (cea 2012). the solar microgrid system in our case study helped to avoid 3.56 kg of direct co2 emissions per day. however, when ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] considering these avoided emissions, one needs to keep in mind the costs involved. from the generation company’s perspective, avoiding the 3.56 kg of co2 caused an additional 54% generation cost compared to the centralized grid-connected power supply system in india. this was estimated based on cea data from 2012 about the cost of power projects per megawatt. 4.5 changes in electricity service demand a key aim of the survey was to understand the energy service demand patterns of households before and after they got access to the solar microgrid. the annualized per unit cost of electricity from the solar microgrid was found to be 32% lower than in the case of the solar lantern system. the annualized unit cost of electricity services was used to estimate the percentage change in the price of energy services at the household level. corresponding changes in the demand for illumination services and allencompassing electricity services have been estimated in table 6. table 6: estimated frontier rebound effect energy services (at 8% discount rate) (at 5% discount rate) implication of estimated rebound effect for illumination services 151% 165% presence of the frontier effect for all the available energy services 192% 199% presence of the frontier effect source: estimates based on the data from the household survey the rebound estimates clearly show that the percentage change in the demand for energy services with respect to the price of those services was more than 100%. thus, a 1% decrease in prices will result in a 1.51–1.65% increase in the demand for illumination services and a 1.92–1.99% increase for all other available energy services. this is because consumers earlier had unmet energy demands because of the constraints of only four hours of access to electricity. after the solar microgrid was set up, they had uninterrupted supply of electricity throughout the day. however, it must be noted that there is an upper limit to the amount of electricity that the community can draw from the microgrid system, i.e., based on its initial capacity on installation. frontier estimates can be higher than the estimated values when supply is unlimited. the literature suggests that with the introduction of efficient appliances, the energy demand will increase manifold to satisfy unmet demand. [81] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy the frontier rebound effect arose in this case study because households increased their direct energy consumption. their newfound access to affordable electricity allowed them to adopt new appliances (fans, radios, televisions, cell phones, and kitchen appliances) that led to these communities, who had no previous access to modern energy, to demand new energy services that can be considered welfare-enhancing (saunder, 2013; jenkins et al. 2011). therefore, the study’s estimate is conceptually equivalent to the frontier rebound estimate suggested by other literature (jenkins et al. 2011; saunders 2013; saunders and tsao 2012; tsao et al. 2010; sorrell 2007, 2009). a rebound case study in rural india (roy 2000) estimated a partial rebound effect at about 50% for illumination services after introducing only solar lanterns. that was lower than this study’s estimated rebound magnitude. for some households, roy (2000) observed that the rebound effect was about 200% for both lighting and cooking services, which are quite close to the rebound estimates of this study. in another study by burgess et al. (2019), the researchers found high price responsiveness for diesel, off-grid, and microgrid solar in the state of bihar, india. such high demand elasticities are striking when compared to those in developed countries where saturated demand levels and high-income levels mean that the demand curve is expected to be almost vertical. thus, only extensive changes in price can induce changes in demand in those countries. in our study, we found that 23% (or 5 out of 22) of the households had not taken a solar microgrid electricity connection because they found the costs prohibitive. these households were using the solar lantern system with a battery that let them run at least one light bulb at night; however they found the 24x7 electricity service too expensive. however, it is likely that these households will eventually switch services, either after the lifetime of their current equipment or when their incomes improve. households that cannot afford the switch can be offered support through new policies that, for example, buy back older solar panels and lighting systems. how such policies can be operationalized, or what other alternative institutional or policy arrangements can be made, are research questions for the future. 5. conclusion the case study shows that electrification via solar microgrids offers rural households in india social, economic, and environmental benefits. solar microgrid systems combined with energy-efficient end-use appliances result in a quick reduction in the demand gap. lessons learned from the case study are relevant at the policy level as well. in contrast to newly emerging ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] research (lee et al., 2020; burgess et al., 2019), this study clearly shows that poor rural households in india value round-the-clock access to electricity service. it reduces the drudgery of physical labour and provides flexibility in how time can be productively utilized, especially for women. therefore, access to electricity, from a class and gender perspective, can be considered essential in terms of a decent standard of living and the sustainable development goals (hayward and roy 2019; rao and min 2018). the study found that solar microgrids offered many additional benefits to a remote village: increased security in public places at night, access to entertainment services, pest reduction, and more time for students to study. in the village we studied, households consumed very little electricity (around 0.2 kwh per day) compared to an average household in india (12 kwh per day). this can be seen as an indicator of the electricity demand gap, where there is scope for accelerated provision of access to electricity. the frontier rebound effect of illumination services is estimated to be more than 100%, which implies that a 100% increase in energy efficiency will increase the demand for energy services by more than 100% because of the shift in consumption. this signifies an improvement in end-user utility and thus the well-being of low-income households. this result is consistent with existing literature that postulates that the introduction of energy-efficient supplies will increase demand manifold. in the context of energy-accessequity-driven climate policy, where the goal is to reduce energy poverty and unmet energy demand, the frontier rebound effect can indicate whether the implementation of energy-efficiency policies affect the rate at which unmet demand is reduced. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge the active cooperation of the ceo of the private microgrid power producer and distributor in india. we are thankful to mr suman dutta from global change programme of jadavpur university (gcp-ju) for his support in collecting data and dr shyamashree dasgupta for her valuable comments on an earlier version of this article. the authors also acknowledge the financial support from gcp-ju for the field study. debalina chakravarty acknowledges the introduction to the private microgrid power producer and distributor in india and is grateful for the short-term fellowship grants from the development impact lab (dil), university of california, berkeley, usa, and to the west bengal state government doctoral fellowship programme, india, at the department of economics, jadavpur university. joyashree roy acknowledges funding under the edit-ait project. edit-ait project at the asian institute of [83] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy technology, thailand received funding from the energy demand changes induced by technological and social innovations (edits) project, which is part of the initiative coordinated by the research institute of innovative technology for the earth (rite) and international institute for applied systems analysis (iiasa) (and funded by ministry of economy, trade, and industry (meti), japan). all conclusions and errors are the responsibilities of the authors and reflect their research analysis and do not reflect any other 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“grid-connect electricity supply in india.” accessed on 24 may 2015. http://envfor.nic.in/downloads/public-in formation/gridconnectelectricittsupplyindia.pdf http://envfor.nic.in/downloads/public-in%20formation/gridconnectelectricittsupplyindia.pdf http://envfor.nic.in/downloads/public-in%20formation/gridconnectelectricittsupplyindia.pdf [89] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy appendix questionnaire for rural household units usage pattern of lighting and space cooling in india’s rural household sector ________________________________________________________________ this questionnaire collects information on ownership patterns and usage of energyefficient appliances in india as a part of a study on estimating the rebound effect in energy consumption in the indian economy. the research is being carried out by ------------------------------------------------------ request from the researchers it will take you approximately 15 minutes to respond to the questionnaire. please take some time to answer the questions carefully. this will help us capture a set of crucial information. we would appreciate your responses. we assure you that your personal information will be kept confidential and your responses will be used purely for academic purposes. we shall be thankful to you for your completing the questionnaire and helping us in our research study. with regards, name of the investigator: ………………………………………………………………….. date: ……………………....…. time: …………………. signature: ..............................… 1. name of the respondent: a) address: b) contact number: a. personal details 1. age of the respondent: 2. highest level of education attained by any family member:10 3. are you one of the earning members of the family? yes/ no 4. how many earning members are there in your family? 5. what is the composition of your family (mention numbers)? 10 (a) < class 10 (b) class 10–12 (c) above 12 but not graduate (d) graduate (e) post-graduate and above ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] adult children male female 6. carpet area of your living space (in sq ft): 7. is the residential unit owned by you or rented? yes/ no 8. family monthly income level: 9. family monthly expenditure level: 10. major source of income/major occupation?11 11. what are the predominant materials of the roof and walls of your house? a) wall:12 b) roof:13 b. energy consumption details 12. source of energy: a) pre-electricity access scenario: energy services fuel type used14 (in the last 3 months) amount of fuel used (specify the unit) (per month) expenditure on fuel used (in inr) (per month) lighting space cooling b) post-electricity access scenario: 11 (1) cultivator, (2) main worker (< 6 months), (3) marginal worker, (4) agricultural labourer, (5) household industry worker, (6) other worker. 12 (1) grass/thatch/bamboo, (2) wood, (3) mud/unburnt brick, (4) plastic/polythene, (5) burnt brick, (6) stone, (7) gi metal/asbestos sheets, (8) concrete, (9) any other. 13 (1) grass/thatch/bamboo, wood, mud, etc, (2) plastic/polythene, (3) tiles (handmade tiles/machine-made tiles) (4) burnt brick, (5) stone, (6) g.i. metal/asbestos sheets, (7) concrete, (8) any other. 14 (1) coal, (2) coke, (3) electricity, (4) kerosene, (5) solar, (6) lpg, (7) petrol, (8) diesel, (9) wood fuel, (10) dung cakes, (11) others [91] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy energy services fuel type used15 (in the last 3 months) amount of fuel used (specify the unit) (per month) expenditure on fuel used (in inr) (per month) lighting space cooling 13. total electricity consumption pattern:16 14. total electricity consumed in the last 2–3 months: 15 (1) coal, (2) coke, (3) electricity, (4) kerosene, (5) solar, (6) lpg, (7) petrol, (8) diesel, (9) wood fuel, (10) dung cakes, (11) others 16 investigators are requested to fill the questions of this section himself/herself from the latest electricity bill of the respondent. months units consumed expenditure on electricity (in inr) june may april march february january ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] 15. consumption pattern of appliances: service specification wattage consumption hours in use in summer hours in use in winter first cost/ capital cost remark/other details post electricity access consumption pattern (in 2012–2013) lighting incandescent 100 w incandescent 60 w incandescent 40 w night bulbs 15 w tfl (t5, t8, t12) tube 2 ft (narrow) tube 4 ft (narrow) tube 2 ft (regular) tube 4 ft (regular) cfl (retrofit/non retrofit) (mention w5/7/9/11/23) total space cooling ceiling fan (32", 48", 52") ac (0.75, 1, 1.5, 2 ton) total other (specify) [93] debalina chakravarty and joyashree roy c. perception about the impact of efficient electrification 16. do you feel that your environment has become less smoky? yes/no/don’t know 17. have you increased your lighting/space-cooling service consumption? yes/no/don’t know 18. do you think your kids now have more time for study? yes/no/don’t know 19. do you think you can now give more time to your daily primary job like cultivation, etc.? yes/no/don’t know 20. do you think now you have a better livelihood with electricity? yes/no/don’t know 21. any other impacts (please specify): end of survey. thank you! ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 31–42, january 2019 special section: ecological distribution conflicts in india discontent, conflict, social resistance and violence at non-metallic mining frontiers in india arpita bisht  abstract: the twenty-first century is witnessing increased extraction of natural resources across the globe, which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials. increasing extraction of resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations, or as a result of expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations across the world. amongst these, extraction of construction materials has been the highest in the last century. this article analyses conflicts surrounding such minerals which are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents, with a special focus on the social violence exerted in such conflicts. keywords: sand mining, ecological distribution conflicts, ejatlas, extractivism, social violence 1. introduction in the twenty-first century, extraction of natural resources has increased all across the world. between 1900 and 2005, total global raw material consumption—which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials—saw a massive increase from 7,117 million tons to 59,474 million tons (krausmann et al. 2009). among these resource groups, extraction of construction materials witnessed the maximum increase growing by a factor of 34, closely followed by ores and industrial minerals which increased by a factor of 27 (krausmann et al. 2009). this increase in extraction of construction  the energy resource institute (teri), darbari seth block, ihc complex, lodhi road, new delhi 110 003, india; arpitabisht1990@gmail.com copyright © bisht 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.54 mailto:arpitabisht1990@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.54 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] minerals, such as sand and gravel, appears as a certain fact although it is true that sufficient data is not available to corroborate this for most regions of the world. extraction of minerals related to the construction industry are of strategic importance, and likely to see further increase, specifically in the fast urbanizing and industrializing economies of the global south across the world. this article deals with conflicts surrounding such minerals, which are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents. world over the growing extraction of resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations or expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations. since the 2000s, the bulk of resources are extracted in the rapidly industrializing countries such as china, india, and various countries in latin america (özkaynak et al. 2012). the growing resource extraction in these countries has led to expanding frontiers of resource extraction into physical spaces inhabited by people. this frontier expansion often directly impacts the lives of local communities through displacement. the resultant ecological degradation, further impacts their lives and livelihoods, directly or indirectly, by altering the patterns of their access to natural resources (martinez-alier 2002), which they are often dependent on for sustenance. as such, this expansion often results in the generation of ecological distribution conflicts (edcs) and resistance movements by affected people “in defence of communitarian livelihoods against resource extraction” (martinez-alier et al. 2014). in this article, edcs against sand and gravel extraction in india are analyzed. the second section of this article presents a brief look at how non-metallic minerals are linked to urbanization in india. the third section presents discussions around the most common and troubling facet of such mineral “extractivism” in india—that of social violence. it also discusses the outcomes of some of the cases of social resistance movements against such forms of “extractivism” over the past two decades. the fourth section concludes the article. 2. urbanization, the construction industry and development minerals “extractivism” in a previous article on environmental conflicts in india (bisht and gerber 2017) the main focus was on iron ore and other metallic materials. here the focus is on so-called “development minerals”, which are minerals and materials that are mined, processed, manufactured and used domestically in industries such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. they can [33] arpita bisht further be sub-divided into four broad categories: a) construction minerals, which include sand and gravel; b) industrial minerals (calcium, feldspar, talc, graphite, dolomite, mica etc., including ilmenite as a titanium ore); c) semiprecious minerals (opal, amythyst, garnet, etc.); and d) dimension stones (such as granite, limestone and marble). the extraction of such minerals often occurs within unclear and uncertain legal and regulatory frameworks. further, there is often a lack of publicly available, reliable, and easily accessible geological data with regard to quantities of extraction of these commodities (hilson 2016). as in other newly industrializing economies, india’s contribution to mineral extractivism has significantly expanded in the past few decades. since the early 1980s, india’s metabolic profile experienced sustained growth in absolute as well as per capita material consumption of natural resources (singh et al. 2012). apart from bulk minerals like iron ore and bauxite, these construction minerals, including but not limited to stone, marble, sand, granite etc, have seen increasing extraction across the country (joy and rao 1988; gadgil and guha 1994). development minerals are largely utilized in the construction industry, therefore, with predicted increases in urbanization, their consumption is likely to go up in the coming decades. the rural population of india increased from 298 million in 1951, to 833 million in 2011. further, the population residing in urban areas1 in india, as per census records, increased from 11.4% to 30% between 1901 and 2011. by 2030, according to the un state of the world population (2007), india’s urban population would be 40.76% of its total population. these figures represent a massive increase in urban populations, which will require further expansion of existing infrastructure to support such a transition. currently, india’s metro-cities accommodate a large section of its population. mumbai and delhi, two largest cities, have populations of close to 22.1 million, and 28 million, respectively, as per the 2011 census of india. however, expansion of more cities and towns is expected in the near future, further adding to the growth of the construction industry. two major factors are responsible for the boom in construction activities: private construction and public expansion of urbanization. as disposable incomes have increased, it has raised the demand for private residential accommodations. this has led to an expansion of construction all across the country, particularly in the peripheral areas of large cities. besides the 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/urban_area ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] increase in private construction activities across the country, the government of india, in order to address issues related to overcrowding and urban management has embarked upon the smart cities mission. this program envisions and supports the creation of 100 “smart” cities which will serve as model areas based on integrated development plan, which is expected to have a rub-off effect on other parts of the city, and nearby cities and towns in india, among others, with the aim of reducing population burdens in the five metro cities. as a result of all these policies, there is a predicted necessary increase in construction and urbanization activities in india in the near future. of all the development minerals, sand and gravel are major interest being the basic ingredient of the construction industry. sand utilized in the construction industry is usually only available in and around rivers. other forms of sand such as desert sand cannot replace river sand in its utility for construction purposes (rajendran 2013). this industry operates with multiple small-scale, regional and local agents, and involves a large degree of informality and often illegality in its operations. available studies estimate that of the total number of mines producing development minerals in india, about 90% are informal. these informal mines generate close to 50% of the total output of development minerals (chakravorty 2001). previous research unraveled extraction of sand, which is widespread and often carried out illegally by small-scale actors near rivers or beaches, as the cause of most ecological distribution conflicts (bisht and gerber 2017). the ejatlas had reported only eight cases of sand and gravel conflicts in india as of december 2018 (out of nearly 300 environmental conflicts) but this is due to lack of coverage. 3. discontent, conflict and social resistance at development mineral frontiers in india a significant percentage of the total documented edcs in india are related to mining of non-metallic minerals. as per a database of 100 (non-fuel) mineral conflicts in india, 67% were accounted for a variety of minerals which fall under the category of development minerals. despite the smaller scale individual operations, sand extractivism in the past two decades has resulted in the generation of the highest numbers of edcs in india, representing over 42% of the overall cases documented in the research conducted by bisht and gerber (2017). [35] arpita bisht 3.1. geographical location of conflicts locations of spaces of non-metallic mining differ significantly from that of metallic mining, as well as mining of fossil fuels. this is specifically true of sand mining. the primary difference between the two is that development minerals, particularly sand, are often more geographically scattered as compared to metallic or fossil fuel resources. as such, development minerals are not found to be located in spaces which can be referred to as “extreme peripheries” but are rather found to be dispersed across “core” regions including peripheries of cities, urban habitats, as well as large towns. in contrast, metallic mining is found to be largely located in rural or tribal spaces, which are geographically distant from cities, and urban establishments. two reasons for this difference are a) the larger availability of development minerals, especially sand, such as across the length of river beds, and b) the requirement of such minerals for expansion of existing urban settlements. such minerals also tend to be used in greater quantity at the local and regional level in comparison to metallic minerals. 3.2. discontent and causes of conflicts extraction of different development minerals results in a different degree of ecological degradation depending upon scales of operations. in the case of low-value minerals, these scales can be highly variable, unlike in the case of mining of bulk minerals which are necessarily large-scale operations. for instance, sand, if extracted in small quantities for the purpose of construction of one house, or even a rural residential complex is not likely to result in a permanent or severe degradation of the river bed from where it was extracted. however, when operations are conducted in order to export river-bed sand to urban spaces for the purpose to large scale construction activities over long periods of time, this could have a severe and drastic impact on local ecosystems. these impacts are specially related to access and availability of water resources for local residents for their housing, agricultural or livelihood requirements. for instance, in the case of the chakki riverbed in himachal pradesh, sand mining had resulted in the reduction of the originally 1 km wide riverbed to a 10-meter wide nallah, and various smaller nallahs, which were previously full, were completely dried up (ejatlas 2017a). further, conflicts can arise out of purely ecological reasons such as conservation of water, or for the preservation of fish and amphibians which reside in certain rivers. for instance, in gwalior district of madhya pradesh, illegal sand mining is rampant within the national chambal wildlife sanctuary, which is home to critically endangered amphibian the gharial. forest officials have been taking action against illegal sand mining in the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] area which, as of 2016, had led to impounding of at least 150 trucks of illegally extracted sand (bindra 2016). finally, river ecosystems are often considered sacred in many parts of india. the degradation of such sacred rivers can also result in conflicts on the basis of cultural or religious factors. this has been observed, for instance, in the case of resistance against the exploitation of river sand along the ganga. illegal sand mining and stone crushing along the ganga has been a persistent issue which is of urgent importance given that the river and its tributaries support a large population downstream, which implies negative impact for a large section of the poor and agriculture-dependent downstream population. social resistance seeking action by the state authorities has been ongoing for a long time. unfortunately, in 2011, swami nigamananda saraswati, one of the most vocal activists campaigning against the extractive operations, died after a four-month fast (singh et al. 2014). 3.3. social resistance movements it is interesting to note that the actors involved in resistance movements against development minerals in india are significantly different from that of metal mining conflicts. whereas metal mining conflicts often involve rural farmers or indigenous communities, anti-development mineral extractivism conflicts are led in larger numbers by urban actors. this could be due to the fact that large scale metallic mining often has large and powerful corporations, which are often privately owned, and often involve global or international capital, mining of development minerals is usually carried out by a larger number of small-scale players who run their operations at local or regional levels, and who bear significant clout in those regions. another feature of mining of development minerals in india is that they are prone, to a greater extent as compared to metallic mining, to illegal extraction activities. this is largely given the informal nature of the extractive activity. for instance, the previous analysis indicated that among all conflicts documented, 45% were related to illegal extraction of sand and other minerals and that 81% of the sand mining conflicts were against illegal extraction activities. the illegal nature of the activity has also resulted in the involvement of mafia as well as local authorities complicit with illegal activities to varying degrees (singh et al. 2014). compared to resistance against metal mining, resistance to mining of development minerals is often short-lived but tends to be much more frequent given the larger numbers of sand mining cases. however, there are several cases which have lasted for over a decade. for instance, previous [37] arpita bisht research showed that 6 out of the 41 cases of sand mining were lasted 10 years, if not more. the instances of successes of local residents against such illegal sand mining are far and few between (aware 2018). 3.4. beach mining for minerals sand and gravel are mostly mined for building materials. however, in india as elsewhere, there is a growing incidence of conflicts arising from mining of beach sand. beach sand mining is a lucrative enterprise because apart from being a source for the supply of raw materials for the construction industry, it is also a source of minerals such as ilmenite (an ore for titanium), zircon, rutile, garnet and others. one pertinent example reported in the ejatlas (2017b) is that of beach sand mining in tamil nadu. in 2013, the district collector of tuticorin, mr. ashish kumar, conducted a raid on illegal sand mines, and was transferred to another post less than eight hours later. on 8 august 2013, the hindu reported that the special inspection teams that conducted raids at the sand quarry of v.v. minerals in tuticorin district, discovered the presence of large-scale illegal sand mining along stretches at vaipar, vembar, periyasamipuram beachs, and in various other stretches in vilathikulam taluka. it be noted that v.v. minerals is owned by entrepreneur s. vaikundarajan, a multi-crore business-owner and one of the most powerful men in the state.the report further stated that the amount of fine required to be paid by offenders would be determined based on the final report submitted to the collector. in the follow up report the next day, mr. ashish kumar said that whereas legal mining in the region was permitted over only 4 hectares of leased land, illegal mining in the vaipar region was being conducted over more than 30 hectares of poromboke [commons] land. the quantity of this illegally mined raw sand was 81,000 cubic meters. over and above this, illegally mined beach sand, was measured to be over 230,000 tonnes. these are legal offences, and liable to punishment under charges of theft under the indian penal code (ipc), under various acts of the state as well as union government, including the tamil nadu public properties prevention of damage and loss act, 1992, illicit mining and minerals act, environmental protection act, 1986 and coastal regulation zone notification, 2006 (the hindu, 2013). as per the collector, the raids were made on the basis of five complaints of illegal sand mining by fishermen in the months of june and july, which were based on their grievances from sea erosion and other environmental damages due to indiscriminate mining at beaches (the hindu, 2013; rajendra, 2013). four years later, on 28 march 2017, the hindu ran another story concerning illegal beach sand mining for minerals where it was reported that as per the collector m. ravikumar, after a raid of 15 locations, close to 30 go-downs of beach sand were sealed in thoothukudi district. these go-downs were ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] found to contain vast quantities of minerals mined from beach sand such as garnet, ilmenite, zircon and rutile, which amounted to a total of 455,245 tonnes of beach minerals and 312,314 tonnes of raw beach sand. as per the report: “the searches were initiated by the district administration in the wake of the suspension of assistant director of mines krishnamohan over allegations that he had produced fake documents to facilitate the illegal export of beach minerals belonging to v.v. mineral, a leading firm. beach sand mining was banned by the state government in august 2013”. in conclusion, based on the ejatlas reports on these cases in tamil nadu, one can see the struggle of fishermen and (some) state officers against the local firms, which, apparently illegally, engage in large scale sand mining for industrial minerals. 3.5. social violence of extractive capital in comparison to metal mining conflicts in india, the conflicts in development mineral extractivism, especially that of sand mining, has been quite violent. this is partly owing to the involvement of locally powerful extractive agents functioning under an un-regulated, or an ill-regulated system, and partly owing to the complicity, or direct involvement of local politically powerful people, or government agents in operations. over the years, many reports of “accidental” deaths of activists, protesters, journalists, volunteers, civilians, and even police personnel associated with anti-sand mining campaigns or activities have come to light. further, owing to the nexus between government actors, politicians and extractive agents, and mining mafia instances of transfers of bureaucrats, civil servants and police officers, who take or attempt to take a strong stance against sand mining, are frequent (arasu, 2016). one of the most prominent examples of this is the case of ips officer durga shakti nagpal who was transferred from her post in 2013 due to being active in preventing illegal sand mining in the state of uttar pradesh (mandhana, wall street journal, 2013). there have even been deaths of several such prominent personnel associated with sand mafia. the most conservative estimates indicate that the death toll related to sand mining is likely to be in the hundreds across india (action aid, 2016). some prominent examples of such incidents include the case of murder of ips officer narendra kumar (ips) and head constable g. kanakaraj. both were crushed to death by tractors carrying illegally-mined sand which they had attempted to stop in madhya pradesh in 2012, and in tamil nadu in 2014, respectively. volunteers and local villagers who watch out for sand mining operations are also often targeted as has been observed in several cases. in 2013, [39] arpita bisht villagers rajesh and karthick were hacked to death in tamil nadu. the two had kept a watch on sand mining operations in their area (rajasekaran, 2015). several other such cases have been reported from across the country. in 2015, sandeep kothari, a freelance journalist for newspaper nayi duniya was found murdered in balaghat district of madhya pradesh. the journalist was famous in the region, and already well known to the local police due to his active investigative work on illegal sand mining and land grabbing operations in the region. his gruesome death on 21 june 2015 had the involvement of members of the mining mafia, who strangled him and dumped him next to a railroad tract, and burned him alive. these incidents show the violence and power of sand mining mafia at local levels in india (ifex 2015; sharma 2015). on 6 march 2016, narendra kumar sharma, a forest guard, who was attempting to stop vehicles carrying illegal sand was crushed under the loaded tractor (bindra 2016). these are only a few documented examples of the extreme violence which is a part of sand extractivism within india. 3.6. outcomes a wide range of outcomes is observed in the cases of social resistance against development mineral extractivism in india. first, there are cases where mining was banned or extractive operations stopped. second, there are cases where some form of a legal decision was taken by the courts, which had either stopped or attempted to stop mining operations. examples include the several cases of sand mining bans in different states across india such as haryana, punjab, himachal pradesh, tamil nadu as well as orders by the national green tribunal (ngt) or the supreme court of india. for instance, in the case of sand mining along the chakki riverbed, the national green tribunal, in august 2013 placed a blanket ban on any mining activity without a prior environmental clearance (jitesh 2013; mahajan, 2014). however, despite the court rulings, in many instances, local villagers, activists, and officials residing in the region claim that illegal mining continues unabated (the tribune, 2014). thus, orders and bans by the ngt, the supreme court, the high courts have been, to a large degree, unsuccessful in their attempts to completely halt illegal operations. however, their orders prepare the ground for their receptiveness in the prominent legislative bodies of the government. finally, there are cases where both official action and social resistance have been ineffective, or unable to resist or even reduce extractive activities. this is evident in the several cases of sand mining in tamil nadu along the amaravathi and cauvery rivers (ejatlas 2017b). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] 4. conclusions globally the accounts of “social metabolism” show that the tonnage of materials extracted for the building industry is growing. thus, sand and gravel account for the largest volume of solid material extracted globally. these and other so-called “development minerals” differ from other forms of mineral extractivism in that they are characterized by relatively smaller scales of individual operations, often do not involve global capital, are more geographically dispersed than metals, and produce low-value bulk commodities, which are not linked to global commodity chains. however, they are of immense strategic importance, especially from the perspective of emerging and increasingly urbanizing economies of the global south. in india, sand has generated the largest number of conflicts compared to all other minerals. sand and its importance for the construction industry has resulted in the consistent expansion of sand extractivism over at least the past two decades in india. apart from the ecological destruction, harm to several species of endangered flora and fauna, and alterations in patterns of access to river beds and natural resources by local people, one striking facet of sand extractivism in india is the violence associated with the activity. violence is perpetrated by so-called mining mafia, which is an outcome of the nexus between local politicians and extractive agents, as well as a result of the high profits which miners make from illegal activities which creates unequal power dynamics. a broad range of actors, from activists to police officers have faced the violence of various levels from verbal and physical harassment to murder of people involved in resistance to illegal mining. in india, sand is considered to be a minor mineral as per the 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conflicts in india.” ejolt factsheet no. 010. http://www.ejolt.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fs_010_indiasand-mining.pdf singh, s.j., f. krausmann, s. gingrich, h. haberl, k.h. erb, p. lanz, j. martinezalier, and l. temper. 2012. “india’s biophysical economy, 1961–2008. sustainability in a national and global context.” ecological economics 76: 60-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.01.022 the hindu. 2013. “raids on mining sites reveal large scale violations.” the hindu, august 8, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2004.00079.x http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140922/himachal.htm#7 http://www.ejolt.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mining-report-low.pdf http://www.ejolt.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/mining-report-low.pdf http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/mining-money-and-mafia-why-journalist-sandeep-kothari-had-to-die-1434961701.html http://www.catchnews.com/india-news/mining-money-and-mafia-why-journalist-sandeep-kothari-had-to-die-1434961701.html http://www.ejolt.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fs_010_india-sand-mining.pdf http://www.ejolt.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/fs_010_india-sand-mining.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.01.022 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 21-42, july 2022 research paper agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region of india: a sustainable livelihood security index (slsi) approach ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha, sandip tanu mandal abstract: this paper offers an economic analysis of agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region (ner) of india by calculating the sustainable livelihood security index (slsi) of each state. the slsi serves as an important indicator for educating farmers and other stakeholders about sustainable agriculture production. this paper focuses on the ner as this region has received meagre attention in policy perspectives and is deprived in terms of various socio-economic and ecological indicators as compared to the rest of india. the findings show that various components of the slsi, such as the ecological security index, economic efficiency index, and social equity index, have wide interstate variations. the agricultural sector in the ner has largely been neglected, with the state failing to adopt inclusive policies to uplift small and marginal farmers. the region suffers from severe poverty and malnutrition, improper management, over-exploitation of natural resources, and population explosion. these issues are a threat to agricultural sustainability. the study aims to identify the key factors that influence agricultural sustainability for inclusive and sustainable agricultural development. the findings show that the value of the slsi ranged from 0.37 to 0.56 among the north eastern states, which shows low agricultural sustainability. the indicators reveal that tripura ranks first, with an slsi score of 0.56, followed by sikkim (0.50) and assam (0.44). manipur stood last in the slsi ranking of north eastern states, with a score of 0.37, which evidently shows the need for policy changes to enhance the sustainable development of agriculture.  research scholar at centre for the study of regional development, jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi, india. assistant professor, manipal university, jaipur, ankur.jain@jaipur.manipal.edu.  lecturer in economics, kesinga mahavidyalaya, kesinga, odisha, neela.madhaba21@gmail.com.  research scholar, centre for the study of regional development, jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi, india, sandip.tanu@gmail.com. copyright © jain, sheekha and mandal 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:ankur.jain@jaipur.manipal.edu mailto:neela.madhaba21@gmail.com mailto:sandip.tanu@gmail.com ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] keywords: agriculture sustainability; north eastern region; ecological security; economic efficiency; livelihood 1. introduction the agricultural sector plays an important role in ensuring inclusiveness and sustainability for future generations. the sector not only provides a livelihood for 48 per cent of the rural workforce (dev 2018), but it also ensures food and nutrition security (international food policy research institute 2015) and reduces poverty and malnutrition (world bank 2008). the world health organization (who) aims to end food insecurity and improve nutrition by promoting sustainable agriculture at the global level (who n.d.). the food and agriculture organization (fao) defines sustainable agriculture as “the successful management of resources for agriculture to satisfy the changing human needs while maintaining or enhancing the quality of the environment and conserving natural resources” (fao 1991, 277). therefore, a balance between social equity, ecological security, and economic efficiency is needed for sustainability in agriculture (swaminathan 1991; saleth and swaminathan 1993; hatai and sen 2008; singh and hiremath 2010; sajjad, nasreen, and ansari 2014; deshmukh and patil 2020). in the north eastern region (ner) of india, the agricultural sector lacks a focus on growth, social equity, and sustainable livelihoods. the sector has not been able to adopt inclusive policies to uplift small and marginal farmers. the region suffers from severe poverty and malnutrition, improper management and over-exploitation of natural resources, and population explosion (barah 2007; konwar 2015) historically, economic development in the region has lagged behind that of the rest of the country in terms of gross domestic product (gdp) as well as per capita gdp between 1993–94 and 2002–03 (birthal et al. 2006). roy et al. (2014) found that the region’s agricultural productivity was so low from 1972–73 to 2011–12 that it can be considered a food deficit region. thus, it needs to use inputs and sustainable agricultural practices judiciously. based on sustainability indicators such as pest management, fertilizer use, soil health, water conservation, biodiversity, and efficient use of inputs, veluguri, ramanjaneyulu, and jaacks (2019) assess the indian agricultural sector’s dependence on natural resources. they found that arunachal pradesh (5%) is the only high-performing state in the ner, with the most vulnerable states in the region being meghalaya (47%), assam (43%), and nagaland (42%). factors like natural calamities, a large [23] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal percentage of smallholders, limited use of agri-inputs, low crop diversification, and negligible seed/variety replacement threaten the sustainability of the region’s livelihoods (barah 2007). there is a pressing need to develop the ner, particularly its agricultural sector, by implementing the right agricultural policies. the region has the potential to increase its farm income and enhance its food and nutrition security. it is rich in natural resources, has abundant water, and has a favourable climate for agricultural production (barah 2007; birthal 2010). in addition, the region shares international borders with bhutan, china, myanmar, and bangladesh, giving it an advantage in the international trade of agricultural products. unfortunately, agricultural production in the ner is yet to realize its full growth potential, and the marketing of its products remains inadequate. the literature has identified the constraints that limit agricultural output in the ner, such as a lack of system-specific production technologies, a lack of infrastructure, and unfavourable agrarian policies (birthal et al. 2006; birthal 2010; syiem and raj 2015; dev 2018). hence, the region has failed to convert its strengths into growth opportunities, and it lags behind the rest of the country. high population growth, with a large proportion of small and marginal farmers, forms the context for any effort targeting livelihood sustainability in the ner (barah 2007; dev 2018). farmers in this region use low-input agricultural practices that result in low yield (barah 2007). in an estimation of the income and consumption of small and marginal farmers for the nss situation assessment survey 2013, dev (2018) states that the income they earn is not sufficient to meet their daily consumption requirements. hence, non-farm employment opportunities need to be promoted for inclusive and sustainable agricultural growth in the region. these issues are a threat to the sustainability of agricultural livelihoods. there is a dearth of literature on agriculture sustainability in the ner that quantifies sustainability at the state level. this study contributes to policymaking in the region by informing the allocation of investment projects according to social equity, ecological security, and economic efficiency requirements. measuring agricultural sustainability in the ner can contribute toward improving regional imbalances and serve as an important micro-indicator for analysing progress towards sustainability. given the entrenched problems of the region, the study aims to identify the key indicators of agricultural sustainability for inclusive and sustainable agricultural development. the paper proceeds by discussing the data collection and methodology adopted for determining the sustainable ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] livelihood security index (slsi) in section 2. section 3 measures the status of sustainable livelihood agriculture and is followed by a discussion in section 4. finally, section 5 gives the conclusions and policy implications. 2. data, methodology, and selection of variables for the study 2.1 description of the study area the (ner) comprises eight states, namely, arunachal pradesh, assam, meghalaya, manipur, mizoram, nagaland, sikkim, and tripura. agriculture in the ner is characterized as subsistence, low-input, and technically backward (alam 1993; birthal et al. 2006). figure 1: location of the study area source: authors’ the region is economically backward, with agriculture serving as the main source of occupation. the region is marked by inter-state socio-economic inequalities (alam 1993; padhi et al. 2020). the ner faces several challenges, such as the prevalence of traditional subsistence agriculture and hill agriculture (alam 1993; birthal et al. 2006; jeeva, christopher, and mishra 2006; barah 2007; birthal 2010). shifting cultivation (jhum) is still prevalent in the ner, although it is considered economically unfeasible and environmentally destructive (bezbaruah 2006). in addition, the region’s growth potential is limited by poor infrastructure such as poorly developed [25] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal roads and markets (alam 1993; birthal 2010; ghosh 2019). none of the markets in the ner is part of the e-nam (electronic nation agriculture market). moreover, the region lacks economies of scale. in the ner, though the average farm holding size is more than the national average, with nagaland and arunachal pradesh reporting the largest average farm holdings in the region, in some states, such as tripura, manipur, meghalaya, and mizoram, the percentage share of small and marginal farmers is greater than that in all of india. this shows the disparity in landholding size within the ner. even though the region is well endowed with natural and human resources, it lags behind the national average in terms of socio-economic conditions. there is high multidimensional poverty and inequality, poor sanitation facilities (drinking water, electricity, and toilets), poor infrastructure (road and rail density), low levels of education, and low per capita monthly expenditure (konwar 2015). 2.2 data sources secondary data for this study were collected from the population census of india (2011), government of india; north eastern region (ner) databank; north eastern development finance corporation ltd. (nedfi); and agriculture statistics at a glance, government of india; basic statistics of north eastern region (2015), basic road statistics of india (2013–14 and 2014–15) and the human development reports of the north eastern states. 2.3 methodology various approaches are used to measure the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, such as agroecosystem analysis (conway 1985), mathematical programming–based simulations (parikh 1988), dynamic programming (saleth 1991), and carrying-capacity evaluations (food and agriculture organization 1984). however, these methodologies require time series data, which are not available periodically. further, they lack transparency and do not capture every dimension of agricultural sustainability. the slsi approach is simpler, more transparent, and more information efficient. the slsi, developed by the united nations development programme (undp), is a widely used methodology. it is a relative approach underlying the human development index (saleth and swaminathan 1993; hatai and sen 2008; singh and hiremath 2010; deshmukh and patil 2020). it is a composite index of the social equity index (sei), economic efficiency index (eei), and ecological security index (esi). it takes into account multiple dimensions of social security, economic efficiency, and ecological security to measure the relative ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] livelihood sustainability status of a given cross-sectional set of entities (undp 1992). assuming xijk and slsiijk are the values of the ith variable, the jth component of the kth state and the index for the ith variable represent the jth component of the slsi of the kth state, respectively. where i = variables (1, 2, 3……i) j = component (1, 2, 3…..j) k = states (1, 2, 3……..k) equation (1) is used to measure the slsi when there is a positive relationship between the chosen variable and the slsi; equation (2) is used when there is a negative relationship between the chosen variable and the slsi; equation (3) represents the simple mean of the various components of the slsi such as the sei, eei, and esi. equal weight is assigned to all the variables selected for calculating the slsi. simple arithmetic means are computed at two stages to arrive at the final value of the slsi. in the first stage, the simple arithmetic mean is computed to find the value of the various components of the slsi. in the second stage, the arithmetic mean of various components is computed to capture the value of the slsi. the value of the slsi lies between 0 and 1, where values close to 0 indicate low sustainability, and those near 1 mean high sustainability. 2.4 selection of variables for agricultural sustainability agricultural sustainability is inter-linked with diverse social, economic, and ecological indicators; identifying the right indicators that have the greatest impact is a significant challenge (swaminathan 1991; saleth and swaminathan 1993; hatai and sen 2008; singh and hiremath 2010; sajjad, [27] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal nasreen, and ansari 2014; deshmukh and patil 2020). the challenge in conducting such an assessment lies in selecting the appropriate variables for the analysis. figure 2 shows the relationship between these indicators and livelihood sustainability. any indicator linked to low sustainability threatens livelihood security and vice-versa. figure 2: the sustainable livelihood security index and its components source: authors’ compilation to address this challenge, we selected 12 variables from the three components of agricultural sustainability based on the literature review and identified the implications of these variables for sustainable economic development. the selected variables reflect the overall social, economic, and ecological aspects of agricultural systems in the ner. table 1 lays out the components, criteria, and indicators for evaluating the slsi in the ner. ecological security: it is assessed by examining four key variables. these are population density (per square km) in 2011, forest cover under gross area (%) in 2019, cropping intensity (%) in 2014–15, and total water bodies (lakh hectares). human development (health, education, and skills) helps improve standards of living and furthers sustainable economic development. human resource development can help overcome the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] sluggish pace of agricultural productivity and growth. however, high population density can also put pressure on overall ecological security. and so, it is selected as an indicator. forest cover plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance and contributes significantly to the ner’s economy. forest activities ensure food security and livelihoods for those living around the forest. hence, we consider it one of the criteria for ecological security. cropping intensity indicates the number of crops a farmer grows in a given agricultural year on the same field. due to the development of irrigation facilities, more areas have been brought under cultivation, and farming communities can now raise more than one crop on the same land in the same year. in assessing agricultural sustainability in the context of ecological security, the cropping intensity variable plays a significant role. irrigation plays a key role in both stabilizing agricultural production and increasing cropping intensity and has an associated effect on increasing productivity and improving the region’s food security. barah (2007) highlights that the ner states produce diversified crops using fewer chemical fertilizers and have the potential to go organic throughout the year. in line with hatai and sen (2008) and sajjad et al. (2014), we use the cropping intensity variable to measure ecological security. water bodies play an important role in maintaining the ecological balance and providing irrigation facilities for the agricultural sector. hence, this is an important variable for measuring ecological sustainability. economic efficiency: it is captured by four variables: yield rate of rice (kg per hectare) in 2017, per capita output of food grains (kg per annum), gross irrigated area (thousand hectares) in 2015–16, and per capita nsdp at constant prices in 2018–19, with 2011–12 as the base year. rice is the staple food in the ner. the yield rate of rice is an important variable in determining economic efficiency as it is a major crop cultivated in the ner. an increase in the per capita output of food grains can ensure food security and reduce poverty in select states in the region. gross irrigated area is also an important variable in measuring the eei, because with an increase in the gross irrigated area, cropping intensity increases as well. this leads to an increase in the production of total food grains and generates employment opportunities for those who depend on the primary sector for their livelihood. per capita income is an indicator of human development that measures the overall standard of living in an economy. therefore, an increase in per capita income can increase economic efficiency. [29] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal table 1: components, criteria, and indicators for evaluating the slsi in the ner component criteria indicator (+/-ve) ecological security puts pressure on resources population density (-ve) forest cover (+ve) cropping intensity (+ve) total water bodies (+ve) reduces pollution and provides resources ensure crop diversification and soil health maintains ecological balance economic efficiency agriculture production food security cropping pattern income rice yield (+ve) per capita output of food grains (+ve) gross irrigated area (+ve) per capita nsdp at constant prices (+ve) social equity women’s empowerment female literacy (+ve) poverty and inequality population under bpl (-ve) infrastructure rural road connectivity (+ve) agriculture mechanization villages electrified (+ve) source: authors’ own criteria adopted from literature social equity: the variables selected to measure social equity are female literacy (%) in 2011, population below the poverty line (bpl) in 2011–12, rural road connectivity (km) in 2011, and village electrification (%) in 2013. the female literacy rate encourages women to participate in the process of nation-building and can stabilize the growth rate of the population as education leads to lower birth rates and slows population growth. the percentage of the bpl population captures inequality in accessing resources. it measures the extent of hardships an individual faces in terms of ownership of assets, income, indebtedness, employment facilities, access to hygiene, food consumption, housing facilities, etc. rural road connectivity is a crucial element of rural infrastructure and economic growth. poor road connectivity reflects the backwardness of a region. village electrification is a major concern in the ner. the lack of electricity supply has frozen the growth rate of different sectors in the economy. thus, it is a prerequisite of social equity for achieving agricultural livelihood security. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] 3. results as most of the population in the ner depends on the agricultural sector either directly or indirectly, it is pertinent to make agriculture economically and ecologically sustainable. there are a lot of constraints that limit the development of the agricultural sector in the ner, such as the presence of hilly areas, the practise of shifting cultivation, and a lack of technology, markets, and infrastructure. this sector has huge untapped potential for development, which can improve people’s livelihoods. measuring agricultural sustainability in this region can improve regional imbalances and serve as an important micro-indicator for analysing progress towards sustainability. tables 2–4 show the raw data used to calculate the ecological, economic, and social equity variables for the region. large variations among all the selected 12 variables can be seen in this table. table 2: ecological variables selected to study agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region states ecological security population density/km sq. percentage of forest cover in ga 2019 cropping intensity 2014–15 (%) total water bodies (lakh hectare) arunachal pradesh 17 79.63 132.8 3.18 assam 398 36.11 144.4 1.35 manipur 115 75.46 100 0.10 meghalaya 132 76.33 120 0.10 mizoram 52 85.41 100 0.02 nagaland 119 75.31 130.3 0.67 sikkim 86 47.1 176 0.03 tripura 350 73.68 189.3 0.18 source: government of india (2018), nedfi (n.d.), census (2011) table 5 shows the variations in the individual indices of the selected variables for calculating the esi, eei, and sei. in the population density [31] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal index, arunachal pradesh and mizoram are the best-performing states with a low population density and tripura and assam are the worst-performing states with the highest population density. the pressure on natural resources due to the large populations in assam and tripura has resulted in the degradation of the ecological balance. forests play a pivotal role in the socio-economic development of the ner. there is a large tribal population in this region that depends on forest resources for their livelihoods (viswanathan 2015). in terms of forest cover, the states of arunachal pradesh and mizoram rank the highest. sikkim and assam have the least proportion of area under forest cover. tripura and sikkim perform the best in terms of cropping intensity; manipur and mizoram show very low cropping intensity. this is in support of birthal’s (2010) findings, which show that cropping intensity in most states except assam and arunachal pradesh is low, at 104 to 120 per cent. most of the agriculture sector in the region is rainfed. in terms of water bodies, arunachal pradesh and assam are the richest states, while mizoram and sikkim lack water resources. cultivation in the post-rainy season is restricted due to under-developed irrigation infrastructures (birthal 2010). table 3: economic variables selected for agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region states economic efficiency rice yield (2017) (kg per ha) per capita output of food grain (kg/annum) gross irrigated area 2015–16 (‘000 ha) per capita nsdp at constant price 2018–19 at 2011–12 base (in inr) arunachal pradesh 1767.68 249.77 56 93191 assam 2171.03 173.37 388 60470 manipur 2567.66 263.19 73 49579 meghalaya 2740.25 117.91 127 66223 mizoram 1650.48 62.96 31 100934 nagaland 1649.19 255.87 114 73276 sikkim 1856 145.39 16 232968 tripura 2962.77 227.56 117 81057 source: government of india (2018), nedfi (n.d.), census (2011) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] rice occupies more than 65 per cent of the gross cropped area in assam, manipur, and tripura and 33–50 per cent in other states (birthal 2010). the eei shows that the rice yield index is highest in tripura and meghalaya while mizoram and nagaland are the worst performers. there is ample scope for improving the yield of rice in mizoram and nagaland. according to roy et al. (2015), a supply-demand analysis of food grains production and requirement in this region reveals that nagaland, arunachal pradesh, manipur, and tripura are ‘surplus category states’ whereas meghalaya, mizoram, assam, and sikkim have a deficit in food grain production. in terms of the food security index, manipur and arunachal pradesh are the best performers while mizoram and meghalaya lack food security the most. the irrigation index shows that assam and meghalaya have the best irrigation facilities in the region while mizoram and sikkim lack adequate irrigation facilities. there are wide variations in the income index across the ner; sikkim and mizoram have the high per capita incomes while assam and manipur have the lowest per capita incomes. table 4: equity variables selected for agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region states social equity female literacy index pop bpl rural road (2011) (km) villages electrified (as of 31 march 2013) arunachal pradesh 57.7 34.7 21,555 75.5 assam 66.3 32 2,41,789 96.1 manipur 72.4 36.9 19,133 86.3 meghalaya 72.9 11.9 11,984 86.3 mizoram 89.3 20.4 9,810 93.5 nagaland 76.1 18.9 34,146 70.1 sikkim 75.6 8.2 4,630 100 tripura 82.7 14.1 33,772 92.9 source: government of india (2018), nedfi (n.d.), census (2011) among social equity variables, tripura and mizoram have the highest female literacy rates while arunachal pradesh and assam report the lowest female literacy levels. the literacy rates of all the ner states, except arunachal pradesh (65.38) and assam (72.19), surpass all-india levels (74.04) (konwar 2015). there exists a wide disparity in socio-economic achievements across ner states and across urban and rural areas. if the [33] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal problems of poor economic growth, low overall development, and gender disparities are not properly addressed, the region may fall into the trap of a vicious quadrant instead of moving to a virtuous one (nayak 2009). poverty in the ner is highest in manipur and arunachal pradesh and lowest in sikkim and meghalaya. according to 2009–10 estimates, manipur had the highest magnitude of poverty followed by assam. meanwhile, sikkim had the lowest magnitude of poverty. while 30% of people in india live below the poverty line, the corresponding figures for manipur and assam were as high as 47.1 per cent and 37.9 per cent, respectively. during 2009–10, all other states in the region had poverty levels below the national average (nayak 2009). table 5: individual indices to capture the ecological, economic, and equity indices for agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region pdi fci cii twbi ryi fsi ii yi fli pbpli rri vei arunachal pradesh 1 0.88 0.37 1 0.09 0.93 0.1 0.2 0 0.08 0.07 0.18 assam 0 0 0.5 0.42 0.4 0.55 1 0.1 0.27 0.17 1 0.87 manipur 0.74 0.8 0 0.02 0.7 1 0.2 0 0.46 0 0.06 0.54 meghalaya 0.69 0.81 0.22 0.02 0.83 0.27 0.3 0.1 0.48 0.87 0.03 0.54 mizoram 0.91 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.3 1 0.57 0.02 0.78 nagaland 0.73 0.79 0.34 0.21 0 0.96 0.3 0.1 0.58 0.62 0.12 0 sikkim 0.82 0.22 0.85 0 0.16 0.41 0 1 0.56 1 0 1 tripura 0.13 0.76 1 0.05 1 0.82 0.3 0.2 0.79 0.79 0.12 0.76 states ecological security index economic efficiency index social equity index source: authors’ calculation note: pdi: population density index, fci: forest cover index, cii: cropping intensity index, twbi: total water bodies index, ryi: rice yield index, fsi: food security index, ii: irrigation index, yi: income index, fli: female literacy index. the condition of rural roads in the ner is abysmal. the rural road index is very low in all the states except assam. access to electricity is a basic amenity and acts as an index of industrialization (nayak 2013). the villages in assam and sikkim have good electricity facilities while those in arunachal pradesh and nagaland have poor electricity facilities. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] table 6: agricultural sustainability in the north eastern region states esi esi rank eei eei rank sei sei rank sls i ssli rank arunachal pradesh 0.81 1 0.34 6 0.08 8 0.41 5 assam 0.23 8 0.50 2 0.58 4 0.44 3 manipur 0.39 7 0.46 3 0.27 7 0.37 8 meghalaya 0.44 6 0.37 5 0.48 5 0.43 4 mizoram 0.48 4 0.08 8 0.59 3 0.38 7 nagaland 0.52 2 0.34 7 0.33 6 0.40 6 sikkim 0.47 5 0.39 4 0.64 1 0.50 2 tripura 0.48 3 0.57 1 0.62 2 0.56 1 source: authors’ calculation the results of this study reveal that the sustainability indexes for the ner states ranged from 0.23 to 0.81 for esi, 0.08 to 0.56 for eei, and 0.08 to 0.64 for sei. this demonstrates that the agricultural systems of all the states have considerable variations in their ecological, economic, and social equity indicators. the slsi ranged from 0.37 to 0.56. this shows the poor status of agricultural sustainability in ne india. when we consider the esi, arunachal pradesh and nagaland are the best performers while manipur and assam are the worst ones. therefore, it is suggested that environmentally friendly policy measures be adopted in manipur, assam, and all other states where the esi value is low. in the case of eei, tripura and assam are the best performers while nagaland and mizoram stand last. this is due to the low per capita income, less area under irrigation, deficit in the demand-supply of food grains, and low productivity of rice in these states. hence, economic policies should be improved upon in states where the value of the eei is low, and measures related to enhancing income and increasing investment in the agriculture sector should be taken. in the case of the sei, sikkim and tripura are the best performers and manipur and arunachal pradesh are the worst. this is due to severe poverty, low literacy, and poor infrastructure. therefore, measures such as providing better education, especially for women, strengthening poverty alleviation programmes, and developing infrastructure, such as roads in rural areas and electricity in villages, should be given priority to improve the sei. overall agricultural sustainability is represented by the slsi, which shows that tripura and sikkim are the best performers and mizoram and manipur the [35] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal worst. there is a pressing need to improve overall agricultural sustainability in manipur and mizoram and other states where the slsi is low. figure 3: esi, the eei, sei and slsi maps of the north eastern states source: authors’ calculation 4. discussion there is a consensus among researchers that a robust operational definition of agricultural sustainability based on indicators and indices is a prerequisite ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] for the proper design, implementation, and monitoring of agricultural policies targeting agriculture sustainability at the farm level. the slsi can be considered an important indicator in policymaking and decision-making surrounding sustainable agricultural production. the ner has a lot of potential for the development of agriculture and allied sectors, as this region has both geographical and climatic advantages. agricultural growth can improve the livelihoods of people in the region. the factors of low livelihoods, backwardness, and poor agricultural productivity have strong relationships with each other; this is reflected in the slsi indices of the selected states. efforts should be made to adopt new technologies and educate farmers about them. in particular, policies should aim to enhance the yield effect of high agricultural growth by improving access to highquality seeds in this region and by encouraging the development of new varieties through biotechnology research. there is not much literature on agricultural research in the ner. we suggest that more research be conducted on the region, especially on agriculture and allied sectors. land and water management and resource-use efficiency should be given priority to increasing cropping intensity. there is a need to increase public spending to improve rural road connectivity and post-harvest market infrastructures such as cold storage and rural godowns; this would help farmers progress towards sustainable agriculture. 5. conclusion agricultural sustainability in the ner is facing challenges due to low agriculture productivity, low crop diversification, fragmentation of landholdings, poor infrastructure, and few employment opportunities. the situation in manipur, mizoram, and nagaland, when we consider all the components of the slsi, is distressing. the slsi reveals regional disparities in ecological, economic, and social equity variables in the ner. tripura ranks first, with an slsi value of 0.56. manipur and mizoram are ranked seventh and eighth, respectively. the states with low slsi values should be given priority in policymaking according to the values of the components of the slsi. the conditions of nagaland, manipur, and mizoram indicate an urgent need to improve ecological, economic, and social equity parameters in these states. 5.1 limitations of this study construction of the slsi using time series data could help improve the progress of different development interventions aimed at sustainable development in general and livelihood security in particular. future research agendas could include the evaluation of the slsi at the district level in the [37] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal ner. this study does not include allied sectors such as livestock, fisheries, and sericulture. efforts should be made to measure sustainability at the farm level, as conditions in hilly terrains are very different from those in the plains. there is a dearth of time series databases related to these ecological, economic, and social indicators, particularly in the ner. the selected variables for measuring the slsi are comprehensive but not exhaustive; other variables can be looked at for measuring sustainability. the weights assigned to the different variables in measuring various components of the slsi are not calculated using scientific methods as all the variables considered in slsi are given equal weights. 5.2 policy implications the slsi and its components can be used to eradicate regional imbalances in social equity, ecological security, and economic efficiency. in states that have a low esi, such as assam and manipur, policymakers must give priority to ecological restoration by emphasizing afforestation, cropping intensity, and crop diversification practices. some states, such as nagaland and mizoram, are the worst performers in terms of eei, which indicates that policymakers need to address food security and agriculture productivity, expand irrigation sources, and promote more employment opportunities. in terms of social equity, the worst performing states are arunachal pradesh and mizoram; these states require policymakers to invest in social infrastructures such as female literacy, roads in rural areas, the capacity and distribution of electricity in rural areas, and welfare programmes to alleviate poverty. policymakers must evaluate the slsi and its components periodically to progress towards agriculture sustainability so that the potential to increase farm income and enhance food and nutrition security can be reached in this region. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the valuable suggestions provided by the referee to improve the quality of this research article. references alam, k (ed). 1993. agricultural development in northeast india constraints and prospects. new delhi: deep and deep publications. barah, b c. 2007. “strategies for agricultural development in northeast india: challenges and emerging opportunities.” indian journal of agricultural economics 62 (1): 1–19. https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/inijae/204500.html. https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/inijae/204500.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] bezbaruah, m p. 2006. “agricultural development in the north-east: status, assessment and 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[41] ankur jain, neela madhaba sheekha and sandip tanu mandal appendix table 5: socio-economic profile of the north eastern states of india compone nts year units ap assam manipur meghalay a mizoram nagaland sikkim tripura all india geographi cal area 2011 sq km 83,743 78,438 22,327 22,429 21,081 16,579 7,096 10,486 32,87,263 total population 2011 lakhs 13.8 311.6 27.2 29.6 10.9 19.8 6.1 36.7 1,210.20 sex ratio 2011 nos. 938 958 992 989 976 931 890 960 940 population density 2011 nos. 17 398 115 132 52 119 86 350 382 literacy rate 2011 % 65.38 72.19 79.21 74.43 91.33 79.55 81.42 87.22 74.04 total forest area 2011 sq km 51,540 26,832 17,418 9,496 16,717 9,222 5,841 6,294 6,92,027 total road length 2011 km 21,555 2,41,789 19,133 11,984 9,810 34,146 4,630 33,772 46,90,342 total persons below the poverty line (nsso 68 th round) 2011-12 % 34.67 31.98 36.89 11.87 20.4 18.88 8.19 14.05 21.92 reporting area for land utilization statistics 2014-15 th ha 7,228 7,844 2,117 2,242 2,039 1,652 442 1,049 3,07,813 net sown area 2014-15 th ha 225 2,827 383 286 145 384 77 255 1,40,130 gross cropped area 2014-15 th ha 299 4,083 383 343 145 500 136 483 1,98,360 agricultural land2014-15 th ha 423 3,364 390 1,056 367 694 97 272 1,81,886 cropping intensity 2014-15 % 132.8 144.4 100 120 100 130.3 176 189.3 141.6 source: census (2011), government of india (2018), nsso (68th round) (2012) table 6: sector-wise share of contribution in gdp in the north eastern states of india (%). 201112 201819 201112 201920 201112 201819 201112 201920 201112 201819 201112 201819 201112 201819 201112 201819 primary 44.1 31 20.8 23.2 31.4 26 22.32 19.42 19.77 15.7 31.88 27.3 33.48 36.79 8.35 8.38 secondary 17.2 24.7 19.8 25.6 12.4 12.3 32.97 16.89 15.4 16.9 21.59 25.7 14.11 16.25 62.83 64.14 tertiary 38.7 44.3 59.4 51.3 56.2 61.7 44.72 63.69 64.84 67.4 46.53 47 52.4 46.96 28.82 27.48 total gsva 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 assam tripura sikkim sector ap mizoram nagaland meghalaya manipur source: northeast databank (https://databank.nedfi.com/) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] table 7: state-wise annual growth of gross state domestic product at constant prices (2011–12) (as of 15 march 2020) state percentage growth over the previous year 2012– 13 2013– 14 2014– 15 2015– 16 2016– 17 2017– 18 2018– 19 2019– 20 arunachal pradesh 2.14 9.2 16.57 -0.99 3.55 8.12 4.59 na assam 2.91 4.88 6.92 15.67 5.74 13.18 7.97 na manipur 0.61 8.64 8 7.73 4.01 3.88 6.44 na meghalaya 2.19 1.83 -2.74 2.38 5.29 9.26 9.04 9.48 mizoram 7.15 16.21 24.59 9.44 10.32 4.8 1.3 11.64 nagaland 5.68 7.19 4.39 1.82 6.75 5.34 7.05 na sikkim 2.29 6.07 7.9 9.93 7.15 6.95 7.05 na tripura 8.67 9.32 18.17 -0.66 14 10.17 10.85 na source: northeast databank (https://databank.nedfi.com/) table 8: operational holdings by size group among the north eastern states (%), 2015–16 state margin al sma ll semimedium mediu m larg e all holdings arunachal pradesh 24.0 21.2 25.6 23.2 5.9 100 assam 68.1 18.1 10.8 2.9 0.1 100 manipur 51.0 32.4 14.8 1.8 0.0 100 meghalaya 52.8 25.9 17.2 4.0 0.1 100 mizoram 50.1 30.6 15.4 3.6 0.3 100 nagaland 4.0 14.7 31.7 37.6 11.9 100 sikkim 65.8 18.9 11.2 3.6 0.5 100 tripura 87.9 8.4 3.2 0.4 0.0 100 all india 68.5 17.7 9.5 3.8 0.6 100 source: government of india (2018) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 5–9, april 2018 commentary institutional economics—the economics of ecological economics! arild vatn  on its homepage, the international society for ecological economics states that ‗ecological economics exists because a hundred years of disciplinary specialization in scientific inquiry has left us unable to understand or to manage the interactions between the human and environmental components of our world.‘ understanding and managing these interactions well depend not only on a sincere focus on the interactions, as important is how we understand the dynamics of the economic, social, and environmental subsystems of our world. we know that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, but it is important also that the way we understand the parts captures the specificities of each subsystem. therefore, ecological economics should not be ‗agnostic‘ about what kind of economic theory forms its basis. many ecological economists adhere to the neoclassical brand of economics—at least if we look at papers presented in our journal (ecological economics) and at conferences hosted by the society (the international society for ecological economics). but i think, given its focus, neoclassical economics is not suitable as a basis for ecological economics. while i observe several alternatives that may offer progress, i will in this short paper show what institutional economics, as an alternative, can offer ecological economics. ecological economics has a normative basis, in the sense that it looks for ways to move the world onto a sustainable development path. humans live in a biophysical environment, characterized by interdependencies, limits, and thresholds, and so we need an economic theory that is well suited to  faculty of landscape and society, department of international environment and development studies, norwegian university of life sciences, universitetstunet 1, 1432 ås, norway, arild.vatn@nmbu.no copyright © vatn 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.4 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.4 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] study human action in such a context and describes well the complexities of human motivation. in these regards, neoclassical economics fails for several reasons. here, i emphasize three. first, it builds its analyses on ‗solved political problems‘ (lerner 1972)—for example, given distribution of (property) rights—while sustainability issues are typically unresolved political problems, as new limits and thresholds are continuously approached. second, it holds that human action is based on the pursuit of maximizing individual utility, a perspective that is both empirically flawed and unable to handle interdependencies well. i note that there are developments within the branch of behavioural economics that offer progress regarding the understanding of human action, while a methodological individualist ontology is maintained. this leads to the third point: the individual is seen as autonomous, which implies that social processes have no influence on what the individual prefers. in short, it offers a very limited basis for studying collective action. institutional economics can largely be divided into two main schools— ‗new‘ and ‗classic‘. new institutional economists deviate from neoclassical economics mainly by including information and transaction costs (coase 1960, 1984; eggertsson 1990; north 1990, 2005; williamson 1985, 2000). this challenges the assumption that human action is based on the pursuit of maximizing individual utility. williamson (1985) therefore distances himself by accepting bounded rationality and emphasizing opportunism. the ‗old north‘ takes a similar position (north 2005), while he continues to emphasize that individuals are autonomous. classical institutional economics has its origin in the works of authors like veblen (1898, 1919) and commons (1931, 1934). its revival in the 1980s— for example, in the work of hodgson (1988) and bromley (1989)—was at least in part a reaction to the development of new institutional economics. classical institutional economics emphasizes the role of culture and social processes and sees humans as socially constructed, and in this way it goes beyond new institutional economics. this implies that our perceptions, values, and preferences depend on which societies and cultures we belong to. here, institutions—understood as conventions, norms, and formal rules—play a crucial role (scott 2014; vatn 2005): they protect the values a society prioritizes and outline appropriate actions. through changing institutions, we can facilitate not only new constraints for the ‗egocentric individual‘, but also create new meaning for ourselves and support various forms of collective and responsible actions. [7] arild vatn classical institutional economics emphasizes that people are interdependent, as they act within common environments. traditionally, its proponents have focused mainly on cultural and political interdependencies. introducing classical institutional economics to ecological economics implies expanding its focus to include also physical interdependence, which implies that there will be both conflict and the need for coordination. classical institutional economics emphasizes that the role of institutions is to define whose interests should be protected and how easy or demanding it will be to coordinate actions that are interdependent. given the above, i comment briefly on the following four aspects of classical institutional economics as applied to ecological economics (see also vatn 2015): 1) the role of property rights. these rights specify who gets access to which resources and, so, define whose interests are protected. therefore, property rights are key institutional structures in a society defining whose interests get protection through specifying who gets access to which resources. this is a political question and raises several issues regarding the normative basis of a society, for example, its understanding of justice and treatment of cost-shifting behaviour (kapp 1971; martinez-alier 2002). moreover, as property rights ensure access to resources over time, they are key to sustainable development. equally important is the way interactions between resource-holders and -users are institutionalized—for example, as trade, command, or cooperation. rights to resources and interaction rules (like trade, command and cooperation) form resource regimes. classical institutional economics emphasizes how such regimes influence distribution as well as shape human action by influencing the costs of interaction (transaction costs), people‘s perceptions, and motivation structures. 2) the role of transaction costs. costs of interaction (transaction costs) depend on the kind of institutional structures established. environmental degradation is the result of myriads of independent actions made by individuals, households and firms. to establish sustainability demands institutions that facilitate coordination, that makes coordination affordable and meaningful for people when acting. the kind of resource regimes established influences these costs heavily. 3) the effects on perceptions. classical institutional economics also emphasizes that how and what we perceive, depends on how and what we have learned to ‗see‘; how we have been trained to interpret information determines how we perceive a problem and even what we ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] perceive as a problem. including this aspect is crucial for a theory that aims at supporting sustainable development. 4) the effect on motivation. last, but not least, classical institutional economics understands rationality and motivation as plural concepts. it is based on the observation that humans are able to act in ways that are socially responsible—that are ‗better for the group‘ or for others—and not only in ways that are purely self-regarding. institutions are important in that they can make clear when social rationality, as opposed to individual rationality, is expected, and thus may support different types of rationality. this is a crucial insight, and it offers the hope that a sustainable future is possible. whereas neoclassical economics demands a physical world without serious limits—that is, it emphasizes selfinterest and economic expansion—classical institutional economics acknowledges that there are limits and is based on the perspective that we through institutional change can facilitate the level of cooperation necessary to abide by such limits. while insights regarding the relationship between institutions and human motivation offer hope that sustainability is possible, much work is needed to develop the institutions that could foster such a development. we have certain insights regarding the management of local ‗commons‘ (for example, ostrom (1990, 2005). however, when it comes to how we should organize production and trade more generally, we are only scratching the surface regarding what sustainability demands as well as what ‗works in practice‘. i hold that (classical) institutional economics offers a good basis for that endeavour; and my plea to ecological economists is that we should work much more seriously on these fundamental issues of economic organization. references bromley, d. w. 1989. economic interests and institutions. the conceptual foundations of public policy. oxford: basil blackwell. coase, r. h. 1960. ―the problem of social cost.‖ journal of law & economics 3: 1– 44. doi:10.1086/466560. https://doi.org/10.1086/466560 coase, r.h. 1984. ―the new institutional economics.‖ journal of theoretical and institutional economics, 140 (1): 229–231. commons, j.r. 1931. ―institutional economics.‖ american economic review, 21: 648– 657. commons, j.r. [1934] 1990. institutional economics. its place in political economics. new brunswick, transaction publishers. https://doi.org/10.1086/466560 [9] arild vatn eggertsson, t. 1990. economic behaviour and institutions. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511609404 hodgson, g. m. 1988. economics and institutions a manifesto for a modern institutional economics. cambridge polity press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512816952 kapp, k. w. 1971. the social costs of private enterprise. new york: schoken books. lerner, a. 1972. ―the economics and politics of consumer sovereignty.‖ american economic review 62 (2): 258–66. martinez-alier, j. 2002. the environmentalism of the poor. cheltenham: edward elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781843765486 north, d. c. 1990. institutions, institutional change and economic performance. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511808678. north, d. c. 2005. understanding the process of economic change. princeton, nj: princeton university press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400829484. ostrom, e. 1990. governing the commons: the evolution for collective action. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807763 ostrom, e. 2005. understanding institutional diversity. princeton, nj: princeton university press. scott, w. r. 2014. institutions and organizations: ideas, interests and identities. 4th ed. los angeles: sage publications. vatn, a. 2005. institutions and the environment. cheltenham: edward elgar. vatn, a. 2015. environmental governance. institutions, policies and actions. cheltenham: edward elgar. veblen, t., 1898. ―why is economics not an evolutionary science.‖ quarterly journal of economics, 12: 373–397. https://doi.org/10.2307/1882952 veblen, t. 1919. the place of science in modern civilisation and other essays. new york: huebsch. williamson, o. e. 1985. the economic institutions of capitalism. new york: free press. williamson, o.e. 2000. ―the new institutional economics: taking stock/looking ahead.‖ journal of economic literature, xxxviii (3): 595–613. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.38.3.595 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511609404 https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512816952 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781843765486 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511808678 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400829484 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807763 https://doi.org/10.2307/1882952 https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.38.3.595 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1(2): 111–114, july 2018 report engaging the forests and livelihoods community: the 3rd annual flare network meeting arun agrawal , rebecca rutt  and cristy watkins  the forests & livelihoods: assessment, research, and engagement (flare) network held its third annual meeting (flare 3) at stockholm university in 2017 from 29 september to 2 october. the meeting was coorganized by the university of michigan; stockholm university; the stockholm environment institute (sei); the swedish international agricultural network initiative (siani); the forest, climate, and livelihood research network (focali); and the rights and resources initiative (rri). about 180 scholars, practitioners, policy-makers, and donors from 29 countries showcased their research and implementation activities in the forests and livelihoods domain. there were 133 presentations, eight posters, two special discussion sessions, and three thematic workshops, and also daily social networking events. four areas of insight and future research emerged. forests and forest products (still) matter to the livelihoods of the poor presenters identified direct benefits from forests (e.g., nutrition from hunting, fishing, and foraging activities) and indirect benefits (e.g., income  professor, university of michigan, school for environment and sustainability, 440 church street, ann arbor, michigan, 48109 usa; arunagra@umich.edu  assistant professor, university of copenhagen, department of food and resource economics, rolighedsvej 25, 1958 frederiksberg c, denmark. while writing this paper she was a research associate with school of international development, university of east anglia, norwich research park, norwich, nr47tj, uk; rebeccalrutt@gmail.com  research manager, university of michigan, school for environment and sustainability, 440 church street, ann arbor, michigan, 48109 usa; watkinsc@umich.edu  copyright © agrawal, rutt and watkins 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.47 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.47 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] from sale of products, ecosystem services such as flood control). many presenters also called for better measurement tools and analytical approaches to assess the extent of forests' contributions to livelihoods. two panel sessions discussed methods (empirical analyses, modelling efforts, and policy instruments) to gather representative household data on wood energy needs. another session illustrated how small and mediumsized forest enterprises can positively affect community development through strong institutions, local user rights, technical support, and organizational capacity. several presenters explored payment-based interventions and argued that such programmes should incorporate existing stewardship practices that motivate good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour. presenters debated whether and how comparative research can offer insights into improving policies for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (redd+) and enhancing well-being. challenges remain in understanding large-scale land tenure arrangements evaluating the effects of large-scale land tenure arrangements or changes in such arrangements (e.g. land transactions and protected areas) remain a challenge. patchy data and context dependence are two key concerns. presenters examined new methods for assessing preconditions, correlating factors, and interacting processes. one session described new tools and data sets to facilitate transparency in forest commodity supply chains. another session examined conflicts and other spillover effects of changes in tenure and land transactions. effective forest management requires cross-scale coordination and attention to power dynamics power dynamics was a ubiquitous theme, especially in sessions exploring community engagement in forest management. it is critical to have equitable representation of diverse voices (e.g. in relation to gender, culture, and wealth differences) and robust tools to measure impacts. land titling to secure conservation and livelihoods was shown to be inadequate to meaningfully secure land rights and ensure sustainable forest management. local and social interpretations of ecological values (e.g. primary forests versus planted trees) need to be considered in tenure design. a panel focused on the amazon illustrated the importance of coordination among farmers, e.g. for fire management as well as for higher-level policy intervention decisions. [113] arun agrawal, rebecca rutt and cristy watkins 113 collaboration is central to conservation and development presenters argued that forest ecosystems can support agricultural resilience but competition for land is fierce. diverse expertise is required to understand, respond to, and reframe the goals and impacts of conservation and development initiatives. presenters called for both public and private sector representation, the meaningful inclusion of local and cultural knowledge, and an understanding of how expectations influence outcomes. special discussion sessions the future of forest work working group of the flare network explored the prospects for meaningful work for young people in forest communities. the group shared efforts to engage youth in 'visioning workshops' and discussed preliminary findings and opportunities for future engagement. the discussion on rri's tenure tracking methodologies1 presented their methods and data sets pertaining to tenure and explored how these can be used in policy, advocacy, and research settings. tool-based workshops flare 3 also offered opportunities to engage with workshop-based problem-solving tools related to forest–livelihoods relationships. forests, farms, and livelihoods: scale, scope, and rights matter: this workshop introduced the work of the food and agriculture organization (fao) on estimating aggregate value of contributions from forest and farm small producers at national and global levels. participants learned about the data collection tool, collect mobile,2 and discussed strategies for using existing evidence to influence decision-makers on policies and investments to improve conditions for small-scale producers. design and methods of research with community participation: integrating local ecological knowledge, practices, and worldviews in resource use and management planning: this one introduced participatory research as a method to assess and incorporate local knowledge, practices, and worldviews ('k-p-w assemblage') into project/policy implementation. participants produced hypothetical research designs and simulated participatory methods. flare's livwell and commfor tools: it introduced flare's web-based tools for collecting data on livelihoods and well-being (livwell),3 and 1 https://rightsandresources.org/en/work-impact/tenure-datatool/#.wp2mlmrwb0m 2 http://www.openforis.org/tools/collect-mobile.html 3 http://www.forestlivelihoods.org/resources/livwell https://rightsandresources.org/en/work-impact/tenure-data-tool/#.wp2mlmrwb0m https://rightsandresources.org/en/work-impact/tenure-data-tool/#.wp2mlmrwb0m http://www.openforis.org/tools/collect-mobile.html http://www.forestlivelihoods.org/resources/livwell ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] community forestry (commfor).4. participants browsed the web-based tools, explored the questions that constitute each tool, drafted a work plan for implementing the tools in their own data collection settings, and provided feedback on how to improve the tools for wider use. fostering continued engagement the annual flare meetings have emerged as a unique and much needed space for productive dialogue among an increasingly close-knit community of researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers. participants praised the quality of presentations and moderator facilitation, and appreciated organizers' efforts to support new forms of engagement, collaboration, and exchange. calls were also made for more collective sharing and learning from failures; diverse ways of communicating (e.g. artistic expressions and new media); non-english-language presenters and content; bridges with other sectors; and regionally or locally focused work toward concrete, context-specific policy suggestions. this feedback will inform flare 4 in copenhagen in october 2018. conclusion researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers are advancing our collective understanding of interactions between forests and livelihoods and how people and forests influence each other. as befits a gathering of researchers and practitioners, key emphasis areas concerned the need for better lowcost tools to collect information on forests and livelihoods, especially to assess forest dependence in different contexts. another question that garnered attention was how to best use emerging datasets and techniques to estimate the effects of different forest and livelihood interventions. more rigorous assessments require more than sophisticated quantitative analyses; they also demand a deeper knowledge of the interventions themselves, including why they are implemented in selected regions and for particular peoples and households. as new tools are designed and new data collected, the flare community continues to invest in cross-sector collaboration and the development of rigorous, cost-efficient, and easy-to-use tools with which to collect data and assess impacts of social and ecological interventions and phenomena. acknowledgements we thank flare meeting participants for their feedback and meeting session moderators who contributed valuable session summary points. 4 http://www.forestlivelihoods.org/resources/commfor-tool http://www.forestlivelihoods.org/resources/commfor-tool ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 9–26, january 2019 thematic essay ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation asmita kabra  the conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. what redeems it is the idea only. an idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. (joseph conrad, 1899, the heart of darkness, blackwood’s magazine) 1. introduction the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) defines a protected area as “a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated and managed through legal or other effective means to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values” (iucn n.d.). the iucn protected area categorization varies based on specific management objectives, and includes strict reserves, wilderness areas, national parks and protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources, among others (iucn n.d.).1 the creation of protected areas (pa) involves placing strict restrictions on its use by humans (especially local people) in order to enable non-human species to flourish without human disturbances. in the most extreme cases, the creation of these reserves involves evicting the human populations living in a biodiversity-rich landscape, and creating institutional mechanisms for preventing their access to the area. this strategy is commonly referred to as  professor, school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi, lothian road, kashmere gate, delhi-110006; asmita@aud.ac.in copyright © kabra 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 1 various national governments use other legal and management categories, which can be mapped with varying degrees of ease against the iucn categories. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] “fortress conservation” (brockington 2002), and in recent decades it has become a widespread driver of displacement of human populations across africa, asia and latin america (dowie 2009). the rate at which forest land is being set aside under protection regimes has been accelerating rapidly in the twenty-first century (wwf 2004). in view of global environmental challenges like species extinction and climate change, the drive to create protected areas has gained widespread acceptance among governments and civil society across the world. the consensus around the concept of expanding protected areas among national governments spans ideologies and continents, as can be seen from the diverse categories of nations that are signatories to the aichi biodiversity targets. as a part of these commitments, expansion of the network of protected areas to 17 per cent of terrestrial areas and inland waters and 10 per cent of marine areas by 2020 is an accepted goal for almost all national governments (unep-cbd 2010). fortress conservation and the resultant population displacement and their loss of access to natural resources has attracted strong criticisms for causing severe impoverishment among millions of poor, indigenous rural people who depend on land-based livelihoods (adams et al. 2004; brockington and igoe 2006; cernea and schmidt-soltau 2006; dowie 2009). at the same time, conservationists stress the fact that the loss of species diversity is accelerating and a large number of protected areas notified by national governments continue to remain “paper parks”, whose actual contribution to biodiversity conservation has been significantly below expectations (gaston, jackson, cantú-salazar, and cruz-piñón 2008; juffe-bignoli et al. 2014; wwf 2004). this evidence is often deployed to argue for bigger and better managed protected areas (karanth 2018; wwf 2004). exclusionary conservation and human displacement from protected areas thus presents a moral dilemma, as in many cases it calls for a choice between two “big ideas” or moral imperatives — conservation and social justice. since exclusionary conservation is carried out to support the moral imperative of protecting biodiversity, it enjoys support from a diverse range of actors like the state, conservation agencies, corporate entities, ngos and civil society groups (hayes and ostrom 2005). on the other hand, by generating widespread social and economic distress for poor, marginal and indigenous people dependent on forests, fisheries or pastures, it simultaneously elicits trenchant critique from supporters of social justice and human rights. more often than not, the critiques of this strategy of conservation through creation of “inviolate” protected areas are positioned as contestations [11] asmita kabra between the natural sciences and the social sciences, or between conservationists and human-rights activists (agrawal and redford 2009; rangarajan and shahabuddin 2010). in this article, i argue that the “conservation versus human rights” binary tends to obliterate important debates within the ecological sciences over the theoretical foundations of exclusionary conservation. 2 i highlight the internal critiques within the ecological sciences of the advisability of creating inviolate protected areas as the best strategy for “doing” conservation, especially in the present context of large-scale species extinction, climate change, urbanization and growth of human population. it must be clarified that while interrogating the ecological justifications for creating “inviolate” protected areas, this paper strongly supports the imperative of protecting biodiversity-rich areas from large-scale destructive activities like mining or establishment of cities or industries. given the urgency of finding workable conservation solutions in the anthropocene, an analysis of multiple discourses within the ecological sciences can inform more robust, evidence-backed and effective conservation policies among a wider set of stakeholders. 2. the ecological rationale for exclusionary conservation the creation of protected areas was originally informed by the idea of nature as “wilderness” or pristine areas, untouched by human influences3. starting with the creation of the first protected areas in the usa, strong ethical arguments were made by influential conservation biologists and ecologists in favour of preserving natural landscapes and biodiversity for their inherent value (leopold 1970; naess and rothenberg 1990; soule and wilcox 1980). with the growth of conservation biology as a field-based and practice-oriented discipline, these arguments gained further traction and scientific support. over the years, the arguments for exclusionary conservation have become more anthropocentric, highlighting the importance of “inviolate” protected areas for human survival and focusing on the cultural, economic, aesthetic and intrinsic values of pristine nature for humans(brandon, turner, schroth, and bakarr 2008). the millennium ecosystem assessment undertaken in 2005 brought to the forefront the 2 interestingly, not all social science critiques of exclusionary conservation and human displacement from protected areas question its ecological necessity (see, for instance, cernea and soltau-schmidt, 2006) 3 it may be noted that the idea of setting aside land and minimising human disturbances/human use predates the 20th century conservation discourse, and was driven by diverse concerns including hunting (game reserves) and religious/cultural practices (sacred groves), to name a few. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] discourse of ecosystem services and the critical role played by wilderness areas in human survival, and raised the issue from the local to the planetary scale (millennium ecosystem assessment 2005). in recent years, there has been a renewed focus on conservation of nature for its intrinsic value, especially in response to the intellectual challenges posed by the “new conservation” movement (ehrlich 2002; soule 2013; terborgh, van schaik, davenport, and rao 2002). this debate is addressed further in the concluding section. to translate the wilderness ethic into practical action on the ground, the creation and preservation of protected areas emerged as the most commonly accepted global strategy (hayes and ostrom 2005). today, there are more than 100,000 designated protected areas in the world, with more than 10 per cent of the terrestrial area of the planet under some regime of protection (hayes and ostrom 2005). a wide body of research in ecological sciences and conservation biology justifies exclusionary conservation by demonstrating that human interference is detrimental to particular species of endangered flora and fauna, or to overall conservation of biodiversity in different ecosystems. it is considered almost axiomatic in the pa-based conservation doctrine that “a principal objective of protected areas is to conserve nature by eliminating, minimizing, or reducing human pressures and threats operating within their boundaries” (schulze et al. 2017). in an influential review paper, watson et al. (2016) support this axiom, but simultaneously argue for more “ecologically sensible” goal-setting to monitor the conservation efficacy of protected areas4 (watson et al. 2016). the conservation agenda in the global south is largely driven by state (and to a much lesser extent non-state) efforts to protect charismatic “flagship” mega-fauna species. not surprisingly, therefore, the dominant orthodoxy in conservation research is focused on minimising human presence and creating “pristine” or “inviolate” areas. in india, for instance, scholarship on wildlife conservation by the topmost conservation research institutions focuses predominantly on charismatic endangered species like the lion, the tiger and the elephant, and has only recently begun to engage intensively with other species. the assumptions and findings of these studies should not be extrapolated uncritically to other species, scales and landscapes, but this point is often missed by the dominant orthodoxy of exclusionary conservation. 4in particular, the authors make a strong case for clearly defined outcome-based goals and not just area-based goals like those set out in target 11 of the cbd’s 2020 strategic plan for biodiversity. [13] asmita kabra a study of 150 potential tiger habitats in india concludes that better management of protected areas and their surrounding landscapes is crucial for increasing the capacity of these reserves to support an enhanced tiger population. the study identifies three parameters of good management – funding, staff support and enforcement the last presumably refers to strict restrictions on human use of protected areas (ranganathan, chan, karanth, and smith 2008). another landmark study identifies habitat fragmentation as a key threat to survival of tigers in the wild, and attributes fragmentation mainly to agriculture, fodder and other extraction, presumably by the local population in the neighbouring “human-dominated” landscapes. the authors argue that the creation of viable forest “corridors” between fragmented landscapes is key to survival of tigers (seidensticker, christie, and jackson 1999). similarly, a study on the threats to tiger population in the rajaji-corbett tiger conservation unit in the indian terai region identifies habitat fragmentation as the key variable. it views large-scale monoculture plantations, small-scale local livestock holdings and poaching as the main “biotic pressures”, and suggests relocation of local villages as one of the key “management” strategies for improving chances of tiger survival in the landscape (johnsingh and negi 2003; karanth 2018). a study on herbivore abundance conducted by the wildlife institute of india in 2005 (david et al. 2005) is cited to argue that tigers have gone locally extinct in the kailadevi wildlife sanctuary despite heavy investments in participatory conservation.5 the author uses the evocative phrase “empty forests” (signifying depleted population of herbivores) to conflate the absence of tigers in kailadevi wildlife sanctuary with wholesale failure of conservation. he further argues that since participatory conservation strategies failed to reduce livestock numbers in sariska, kailadevi and ranthambore, the way forward for conservation is to relocate the remaining human settlements outside these protected areas (reddy 2008).6 an empirical assessment of the impact of local use on forest degradation and biodiversity across five protected areas in india examined the relationship between forest degradation and (a) human population density; (b) intensity of agriculture; and (c) dependence on wage labour. the results 5 interestingly, while documenting in passing that the ranthambore tiger reserve (of which kailadevi is a part) receives as many as 100,000 tourists each year, the author identifies livestock pressures from the human population in and around the pa as the main source of disturbance. it may also be noted that the notion of “participatory” conservation in protected areas like sariska and kailadevi needs to be unpacked carefully, as it often hides resource politics and contestations within the local community. 6 it may be noted, however, that while proposing conservation displacement as the preferred solution, reddy (ibid.) does make a strong plea for proper compensation and livelihood restoration of the displaced people. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] indicate that “extraction pressure on forests was positively associated with the availability of wage labour and negatively with the proportion of agricultural households”. the authors attribute this counter-intuitive result to the inadequacy of official data (state of the forests reports) to measure forest degradation in protected areas (davidar et al. 2010). alternative interpretations are simply not considered, and the authors ignore a wide body of literature (for instance, wunder et al. 2014; angelsen et al. 2014) that explores diverse linkages of local livelihoods with forest dependence. from the above discussion, it emerges clearly that the argument for pabased fortress conservation has two essential premises. first, biodiversity is believed to thrive in “natural” landscapes, and use of these landscapes by humans is considered detrimental to biodiversity (hayes and ostrom 2005). it is assumed that when left “undisturbed”, different elements of natural ecosystem tend to move towards a fine equilibrium, and human interference in these systems creates imbalance due to resource competition (ricklefs 2008). second, it is believed that protection of large tracts of land will provide habitat connectivity, which is important for conservation (ibid.). use of these landscapes by humans is believed to create fragmentation, which induces species loss (terborgh 1992). based on these premises, the dominant orthodoxy of fortress conservation proposes that biodiversity should be conserved by creating large and interconnected protected areas which are either completely “inviolate”, or place serious restrictions on human use. the incremental ecological gains from reduction of local human disturbances are believed to be high enough to justify the social and economic costs of exclusionary conservation, so long as these costs are adequately compensated for7.the ecological critiques that i set out in the next section often question precisely these assumptions that underlie the dominant orthodoxy of exclusionary conservation. 7 it must be pointed out that social scientists and ecologists working within the framework of fortress conservation recognise the inherent social justice concerns associated with the exclusion of humans from protected areas. they seek to address these concerns by calling for more community participation, increased financial outlays and stronger policy safeguards to offset loss of access to pa resources. they believe that by doing so, fortress conservation can craft a win-win situation that can serve simultaneously the moral imperatives of conservation and social justice (agrawal and redford 2009; cernea 2006; harihar, ghoshharihar, and macmillan 2014). the political ecology critiques of these assumptions are beyond the scope of this article. [15] asmita kabra 3. ecological critiques of exclusionary pa-based conservation an important category of ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation is methodological in nature, and cite the absence of robust evidence as a major concern. an important review article shows that till recently very little evidence was available about the ecological effectiveness and social impacts of pa-based conservation. the authors show that in recent years, the importance of evidence-backed conservation is being realized, and the limitations of earlier methods of estimating pa effectiveness are being challenged (ferraro and pressey 2015). they make a strong plea for replacing before-and-after-pa or with-or-without-pa study designs by rigorous counterfactual-based study designs. they also plead for deployment of more sophisticated tools and methods and better datasets for proper impact evaluation of protected areas, which is emerging as an important multidisciplinary area of study in its own right. given the dominant orthodoxy of exclusionary conservation, the ecological gains accruing from protected areas are often assumed rather than demonstrated. robust empirical evidence that human use of protected areas is detrimental to biodiversity, and that significant incremental gains can be made by restricting people’s access to protected areas, is both scarce and patchy (agrawal and redford 2009; mcelwee 2013; persha, fischer, chhatre, agrawal, and benson 2010). recent work on impact evaluation of protected areas has begun to address this lacuna. several studies have shown, using techniques like remote-sensing, gis and on-ground ecological surveys, that some positive conservation outcomes can be obtained through restriction of human use (brockington 2002; hall et al. 2014).8 however, the generalizability of these results across space, time, ecosystems and species is contested by many scholars. an alternative view is that protected areas end up serving other, less relevant policy targets and operational objectives instead of the main goal of avoiding biodiversity loss. (pressey, visconti, and ferraro 2015).some of the most significant threats to terrestrial ecosystems such as unsustainable hunting and disturbances from recreational activities are not amenable to monitoring by methods like remote-sensing, and require collection of robust in-situ threat data (schulze et al. 2017). in an important contribution to the debates on human 8 the positive social contribution of pas has been highlighted by several studies, arguing that pas provide important ecosystem services for humans, and are also important buffers during disasters, droughts and other calamities (badola and hussain 2005; corbera, kosoy, and martínez tuna 2007; verma et al. 2017). however, this article focuses mainly on the ecological outcomes of pas and the ecological debates about the efficacy of pas in meeting conservation goals and targets. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] disturbance in protected areas, vaidyanathan et al. (2010) highlight the importance of triangulating ground-based and remotely-assessed evaluations of ecologically critical areas. they show that impacts “above” the canopy are influenced by “climatic regimes, anthropogenic disturbances, management practices, and their interactions”, while spatial variability “below” the canopy is better explained by human “disturbance”. other ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation have emerged from research at fine spatial scales over longer periods of time. for instance, while conservation research on tigers usually advocates the creation of inviolate protected areas, recent work on other mega-carnivores like lions, leopards and snow leopards and avifauna like the sarus crane indicates that these species may be able to adapt well and survive in moderately or heavily used human-dominated landscapes too (banerjee, jhala, chauhan, and dave 2013; bhatnagar 2009; odden, athreya, rattan, and linnell 2014). a note of caution offered here is that co-occurrence of humans and large carnivores on the same landscape should not be conflated with co-existence, and the fact of mega-carnivores adapting to human presence is not conclusive proof that human presence is always benign (harihar et al. 2013). at the same time, conservationists need to engage critically with sitespecific research and overview studies that demonstrate that certain types of pa resource utilization by local people may in fact be associated with high species diversity (persha et al. 2010). certain types of localized human interventions like livestock grazing and fire management might actually be critical for maintaining certain types of landscapes (barthel, colding, elmqvist, and folke 2005; carter, shrestha, karki, pradhan, and liu 2012; jurskis 2018; middleton 2013; saberwal 1996). a recent book on anthropogenic grasslands dominated by imperata cylindrica in southeast asia highlights the critical agency of humans in the maintenance of such grasslands, and cautions against the “forest fundamentalism” of orthodox ecological scholarship (dove and kammen 2015). combining modern scientific ecological knowledge with indigenous and local knowledge systems about sustainable extraction, grazing, and firemanagement might result in improved management of protected areas (sundaram, krishnan, hiremath, and joseph 2012). in the context of rivers and associated freshwater habitats, local resource decline often emanates not just from local over-harvesting but from extra-local factors like modification of river flow due to dams, boat traffic and urbanizationinduced pollution. therefore, exclusionary riverine pa-based conservation strategies may not be successful. robust evidence-backed alternatives strategies may need to be based on co-existence of carefully managed human use of riverine ecosystems with conservation of charismatic species [17] asmita kabra like crocodiles, otters and river dolphins (kelkar, krishnaswamy, choudhary, and sutaria 2010). ecological research has begun to accept the “historical structuring role of people in natural landscapes” (persha et al. 2010). the nature and scale of human activities as well as their impact on particular species needs to be disaggregated and could fall into several categories like “joint wins, losses and trade-offs” (persha, agrawal, and chhatre 2011). an important study in india show the limits of flagship species based conservation planning through a field study in the biodiversity rich western ghats. the authors demonstrate that “reliance on flagship species for conservation planning can both underestimate and overestimate the ability of other species to persist in multiple-use landscapes; protecting flagship species would only protect species with similar habitat preferences”(gangadharan, vaidyanathan, and st. clair 2016). fortress conservation strategies that involve displacement of human populations outside protected areas often entail further deforestation to resettle the people outside park boundaries, creating a cascade effect. sitespecific research on conservation displacement shows that (a) preparation of resettlement sites can involve further ecological loss, and (b) resettlement may not necessarily extinguish local people’s access to forest resources. to capture these effects, research design of impact evaluation studies needs to expand beyond park boundaries to include landscape-level variables, and also go deeper into inter-household power dynamics that allow elite capture (milgroom, giller, and leeuwis 2014; nagendra, pareeth, and ghate 2006). the literature on exclusionary conservation often carries the implicit assumption that reduced human “disturbance” will result in the protected landscape returning to an “original” state of wilderness. research in restoration ecology challenges this simplistic notion and demonstrates that reduced human disturbance does not lead to automatic recovery of the landscape to support conservation of flagship species or vulnerable ecosystems. long-term ecological management and sustained funding are required to control invasive species and to ensure that other human users do not take over the “vacated” landscape (babu, love, and babu 2009; sahu and singh 2008). for such “conservation-reliant species”, the continued management efforts and costs of restoring and maintaining landscapes are understated in conservation planning (scott, goble, haines, wiens, and neel 2010). these long-term costs need to be recognized explicitly and weighed against alternative conservation strategies. an important critique of “inviolate” wilderness areas emerges from ecological studies of “maintenance-dependent species”, or threatened species “whose survival depends on humans actively managing land, such as to control invasive exotic vegetation or reintroduce periodic, low-intensity burning ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] (such as) formerly practiced by native americans”(novick 2013). for such species, the most important survival risk emanates not from humaninduced “disturbances” to the ecosystem, but from land-use policies that restrict active management by human (novick 2013; wilcove and chen 2008). the rate and pattern of resource extraction of diverse groups of people living within pa boundaries and on its periphery are variable, and local use has become increasingly linked to extra-local resource flows and global commodity chains (madhusudan 2005; thompson and homewood 2002). for instance, conservation research on species that are extracted by local people for personal consumption or sale as non-timber forest products (ntfp) provides important insights into the complex linkages between biodiversity, poverty and local livelihoods. it has been argued that “the ecological effects of harvesting ntfp can be varied, and the impacts can range from the level of genes to individuals and populations, communities and ecosystems, all of which have important consequences” (hiremath 2004). robust research on the ecological impacts of harvesting of ntfp is alarmingly scant, but a review of available work indicates that excessive harvesting of ntfp, combined with associated activities like fire and grazing, may not be compatible with conservation outcomes. several studies indicate the importance of identifying thresholds and tipping points beyond which conservation and livelihood outcomes tend to become incompatible (ticktin 2004). the detrimental ecological impacts of large-scale, irreversible land use change for activities like mining or reservoirs are wellknown and extensively documented. however, in the highly globalised world today, it may be difficult to demarcate the boundaries between artisanal, localised and sustainable resource use, and invasive and large-scale commercial extraction. oversimplifications about the inherent sustainability of multiple-use areas and co-existence with human use are understandably treated with misgivings by conservationists. since the late 1990s, an important new debate on exclusionary versus mixed-use landscapes has emerged from ecologists studying the links between agricultural expansion and biodiversity conservation, especially in the context of growing global demand for food (adams 2012; mclaughlin 2011). this is referred to as the “share-versus spare” debate. proponents of land-sparing argue in favour of segregating landscapes for exclusionary conservation in protected areas and intensive crop production on farms. they make the case that global food security and conservation of biodiversity can be achieved simultaneously by expansion of the network of protected areas, along with promotion of scientific agriculture to enhance crop-yield on already cultivated land (fischer et al. 2008; foley et al. 2011; [19] asmita kabra green, cornell, scharlemann, and balmford 2005). they provide evidence that protected lands are associated with higher biodiversity values than cultivated lands, and that the number of species negatively affected by cultivation is higher than the number of species that benefit from it. on the other hand, those in favour of land-sharing argue for promoting hybrid landscapes that allow for biodiversity-friendly agriculture. they provide evidence that several species tend to do better on cultivated landscapes than in strictly protected areas, and that agro-ecosystems generate significant ecosystem services which are ignored in the land-sparing literature (perfecto and vandermeer 2010; tscharntke et al. 2012). they critique the landsparing strategy on the ground that it fails to take into account issues of scale and the complexity of smallholder agriculture in the global south. 4. the way forward protagonists of the “new conservation” movement within the ecological sciences argue that human-dominated landscapes, harbour significant amounts of biodiversity and can meet the combined needs of conservation and human well-being more effectively than pas in the anthropocene (lalasz, kareiva and marvier 2011). although some ecologists have responded to the “new conservation” critiques by calling for a return to ecocentrism, or promoting conservation for its intrinsic value (piccolo, washington, kopnina and taylor 2017), others have argued for taking into account local complexity, site-specificity, tenure regimes, institutions for governance, and the need of diverse landscapes to reconcile local livelihoods with conservation imperatives (adams 2012; dove and kammen 2015; sandbrook 2015). thus a wide body of scholars working within ecology and conservation biology frameworks, as well as many conservation practitioners, are now engaged in developing multiple approaches to conservation (sandbrook, scales, vira, and adams 2011). as an example, share-versus-spare debate has encouraged meaningful debate between opponents (phalan, balmford, and green 2012; phalan, onial, balmford, and green 2011). similarly, an interesting revisionist strand in the exclusionary conservation literature attempts to integrate limited human activity into conservation planning by arguing for expanding the concept of buffer zones in a landscape based approach to conservation such as zones of interaction (zoi) between strictly protected and human-dominated areas (defries et al. 2010). such contributions carry forward the intellectual tradition of the “sustainable landscapes” approach (robinson 1993) by taking into account landscape ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] level flow of nutrients, resources, energy and water, into pa-level conservation planning. the ecological debates outlined here reinforce the importance of evidencebacked, site-specific and interdisciplinary conservation planning, as opposed to an unquestioned belief in the magic bullet of exclusionary or fortress conservation. the nature and scale of human activities in biodiversity-rich landscapes is critical for making conclusions regarding conflict, cohabitation and co-existence of humans with other species. ignoring these crucial ecological concerns and simplistically equating all human use with “disturbance” is contested by many ecologists, and not just by social scientists. these ecological critiques make the case for evidence-backed conservation strategies, with clearly defined and measurable management objectives for protected areas. thus there is a strong case for developing protocols for monitoring and impact evaluation of protected area effectiveness, and for avoiding “evidence complacency” (sutherland and wordley 2017). conservation through government-managed protected areas has received far more attention than other institutional mechanisms, despite the fact that over 370 million hectares of forests globally are under different types of community-based management regimes (hayes and ostrom 2005; måren, bhattarai, and chaudhary 2013). conservation outcomes, biodiversity values, and relative costs in such regimes need to be understood through rigorous 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on the indian sundarbans, this paper is at the forefront of such research. market conditions in the region feature unregulated transactions, unenforced zoning, and a lack of disaster insurance. for many residents with hereditary land ownership, stark poverty eliminates any risk buffer provided by savings or other non-essential liquid assets. using new household surveys and environmental data, our study hypothesizes that salinization and cyclone strikes have already adversely affected land prices. we quantify such impacts using a georeferenced panel of 342 salinity monitoring stations and a spatial raster database on all cyclonic storm strikes since 1970. our econometric results reveal highly significant negative impacts for both factors. we use the regression results to predict land prices for the most and least favourable environmental conditions recorded in our database. the results show that these climate change–related conditions account for spatial differentials greater than an order of magnitude in land prices. such extreme risk differentials suggest high financial and fiscal stakes, underscoring the critical importance of appropriately targeted adjustment policies. keywords: indian sundarbans; land transactions; environmental variables; tropical cyclones; salinity; coastal erosion  department of geography, university of calcutta, india. sumona_bm@yahoo.com  department of geography, university of calcutta, india. sunando@live.com *** development economics research group, world bank, usa. sdasgupta@worldbank.org **** department of rural studies, west bengal state university, india. chinmoyeemallik@gmail.com ***** world bank, usa. wheelrdr@gmail.com copyright © bandyopadhyay, bandyopadhyay, dasgupta, mallik and wheeler 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc bync 4.0) by the authors. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:sumona_bm@yahoo.com mailto:sunando@live.com mailto:sdasgupta@worldbank.org mailto:chinmoyeemallik@gmail.com mailto:wheelrdr@gmail.com ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] 1. introduction this paper uses 2016–17 household surveys and environmental data to investigate the impact of climate change on land prices in the indian sundarbans coastal region. coastal studies relating land prices to climate factors are plentiful in developed countries, particularly the united states (us). however, until recently, data scarcity has hindered similar research in the coastal regions of developing countries. to our knowledge, this paper represents the first such assessment. the sundarbans is a unesco heritage mangrove forest that extends across the india–bangladesh border at the mouth of the ganga– brahmaputra–meghna river basin. the incidence of poverty is strikingly high in the sundarbans, and poor people in the region rely mostly on natural resources for their livelihoods. salinization is spreading inland, and tidal surges and cyclones—to which the region is prone—are increasing in number and severity (dasgupta and wheeler 2018). the combination of poverty, topography, salinization, and the increasing risk of inundation have created conditions that will become widespread as sea-level rise and climate change continue (dasgupta et al. 2016). our study uses household data drawn from a georeferenced survey of land transactors, which include information on plot sizes and prices. we quantify environmental conditions using two data sources: (i) a georeferenced panel of salinity measures drawn from 342 monitoring stations in the indian sundarbans region and (ii) a spatial raster database that incorporates information on all cyclonic storms that have struck the region since 1970. using these data, we estimate an econometric model that relates land prices to the effects of salinization, cyclonic storm intensity, and inundation risk from proximity to the coastline. in theory, one would expect salinization to reduce land prices through its impact on soil fertility. land prices should also be lower in areas prone to cyclonic storm damage as well as those susceptible to inundation. we use the regression results to predict land prices for cases where salinization, cyclonic storm intensity, and inundation risk are at their least and most favourable levels in the sample. overall, our results suggest that climate change–related conditions account for spatial differentials greater than an order of magnitude in sundarbans land prices. we believe that these results can help inform a key policy debate on whether to compensate residents in threatened coastal regions for their constantly escalating losses from salinization and inundation risk as the sea level rises. the answer may vary with local conditions. however, the urgency of the debate is affected by the scale of the financial and fiscal stakes, which, as our results suggest, is quite large. [45] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler the paper is organized into five sections. section 2 reviews the relevant literature, while section 3 introduces our household survey dataset and climate-related databases. section 4 specifies and estimates our econometric model and uses the results to predict land prices. finally, section 5 explores the policy implications and concludes the paper. 2. previous research as the sea level rises, flooding increases, and salinity spreads inland, land markets in coastal communities will adjust to the uncertainty surrounding the timing and intensity of future changes. in the us, nakanishi (2016) has shown that natural disasters make land prices more volatile and increase average property values in safer areas. other studies, mostly from the us, have found that property values are lower in flood zones (dubé, abdelhalim, and devaux 2021; bakkensen and barrage 2021; kousky et al. 2020; florax, and rietveld 2009; bin, kruse, and landry 2008; daniel, bin and kruse 2006; harrison, smersh, and schwartz 2001; donnelly 1989; shilling et al. 1985) or subject to time discounting1 that depends on the incidence of past floods (ratnadiwakara and buvaneshwaran 2020; beltrán, maddison, and elliott 2019; atreya and ferreira 2014; atreya, ferreira, and kriesel 2013; bin and polasky 2004; bartosova et al. 2000) and the existence of mandatory flood insurance programmes (frazier, boyden, and wood 2020; atreya and czajkowski 2019; speyrer and ragas 1991). other studies have shown that, despite disaster risks, a region’s high property values may be sustained by its natural environmental advantages (fu and nijman 2021; wu, chen, and liou 2021; beltrán, maddison, and elliott 2018; atreya and czajkowski 2016; bin and kruse 2006; eves 2004). studies based in the coastal areas of developing countries can provide a useful extension of the literature because market conditions differ sharply from those in their western counterparts. in the indian sundarbans, land transactions are virtually unregulated, zoning is not enforced, private and public disaster insurance is non-existent, and for many residents whose land ownership is hereditary, stark poverty eliminates any risk buffer provided by savings or other liquid assets that are not essential for survival. in short, the sundarbans experience exemplifies unconstrained risk adjustment in land markets under rising environmental stress. in economic theory, the price of a land parcel is generally assumed to reflect 1 'time discounting' means the lowering of property prices following a flood event. the duration (or 'time') of the price lowering (or 'discounting') varies due to several factors. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] the present value of its expected future rent flow at the prevailing discount rate (hoover and giarratani 1999).2 for the sundarbans, climate-related factors are expected to be significant in this context. salinization is hypothesised to reduce land rent through its impact on soil fertility (dasgupta et al. 2017). land rent is expected to be lower in areas prone to cyclonic storm damage as well as those susceptible to inundation and tidal flux. the impacts of salinization, past storm intensity, and inundation risks will depend on their roles in the formation of transactors’ expectations about the severity of future conditions. to date, empirical work on the land market impact of climate-related risks has focused mainly on coastal areas in the us, where storm damage and inundation risk have been afforded more attention than salinization (dachary-bernard et al. 2019; mcalpine and porter 2018; mcnamara and keeler 2013; lichter and felsenstein 2012; bin et al. 2010; west et al. 2001; yohe et al. 1996). 3. data our data are drawn from six widely dispersed villages (mouzas) in the gosaba, kultali, and sagar community development (cd) blocks of the indian sundarbans (figure 1). as table 1 shows, the three blocks are roughly comparable in area and population density. 3.1 land transactions data collection in the sundarbans presents unique challenges because resident communities are isolated and public records are incomplete. formally, a land transaction involves the execution of a legal deed by the seller in favour of the buyer. the deed is supposed to be filed at the local public office after the payment of registration charges, which are dependent on the transaction price. in practice, the formal process ratifies transactions by wealthier households while informal transactions prevail among poor landowners who cannot read or understand formal contract measures or are unwilling to register because of the fees involved. 2 this prevailing view abstracts from numerous potentially qualifying factors, including regulations, local customs, and speculation. for additional discussion, see buurman (2001). [47] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler figure 1: locations of transacting households, indian sundarbans note: red points denote sampled households with village (mouza) names. study area blocks are shown in yellow. green and grey /yellow colours denote forested and reclaimed sundarbans, respectively. source: field survey using the global positioning system. base map prepared from resourcesat-2 images for 2015. the household survey for this research was conducted in the sundarbans from 1 october 2016 to 15 january 2017, with additional visits to verify and clean the data from march to may 2017. the six sampled villages all have populations near 10,000, according to 2018 estimates, based on the 2001– 2011 growth rate. in each village, the survey team identified land transactions that had taken place between 2006 and 2016 (inclusive) with the help of the village elders and village surveyors (amins). initial conversations with the village elders identified families who had made transactions.3 all identified households were surveyed and additional 3 each transaction involves a buyer and a seller, but the final dataset incorporates only one observation per transaction to avoid duplicated measures for model variables. the survey team used data for the first transactor identified, so the database includes both buyers and sellers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] households were identified as transactors over the course of the survey. cross-checks were performed with the village amins to validate plot sizes, locations, and ownership. we tested and modified the household survey instrument in a pilot study, and the full survey was then conducted for the 456 identified transacting households (figure 2). table 1: statistics of the studied community development block, indian sundarban block households (number) population (number) area (km2) population density (persons/km2) gosaba 58,197 246,598 296.7 831.1 kultali 45,099 229,053 306.2 748.1 sagar 43,716 212,037 282.1 751.6 source: census of india (2011) among the 456 land parcels identified by the survey, 78% are solely used for cultivation, 15% are partly occupied by housing, and 7% are commercial properties. figure 2 provides summary information on prices, parcel areas, and timing. real unit land prices are calculated at ₹2,017 per hectare, using the world bank’s annual gross domestic product (gdp) deflator.4 the sample yields a roughly balanced representation for eight price categories, from prices below ₹1,000 per hectare (10.5% of transactions) to prices above ₹100,000 per hectare (13.4% of transactions). similarly, transaction parcels are distributed in an approximately balanced manner across seven ranges, from parcels below 2 hectares (12.7%) to those above 60 hectares (7.9%). the transaction timing is widely spaced. 3.2 climate-related variables in this section, we use two variables – cyclone strikes (frequency and intensity) and salinity – to attempt an econometric analysis, where salinity is used as a cross-sectional variable. 4 the world bank’s gdp deflator for india is the annual price index for goods and services. we have used it to adjust the year-to-year comparison of land market values for price inflation. [49] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler figure 2: transaction characteristics of the sampled households, indian sundarbans — land prices (a), parcel areas (b), transactions by block (c), and transactions by year (d) source: primary survey, 2016-17 3.2.1 cyclone strikes cyclonic storms regularly strike the coastal region of the sundarbans from may to december. in the northern bay of bengal, recent research has found significant increase in the intensity of cyclones with the acceleration of global warming (bandyopadhyay et al. 2021; mishra 2014; krishna 2009). considering the coastlines of odisha, west bengal, and bangladesh during 1877–2016, bandyopadhyay et al. (2021) reported a notable increase in storm landfalls in the sundarbans region between 1961 and 2016. this implies that the impact of cyclone strikes on land prices must have increased in recent years. this section incorporates the increased frequency and intensity of sundarbans cyclone strikes into a spatial index for the econometric analysis, which assigns the greatest weight to recent strikes. during a cyclone’s passage, the damage caused by a few hours of battering by waves, winds, and storm surges can equal many years’ worth of fairweather depreciation. the damage inflicted on the region is welldocumented (adb-goo-wb 2013; em-dat 2019; nidm 2014; khalil 1993). to illustrate, cyclone sidr struck the sundarbans region of bangladesh in november 2007, causing 3,406 deaths and economic losses of us$ 1.68 billion (gob 2008). cyclone aila struck the indian sundarbans in may 2009, causing 100 deaths and losses above us$ 1.05 billion (imd 2013; mallick et al. 2011; gowb 2009; iaa 2009). in the wake of such destruction, dasgupta and wheeler (2018) find large coastal population ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] displacement effects. as noted in section 1, damage from cyclone strikes may play a significant role in the determination of land prices in the sundarbans. introducing this variable into the econometric work requires constructing a damage measure based on the historical record. in this paper, we incorporate the impact of cyclone strikes using a georeferenced panel database of past cyclonic storms (bandyopadhyay et al. 2021) and the methodologies of dasgupta and wheeler (2018) and dasgupta et al. (2022), which compute cyclonic storm intensities in a multi-stage exercise. first, we assemble complete georeferenced records for cyclonic storms in the studied region. for the period from 1970 to 2016, we use track data of storms above the wind speed of 33 knots (62 km per hour), available from the international best track archive for climate stewardship (ibtracs, version 3.9). this data source is maintained by the global data center for meteorology, operated by the united states national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa, 2018). to check for missing data, we also employ georeferenced storm track information from the india meteorological department (imd). we exclude all storms rated as tropical depressions because their maximum wind speeds fall below 34 knots, which limits their potential for causing serious damage. winds above 33 knots reach gale force and a beaufort scale value of 9, when trees start to break off and walking become difficult. the analysis uses two commonly available measures of cyclonic storm strength: (i) maximum wind speed, measured in knots, and (ii) primary impact zone, measured by the radial distance between a storm’s centre and the outer boundary of its maximum wind speed zone. for each storm, we compute the primary impact zone along its track (bandyopadhyay et al. 2021). using a methodology from the united states national hurricane center (usnhc 2018), we compute wind speed at each point after landfall as a function of wind speed at landfall and elapsed time after landfall.5 we derive wind damage potential using a standard exponential formulation (hrc-aoml 2018).6 5 in the usnhc model, the ratio (wind speed to wind speed at landfall) decays exponentially with time after landfall. the absolute value of the exponential parameter is a positive function of wind speed at landfall (i.e., the rate of decay is greater for storms with higher initial wind speeds). 6 in our computation, wind damage potential is proportional to the square of wind speed, which is measured in knots (kt). wind damage potential is therefore expressed in kt2. [51] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler figure 3: cyclone intensity indices (cii), indian sundarbans note: cii are dimensioned in kt2. the coastline is indicated by the dotted blue line; unclassified land areas are shown in grey; and black boundaries depict the study areas of sagar, kultali, and gosaba. source: ibtracs data from noaa (2018) next, we compute historical storm damage potentials using high-resolution spatial population data from the ciesin (2019) gridded population of the world (gpw, version 4). these data have resolutions of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 km at the equator). using a geographic information system (gis), we overlay each gpw point with all historical cyclone impact zones to identify the cyclones that have affected the point. thus, for each gpw point, we generate a time series of cyclones, with impact years and estimated wind damage potentials (dimensioned in kt2). finally, we divide the historical storm data into three 15-year periods: 1970– 1984, 1985–1999, and 2000–2014. for each period, we compute the mean wind damage potential for each gpw point. then, we combine the mean wind damage potentials for the three periods into an overall storm intensity index (dimensioned in kt2) using weights computed by dasgupta and wheeler (2018) and dasgupta et al. (2022) from regression analyses of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] historical impacts on population displacement in the region.7 figure 3 maps the cross-sectional cyclone intensity index (cii) that we use for the econometric analysis in this paper. 3.2.2 salinity water salinity in the indian sundarbans is rising as climate change affects river flows and the sea level. salinity is already near marine levels in southern areas, with measures of 30 parts per thousand (ppt) or higher. by 2050, regional salinity will intensify considerably, with many northern areas also surpassing 30 ppt (dasgupta et al. 2022; mukhopadhyay et al. 2019; dasgupta et al. 2017). these changes are expected to reduce the value of agricultural land in the affected areas. figure 4 overlays figure 1 with local enlargements that display marine and riverine encroachments in two study areas during the past century. these changes have brought the shoreline much closer to many households, with direct salinization effects in beguakhali (sagar) and longer-term effects from rising riverine salinity in dayapur (gosaba).8 our database for econometric estimation includes land transactions in the years 2006–2016. however, water salinity monitoring data are only available for 2012–2015. matching the two datasets by year would limit our econometric database to 4 of the 11 years in our land transaction sample. accordingly, we incorporate salinity as a cross-sectional variable based on monitoring data for the same period. since the salinity observations are incomplete, we perform interpolations on a spatial panel database of readings for 342 monitoring stations in the indian sundarbans provided by wwf international (2019) (figure 5). this is an unbalanced panel, with many time-series observations from some monitoring locations and sparse observations from others. table 2 displays the available observations by month and year.9 7 we use storm intensities for previous periods because the results in dasgupta and wheeler (2018) indicate that expectations about cyclone strikes in an area adjust to the historical pattern with long lags. 8 prawn cultivation in saline water for export may have increased land salinity and depressed land values near prawn farms in the sundarbans sampled households (ghoshal et al. 2019). however, none of the land clusters used for the present analysis is located close to an aquaculture or prawn farm whose saline operations could influence land prices. in general, prawn farming is conducted only on the outer sides of main embankments in creek-adjacent areas of sections in the southern indian sundarbans. farmlands are usually not converted for aquaculture. 9 as table 2 shows, monitoring stations have operated with different frequencies during the sample period. these differences are mainly related to operations and maintenance problems [53] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler figure 4: coastal and riverine encroachment on two study villages, indian sundarbans note: red points denote sampled households with village (mouza) names. study area blocks are shown in yellow. green and grey /yellow colours denote forested and reclaimed sundarbans, respectively. source: field survey using the global positioning system. land extents extracted from 1922 survey of india topographical maps, 1967 corona space photos, and 2015 resourcesat-2 satellite images. to fill in the panel, we estimate an interpolation model that incorporates fixed effects (fe) for time (by month and year) and location (by monitoring station). the model controls for average differences in salinity at different monitoring stations while incorporating the annual trend and seasonal fluctuations that affect all stations concurrently. the model is specified as follows: under typical conditions in the sundarbans. observations in the database have been recorded for cases where monitors met the required technical specifications during the periods of operation. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] (1) where sit equals salinity (ppt) at monitoring location i in period t; dsj represents the monitoring dummy variable (1 for monitoring location j and 0 otherwise), dmk equals the month dummy variable, y stands for the year (2012, …, 2015), and εit is the stochastic error term. table 2: salinity monitoring observations by month and year, indian sundarbans month 2012 2013 2014 2015 january 64 64 february 40 58 158 64 march 132 72 48 april 122 72 48 may 2 58 144 60 june 10 52 64 76 july 8 52 56 68 august 52 56 44 september 2 46 40 62 october 8 52 64 56 november 36 56 64 56 december 150 96 64 56 source: wwf international (2019) we use regression predictions to fill in the missing observations for the 342 monitoring stations in all 12 months for the years 2012–2015. using actual and interpolated observations for 2015, we choose the peak month of may for our cross-sectional salinity index. 4. results and discussion our econometric model includes fe for the three cd blocks in order to incorporate the impact of unobserved factors such as attractiveness for tourism and differential soil fertility. we include fe for the observation years as well as interaction terms that allow for land price dynamics in the different blocks. we estimate a log-linear model since the distribution of land prices is highly skewed but approximately log-normal. this approach minimizes outlier effects while preserving the information in extreme [55] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler observations.10 we control for plot size since extensive research has documented a significant negative relationship between plot size and land price.11 figure 5: salinity estimates in the indian sundarbans, may 2015 note: salinity values are in parts per thousand (ppt) source: wwf international (2019) we specify the following estimation model:12 10 we believe that this approach is superior to truncating highly skewed distributions to eliminate arbitrarily identified outliers. for further discussion, see tukey (1977). 11 for a summary of past research, see lin and evans (2000). 12 we have also experimented with a measure of local land erosion risk, proxied by the change in the distance to the nearest riverine shoreline from 1967 to 2015. this measure has positive and negative values for accretion and erosion, respectively. because it proved insignificant in all estimates, we excluded it from the final specification of the estimation model (2). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] expectations: α1 > 0; α2, α3, and α4 < 0 (2) for household i and period t, ln xit equals the log land transaction price; di represents the distance from the coastline (see figure 3); ci indicates past and expected future wind damage from cyclonic storms; si represents salinity of the nearest monitoring location; ni indicates the size of the transacted plot; bj equals the cd block dummy variables for gosaba (1), kultali (2), and sagar (3); yt stands for the observation year; dyk equals the dummy variables for years (2006, …, 2016); and ɛit is the stochastic error, subject to spatial and temporal autocorrelation. land transactions are recorded by year from 2006 to 2016; we convert prices per hectare to ₹2,017 using the india gdp deflator in the world bank’s world development indicators. for di, we compute the distance from each household location to the nearest point on a coastal polyline constructed by the authors. as shown in figure 3, the polyline follows the outer coastlines of the southernmost sundarbans islands, with direct linear segments between islands. ci for a household is the nearest point in the spatial raster of past storm severity indicators described in section 3.2.1 (figure 3). si for a household is the estimated reading for may 2015 from the nearest water salinity monitor described in section 3.2.2 (figure 5). we use this as our proxy variable, following the finding of dasgupta et al. (2017) that land salinity in this coastal region is strongly predicted by proximate water salinity. the size of each transacted plot is drawn from our survey data. table 3 reports our results for land prices in recorded transactions. to test for robustness, we use alternative estimators that incorporate different assumptions about the structure of the stochastic error term (ɛit) in the model. these techniques produce the same point estimates for model parameters, but their differing estimates of standard errors (and the accompanying t statistics) may lead to very different inferences about the statistical significance of model variables. we replicate the point estimates in columns 1–3 to aid the interpretation of the t statistics. in this case, we find that our model is robust to the changes. we include results for ordinary least squares (ols), standard errors adjusted for 71 clusters of household groups (hamlets), and a spatial heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (hac) estimator that incorporates both spatial and temporal autocorrelation (hsiang 2010, 2020). [57] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler table 3: regression results: land price versus climate-related variables independent variables (1) ols (2) cluster se (3) spatial hac salinity −0.238 (4.36)** −0.238 (2.09)* −0.238 (3.49)** cyclone strike intensity −0.004 (2.58)* −0.004 (3.50)** −0.004 (3.23)** plot area −0.023 (9.39)** −0.023 (5.65)** −0.023 (4.80)** d (kultali) −327.206 (2.22)* −327.206 −1.93 −327.206 (2.67)** d (kultali) × year 0.163 (2.21)* 0.163 −1.93 0.163 (2.67)** d (sagar) −356.766 (2.58)* −356.766 (2.85)** −356.766 (2.50)* d (sagar) × year 0.176 (2.56)* 0.176 (2.84)** 0.176 (2.49)* constant 23.975 (6.39)** 23.975 (5.63)** 23.975 (7.16)** observations r squared 456 0.3 456 0.3 456 r-squared notes: dependent variable: log land price the absolute value of t statistics are in parentheses. * = 5% significance level and ** = 1% significance level. a dummy variable results for 2007–2016 are excluded. ols: ordinary least squares; hac: heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent; d: distance from shoreline 4.1 fixed effects and collinearity preliminary estimates show that collinearity between the cd block fe and di, our measure of distance from the coastline, is too great for independent parameter estimation. we choose to retain the block fe since it may absorb the effects of factors other than distance from the coastline. we exclude the dummy variable for the gosaba block to avoid total collinearity, so the two blocks’ results should be interpreted as deviations from the result for gosaba. the fe estimates for kultali and sagar are both negative and significant, with a somewhat larger estimated effect for sagar. since the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] sagar block is closer to the ocean, this may partly reflect the distance from the coastline. however, other factors may also be involved. to cite one possibility, figure 5 shows that salinity measures for the sagar region are both sparse and low. these may not adequately represent salinity for sagar, particularly in beguakhali village (figure 1), because it is close to the open ocean. part of the negative result for sagar may represent an adjustment for this factor. the positive, significant interactions of the two block dummy variables with observation years suggest that exogenous trends have reduced the fe differences from gosaba during the sample period. we incorporate the full set of yearly dummy variables in all regressions, but the results are trendless and insignificant. we therefore exclude them to make table 3 easier to read. 4.2 results for environmental risks and plot size we find the expected signs and high significance in all cases: land transaction price decreases with salinity and cyclone intensity index (cii). despite the sample correlation of salinity and cii, their independent covariation with land price is sufficient to yield consistently high significance for ols, cluster standard errors (se), and spatial hac. we find that land price falls significantly with plot size, as reported in most of the empirical literature on land price determination in developed countries. while we incorporate adjustments for spatial and temporal autocorrelation, our estimates only reflect land values revealed by transactions. an extensive body of literature has studied the problem of estimation bias when samples are truncated because some potential transactions are excluded due to mismatches between buyers and sellers (bishop et al. 2020; gatzlaff and haurin 1997, 1998; gatzlaff and ling 1994; munneke and slade 2000). in our case, the most likely source of truncation bias is inherited land with very high salinity and/or cyclone risk, for which non-market factors may create a reservation price that exceeds very low offers from buyers. our area controls for salinity and cyclone risk are the best available, but their spatial resolution may not capture the full range of local variations, including extremely low values. where those occur, buyer/seller mismatches may preclude any transactions. if our survey database excludes properties with the lowest valuation in high-risk areas, our sample transactions will overstate market valuations in those areas. by implication, our estimates may be downwardly biased, understating the marginal impact of salinity and cyclone strike risk on land prices. our estimated parameter values should therefore be regarded as conservative. [59] s. bandyopadhyay, s. bandyopadhyay, s. dasgupta, c. mallik and d. wheeler 4.3 assessing impact magnitudes our econometric results suggest that salinization and cyclonic storm damage play significant roles in determining land prices in the indian sundarbans. however, their empirical importance hinges on actual impact magnitudes. as noted earlier, the sundarbans case differs markedly from previously studied western cases because transactions are unregulated, zoning is not enforced, private and public disaster insurance does not exist, and poverty eliminates any financial risk buffer for many households. to assess impact magnitudes, we use our regression results to predict land prices for the most and least favourable environmental conditions recorded in our database. table 4 shows that the sagar block exhibits the most favourable environmental conditions in terms of salinity (17.8 ppt) and cii (1,365), while the gosaba block has the least favourable conditions (salinity of 29.3 ppt and cii of 1,876). we use our econometric results to predict the associated land prices in 2016, with dummy variable controls for sagar and gosaba.13 our results show that the environmental variables have very large effects under the prevailing market conditions in the sundarbans. point estimates for land prices under the most and least favourable conditions are ₹86,622 and ₹3,997, respectively. we augment the comparison with lower and upper-bound predictions using a forecast se, which shows that the two ranges are far from overlapping. summing up, within our sundarbans sample, the point prediction for land price under the most favourable environmental conditions is nearly 22 times the point prediction under the least favourable conditions. by implication, land prices in areas that are currently least affected will fall sharply as continued sea-level rise and storm intensification drive those areas toward the current worst-case values. 13 here, it is useful to recall the interpretation of block dummy variables with the gosaba dummy excluded. the results for sagar and kultali are differences from the fe for gosaba. to predict for sagar, its dummy variable is set at 1 while the dummy for kultali is set at 0. to predict for gosaba, the dummies for both sagar and kultali are set at 0. we also include the interactions of block dummy variables with observation years in the predictions. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] table 4: predicted land prices under the most and least favourable environmental conditions, indian sundarbans environmental conditions value block predicted land price (₹2,017) point −1.96 se +1.96 se most favourable salinity (ppt) 17.8 sagar 6,622 2,550 230,519 cyclone intensity index (cii) 1,365 sagar least favourable salinity (ppt) 29.3 gosaba 3,997 1,389 11,502 cyclone intensity index (cii) 1,876 gosaba note: ppt stands for parts per thousand source: compiled from noaa (2018), wwf international (2019), and primary surveys 5. policy implications and conclusion we believe that these results can help address an important policy question for threatened coastal regions: should residents be compensated for the ever-increasing losses from salinization and inundation risk as the sea level rises? for wealthier households or businesses whose acquisition of coastal land has already benefited from deep risk discounts, there is no apparent rationale for additional compensation. however, our results suggest that poorer residents with inherited coastal land will face steep depreciation of their primary asset as ocean encroachment continues. some form of means-tested compensation may be warranted, but its form will be critical. for example, periodic compensation payments in situ would inevitably rise until they become fiscally unsustainable. in contrast, one-time compensation could be affected by public land purchases from poorer households at above-market prices, followed by the proscription of settlement or auction resale at a loss under the condition of caveat emptor. whatever measures are considered, the risk differentials revealed by our results indicate that the financial and fiscal stakes are quite high. 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https://doi.org/10.1080/10527001.2020.1840246 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00219506 http://www.hurricanescience.org/science/science/hurricanedecay https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1010772132755 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-020-00680-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00140353 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 21-43, july 2021 thematic essay why socio-metabolic studies are central to ecological economics simron j singh1, simran talwar2, megha shenoy3 abstract: global material extraction has tripled since the 1970s, with more than 100 billion tonnes of materials entering the world economy each year. only 8.6% of this amount is recycled, while 61% ends up as waste and emissions, the leading cause of global warming and large-scale pollution of land, rivers, and oceans. this theme paper introduces socio-metabolic research (smr) and demonstrates its relevance to ecological economics scholarship in india. smr is a research framework for studying the biophysical stocks and flows of materials and energy associated with societal production and consumption. as one of the core approaches in industrial ecology and ecological economics, smr is widely conducted in europe, the united states, japan, australia, and china. in india, it is still in its infancy. in this paper, we review pioneering efforts in smr in india and make a case for advancing the field in the subcontinent. key words: socio-metabolic research (smr); industrial ecology; ecological economics; india; material flow analysis (mfa). 1 faculty of environment, university of waterloo, 200 university ave w, waterloo, on n2l 3g1, canada; simron.singh@uwaterloo.ca. 2 institute for sustainable futures, university of technology sydney bldg 10, 235 jones st, ultimo nsw 2007, australia; simran.talwar@uts.edu.au. 3 the valley school, thatguni post, kanakpura road, bengaluru, karnataka – 560082, megha.shenoy@thevalleyschool.info. copyright © singh, talwar and shenoy 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.461 mailto:simron.singh@uwaterloo.ca mailto:simran.talwar@uts.edu.au mailto:megha.shenoy@thevalleyschool.info https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.461 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] 1. the global resource challenge at the crux of our environmental crisis is the linear, one-way flow of (mostly non-renewable) materials and energy to grow our global economy. despite improvements in technologies, global material extraction has tripled, exports quadrupled, and per capita material consumption nearly doubled, since the 1970s (unep 2016; schandl et al. 2017). for the first time in human history, more than 100 billion tonnes of materials enter the global economy every year, of which only about 8% is recycled, creating an enormous “circularity gap” (circle economy 2020). to add to this sustainability conundrum, the 61% that ends up as waste and emissions contributes to large-scale land, river, and ocean pollution as well as global warming, thus compromising the health of our planet and human wellbeing (unep 2015; ipcc 2018). the third dimension of sustainability is equity. the “costs” and “benefits” of current patterns of resource use are unequally distributed across the world and between current and future generations (schaffartzik, duro, and krausmann 2019; diffenbaugh and burke 2019). industrialized nations, with less than a quarter of the world’s population, consume more than 40% of the world’s domestic extraction, that is, 17 tonnes of materials and 300 gj of energy per capita and year, respectively, as compared to 3–5 tonnes and 37–50 gj in lowto middle-income countries (krausmann et al. 2016). in other words, there are regions of the world or sections of society that engage with harmful, exploitative, and dirty industries and hence pay the cost of current patterns of resource use while others (mostly rich consumers) benefit from them. this distributional aspect of sustainability is often discussed in connection with environmental justice (martinez-alier et al. 2016). humanity’s unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, and the resulting pollution, and equity concerns, are central to ecological economics, a field of research founded on the premise that the economy is a subset of the natural world, and, hence, economic activities must adhere to biophysical thresholds (costanza 1989; melgar-melgar and hall 2020). pioneers of ecological economics have emphasized this message through several influential works. for example, kenneth boulding (1966) urges society to shift from a reckless “cowboy economy” to a frugal “spaceman economy”. georgescu-roegen (1971) applies the entropy law to the economic process, which resonates strongly with martinez-alier and schlupmann (1987), who emphasize the use of biophysical metrics, such as material and energy flows, as opposed to monetary units, to evaluate economic performance. meadows et al. (1972) warn us of the limits to economic growth that relies on the ever-increasing exploitation of limited [23] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy resources—this underlies much of herman daly’s (1977) work on steady state economics. these ground breaking ideas contributed to the vision and formal founding of ecological economics in 1989 (costanza 1989), which has evolved to include aspects of well-being, justice, and equity (costanza et al. 2020). a transformation to sustainability requires a drastic reduction in material throughput to levels compatible with the earth’s biophysical ability to supply resources and absorb wastes and emissions. this paper introduces socio-metabolic research (smr) as an approach that quantifies patterns of resource use by economies, allowing researchers to identify systemic risks and vulnerabilities, social inequalities, and potential for transformation or collapse. we describe the theoretical underpinnings, research approaches, and applications of smr, with a focus on india and its potential for the sustainability. 2. sustainability as a problem of the societynature interaction sustainability problems (some would call them crises) often result from the way society interacts with its natural environment. as such, sustainability is a social, as much as it is an ecological, challenge. therefore, we need a heuristic and cross-disciplinary model that sufficiently captures the dynamic interaction between the biophysical planet and the social world and, in doing so, relates social and economic development to environmental change. in this respect, the model of the society–nature interaction developed by the vienna school of social ecology is persuasive (figure 1). the starting point in the model is to conceive of “society” not only as a group of rational actors or a human population, but as one that also includes biophysical elements—livestock, buildings, infrastructure, and machines, collectively referred to as “material stocks”—that are deliberately created and maintained by a given population for its survival and wellbeing. society reproduces itself biophysically and culturally over time through a system of mutual feedback loops and is, thus, a “hybrid” between cultural and natural spheres of causation (fischer-kowalski and weisz 2016). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] figure 1: heuristic model of society–nature interactions (adapted from fischerkowalski and weisz 2016) source: simron j singh | illustration support from lodewijk luken biophysical reproduction is carried out via a process referred to as “social metabolism” (the “natural sphere” in figure 1). as in biological metabolism, a given society organizes material and energy flows through its natural environment and by way of trade for its sustenance and reproduction. some material and energy becomes waste (outflows), while the rest of the flows are net additions to “stocks”. stocks provide critical societal services such as housing, food, energy, transport, health, and education. stocks, in turn, need to be maintained through flows, creating a dynamic feedback loop referred to as the “material stock–flow–service” (sfs) nexus (haberl et al. 2017). the size and composition of resource throughput in a socio-economic system characterizes its “metabolic profile” and is indicative of the pressure an economy exerts on the environment. just as metabolism influences a person’s body (leading to obesity or diabetes), the process of social metabolism alters land and sea (mining, urbanization, fishing, and agriculture) and, over time, causes changes in ecosystems, the atmosphere, and biogeochemical cycles. seven of these [25] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy earth system pressures4 have been quantified and designated as “planetary boundaries”. of these, four are found to be well outside the safe operating space for humans at present—for example, climate change and loss of biodiversity are currently causing existential crises (steffen et al. 2015). the cumulative impacts of past and ongoing changes to the natural environment have assumed a global proportion. climate disruptions, sea-level rise, hurricanes, and possibly even pandemics are examples of ecosystem disservices, against which society needs to protect itself and adapt by altering existing patterns of social metabolism. materials and energy such as food, fossils, metals, and minerals that humans extract from nature, however, do not always flow on their own. they are deliberately mobilized by humans based on values, ideologies of development, and expectations in the social world. they are manifested and reinforced through institutions, laws, policies, education, cultural norms, the economy, and discourse (the “cultural sphere” in figure 1). as humans interact with the natural world, they generate experiences, favourable or unfavourable. these feed back over time into the symbolic/cultural sphere; existing practices are confirmed, or new meaning and insights about environmental risks and uncertainties are generated (for example, through the recognition of ecosystem disservices), leading to renewed expectations and rules. 3. socio-metabolic research and its applications smr studies focus on the biophysical aspects of society–nature interactions on different spatial and temporal scales. in other words, smr offers a research framework for systematically studying the stocks and flows of materials and energy associated with societal production and consumption. as such, smr has become one of the core systems approaches in scientific disciplines such as industrial ecology and ecological economics (molina and toledo 2014; haberl et al. 2019). the research encompasses a broad range of traditions such as urban metabolism, the multi-scale integrated analysis of societal and ecosystem metabolism (musiasem), material and energy flow analysis (mefa), environmentally extended input–output analysis (ee–ioa), and related approaches such as life cycle assessment (lca), the ecological footprint and integrated assessment models (iam) (for an excellent review of smr traditions, see haberl et al. [2019]). gerber and scheidel (2018) consider mefa and musiasem the two major sociometabolic approaches that are foundational to ecological economics. while 4 the seven planetary boundaries are climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biochemical flows, ocean acidification, and stratospheric ozone depletion. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] mefa seeks to establish a mass balance of biophysical stocks and flows through socio-economic systems, musiasem draws on the theory of complex hierarchical systems to integrate diverse socio-economic and metabolic dimensions at multiple scales into its analysis.5 this paper focuses on material flow analysis (mfa), an accounting method that describes (in quantitative terms) the physical dimensions of an economy: what quantity and quality of materials (including energy carriers) are domestically produced, imported, transformed, used, and discarded? mfa is one of the core methodologies that quantifies resource use at the global, national, or sub-national scales and indicates anthropogenic pressures on the environment (dittrich, giljum, lutter, and polszin 2012; igep 2013; mutha, patel, and premnath 2006; singh et al. 2012). embedded in the system of environmental–economic accounts (seea) (eurostat 2018), mfa offers a consistent compilation of all resources entering the socio-economic system, changes in biophysical stocks within the system, outflows into the environment (such as wastes and emissions), and exports to other socio-economic systems (figure 2). depending on the issue, an mfa can focus on specific flows of interest, such as food and energy, investigate specific chemical substances (substance flow analysis), or track problematic materials such as plastics or e-waste in a system. figure 2: material flow analysis for smr source: simron j singh 5 mefa is attributed to the vienna school of social metabolism (fischer-kowalski and weisz 2016; haberl et al. 2016), and the scholarship on musiasem comes from the barcelona school of societal metabolism (giampietro et al. 2009, 2012). [27] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy standard headline indicators include direct material inputs (dmi, the sum of domestically extracted raw material and imports), domestic material consumption (dmc, the difference between direct material inputs and exports), physical trade balance (ptb, the difference between imports and exports), material intensity (mi, the ratio of dmc to gross domestic product [gdp]), and resource efficiency (inverse of mi, also referred to as material productivity). dmi and dmc are important metrics for assessing nationwide material flows (unep 2016; eurostat 2018). dmc, measured in tonnes per capita, indicates the average material consumption of the economy and is a useful marker of the impact of population growth and consumption on material use. these metrics allow for a comparison between socio-economic systems to determine system performance, levels of vulnerability, and anticipated risks. up until recently, much of smr focused on “flows” of materials and energy through an economy. the contributions of “flow” studies include mapping trajectories of resource use across space and time. insights from these studies shed light on past and ongoing resource-use patterns (schandl et al. 2017; krausmann et al. 2016), historical and ongoing transitions from agrarian to industrial modes of production (weisz et al. 2001; haberl et al. 2011), decoupling and eco-efficiency (unep 2011; wiedenhofer et al. 2020), progress towards the un sustainable development goals (sdgs) (bringezu et al. 2016; eisenmenger et al. 2020), and “environmental justice” or the (unequal) distribution of the costs and benefits of social metabolism on different spatial and temporal scales (healy et al. 2013; martinez-alier et al. 2016; scheidel and schaffartzik 2019). more recently, smr has provided crucial insights on the nonlinearity of society–nature interactions. the findings from smr suggest that a high quality of life is possible with moderate levels of material use. using data from multiple countries, researchers have found that human well-being only increases with resource use or emissions up to certain threshold (saturation point), beyond which no clear trends emerge (lamb et al. 2014; mayer, haas, and wiedenhofer 2017). interest in the accumulation of “material stocks” within the smr community has risen in the last decade. “flow” accounting has revealed that over 50% of extracted resources now go into building stocks, up from 20% in 1900. scholars have also realized that “stock” patterns and dynamics influence current and future “flows” of resources (first for building and then for maintenance), creating lock-in effects and path dependencies (krausmann et al. 2020). quite recently, scholars have pointed to the important link between stocks and services. in 2015, 75% of all materials extracted (62 gt/year) were used either to build up stocks or to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] operate them to provide societal services such as housing, transport, health, and education (krausmann, wiedenhofer, and haberl 2020). it has become evident that material stocks enable societies to convert resource flows into specific services. two-thirds of the sdgs depend on infrastructure investment, as it forms the backbone of production and consumption and our daily lives and, hence, the material basis of societal well-being (thacker et al. 2019). the service approach within smr offers new perspectives and strategies for achieving higher levels of well-being with lower levels of resource use by improving the material intensity of services (haberl et al. 2017). another novel contribution of smr (within both the flow and stock approaches) is the concept of a circular economy (ce), which has recently emerged as an important policy goal and a sustainability strategy in many parts of the world (geng et al. 2013; ghisellini, cialani, and ulgiati 2016). ce departs from the dominant linear (take–make–dispose) economy in favour of a relatively closed, systemic, cyclical, and restorative model (ellen macarthur foundation 2013; merli, preziosi, and acampora 2018; stahel 2019). ce borrows the idea of cycling resources through society just as nature cycles water, nutrients, carbon, and other essential materials. while loop closing can occur on any scale up to a global one, existing ce research and practice tend to focus on the meso scale, mostly at the level of ecoindustrial parks (salomone et al. 2020). industrial symbiosis, as this sub-field is termed (chertow 2000), focuses on resource life–extending strategies and the eco-efficiency of goods and services (i.e., reducing resource input per unit of output). economic and environmental benefits are the primary motivations for more efficient product design, cleaner production, and closing material loops by valourizing waste (ghisellini, cialani, and ulgiati 2016; stahel 2019; kirchherr, reike, and hekkert 2017; sauvé, bernard, and sloan 2016). mfa techniques are expected to be increasingly applied to entire economies to identify strategies for resource optimizing and sharing between sectors to increase the overall “circularity rate” of the system (mayer et al. 2019; haas et al. 2020). 4. smr in india smr is widely conducted in europe, the united states, japan, australia, and china. insights from the research are increasingly playing an important role in policy surrounding national resource security and sustainability. this section will review some of the key works that have used smr in india, from the national scale to the industry level. each of these applications offers different insights and perspectives on sustainability. [29] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy 4.1 smr at the national scale in india, smr is still in its infancy. singh et al. (2012) published the first comprehensive national mfa account for india, examining the 1961–2008 period. the results show that material use quadrupled (by a factor of 3.8) in this period, driven by an increase in the use of non-renewables, mostly from domestic sources. in 1960, about three-quarters of the total material was biomass, which doubled by the end of the study period. in contrast, fossil fuel consumption multiplied by a factor of 12.2, industrial minerals and ores by a factor of 8.6, and construction materials by a factor of 9.1. between 1961 and 2008, per capita material use (dmc/cap) grew by 60%, from 3 to 4.3 tonnes/cap/year. further work reveals that india’s burgeoning manufacturing sector is projected to account for 25% of india’s gdp by 2025 (ibef 2019), supported by the country’s various infrastructure and capacity-building initiatives such as make in india (2014), delhi–mumbai industrial corridor project (2006), and skill india mission (2015). it is no surprise, then, that the country’s material, energy, and water demand is rising sharply, aggravated by challenges in the efficient recovery of used resources, weak market mechanisms for secondary materials, and an imperfectly functioning informal waste sector. smr enables the quantifiable assessment of resource use in the context of economic productivity as a means of evaluating longitudinal shifts in material and energy consumption and identifying sources of metabolic transition driven by an economy’s resource use. india contributed 5% to the world’s manufacturing output in 2017 and ranked fifth among the largest manufacturing nations, after china, the us, japan, and germany (unctad 2013). india recorded the second-highest material demand, after china, experiencing an 81% increase between 2000 and 2015 (unep-irp 2018). despite the surge in india’s aggregate material demand, its per capita material consumption in 2015 was still way below global standards at 5.34 tonnes, compared to australia (38.38 tonnes), china (23.65 tonnes), and the us (21.14 tonnes) (table 1). the dichotomy of india’s expected pace of industrialization and multifarious resource exigencies presents a timely opportunity to take stock of the country’s resource-use patterns. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] table 1: domestic material consumption trends in top industrial regions country dmc (tonnes) per capita in 2015 cagr* between 1990 and 2015 (%) australia 38.38 –0.07 china 23.65 5.92 united states of america 21.14 –1.01 europe 13.84 –0.05 japan 9.38 –1.37 india 5.34 1.96 source: talwar (2019), based on dittrich (2014); unep-irp (2018); oecd (2016) *compound annual growth rate shah, dong, and park (2020) compare trade, material flows, and resource efficiency indicators for bangladesh, india, and pakistan over four decades from 1978 to 2017. the analyses show india’s rising reliance on material imports as a result of increased domestic demand, shifting the nation’s status from resource-neutral to resource-deficient. although india’s gdp is accelerating, the authors underscore the importance of trade policy incentives and technological innovation in achieving dematerialization. figure 3 maps india’s material-use trends from 1970 to 2017. figure 3: trends in india’s material use (1970–2017) source: talwar (2019), based on unep-irp (2018) typical patterns of fast-industrializing economies emerge, with increases in the use of fossil fuels (74%) and non-metallic minerals (66%) (figure 3). [31] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy indeed, the construction, industrial, and agricultural sectors dominate nonmetallic mineral use in india, bolstered by ongoing investments in infrastructure building, residential and commercial development, and expanding manufacturing output (talwar 2019). the growth in india’s resource needs comes at a price. the global atlas of environmental justice (2021) reports that over 3,400 cases of conflict worldwide arise from inequalities in resource use, including extraction, production, consumption, and disposal. of these, 343 cases (10%) are from india alone. drawing on the material flows study that singh et al. (2012) conducted on india and the ejolt (2021) project, martinez-alier, temper, and demaria (2016) demonstrate the link between social metabolism and ecological distribution conflicts. such cases in india include those involving bauxite mining in odisha, disputes around waste management in delhi, and ship dismantling in gujarat. using domestic household water consumption patterns in bangalore, mehta et al. (2014) demonstrate that questions about environmental justice are inseparable from those of biophysical sustainability. more recently, roy and schaffartzik (2021) analysed land dispossession, exclusion, and injustices associated with the increasing use of coal in india. 4.2 smr at the sub-national scale smr at the sub-national scale in india is highly limited. singh et al. (2001) conducted the first comprehensive local smr (a mefa) on trinket island in the nicobar district of india in the bay of bengal. the study portrays the changing metabolic profile of an indigenous society—the nicobarese— affected by the development programmes of the indian state. the trinket island case was later compared to the rise in material and energy consumption due to excessive aid following the 2004 asian tsunami (singh, fischer-kowalski, and haas 2018). noll (2015) undertook a sociometabolic analysis in the mumbai metropolitan region by applying a mefa to the brick industry. by quantifying the pressure on soil and water due to brick production in the region, he demonstrates the threat to and conflicts with food production, along with other adverse impacts on local communities and the environment. local smr falls within the tradition of “local studies” (singh et al. 2010), a scale viewed as forming the basis of national and global economies. by paying attention to scale interactions, local smr highlights the role of rural economies in providing critical ecosystem services—provisioning, regulatory, and cultural—to the country. at the same time, they are vulnerable to the socio-ecological impacts of extraction, production, and waste deposition. local smr seeks to understand how the “local” is altered ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] by global processes through interventions such as subsidies, markets, legal frameworks, the creation of infrastructure, and the introduction of services such as health and education. analysis at local scales is gaining importance because it provides insights into local actions and decisions that have cumulative effects on the global environment (singh and haas 2016). the bangalore urban metabolism project (bump 2021), a joint initiative of the stockholm environment institute and the centre for public policy at the indian institute of management, bangalore, has done pioneering work in quantifying resource use in an urban context. following a systems approach, a team of researchers led by deepak malghan, vivek mehta, and eric kemp-benedict adopted smr to analyse material and energy throughputs in the city of bangalore. bump grapples with urban sustainability challenges to inform better governance that integrates economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental sustainability. intensive discussions encompassing ce and resource efficiency in india are in progress. policy announcements like the steel scrap recycling policy (2019) and national resource efficiency programme (2019) are important developments for smr in india. while ce (and its sub-field, industrial symbiosis, with a focus on eco-industrial parks) has been widely researched in china, studies in india are limited in number and scope, despite the manufacturing sector’s rising share in economic activity. previous research on china’s ce implementation, success, and impediments notes that policy structure, execution, and monitoring are largely top–down, with the government and state departments playing an active role (ashton and shenoy 2015; ghisellini, cialani, and ulgiati 2016; mathews and tan 2011; shenoy 2015). in contrast, an examination of industrial symbiosis networks in india reveals the potential for bottom–up eco-industrial development, with industry actors leading socio-metabolic transitions in critical resourceintensive sectors like manufacturing (talwar 2019). previous studies in india have assessed eco-industrial progress in industrial parks and at the level of regions and states. singhal and kapur (2002) propose strategies for incorporating smr approaches into industrial estate plans by classifying industry types, conducting regional environmental impact assessments for upcoming estates, integrating green industrial townships, and more widely applying environmental management systems to manage park performance. saraswat (2008) sets out pathways for existing industrial parks to transition to eco-industrial parks to accelerate industrial ecology awareness and circulated toolkits among industry and government actors. talwar (2019) noted that some states, such as gujarat and andhra pradesh, adopted a greening agenda early in their industrial development by [33] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy incorporating strategic design, co-located activity, shared infrastructure, and common services in industrial estate planning. empirical findings from industrial symbiosis research in india demonstrate the extent of material and energy exchanges among co-located firms within industrial settings (bain et al. 2010; unnikrishnan et al. 2004). bain et al. (2010) conducted one of the most comprehensive investigations of industrial symbiosis in india. the authors quantified material flows for 7 resource categories and 11 self-organized symbiotic relationships within a 42-firm dataset from the nanjangud industrial area in karnataka. unnikrishnan, naik, and deshmukh (2004) emphasize the need for government and institutional support, shared infrastructure development in industrial parks, and financial incentives for industrial symbiosis development in india. to support eco-industrial development in india, initiatives by agencies like the deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit (giz), gujarat cleaner production centre (gcpc), and indo german environment partnership (igep) have been instrumental in increasing awareness and the adoption of industrial ecology principles among governments and industries (giz and igep 2015; nukala and meyer 2012). 5. how can india facilitate smr to leverage its full potential? a transition to sustainability—so that citizens can enjoy a high quality of life at the lowest environment cost—would require a fundamental shift in our resource-use patterns and the way we conceive of human development (fanning and o’neill 2019; raworth 2017; lamb and steinberger 2017). there is no doubt that india’s resource needs will grow in the coming decades as a result of improving material standards of living among a growing population, which will reach 1.7 billion by 2050. the big question is how. can india source the materials and energy necessary for human development sustainably, without increasing the pressures on the domestic and global environment? india needs a new resource revolution, different from the green revolution and industrial revolution, both of which relied on an ever-increasing exploitation of natural resources. to foster a resource revolution, a multilevel perspective combined with innovation in resource use and efficiency is imperative. systemic approaches need to be favoured over narrow research agendas that, by oversimplifying complex interactions, obscure synergies and trade-offs between various social and environmental goals. interdisciplinary approaches with the ability to integrate knowledge from the natural and social sciences; provide common definitions and system boundaries; and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] guide indicator and model development are urgently needed (haberl et al. 2019; geels 2011, 2018). in this regard, smr offers a compelling methodological framework along with a suite of tools and indicators that can offer great insight on policy and drive innovation for a global ce. however, there are some barriers to overcome. shenoy (2015) identifies three key challenges that need attention before smr can reach its full potential in india. first is the lack of adequate data. although the state and central pollution control boards keep records of companies’ maximum capacities and track hazardous waste, they do not have records of the actual tonnage of materials used or traded (bain, ashton, and shenoy 2009). in other words, there is no collation of actual material flow data at the city, state, regional, and national levels. while large companies have data on their material consumption, use, and disposal, data on materials recycled are scarce. most waste streams from a single industry are bundled together and sold (or auctioned) to agents who then separate out the recyclables from the rest (bain et al. 2010; ashton and bain 2012). materials pass through several agents before they are recycled, and the number of agents they pass through depends on the type of material, point of recycling, value, and storability. much of the disaggregation of recyclables happens via the informal market and, hence, there is low to no traceability of data (medina 2007). second is that the development of smr lacks adequate funding, training, and public awareness. despite recent developments in research and development in the renewable energy sector and green tech (singh 2019), increased funding for training and research is needed to develop smr before it can effectively contribute to innovative solutions that optimize resource flows and improve material efficiency. third is the lack of data and information on externalities, that is, harmful effects not internalized in the production costs of enterprises. for example, during mining operations, only the labour costs of removing forest cover and topsoil, not the disregarded materials, are accounted for. several production processes, even in large industries, entail social and environmental externalities unique to the specific sector and local context. these unaccounted resources are relevant to thoroughly understanding socio-metabolic pathways and their future potential (hulten, bennathan, and srinivasan 2006). ecological economists can and must play a bold and crucial role in the new resource revolution in india. this entails strategic partnerships between academia, businesses, and the public sector. fostering interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and training around smr; building the capacity of [35] simron j singh, simran talwar, megha shenoy large, medium, and small enterprises; promoting resource innovation on multiple scales; and fostering a culture of sufficiency and efficiency are some of the key ingredients. as costanza et al. 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sustainability. these arise for the most part from the commodification of nature and the reliance on external inputs into increasingly industrialized forms of agriculture. low external input agriculture like agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, and the like, are viable alternatives that are more likely to deliver outcomes suitable to the structure of indian agriculture. however, they too depend on the commodification of nature as the sole source of economic framing. an alternate framing, the stewardship economy, would build on stewardship, a ‘duty of care’ that values monetized and non-monetised products and services within the framing of rewards, framed as stewardship dividends, to farmers and other stewards of land and landscapes. developing a stewardship economy as the framework for indian agriculture would lead to a more resilient, equitable and optimistic future for indian agriculture. agriculture in india is a success story—never have more people been fed nor more food been produced than right now. this success has come at a great cost: farmer indebtedness has mounted to unprecedented levels (nso 2021); environmental and human health costs have been enormous (dangar et al. 2021; nelson et al. 2019); the annual rate of soil loss now far exceeds replacement rates (sharda and ojasvi 2016); and nutrition targets have been missed. global trends are similar (bene et al. 2019; benton and baily 2019; ipcc 2019; ipbes 2019). building on liebig’s agricultural chemistry (marchesi 2020), the green revolution model, hailed for consecutive successful harvests (pingali 2012), sowed the seeds of the crises we face today. * deputy director general (research) at the world agroforestry centre (icraf) in kenya, r.prabhu@cgiar.org copyright © prabhu 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.612 mailto:r.prabhu@cgiar.org https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.612 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] the need for more food grows with the human population. some routes out of the food and agrarian crises depend on refined versions of the highinput agricultural models that characterized the green revolution. these include sustainable intensification (royal society 2009), precision agriculture (mcbratney et al. 2005), and various other reforms (chand 2020) that would likely intensify forms of industrialized agriculture. if india continues to “industrialize” agriculture, creating “factories in the field” as mcwilliams (1939) called them, social, environmental, and economic problems currently afflicting indian agriculture will likely increase, as in the united states where small family farms are struggling, environmental issues abound, and industrialized farm labour faces social equity challenges (costa and martin 2019). in india, agriculture provides livelihoods for over half the population, and a shift to factory farming would likely result in a massive loss of livelihoods and social disruption. formerly resilient landscapes, which are already degrading, will find themselves headed towards a dystopian future of accelerated vicious cycles of degradation with poorer livelihoods; concomitant erosion of local power, control, and democratic institutions; and uncertain land and tenure rights. industrialized agriculture’s productivity and profitability model focuses almost entirely on efficiency gains and cost optimization, while the sustainability of input “sources” (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides, or water) or waste “sinks” (e.g., atmosphere, groundwater, or rivers) usually receives inadequate attention. alternatives to factory farming models exist (teeb 2018; ipcc 2019). in general, these are more explicit in their consideration of ecological principles and of the importance of natural and social capital, particularly at the local level (hlpe 2019). framed as sets of principles, they offer a “low external/synthetic input” model that is likely to be more sustainable when measured against comprehensive metrics. there is now ample evidence that “low external input” approaches and practices such as agroforestry, natural farming, organic farming, and regenerative agriculture, along with the strengthening and upgrading of value chains, can improve incomes and environmental values in smallholder agriculture (arasg 2021). as we explain in this paper, reliance on the commodification of nature as the pathway to finding sustainable solutions is unlikely to succeed on its own. by “commodification”, we mean focusing on nature’s role solely as a provider of products or services that can be bought or sold in a market. adopting a “duty of care” relationship towards nature would reduce or reverse the commodification of nature without jeopardizing our ability to feed and sustain a burgeoning global population. prabhu et al. (2021) [7] ravi prabhu propose the “stewardship economy” as the pathway to achieve this. they see stewardship as a deliberate and informed combination of solicitude, foresight, and skill—a marriage of practice and ethics, often born of experience and embedded in culture—that has visible and tangible impacts on landscapes and at the forest, farm, and community levels. stewards, i.e., farmers, pastoralists, forest users, and fisherfolk are responsible for the commodities they produce while also exercising a duty of care towards the full range of services we derive from land and landscapes. they are both holders of rights and users of land and water resources. in short, stewards exercise and provide expression to a “duty of care” towards natural resources. in doing so, they also seek to influence policies equitably, fairly, and democratically, and similarly approach consumption patterns and behaviours that condition utilitarian relationships with nature. many of the possible instruments for facilitating an economic transition to stewardship are familiar in form. for instance, certification schemes such as those for timber, e.g., the forest stewardship council, have been quite successful in recognizing stewardship, though less so in rewarding it, especially for smallholders. payments for environmental services schemes have seen success, particularly with respect to water resources. debt for nature swaps also encourages stewardship at larger scales. we can also add ecological fiscal transfers (efts) to this incomplete list; in 2015, india established the largest eft scheme (busch et al. 2020). all these schemes implicitly or explicitly aim to reward good stewardship, where the duty of care towards one service or product that is monetized is expected to deliver multiple co-benefits across others that are not monetized or commodified. prabhu et al. (2021) define a stewardship economy as “an equitable system of exchange that rewards those managing land sustainably for the goods and services we derive from those landscapes without disrupting the rights of people to food, nutrition, health, voice and decent livelihoods”. such an economy operates both within and outside markets as we know them, connecting stewards, direct and indirect, in nested and interacting landscapes. in a stewardship economy, as we understand it, there is a need to step beyond rewarding good management of produced commodities, as described above, to also considering the needs and welfare of the stewards. this implies, for instance, that the welfare of stewards in landscapes providing important but lower-priced commodities is not disadvantaged when compared to those producing higher-priced commodities, conditional to the value of cumulative services from those landscapes being comparable. framing land as a fixed asset as the market economy and balance sheets demand leads inevitably to the unsustainable outcomes we have now ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] because market mechanisms are insufficient on their own, as pigou and others have argued successfully in other contexts (coase 1960). a reductive view of land and nature, reliance on commodification, and the consequent treatment of “externalities” drive the outcomes we see today. let us consider the welfare of stewards in an agricultural commodity–dominated landscape, e.g., producing staples. currently, markets have no realistic way of pricing staples so that they bear the true or full cost to the environment of unsustainable production. any attempt to load the full costs of sustainable production onto staples within a purely market-driven solution would cause price rises that would likely affect the food-insecure poor disproportionally, causing more to go hungry, as jayne et al. (2010) have shown for smallholder maize in sub-saharan africa. as a result, in this example, the welfare of stewards in low-priced commodity landscapes is held hostage to the welfare of the urban poor and is therefore compromised. markets for premium commodities offer more hope in this regard but tend to be far too “thin” to offer change at meaningful scales, as the degradation of shade coffee landscapes in the western ghats shows (gaucherel et al. 2017). considering poverty traps that can arise in the farming of renewable natural resources (forests, soils, water, and wildlife), barrett (2008) suggests that “…intervention is essential if people are to escape and avoid persistent poverty” (36), as markets alone are inadequate. beyond commodity and service markets, in many countries, and especially in forest-reliant communities, insecure or unclear property and tenure rights can additionally act as deterrents to investments in stewardship (chopra and gulati 1997; reid et al 2005). the commodification of nature often proceeds as an intensifying cycle— extensive agriculture yields to mixed systems that in turn are replaced by monocultures as farmers seek market benefits from bulking and aggregation to improve their welfare. losses in ecosystem services, resilience, and sustainability ensue because markets are neither intrinsically structured to ensure that a duty of care is exercised nor for the realization of equitable welfare outcomes. recent reform efforts have sought to change this by pricing social and environmental goods more effectively, but with mixed results (polasky et al. 2019). if we are to reward farmers, forest users, and other “landscape actors” fairly for contributing to sustainable futures, we will need to look beyond markets as we know them today. our search for a stewardship economy, as we propose here, leads us to suggest the need for “stewardship dividend”, which would make up the difference between market-based income and the total income a steward needs to pursue their duty of care toward essential [9] ravi prabhu non-commodified products and services and simultaneously achieve equitable welfare outcomes. further, if producing an agricultural commodity without any negative externalities is taken at its full or true cost, and the price we can advantageously achieve in the market at which poor consumers can still affordably have access to essential commodities such as staples is its fair price, then in the case of most agricultural commodities, the true cost would exceed the fair price by a considerable margin. we postulate that the difference between the true and fair price of these commodities would approximate the “delta” that ensures nature remains resilient in the landscapes where these commodities are produced because stewards are investing efforts and knowledge in ensuring that key non-commodified ecosystem services are still being delivered without compromising their access to equitable welfare. the existence of “delta” or the stewardship dividend can therefore be postulated for any commodity or any agricultural landscape. how would such a stewardship dividend be determined? most efforts at determining the economic value of nature or ecosystem services depart from their perceived environmental importance (dasgupta 2021; polasky et al. 2019); while necessary, this is not sufficient to understand the true value of stewardship. consider that nature exists as we find it because the people living there have so shaped it (fletcher et al. 2021; davis and douglass 2021), and where it is “healthy”, it is because stewards have left it so. this implies that our departure point for the determination of the stewardship dividend must simultaneously be based on 1) the needs and aspirations of the stewards, i.e., the incentives needed to support current behaviours or catalyse changes to it if necessary; 2) any economic value attributed to noncommodified products and services, from an environmental goals’ perspective; and 3) the fair price of a commodity in the market. consequently, it is not enough to focus on a farm or farming household as the unit of analysis, as ecosystem services are frequently emergent properties of larger geographical and temporal scales; thus, simultaneously considering landscape scales, decadal trends, and the collective action of people in those landscapes would be important. this will require more comprehensive metrics than those we currently use in agriculture so that stewardship performance is assessed fully. the availability of digital technologies—remote sensing through to social media—makes it possible now to track changes in key slow (e.g., soil erosion – vagen and winowiecki 2019) and fast (e.g., consumer preferences – taylor 2019) variables at multiple, nested scales reliably and inclusively. this suggests that we can affordably estimate stewardship dividends, assess the performance ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] of stewards against agreed metrics, and efficiently disburse rewards, e.g., as conditional cash transfers. to pay for a transition to a stewardship economy, as a first step, we could reform and repurpose subsidies shown to have perverse impacts (ramaswami 2019; chand 2020) in addition to investments to replace or compensate for the loss of ecosystem infrastructure due to agriculture. in india, ramaswami (2019) has estimated that 21% of farm income is derived from subsidies alone, already a substantial financial corpus for this purpose. additionally, investments in replacing or compensating for ecological infrastructure (e.g., chakrabarti et al. 2019; chand 2017) along with those facilitating green development would greatly increase the financial latitude. conservatively, these funds could offer each farming household practising stewardship an annual stewardship dividend equivalent to at least one-third of their income, before income gains of adopting better farm and land management are added. significant improvements to welfare while transitioning to sustainable agriculture are therefore eminently possible for indian farmers in a stewardship economy. challenges remain such as ensuring that these transfers reach those they are intended for efficiently and effectively. this will likely include securing and clarifying rights including common property or communal rights that are essential to the effective exercise of stewardship responsibilities. while much of the understanding and many of the tools required to transition to a stewardship economy already exist in some form, there is still a need for more work. for instance, innovative finance, investment, and performance management arrangements will need to be developed— capable of reaching through complex social organizations and networks in time. the design process for this renaissance of indian agriculture must be inclusive, equitable, and democratic to lead to the behaviour and attitude changes sought. we need a more resilient, equitable, and optimistic future for indian agriculture. accepting that a duty of care must pervade all of agriculture, forest, and land management is the key step in this direction. india’s agricultural sector is crying out for this kind of innovation and reinvention. nature is more than products; it also provides immeasurable services. people are not just producers; they are also carers. it is high time we recognize, build on, and reward this. 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"predicting the spatial distribution and severity of soil erosion in the global tropics using satellite remote sensing." remote sensing 11 (15): 1800. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11151800. https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2019-0016 https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11151800 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (2): 69–72, july 2018 conversations 1: water governance from reductionist to holistic paradigm: combining ecology, economics, engineering, and social sciences in a transdisciplinary framework for water governance nilanjan ghosh  introduction despite the ongoing paradigm shift in global water governance in favour of demand management and ecosystem restoration at the basin scale, south asia adheres to its archaic and reductionist view of engineering perceiving water merely as a stock of resource to be stored and used. the requirement of large constructions for “training rivers” was shown to the world by the usa during the first half of the 20th century, thereby promoting these structures as harbingers of progress. in south asia, the structural interventions over the flows became integral components of the colonial legacy introduced and formalized under the british rule. early british projects in india were exemplified by the sarada barrage, and the upper ganges canal to divert water from the ganges at hardwar. this “structuralist” tradition continues even today, along with the tradition of the dominating numbers of civil engineers in the ministry of water resources (mowr). mihir shah, in this conversation, has provided a succinct analysis of the existence of the outmoded british common law as the backbone of the legal framework for water governance in india, as also the outdated knowledge of the present day bureaucracy and technocracy to address the new emerging challenges of water governance.  senior fellow and head of economics at observer research foundation, kolkata; & chief economic adviser at world wide fund for nature, india; nilanjan.ghosh@gmail.com. copyright © ghosh 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.36 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.36 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] meanwhile, the perception of water governance in the us, eu, and other parts of the world has been changing with the realization that water conflicts, more often than not, are outcomes of the constructionist paradigm. water professionals have been vocal about livelihoods problems that arise from the losses in ecosystem services resulting from ecosystem damages. this led to a trend of decommissioning dams globally. there is a strong feeling that reductionist engineering and myopic economics need to be replaced by a more transdisciplinary knowledge base that combines engineering with ecological sciences, ecological economics, and other social sciences. adherence to “arithmetic hydrology” contrary to an integrated and holistic thinking, water governance in india relies on a few stand-alone numerical measures of physical state of the resource — a paradigm that jayanta bandyopadhyay described as “arithmetic hydrology”. interlinking of indian rivers is based on the premise of transferring water from “surplus” to “deficit” river basins. this very definition of “surplus” and “deficit” river basins is a vital example of “arithmetic hydrology”, attempting to classify rivers in terms of potential irrigability of land alone. in other instances, physical availability defined solely in terms of per capita availability becomes the decision variable for water management. these definitions are clearly bereft of understanding the broader ecosystems and livelihoods concerns in a river basin. again, the notion of ‘environmental flow’, defined in india as a certain percentage of the total flow, is plagued with scientific inaccuracy. in this conversation, angela arthington—while authoritatively highlighting the central importance of environmental flows in basin governance—points out: spatial patterns must be accommodated in basin-scale e-flow assessments. the desired social-ecological benefits are achieved by sharing the available basin water, in space and time, according to a balance decided by collaborative decision-making and trade-off processes. the challenge is to agree on a desired future state of the river basin’s aquatic ecosystems, including their societal, cultural and spiritual values, and then to agree on a socially acceptable level of water diversion at basin scale. much in contravention to this scientific position, which calls for a negotiated approach to e-flows assessment, the national water policy 2012, of the govt. of india, states, '[…] a portion of river flows should be kept aside to meet ecological needs ensuring that the low and high flow releases are proportional to the natural flow regime, including base flow contribution in the low flow season [...]'. this sentence, which reflects the ubiquitous perception of e-flows in the policy-making machinery in india, [71] nilanjan ghosh gives the impression that as if a single number can ensure the entire working of a river system and dictate the norms of basin governance. the various functions of a river system for the ecosystem, society and culture, and the economy are erased out by this 'arithmetic hydrology' norm. reliance on the neo-malthusian thesis the water bureaucracy and technocracy in south asia still believes that it is ‘scarcity’, delineated as scant physical availability of water, that leads to water conflicts. on the global academic front, despite this neo-malthusian creed being popular till the 1990s, it is now heavily challenged by its detractors that include simon dalby and the copenhagen school. even empirical evidences of conflicts of the himalayan south asian river basins reveal much broader forces at work than mere quantitative representations of scarcity. the conflict over the farakka barrage between west bengal and bihar is primarily with the hypothesis that ‘backwater flows’ resulting from high sedimentation in the barrage are responsible for high-season floods in bihar. on the other hand, the potential concerns in the brahmaputra basin are also over floods, hydropower, and poverty. yet, the prominence of the neo-malthusian thinking in the indian bureaucracy can be witnessed in the ways water governance and conflict resolution are approached. the resolution mechanism worked out by the cauvery water tribunal in 2007 was based on myopic number -games for sharing the waters, without much consideration about the broader institutions, economics, eco-hydrology, and holistic understanding of the conflicts. the recent supreme court order has attempted to correct this folly by reallocating water to urban use from agricultural use, thereby sending across a signal to the agricultural economy to practice demand management of water. can change happen? in 2016, the ministry of water resources, government of india published two important documents under the chairmanship of mihir shah: the draft national water framework bill and a 21st century institutional architecture for india’s water reforms. both called for the much-needed change in the paradigm of water governance. the second document hit the hornet’s nest by its call for dismantling the central water commission (cwc) and central groundwater board (cgwb), and replacing it with a more transdisciplinary national water commission (nwc). this attempt to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] break the archaic dominance of engineers and hydro-geologists in water bureaucracy has ruffled a few feathers. despite resistance from corners of vested interests, the water governance policy narrative has to change from a reductionist paradigm to a more holistic paradigm based on transdisciplinary thinking, as also stated by arthington in the context of e-flows. it is imperative that india leads the way for south asia in water governance by evolving with a transdisciplinary knowledge base of rivers. such a knowledge base needs to be developed by combining fluvial geomorphology, engineering, hydrology, hydro-geology, ecological sciences, tectonic sciences, ecological economics, law, international relations, political sciences, sociology, social anthropology, humanities and culture, and institutional theory so as to emerge with the appropriate institutional mechanisms for basin-level governance. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 131–138, january 2019 discussion response to the comments by c.p. geevan, arun dixit and chandra shekhar silori mihir mathur  and kabir sharma  in this response, we will first address the general statements made by c.p. geevan, a. dixit s. silori (this issue of ees; henceforth gds) in the context of our paper published earlier in ees (m&s), and then move to addressing the specific points raised. the model presented in (m&s) indeed follows a highly coupled approach, refer figure 1 (higher order causal loop diagram of the simulation model) (m&s, 37), as is what gds suggest should be the case for such an ecological-economic system, and unlike what they claim the model actually is. the sectors of livestock, economy and land area are interdependent through multiple feedbacks, some of which are described in the section ‘key cross-sectorial feedbacks’ (m&s, 44). as is asserted incorrectly by gds, the computation of livestock numbers as well as p. juliflora (pj) area referred to as mca by gdsis not done using a ‘stand alone’ approach, and both the sectors are interdependent on each other. pj area is influenced by livestock numbers through an increased spread rate due to livestock acting as vectors in banni; and, livestock numbers depend on pj area as with increased pj invasion, area available for grass growth comes down, thereby reducing biomass production, which leads to fodder deficit named as such in our model impacting livestock numbers. these impacts manifest themselves through three feedbacks: 1) by increasing migration of buffalo and cattle from banni, 2) by increasing fodder and feed input cost, thereby reducing livestock profitability, and increasing the stress sale of livestock and 3)  founder director, desta research llp, new delhi; mihir@desta.co.in  founder director, desta research llp, new delhi; kabir@desta.co.in copyright © mathur and sharma 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.60 editorial note: no further discussion on this matter can be published. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.60 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] figure 1: prosopis and grasslands source: authors increase in the death rate of kankrej cattle from consumption of pods of pj (bharwada & mahajan 2012, 90). the results seen in (m&s) are the outcome of the tightly coupled dynamics between pj area, area under grassland, economics and livestock management and manifest through the multiple feedbacks present in the model. in absence of such feedbacks, the model results would be very different from those presented in (m&s). finally, the model described in gds is very similar to the one in geevan et al. (2003), which was in fact reviewed during the course of our study and is also referenced a number of times in our paper. now, we will present responses to the specific points raised. a) the spread of pj in banni has been rampant. data from studies conducted specifically for banni (shah & somusundaram, 2010) and (guide, 1999) –as also tabulated explicitly in (bharwada & mahajan, 2012, 82) –show that the spread of area under dense pj in banni grew from 16133 ha in 1997(~6% of area) to 72074 ha (27% of area) in [133] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 2: livestock source: authors 2008, giving a compounded growth rate of 14.58 % per year. further, as these numbers are derived from satellite imagery, these are the ‘net seen’ values, which are effectively the net positive difference between the additional land invaded by pj and land cleared of pj through biomass removal (uprooting) practices. as also explained in (m&s, 34), between 2004 and 2008, the ban on chopping of charcoal was lifted and a significant portion of pj area was cleared (bharwada & mahajan 2012). in this light, the actual spread rate would need to be higher than that mentioned above, which would then manifest itself as the ‘net seen’ value, after the effects of clearing land of pj is accounted for. thus, the dynamic annual spread rate taken in our study (including the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [134] figure 3: economy source: authors [135] mihir mathur and kabir sharma figure 4: full model source: authors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] amplification by livestock), has a possible range of 8.5% to 17% (changing with livestock values), and varies between 8.5-12% for most part of the simulation run. further, the model simulation runs begin from year 1992, and thus the time between 1992 to year 2015 served as back-casting for validating changes in land area in the simulation against observed values. this method was used for fine tuning parameter values of spread rate in the model such that it reflected area change as observed in banni. b) as correctly stated by gds, there is no way to estimate ‘unassisted spread rate’, and it is a proxy number, which needs to be corrected for amplification by livestock in order to be comparable with observations. thus, in our study, an estimated base rate is used, which is then amplified by livestock, as explained in (m&s, 39). the number of 8.5 % was taken from a range provided in (vaibhav et al. 2012, 3) just in order to obtain a plausible reference value. although the mentioned study may have focused on biomass regeneration, as pointed out by gds, the concerned number is of area spread as observed by (vaibhav et al. 2012) and not of biomass, as implied by gds. curiously, the paper cited by gds (pasha et al. 2014) in providing a number for spread rate, is a study carried out not exclusively for banni, but for the greater rann of kachchh(grk) region, which has a geographical boundary overlapping only marginally with some parts of eastern banni (pasha et al. 2014, 1482). since this study area contains regions with very different ecological conditions including saline areas and wetlands (pasha et al. 2014, 1483) as well as varying economic use, numbers for this region are not representative of banni. the authors of the study themselves (pasha et al. 2014, 1484-5) note that among the areas within the grk boundary, most (~96%) of the pj invasion took place in the grassland area and only ~4% in other area types. they also go on to cite the same studies cited in point a) above, carried out exclusively for banni (which reveal a growth rate of 14.58%), to emphasize the high spread of pj in banni (pasha et al. 2014, 1486-7). c) graphical functions have been one of the distinguishing characteristics of system dynamics methodology since the inception of the field, and are important tools used by system dynamics modellers to represent non-linear feedbacks between variables in a system (forrester 1973, 34; sterman 2000, 551; pruyt 2013, 120). furthermore, as explained earlier on, our model is tightly coupled, and any change in pj area due to livestock numbers reflects in the next time step on the livestock numbers through profitability and fodder deficit (causing livestock stress sale or migration). thus, the assertion that this [137] mihir mathur and kabir sharma approach excludes feedback effects on the livestock sector is also unfounded. d) pj spread has indeed been modelled with the rate of change being proportional to the area, as has also been done by other studies (dayal 2007). however, the effect gds mention is interesting and we acknowledge that along with other approaches for modeling spread of pj area, such as considering biomass as the driver of pj area change, this approach could also be of potential importance to explore further. e) contrary to the claim, the point made here is unclear, and the explanation provided does not suffice. the livestock sector is not a ‘standalone model’, as the system of banni is tightly coupled as a human-nature system. the livestock sector was modelled to closely represent the real dynamics of banni. both the livestock varieties (banni buffalo and kankrej cattle) are modelled using ageing chains as is traditionally done in sd models (sterman 2000, 470; ford 2009). breeding, selling and migration of buffaloes are all managed based on fodder and profitability and are modeled as such. livestock both impacts and is impacted by the economics, shifts between grassland and pj areas and biomass dynamics of banni (refer to ‘key crosssectorial feedbacks’ (m&s, 44)). indeed, the death rate of livestock (as per their average dying age) is the only exogenously input variable. finally, as explained earlier, back-casting (1992-2015) of the model was done for parameter calibration, and the model was found to capture observed data in banni. we have responded to each of the specific points raised by gds as well as to the general statements made by them. we have demonstrated how their claim of certain formulations being flawed is unfounded, and also provided credible validating references for the parameter values they claim as inaccurate. we do believe, however, that some of these comments may not have arisen if the system dynamics stock-flow diagram had been provided along with the text. it is for this reason that the stock-flow diagrams of the sectors as well as the overall model are attached herewith (figure1 to figure 4). we hope this response and the model images will help readers to better understand our model, and the system dynamics approach of modelling. references bharwada, c., and v. mahajan. 2012. “let it be banni: understanding and sustaining pastoral livelihoods of banni.” centre for economic and social studies (cess) monograph: rulnr monograph 13. http://www.cess.ac.in/cesshome/mono/cessmonograph-26(rulnr-13).pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] dayal, v. 2007. “social diversity and ecological complexity: how an invasive tree could affect diverse agents in the land of the tiger.” environment and development economics 12(4): 553–71. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x07003695 forrester, j.w.1973. world dynamics. 2nd ed. cambridge, massachusetts: wrightallen press. ford, a. 2009. modeling the environment: an introduction to system dynamics models of environmental systems. 2nd ed. washington, dc: island press. geevan, c.p., a.m. dixit, and c.s. silori. 2003. “ecological economic analysis of grassland systems.” eerc working paper series: cpr-5. http://irade.org/eerc/pdf/cpr_fr_geevan.pdf guide (gujarat institute of desert ecology). 1999. “ecorestoration of banni grassland”. gujarat institute of desert ecology, bhuj. pasha, s.v., k.v. satish, c.s. reddy, p.p. rao, and c.s. jha. 2014. “satellite image based quantification of invasion and patch dynamics of mesquite (prosopis juliflora) in great rann of kachchh, kachchh biosphere reserve, gujarat, india.” journal of earth system science 123(7): 1481-1490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0486-0 pruyt, e. 2013. small system dynamics models for big issues: triple jump towards realworld complexity. delft: tu delft library. shah, j. and s. somasundaram. 2010. “preliminary gis and remote sensing analysis on banni grasslands, kachchh.” journal of pure and applied sciences 18: 15–17. sterman, j.d. 2000. business dynamics: systems thinking and modelling for a complex world. new york: irwin/mcgraw-hill. vaibhav, v., a.b. inamdar, d.n. bajaj. 2012. “above ground biomass and carbon stock estimation from p.juliflora in banni grassland using satellite and ancillary data.” 33rd asian conference on remote sensing, november 26-30, 2012, thailand. http://a-a-rs.org/acrs/administrator/components/com_jresearch/files/publications/e3-1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x07003695 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0486-0 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 1-3 january 2022 editorial new perspectives on indian agriculture kamal bawa and kanchan chopra the green revolution (gr) ushered in an era of unprecedented food security in india. the country not only became self-sufficient in providing food grains to its citizens, but it also started to export them to other countries. however, the intensive agriculture propagated by the gr has also left the land, soils, water, and below and above ground biodiversity severely degraded. the burning of agricultural residue has become a major driver of air pollution, resulting in health hazards during early winters in northern india. this is compounded by additional health risks from water pollution due to the leakage of pesticides and fertilizers into surface and ground water. the impacts of climate change will cause further disruptions to an already unstable system, which continues to generate a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, thus perpetuating the problem. this issue of the journal focuses on alternatives to intensive agriculture. there have indeed already been calls for alternatives to the intensive agriculture approach. policymakers at the national level have recently called for natural, zero-budget farming. the meaning of the term is not clear, but the rationale is. other alternative systems include crop diversification, agroecology, climate-smart agriculture, conservation agriculture, regenerative agriculture, and several more. all of these have the same goals: low levels of chemical inputs, improved soil management, and increased below and above ground biodiversity. six contributions in this issue deal with contemporary concerns in indian agriculture, largely in the context of alternatives to intensive agriculture. raj paroda comments on how cropping systems need to be diversified to promote greater sustainability and conservation of natural resources. this  atree, bengaluru and university of massachusetts, boston. kamal.bawa@gmail.com  formerly, institute of economic growth, university of delhi, delhi. choprakanchan14@gmail.com copyright © bawa and chopra 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web) doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.661 mailto:kamal.bawa@gmail.com mailto:choprakanchan14@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.661 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] paper also suggests possible future crop diversification reforms based on science and suited to specific agro-climatic conditions. these reforms can increase production and farmer incomes and ensure conservation through sustainable intensification. incentives will be needed to steer indian agriculture in a different direction. ravi prabhu argues that approaches that follow the principles of agroecology and regenerative agriculture are viable alternatives to industrial agriculture, but incentive-based approaches still depend heavily on the commodification of nature. he presents another alternative, the “stewardship economy”, that values the well-being of farmers and other stewards of the land along with rewarding performance in delivering products and services. the transition to this new economy could build on existing reforms and introduce new innovations, resulting in a more resilient and equitable future for indian agriculture. however, recent backtracking by the government on agricultural reforms in the face of farmers’ protests makes one question the practicality of such transitions. shannon olsson and her coauthors point out that regenerative agriculture is gaining attention worldwide as a method to restore and conserve natural resources while maintaining crop productivity. a lack of consensus on what specific conditions define it, however, has made it more difficult for decision-makers, researchers, the agricultural sector, and the public to move forward in adopting these practices. the authors propose a common framework for defining and developing regenerative agriculture practices and techniques in india, considering the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders and the current challenges facing the agricultural sector. regenerative agriculture is one of several types of systems that follow agroecological principles. mihir shah points out that despite the urgent need to scale up agroecology approaches as alternatives to the gr and its destructive impact, progress in this direction has been slow because the policy framework governing agriculture has remained within a gr paradigm. he suggests key policy reforms that could help remove this impediment to facilitate, support, and accelerate movement towards agroecological farming in india. amita shah and her co-authors highlight the increasing feminization of india’s agriculture. they propose that the next phase of agriculture in india will require a deeper understanding of women’s contributions as well as of measures to strengthen their role to promote food security across all regions and socio-economic contexts. based on the results of a survey carried out in gujarat and west bengal, the authors discuss the state of food security and the role of women in agriculture in these areas in an [3] kamal bawa and kanchan chopra effort to support the argument that women’s roles must be recognized and strengthened by policymakers to promote food security in india. kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik, in a field-based note, further investigate the role (and plight) of farmer households headed by women in the sundarbans area of west bengal. the percentage of such households is higher in this part of west bengal because of the higher incidence of outmigration by men due to limited economic opportunities. most of the women work as agricultural labourers, are highly indebted, and have limited opportunities to earn income from other sources. both the agricultural extension services and the government’s limited employment scheme, mnrega, have an extremely limited reach in this part of the state. clearly, indian agriculture faces many challenges. this collection of papers describes and proposes solutions for a few of these challenges. new paradigms and policy frameworks are needed to address the existing and emerging challenges. the issue carries, in its regular sections, four research papers, four book reviews, and a contributed thematic essay which together reflect the diversity of interests the journal spans. themes covered in research papers range from “the impact of beliefs on food choices” to the “erosion of biodiversity and culture” and the “valuation of marine ecosystem services”. the thematic essay focuses on energy conservation, technological innovations, and behavioral interventions. one cannot help concluding that this first issue of volume 5 is indeed a weighty one, in ways more than one! ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 155–157, january 2019 book review an environmental basis for comparing different histories and experiences lanukumla ao  s. ravi rajan and lise sedrez (eds.). 2018. the great convergence: environmental histories of brics, new delhi: oxford university press, isbn: 9780199479375; pp. 462, inr 1195 the edited volume under review is an interesting and unique academic exercise. the great convergence follows from the efforts of 16 historians and social scientists in writing a meaningful environmental history of brics. the acronym refers to five major emerging economies – brazil, russia, india, china and south africa that together comprise a geo-political association. the term brics was first coined in 2001 by jim o’neil, the then chairman of goldman sachs; arguably one of the most powerful multinational investment banks in the world today. the idea for the brics took off after 2009 ─ given the obvious strategic allure for uniting economies that have 41% of the world population and make-up 32% of the  assistant professor, department of history, don bosco college, kohima 797001, nagaland; longchar_akumla@yahoo.com. copyright © ao 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.64 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.64 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] world’s gross domestic product in 2015. but forging and sustaining unity among these nations is no easy challenge given that they are not only diverse culturally, environmentally and politically, but are also geographically far parts of different continents. or as plainly remarked in the introduction by the editors s. ravi rajan and lise sedrez, ‘countries with very little in common as far as history goes’ (p.xv). admirably enough, the 16 essays that comprise the volume do manage to make a compelling and sometimes even convincing case for how the environment can become the ground for establishing a conceptual linkage for comparison across different histories and experiences. the book is divided into three broad themes: the state; the role of civil society; and, environmental histories. the first part explores how the respective states and their governments have dealt with the notion of nature and engaged with ideas of environmental conservations or preservation. the authors – regina horta duarte (brazil), paul josephson (russia), s. ravi rajan (india), xueqin mei (china), and william beinart (south africa) give a fairly detailed account of how environment policies were steadily formulated as part of state strategies to either exploit or conserve natural resources. the essays by josephson and mei are particularly instructive with regard to how communist governments thought about the natural world despite marxist ideological blinkers and the urgency for development. the authors in this section do also attempt to engage with each other’s essays and one also notes how the respective governments draw upon international contexts such as the stockholm conference of 1972 and the rio conference of 1992 to elaborate state-level responses to the problems of environmental degradation and alarm. on the second theme, dealing with civil society organizations (csos), the contributions by josé augusto padua (brazil), nicolai dronin (russia), radhika krishnan (india), fei sheng (china), and farieda khan (south africa) helpfully map the distinct social contexts for environmental action. khan’s excellent discussion tells us how csos in south africa in the apartheid era (1948-94) pursued wildlife protection as an element of racial segregation. while some of the csos did challenge the racial divide, it was only in the post-apartheid period that a more ‘people-centric’ notion of conservation was developed. krishnan’s essay draws upon a vast canvas of how non-governmental organizations (ngos), popular resistance, academicians and popular science initiatives combined to create a vibrant and forceful mood for environmental protection in india during the 1970s through to 2000. at heart, she informs us, these ‘multiple voices’ underlined the need to meaningfully define notions about ‘progress’ and ‘development’. sheng’s discussion on the role of environmental ngos (engos) and [157] lanukumla ao government ngos (gongos) in china reveals how complicated and yet hopeful the problems of achieving conservation outcomes can be under a communist government. in the third theme, lise sedrez and eunice nodari (brazil), julia lajus (russia), s. ravi rajan and rohan d’souza (india), shen hou (china) and sandra swart (south africa) provide a broad survey approach to outline the state of environmental history as an academic field in their respective countries. here, i would commend the essay of shen hou for both her literary style and thoughtful discussion. we learn how environmental history writing in china was substantially driven and inspired by the works of environmental historians in the united states. notably, the seminal efforts of donald worster. interestingly, once the environmental history takes off in china at the turn of the 21st century, hou informs us that several chinese scholars begin to reverse the academic gaze by researching and publishing on the environmental histories of the united states, europe and even the pacific regions of australia and new zealand. as a historian located in nagaland, such a perspectival shift by chinese scholars is particularly telling as the environmental history of the northeast region of india, with the exception of assam, continues to remain meagre. sadly, the limitations of space prevent us from providing a more detailed discussion of the many insights, perspectives and concepts that these essays throw up, and therefore in this very brief review one can only conclude by restating that such a collection deserves a larger engagement and that it will make for excellent teaching material for college and university students. as almost all the authors maintain, the future of the environmental history writing has many good reasons to go beyond the limitations of national histories. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 145–149, january 2019 notes from the field tides of change in the andaman and nicobar islands meera anna oommen  and madhuri ramesh  1. locating our engagement the andaman and nicobar islands (ani) in the bay of bengal came to be a part of india via the colonial legacy of a penal settlement, but seldom figured – barring the indian freedom struggle of 1857 – in the nation's collective consciousness. from indian independence until the beginning of this millennium, the archipelago was a developmental backwater neglected by mainstream planning interventions. on the other hand, its ecological uniqueness has been recognized for long because this archipelago is encompassed within two global biodiversity hotspots: the andamans form a part of the indo-burma hotspot and the nicobars form the northwestern extremity of the sundaland hotspot. many conservation imperatives have emerged from the high levels of diversity and endemism seen here for many taxa. furthermore, the islands encompass unique socio-ecological systems that are characterised not only by deep connections between people and nature, in the form of traditional resource use and management systems, but also by extensive interlinkages between marine, littoral and terrestrial systems. for example, the andamans are home to indigenous islanders such as the jarawa and the sentinelese, whose societies are still perhaps among the last remaining representatives of hunter-gatherer cultures anywhere that survive on limited contact with outsiders. similarly, the shompen (on great  dakshin foundation, 1818, 9th cross, 5th main rd, b block, cqal layout, sahakar nagar, bengaluru, 560092; meera.anna@gmail.com.   dakshin foundation, 1818, 9th cross, 5th main rd, b block, cqal layout, sahakar nagar, bengaluru, 560092; madhuri.ramesh@dakshin.org copyright © oommen and ramesh 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.62 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.62 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] nicobar) are forest-dwelling hunters and foragers, with a culture distinct from the coastal nicobarese who practice horticulture, animal husbandry and maritime occupations. the shompen have their own resource management systems and cultural practices that are tied to their longstanding local ecological knowledge, which plays a significant role in the management of critical common pool resources (singh 2006; chandi 2018). however, a closer reading of the past also reveals a story of disruption and change. for example, the fate of the onge and the great andamanese peoples — the latter having been reduced to a mere handful of surviving individuals—are evidence of destruction of traditional ways of life and the decimation of indigenous populations as a consequence of encounters with outsiders during colonial and contemporary times. in recent decades, increasing contact with outsiders has been instrumental in the breakdown of indigenous adaptive approaches to the management of natural resources. this is because settlers from the indian mainland (including bangladesh and myanmar) have gradually come to form the largest part of the ani demography. they are an extremely diverse group and their arrivals were triggered by different historical events, starting with the colonial penal settlement. despite their oppositional positioning to the indigenous groups, the settler communities are vulnerable on account of their initial status as migrants, their continuing political marginalization, as well as their dependence on various natural resources for subsistence and commercial purposes. but now, in contrast to this complex history of neglect and displacement, these islands have suddenly been catapulted into the spotlight due to india’s interest in the emerging indo-pacific great game. there has been increased media focus on the strategic importance of these islands with respect to maritime trade and security, along with a strong political desire to convert this far-flung archipelago into “a prized piece of mid-ocean real estate” (e.g. malik 2014). recent development agendas such as those proposed by the niti aayog have also emphasized the expansion of sectors such as tourism and fisheries. as can be seen in the diversity of views expressed in academia and popular media, the response to these developments are largely rooted in the contrasting ideologies and backgrounds of different commentators (oommen and shanker 2012; malik 2014; rae 2015; sekhsaria 2017), whereas the ground realities for local communities (both indigenous and settler) remain poorly articulated at this point. moreover, calls to increase india's oceanic interests as well as the development of the islands' natural resources and tourism capabilities have, so far, paid scarce attention to the attendant challenges at the interface of society, economy and environment. [147] meera anna oommen and madhuri ramesh while many of these challenges, such as the consequences of climate change, are similar to the challenges faced by small island developing states the world over, the putative impacts on the socio-ecological systems specific to ani remain to be assessed. this includes the need for an evaluation of several public policies proposed with reference to tourism, fisheries and coastal urbanization all with the aim of transforming this region into a network of ‘smart’ islands. 2. incoming tide as mentioned earlier, at the forefront of these burgeoning changes is a set of factors related to tactical positioning and economic growth, both of which are exogenous to the region. for example, the central government has announced significant outlays in marine fisheries (icar 2014), port-led coastal development (ministry of shipping 2016), and tourism (niti aayog 2018). while investments in tourism for the high-end sector is anticipated to usher in significant social and environmental changes ranging from cultural transitions to altered resource exploitation patterns, synergies between tourism development plans and landscape-level impacts are yet to be understood in detail. tourism activities in earmarked indigenous spaces such as little andaman as well as the nicobar group of islands are likely to be problematic in this regard because past studies have shown (anderson et al. 2015; venkateswar 2004) that a sudden exposure to ‘mainstreaming’ policies as well as an influx of outsiders has a debilitating effect on the wellbeing of traditional societies and the natural resources their lives are closely connected to. project proposals also need to pay attention to issues of equity and justice, which are often debatable in the case of high-end tourism interventions. on the other hand, such ‘opening up’ has benefitted some sections of the settler population. for instance, the tourism boom has attracted many informal service workers, including seasonal migrants, and associated infrastructure projects have provided steady employment to many. keeping in mind the contingent nature of such outcomes, anet and partner organisations have been involved in organising fine-grained workshops and awareness generation events to help local communities’ access opportunities while being mindful of sustainability and long-term ecological impacts. similar to the mixed impacts of tourism, increased connectivity and market linkages may improve the status of fishing communities, who are another significant section of islanders. however, fisheries sustainability is likely to be a casualty unless large-scale plans such as long-lining and deep-sea ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] fishing are well-regulated. we find that several boom and bust fisheries driven by sea-food export markets in nearby southeast asia offer important lessons for indian conditions and need to be incorporated into policy and management (jaini et al. 2017). we also recognize that local development interventions combined with large-scale threats such as climate change and seismic events can result in cumulative impacts that can be overwhelming. hence, one of the emerging areas of research by anet and its partners is the impact of climate change on coral reefs and associated fisheries. in the future, this work is poised to provide evidence-based inputs on long-term sustainability research and practice for the islands. 3. policy engagement in our opinion, the inherent vulnerability of the islands’ socio-ecological systems calls for policy measures that are committed to long-term sustainability and take into account the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including indigenous and settler communities. therefore, one of our current goals at anet is to actively seek inputs from the island administration as well as local traditional institutions of governance, so that on-ground challenges are recognised and addressed appropriately. a second goal is to improve integration of sectoral polices. for example, if ecotourism is expected to be one of the key developmental interventions in the islands, we believe that there needs to be a corresponding commitment to the maintenance of ecological integrity and promotion of eco-friendly practices. hence, we participate in formal planning committees as well as facilitate community-based initiatives. we have also been instrumental in initiating discussions on natural resource management between multiple stakeholders such as the island administration, communities and commercial entities. most recently, in partnership with wwf-india, anet arranged a multi-stakeholder meeting with the representatives of niti aayog to discuss concerns specific to ani and identify further steps for the region’s holistic development. overall, given the complex interlinkages that characterise these unique islands, we would like to contribute to a policy environment that supports the aspirations of the settler communities over the long-term, including better integration with the mainland and other regions, but at the same time we would like to ensure due concern for the rights, livelihoods and spaces of indigenous inhabitants. in other words, our intention is to contribute to a development vision for ani that acknowledges social and environmental sustainability as a central issue and thereby ushers in positive local as well as national outcomes. [149] meera anna oommen and madhuri ramesh references anderson, c. et al. 2015. new histories of the andaman islands. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139924641 chandi, m. 2018. “sharing pork and well-being.” seminar volume 702: 50-53. jaini, m. et al. 2017. “history, culture, infrastructure and export markets shape fisheries and reef accessibility in india's contrasting oceanic islands.” environmental conservation 45 (1): 41-48. https://doi.org/10.1017/s037689291700042x malik, a. 2014. “our string of islands theory.” hindustan times, september 2, 2014. https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-view/our-string-of-islands-theory/story0l2utxhexfhrvt0efglfyk.html icar. 2014. “report of the expert committee constituted for comprehensive review of the deep sea fishing policy and guidelines.” new delhi: department of animal husbandry, dairying & fisheries, ministry of agriculture, government of india. ministry of shipping. 2016. “sagarmala: building gateways of growth.” new delhi: national perspective plan, ministry of shipping. ministry of agriculture and farmer’s welfare. 2017. “national policy on marine fisheries.” gazette notification f. no. 21001/05/2014-fy dated april 28, 2017. niti-aayog. 2018. “incredible islands of india.” keynote presentation. http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/islandsdev.pdf oommen, m.a., and k. shanker. 2012. “islands in peril: develop and perish?” the hindu, february 18, 2012. rae, v. 2015. “the andaman and nicobar islands punch grossly below their weight.” india today, may 4, 2015. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20150504-andaman-andnicobar-islands-narendra-modi-seychelles-mauritius-818229-2015-04-23 sekhsaria, p. 2018. “the andaman and nicobar islands are not an ‘empty space’.” ecology, economy and societythe insee journal 1 (1): 91-95. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.22 singh, s.j. 2006. the nicobar islands: cultural choices in the aftermath of the tsunami. vienna: czernin verlag. venkateswar, s. 2004. “development and ethnocide: colonial practices in the andaman islands.” international work group for indigenous affairs, denmark. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139924641 https://doi.org/10.1017/s037689291700042x https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-view/our-string-of-islands-theory/story-0l2utxhexfhrvt0efglfyk.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-view/our-string-of-islands-theory/story-0l2utxhexfhrvt0efglfyk.html http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/islandsdev.pdf https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20150504-andaman-and-nicobar-islands-narendra-modi-seychelles-mauritius-818229-2015-04-23 https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20150504-andaman-and-nicobar-islands-narendra-modi-seychelles-mauritius-818229-2015-04-23 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.22 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 231-233 january 2022 book review the crisis of sustainability in india pranab mukhopadhyay fujita, koichi, and tsukasa mizushima, eds. 2020. sustainable development in india: groundwater irrigation, energy use, and food production. abingdon and new york: routledge, 270 pages, isbn 9780367460976 (hardcover) there has been a long-standing debate on the role of public policy and markets in enabling efficient and equitable allocation. advocates of laissez faire argue that greater state intervention distorts markets, leading to inefficient allocation. unfettered markets, on the other hand, are known to have equity concerns. this problem is especially pronounced in the case of intergenerational allocation as future generations are not at the bargaining table. this challenge is at the heart of the debate on sustainable development. india is a prominent entity in the global sustainability debate for a combination of reasons—its growing economic position, its demographic structure with a population of more than a  professor of economics, goa business school, goa university, taleigao plateau, goa, 403206, india; email: pm@unigoa.ac.in. copyright © mukhopadhyay 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.607 mailto:pm@unigoa.ac.in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [232] billion, and a growing aggregate carbon footprint. a persistent challenge for india has been keeping its population out of poverty while ensuring citizens’ sustained food security. in the first couple of decades after independence, the government had to increase food production and ensure self-sufficiency. the green revolution, with introduced irrigated agriculture and new seed technologies, replaced traditional modes of farming in india. while india did achieve rapid agricultural growth, the revolution left in its wake a number of questions about its sustainability. a new set of problems evolved around what is termed the “food–water– energy” nexus, and this crisis has been deepening over the years. the roots of today’s agrarian problems are embedded in india’s historically interwoven social, ecological, and economic structures. in response to this crisis, koichi fujita and tsukasa mizushima have brought together a set of studies in this edited volume. the volume is divided into two parts. the first is titled “land, water, and population in the past and future” and the second is titled “regional path dependencies and policy orientations for sustainability”. the editors, in contrast to many other contributions in this area, have rightly taken a longterm view of agrarian change in the country. going back to the eighteenth century, the contributors examine land issues in tamil nadu (tsukasa mizushima), odisha (akio tanabe), and bengal (shinkichi taniguchi). there are also reflections on traditional irrigation technologies like the tank irrigation system that evolved in south india (kuppanan palanisami and mohanasundari thangavel) and the ahars (water reservoirs) based on gravity flow in southern bihar (tetsuo satoh). these traditional technologies that have stood the test of time are suitable candidates to become part of the adaptation toolkit for climate-proofing agriculture in south asia. the contemporary crisis is discussed in the five chapters of part ii of this volume. the reasons for, and the consequences of, the rapid decline in groundwater in punjab (kamal vatta and parisha budhiraja), tamil nadu (takahiro sato), gujarat, and west bengal (tushaar shah and sujata das chowdhury) are discussed in detail in this section. the contemporary policy of governments in india providing subsidies for various inputs is sometimes considered a critical driver for the unsustainable use of resources. on the energy front, subsidised electricity and use of fossil fuels are regarded as primary causes for the rapid depletion of groundwater in many parts of the country with inadequate recharge (koichi fujita and atsushi fukumi). this has also led to the distortion of water markets. in the context of public finances, the growing gap (due to low tariffs) between the revenues and [233] pranab mukhopadhyay costs of state electricity boards have made them financially unviable. this is also increasing the pressure on states’ finances. in parallel, the subsidy-based fertiliser–insecticide policy has led to their excessive use (ippei sekido). this has resulted in the unhealthy accumulation of chemical residues in produce (thus affecting human health, groundwater, and water bodies). it is also seen as the primary cause for soil contamination and exhaustion as well as water pollution. an associated issue with new farm technologies is their impact on biodiversity. current farm technologies encourage monoculture, leading to a loss of crop and seed varieties. this may have long-term consequences for how we adapt to climate change—it is a fact that some traditional, climateresistant varieties of crops have gone extinct because of low productivity or low market uptake. further, the entry of large seed companies has stripped the farmer of control over seeds as well as the production process. this will adversely affect long-term risk reduction strategies in agriculture. geographically, the book focuses on a limited number of states—tamil nadu (chapters 2 and 5), west bengal (chapters 4 and 11), odisha (chapter 3), bihar (chapter 6), punjab (chapters 8 and 10), and gujarat (chapter 11). chapter 7 takes a larger view of the country as a whole, and chapter 9 provides reflections on other parts of south asia. the book offers a comprehensive view of sustainability challenges in the agricultural sector. it highlights the heterogeneity of outcomes, based on the role of institutions and their evolution, and the diversity of agro-ecological landscapes in india. this will provide good reference material for researchers dealing with questions relating to agricultural production, water and electricity prices, and their combined impact on ecology on the one hand and state finances on the other. a couple of areas that the book does not touch upon are sustainability issues in the industrial sector and urban landscape. considering that almost half the population now lives in urban areas, and considering the significant contribution of industry to india’s economy and industry–agriculture linkages, there is a need for similar comprehensive assessments of sustainability in these domains. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 13-19, july 2021 commentary conserving economics for biodiversity: reflections on “the dasgupta review” rajeswari s raina1 abstract: the economics of biodiversity: the dasgupta review (dasgupta 2021), henceforth the review, tells us that we are embedded in nature and our economies are bounded within nature. it helps us estimate the value of natural capital and include it in estimations of economic output. the review’s key messages concern (i) keeping our demands well within nature’s supply, (ii) moving away from gross domestic product (gdp) towards inclusive wealth as a measure of economic success, and (iii) acknowledging the institutional failure in addressing global environmental problems and resolving them through institutional reforms in the financial and education systems. however, this commentary suggests that the review is about conserving economics for biodiversity. it offers little opportunity for transformative change in our thinking and acting, to change our relationship with nature so that we can conserve its diversity and dynamism. this commentary suggests possible ways forward, drawing upon lessons on non-linear behaviour, emergent properties, and complexity in nature. these include looking to niche communities that live within the limits set by nature, learning from various environmental social sciences on how to maintain and promote the aggregate stocks and funds of nature; and finding ways to include economic activity and output in value frameworks of sustainability, justice, and diversity. keywords: biodiversity; conserving economics; institutions; complexity; environmental social science. 1 professor, department of international relations and governance studies, school of humanities and social sciences, shiv nadar university, nh91, tehsil dadri, greater noida, uttar pradesh – 201314; rajeswari.raina@snu.edu.in. copyright © raina 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.464 mailto:rajeswari.raina@snu.edu.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.464 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] 1. the review the review is rich with powerful and critical findings. but it seems to conserve economics; it offers little opportunity to transform our economies and societies by changing our relationship with nature. the review tells us repeatedly that we are part of nature and are embedded in it. nature, or the biosphere, has limits; but our lifestyles and production and consumption behaviours treat nature as a perpetual and inexhaustible supplier of goods and services. as one news article proclaimed, quoting professor dasgupta, “nature is a blind spot in economics that we ignore at our peril” (hm treasury 2021). indefinite growth of global economic output is not possible. gross domestic product (gdp), which is understood as the market value of the flow of final goods and services in a country in a given year, is an inadequate measure of wealth and wellbeing. it encourages governments to pursue unsustainable economic growth at an immense and irreversible cost to nature. in the first part, chapters 1–13, prof. dasgupta makes it clear that our economic activity has crossed known planetary limits (see subsection 4.1.2., p. 127 and p. 338). the second and third parts of the review take us through extensions (including chapters on the conservation and restoration of nature) and the road ahead (options for action), maintaining that “the fault is not in economics” but in the way we have chosen to practise it (p. 498). the prevalent macroeconomics of economic growth and development does not recognize humanity’s dependence on nature (p. 38). our commitment to economic growth and using gdp as a measure of it are evident in both the intergovernmental panel on climate change and the sustainable development goals (see box 4.5). governments and their statisticians and planners are obsessed with efficiency parameters. further, our current predicament, the sixth mass extinction of species, is not just due to market failure. it is due to persistent and pervasive institutional failure in addressing global environmental problems like climate change, loss of biodiversity, and unsustainable development. these institutional failures can be resolved when the “social evaluator” or “citizen investor” (who replaces the utility-maximizing individual consumer or investor) evaluates options on behalf of society using the criterion of “inclusive wealth” (chapter 13). inclusive wealth and inter-generational well-being are not the same entity but move in step with each other (see p. 327). this inclusive wealth/wellbeing equivalence theorem leads us to the sustainable development theorem, which states that intergenerational well-being increases over a period if and only if inclusive wealth increases over the same period. armed with this knowledge, the citizen investor can make positive investments and [15] rajeswari s raina include stocks (not just flows of capital) in her estimation of returns on investment suitably discounted over time to arrive at national inclusive wealth. the empowered citizens can demand and enable public policy choices that respect social cost–benefit (social-npv (net present value)) estimates. the review tells us that transformative change in our mode of thinking and acting is necessary and possible. we need to (i) ensure that our demands on nature do not exceed its supply and (ii) find ways to increase nature’s supply compared to its current level. we have to discard gdp and measure “inclusive wealth”, which is the weighted sum of the stocks of all capital goods (produced capital, human capital, and natural capital) in the economy. it suggests that we change our institutions, especially those protecting public goods and governing financial and educational systems. supra-national institutional arrangements and public and private financial investments in economic activities that stand to enhance our stock of natural assets and incentivize sustainable production and consumption activities are needed. governments and international actors like multilateral development banks can enable these investments in nature. action is needed across scales by multiple actors—from the introduction of supranational governance of ecosystems located within national boundaries (biomes like tropical rainforests) and outside of them (the oceans) to inculcating discipline in individuals and educating them so that they can make informed choices and invest wisely. 2. economics in the review: some reflections let us begin with the model of “the bounded global economy” that shapes the review, which is presented in chapter 4. this model does not show how the economy exists within nature and how it behaves as embedded in it. the presentation of produced capital, human capital, and natural capital, and the flows between them (fig 1.1), and the dematerialized anthropocentric innovations and reforms meant to balance humanity’s demands and nature’s supply (fig. 21.2), are not mere corrections in the practice of economics. these are the core of economics and the review. in part i, the review fundamentally seeks to reinforce economics and its formalism to ensure that nature is included in the global economy. this denies nature its agency, its self-organizing and non-linear behaviour, emergent properties, and complexity. it does make it possible to include natural capital (the flow of provisioning services) (r), and the stock supplying regulating and maintenance services (s)) in the economy, as long as it stays within a safe limit (l). in economics, this is an unorthodox ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] introduction indeed. in a linear cobb-douglas production function, with its assumptions of substitution and returns to scale, nature is a silent participant, a source and sink in the model of inclusive wealth. in the real world, nature has agency and is a dynamic shaper of the economy. “the survival of the natural world depends on maintaining its complexity, its biodiversity. putting things right requires a universal understanding of how these complex systems work. that applies to economics too” (hm treasury 2021, quoting david attenborough). if we are indeed embedded in and are dominant actors in nature, the question is not about bringing our aggregate demand in line with aggregate supply (g(s)), but about maintaining and promoting (in every way and wherever possible) the aggregate stocks and funds of nature (georgescuroegen 1975). the global economy should then be treated as a part of the “flows” of goods and services from both “stocks” (historical build-up of limited biogeochemical reservoirs of matter) and “funds” (regularly renewed biotic resources built and maintained with solar radiation); a user of these stocks and funds would then be keen to maintain them within nature’s limits (ibid). in the real world, produced capital and human capital exist within diverse, non-linear, and highly heterogeneous complex adaptive systems (levin et al. 2013). a model of wealth will then consider how the extraction of both stocks and funds, and the (inequitable) accumulation of produced capital and human capital, result in a cumulative causation of environmental and social costs (kapp 1968) with lasting impacts on nations and nature. the review presents impact inequality as a reductionist macro model (see fig 4.9) of how our demand (ny/α) exceeds the biosphere’s supply stock (g(s)) and ignores lessons from ecology, history, political science, and several schools of economics. again, the review’s treatment of natural capital does not take into account our understanding of both n (human population) and y (human economic activity per capita), and substantive accounts of the social metabolism (material and energy transformations) and material intensity of different countries and their respective production and consumption systems. the review’s treatment of natural capital in the economy reinforces mainstream (neoclassical) environmental economics. the absence of “society” embedded in the biosphere (fig 4.11) and the economy embedded in society, is more than an epistemic erasure in the review. 2 social capital is seen as necessary only for consumers and investors to participate in and comply with the goal of inclusive wealth and 2 economics does attempt to retain society as a key system shaping the economy within the biosphere (figure 1.5 in the core team, 2017). [17] rajeswari s raina investment decisions. institutions, likewise, are necessary to manage unidirectional externalities arising from economic activity and common pool resources (see chapters 7 and 8). institutions as norms and rules “which have become axiomatic and indispensable by habituation and general acceptance” (the economist thorstein veblen as quoted in kapp 2011, p. 56) are not necessary for the review because the processes of institutional emergence and enculturation are not considered important. institutions as bio-cultural protocols devised by communities through social-ecological system changes (bpums 2010), and norms and analyses that are cognizant of nature, justice, and time (faber 2008) which acknowledge the incomparability and incommensurability of values in ecology and economics (martinez-alier et al 1998), are central to our understanding of biodiversity in a resilient and sustainable planet. there are examples of societies taking institutions into account. in india, tribal populations like the baigas (in madhya pradesh) and soligas (in karnataka) in forests and pastoralists like the maldharis and raika (in gujarat) covering tracts along the western and northern indian grasslands, acknowledge the complexity and variability of nature. just as the aymara and quechua in the andes or the sami in sweden, they do not acknowledge waste (to be dumped in the sink) but account for joint production and time. they set non-negotiables and social targets, design institutions, and explore economic policies that accomplish these targets. the institutions governing their societies and economies help them thrive within the rhythms of nature, with its complexity and biodiversity. the review, as it picks from the discerning evidence sought (see p. 603), ignores these institutions governing populations and their socio-metabolic regimes; it presents a rather ahistorical and dematerialized treatment of the population problem in general. conspicuously absent are past attempts in mapping the interplay between nature and the economy3 (mine), estimating green gdp and environmental accounting, and scholarship on biodiversity conservation and global change. there is no space in the review for including analytical frameworks of justice, diversity, and sustainability in environmental research and policymaking, lessons from the environmental social sciences, and questions about incentivizing economists to work on the challenges of the environment and sustainable development. historically, economic changes following the first and second industrial revolutions, and the recession and recovery of the early twentieth century, led to macroeconomic models of economic growth being theorized and institutionalized. today, there are already alternatives promoting the 3 see the mine website, http://nature-economy.de/, for details. http://nature-economy.de/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] economics of care, industrial ecology, clean production and consumption, environmental justice, and post-growth society. economists are studying these along with transdisciplinary research groups analysing socialecological systems, social metabolism, resilience, and the economy within nature’s limits. they analyse the social systems and features of millions of actors, the political economic persons (peps) who are not the ‘economic man’ or the utility-maximizing consumer of neoclassical economics (soderbaum 2000). these citizens and organizations, guided by their values and institutions that are responsive to social and environmental stress, can live within nature’s limits with minimal throughput. they will refuse to participate in supra-national governance and financial mechanisms that seek more investments in under-invested natural capital. for them, nature is not ‘natural capital’ (an economic entity). given the pluralism of these citizens and organizations marked by value frameworks (diversity, equality, justice, or sustainability) and governance models that can coexist and coevolve with these frameworks, they will help us live as a part of nature, within nature’s limits. if the review had taken due cognizance of these conceptual and theoretical shifts and inter and transdisciplinary analyses of human–nature interactions, it would have extended its reach and enriched a more insightful analysis of how we can conserve and promote biodiversity. references bpums. 2010. the biocultural community protocol of the maldharis of banni. banni pashu uchherak maldhari sanghatan (banni breeders association) in collaboration with natural justice, south africa, and sahjeevan, bhuj, kutch. dasgupta, partha. 2021. the economics of biodiversity: the dasgupta review, hm treasury: london. faber, malte. 2008. “how to be an ecological economist.” ecological economics 66(1): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.01.017 georgescu-roegen, nicholas. 1975. “energy and economic myths.” southern economic journal 41(3): 347–381. https://doi.org/10.2307/1056148 hm treasury. 2021. “nature is a blind spot in economics that we ignore at our peril, says dasgupta review.” accessed march 2021. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-is-a-blind-spot-in-economics-thatwe-ignore-at-our-peril-says-dasgupta-review. kapp, william k. 1968. “in defense of institutional economics.” the swedish journal of economics 70(1): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/3438981 kapp, william k. 2011. the foundations of institutional economics, edited by sebastian berger and rolf steppacher. routledge: london. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203827864 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.01.017 https://doi.org/10.2307/1056148 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-is-a-blind-spot-in-economics-that-we-ignore-at-our-peril-says-dasgupta-review https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nature-is-a-blind-spot-in-economics-that-we-ignore-at-our-peril-says-dasgupta-review https://doi.org/10.2307/3438981 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203827864 [19] rajeswari s raina levin, simon, tasos xepapadeas, anne-sophie crepin, jon norberg, aart de zeeuw, carl folke, terryhughes, et al. 2019. “social ecological systems as complex adaptive systems: modeling and policy implications”, environment and development economics 18(2): 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x12000460 martinez-alier, joan, giuseppe munda, john o’ neil. 1998. “weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics.” ecological economics, 26(3): 277–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-8009(97)00120-1 soderbaum, peter. 2000. ecological economics: political economics for social and environmental development. routledge: london. the core team. 2017. the economy: economics for a changing world. new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x12000460 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-8009(97)00120-1 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 103–106, january 2020 conversations: national mineral policy 2019 — balancing stakeholder interests and concerns a business-friendly new mineral policy pradeep kumar jain  1. introduction the use of natural resources, including minerals, is the backbone of global economics and in turn of human development and well-being. mineral wealth, though finite and non-renewable in the long term, is a major resource for development (jain, 2018). mineral policies are crucial documents that governments use to establish goals of sustainable mineral raw material supply and steps leading towards the fulfilment of such goals. the journey of mineral policy in india is over seven decades now. it shows a blueprint of changing scenarios in mineral development from supply of raw materials to mineral base to sustainable development including intergeneration equality. the expected objectives under the national mineral policy 2019 are an increase in the production of minerals and a reduction in the trade deficit in the minerals sector. 2. national mineral policy 2019 — key concerns as pointed out by basu (this issue), the hon'ble supreme court has noted the absence of any effective check on mining operations rendering the nmp 2008 ―only on paper‖. the aim of national mineral policy 2019 (nmp) is to have a more effective, meaningful and implementable policy  indian bureau of mines, 2nd floor indira bhavan, civil lines, nagpur, maharashtra 440001; pkjain3661@gmail.com disclaimer: the views expressed in this paper are the personal opinion of the author. indian bureau of mines, the organization where the author works does not endorse the views as expressed by the author nor does it assume any responsibility or liability for the same.. copyright © jain 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.92 https://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=supreme+court https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.92 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] that brings in further transparency, better regulation and enforcement, balanced social and economic growth as well as sustainable mining practices. focus on transparency, better regulations and enforcement, balanced growth and sustainability, and the grant of industry status to mining activity would boost the private sector‘s access to finance and acquisitions of mineral assets abroad. nmp is expected to ensure more effective regulation and will lead to sustainable development in the mining sector while addressing the issues of project affected persons especially those residing in tribal areas. however, some key concerns remain:  creating exclusive mining zones and simplifying clearances – a key proposal that has been introduced in the nmp is the creation of ‗exclusive mining zones‘ (emz). these ‗zones‘ will come with approved, in-principle clearances to ―curtail delay in commencement of mining operations‖. in-principle clearance is tied to forest land diversion for non-forestry purposes. as most major mining activities involve such land diversion, this will help to open up huge tracks of forest land to multiple companies and investors for mining in one go. the proposal will create major loopholes in obtaining successive clearances and permits by mining companies who will be part of the emz, and also in compliance of clearance and permit conditions. all in all, serious concerns arise about the impact of this proposal on forest ecology, wildlife corridors and forest-dependent communities. in fact, making the clearance process simpler and faster for the commencement of mining operations has been repeatedly emphasised in nmp. it even mentions that in case of delay, there shall be provisions for the project proponent to ―generate triggers at a higher level‖ in the online portal of clearances. the environmental clearance (ec) and forest clearance (fc) process over the past five years has been streamlined and simplified (making it single-window) for the convenience of the project proponents. in all these, the only exception that the nmp makes is for ‗critically fragile ecological areas‘, which, it says, should be declared as a ‗no-go‘ and ‗inviolate‘ area for the purpose of mining. for all other areas, ‗easing development‘ is the prerogative. such initiation may avoid indefinite delay in acquiring clearances for land acquisition, forest, environment, wildlife, ecology etc., in implementing mining projects.  community concerns addressed well but cannot lie as a postscript – ensuring the welfare of mining-affected communities is one aspect that the policy refers to in a more articulate manner. three things have been emphasised in this regard — relief and rehabilitation of the displaced and affected persons, devolution of [105] pradeep kumar jain mining benefits to project affected persons through district mineral foundation (dmf) and ensuring the welfare of tribal communities. the nmp also emphasises on implementing all the provisions of rehabilitation and resettlement as outlined in the right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement act, 2013. however, given the penchant for easing mining and attracting investments, ensuring the welfare of communities can only become postscripts of such activities. if the government is serious about ensuring the welfare of people in mining areas and securing their rights, it must improve mechanisms of giving clearances, management of environmental pollution and preservation of natural resources, with which the lives and livelihoods of these people are intricately related. 3. policy implications the nmp is an ambitious statement of intent to revitalise india‘s mineral sector, that can catalyse sustained socio-economic growth. ensuring environmental sustainability through responsible mining, while improving performance standards, is therefore a major development and policy priority of the mining sector (jain et.al. 2016). nmp has tried to ensure more effective regulation for the mining sector development in future. to kumar (this issue), the nmp 2019 is thus primarily a revision of the nmp of 2008 to incorporate these aspects. the government should set up an independent ‗minerals audit agency‘ to monitor all aspects of mining operations i.e. financial, social and environmental. the mining sector has long been mired in issues of unscientific mining methods, poor track records of environmental and social performance, and high instances of illegal activities. the regulatory environment, and capacity and accountability of our authorities, have also sustained this. given this, the need to develop a new nmp was a timely proposition. it was a crucial opportunity for the government to come up with a policy document that would guide the mining sector to function with utmost environmental and social responsibility, besides economic considerations. 4. a business-friendly policy developing partnerships with stakeholders including state governments, mineral and mineral-based industries and various ministries/ departments of the central government concerned is necessary for development and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] conservation of mineral resources and formulation of a strategy to ensure raw materials security. in one-and-a-half years, the policy that has finally been developed is actually one that is a win-win for mining companies and investors. while the document mentions that mining should be environmentally sustainable and equitable, there remain serious questions on how effective this policy will be in ensuring environmental protection, ecological conservation and in protecting people‘s rights in the mining areas. with a focus to ramp up mineral production massively, the new policy is largely guided by the penchant for ‗ease of doing businesses‘ and attracting investments. ranjan (this issue) notes that nmp proposes to increase the production of minerals by 200 per cent in the next seven years. several mechanisms have been proposed to ensure this. a proposal to set up ‗minerals audit agency‘ will be the guiding and monitoring force to achieve the envisaged goal set for nmp. references jain, p.k. 2016. ―reformation in mining sector: a national perspective.‖ mineral economics 29 (2–3): 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-016-0093-4 jain, p.k., a. k. ray, s. k. sharma and r. n. bedekar. 2018. ―an overview of indian mining legislative reform.‖ the indian mining & engineering journal 57 (04): 16-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-016-0093-4 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (2): 173-176, july 2021 book review ecology and socialism to ecosocialism: roots and branches nandan nawn 1 john bellamy foster. 2020. the return of nature: socialism and ecology. new york, monthly review press. isbn 978-158367-836-7 (cloth); pp. 687; $35 (hb), ₹3,447 (hb). sustainable development discourse attempts to manage trade-offs between the triad of the social (poverty and equity), ecological (natural resources), and economic (growth) (munasinghe 1993). in contrast, ecosocialism discourse sets up a dialogue between social equity and ecological sustainability. in the return of nature, leading marxist scholar on environmental politics john bellamy foster traces the deep intellectual roots that have shaped the ecosocialism project. in elegantly outlining the challenge, the author captures an interesting discursive turn, which is that. 1 professor, department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, 10 vasant kunj institutional area, new delhi 110070, india; nnletter@gmail.com. copyright © nawn 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.523 mailto:nnletter@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.523 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [174] the old notion of the “conquest of nature” is being replaced by a radical conception of the need to restore the human social metabolism with nature while promoting genuine human equality. although revolutionary in its challenge to capitalism, this conception is not new, rather it is traceable to the long struggle for socialism and ecology beginning in the nineteenth century. (p. 7) the return of nature will especially interest those who are keen to understand the intellectual journeys of “numerous socialists and radical materialists” (p. 12), including those in the natural sciences, such as “fabian-style socialist ecologist” arthur tansley (p. 8); “red scientists” jd bernal, jbs haldane, joseph needham, and hyman levy (p. 8); “left darwinian” e ray lankester (p. 7); and “radical humanist” lancelot hogben (p. 334). the common thread that runs through the book is the focus on how these socialist thinkers explored the “dialectical interpenetration of nature and society, and the complex relations of evolution and emergence” (p. 8). as foster points out, their varied ideas and imaginations could be boiled down to arguments for a strong version of dialectical naturalism, a framework that was arguably a precursor to today’s notions of systems ecology and earth system analysis. part i comprises four chapters, in which ideas are traced directly to the oeuvre of karl marx. the first chapter explores the writings of e ray lankester—a protégé of thomas huxley and charles darwin— who coined the term bionomics while carrying out an ecological analysis that went on to influence british science. chapter 2 looks at the works of artist, craftsman, and poet william morris, who was greatly inspired by the english romantic movement. we are reminded here that the “estrangement of art and labor” (p. 76) and “alienation of nature” (p. 76) are dominant themes in morris’ work. morris was closely associated with the working-class movement as “designer, artisan, and manufacturer” (p. 105). he remains in focus in the third and fourth chapters as well, but as leader of the socialist league, which was made up of different shades of socialists, marxists, and even anarchists. of note is foster’s insight on morris’ many efforts towards assembling revolutionary possibilities for creating a “socialist/communist society” (p. 150) that could resolve a chain of tensions between “town and country (the ecological problem), work and art (social labor), and men and women (gender relations)” (p. 150). part ii is composed of three chapters that discuss friedrich engels’ ideas on the environment and health conditions of the working class. this sets the stage for elaborating on his ecological worldview, which underlined “the intrinsic value of nature and hence the tragedy of its estrangement under [175] nandan nawn capitalism” (p. 179). in the fifth and sixth chapters, foster takes the reader on a fascinating journey that recounts engels’ numerous studies on the environmental conditions of the working class that helped him to substantiate his theoretical understanding of what he terms the dialectics of nature. in contrast, the seventh chapter focuses on engels’ more scientific deliberations on the probable role that labour might have played in effecting the transition from ape to man. through a study of engels, foster draws several telling comparisons with marx’s political economic works. part iii takes up ideas and works that help to elaborate on engels’ ecological insights. with arthur tansley as chief protagonist, foster traces the roots of ecosystem analysis in the eighth chapter. this part is an ecologist’s delight. it gives us a close-up view of the debates on “materialism versus idealism” (p. 322) and pedagogic matters in the teaching of ecology. chapter 9 traces the influence of critical ideas contained in the science at the cross roads, a collection of papers by nikolai bukharin, af joffe, i vavilov, and boris hessen on bernal, haldane, and needham, the “red scientists” in britain. foster describes the volume as “an extraordinarily audacious set of investigations into the complexity and dynamism of natural processes—along with the developing rifts in the human relation to nature” (p. 372). chapter 11, aptly titled “a science for the people”, and the epilogue follow a ground-up approach in dissecting movements that were “new forms of struggle devoted to anti-racism, anti-imperialism, peace, and the promotion of a global human ecology” (p. 457). here, the author offers a brief history of structures and struggles within a vast array of organizations in this realm, such as society for freedom in science; committee for cultural freedom; committee for nuclear information; committee for environmental information; and committee for nuclear disarmament— on either side of the atlantic in britain and in the us. as expected, the focus is on the “environmentalism” of the global north; it primarily looks at matters related to pollution rather than struggles associated with access to resources of natural origin that lead to environmental distribution conflicts in the global south, lucidly captured in gadgil and guha (1995). in broad methodological terms, foster suggests that the book essentially weaves art and science and orients the reader towards a more genealogical style of exploring causes. despite these striking analyses of the current environmental predicament, the notion of “sustainable human development” is given too little attention and wants for rigorous conceptual treatment. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [176] finally, some words on presentation. the copyediting could have been more meticulous. for example, the fact of e ray lankester was president of the marine biological association was repeated on pages 58 and 303; in one, the association’s year of establishment is mentioned as 1884 while it is 1883 in the other. similarly, the information that ernst haeckel introduced the term ecology in 1866 is repeated on pages 13 and 305. in other words, there is a rushed feel to the production of the book, which somewhat diminishes the value of an otherwise commendable effort. foster’s earlier works have been inspiring and compelling for their insights and the fact that he places writings on socialism and of karl marx within the larger field of ecological politics. the return of nature, however, does not always live up to its promise. acknowledgements i acknowledge the comments from the book review editor that substantially improved readability. references foster, john bellamy. 2000. marx’s ecology: materialism and nature. new york: monthly review press. gadgil, madhav, and ramachandra guha. 1995. ecology and equity: the use and abuse of nature in contemporary india. london and new york: routledge. munasinghe, mohan. 1993. “environmental economics and sustainable development.” world bank environment paper no. 3. washington dc: world bank. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 3–8, january 2019 commentary sustainability transitions from an ecological economic perspective inge røpke  1. introduction the concept of sustainability transition is widely used, and the desirability of such transitions is generally emphasized. however, various authors and research fields attach widely different meanings to the concept, particularly with regard to the degree of radicality implied. this brief commentary introduces an ecological economic perspective on sustainability transitions, which can be considered one of the more radical versions of the concept. first, the ecological economic understanding of the challenges is presented, and second, some topical aspects of the research agenda of the field and some of its close cousins are outlined. 2. the sustainability challenges ecological economics is based on the pre-analytic vision of the economy as a metabolic organism in the biosphere, keeping itself alive by taking in energy and materials from the biosphere, transforming them in metabolic processes and emitting waste back again. globally, the organism has grown so large in relation to the biosphere that we now live in a “full world” (daly 2015). as the work on planetary boundaries illustrates (steffen et al. 2015), we are already far into dangerous territory, and the prospects for the future are even more challenging due to continued population growth and pressure for improving living standards.  aalborg university, department of planning, a.c. meyers vænge 15, 2450 københavn sv, denmark; ir@plan.aau.dk copyright © røpke 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.50 mailto:ir@plan.aau.dk https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.50 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [4] the background for the emergence of the “full world” economy is the use of fossil fuels. in terms of energy, human history has passed through three phases: hunter-gatherers using fire, pre-industrial agriculture adding draught animals and wind and water power, and the industrial phase adding fossil fuels and later also nuclear energy (haberl et al. 2011). each transformation has increased the availability of energy for human use. during the industrial phase, the abundance of fossil energy enabled an enormous increase in population and improvement in living standards. as the risk of climate change now limits the future use of fossil fuels, humans have to enter into a fourth phase in their energy history – this time in a situation where the number of humans is very large and where, for the first time, the consumption of energy per capita can be expected to fall. since fossil fuels still constitute about 80 per cent of the global energy supply, the challenge is considerable.1 furthermore, another nearly 10 per cent of energy use is still based on biomass, thus competing with food production and adding to the heavy pressure on biodiversity and ecosystems. humans seem to be driving the sixth mass extinction of life on earth, maybe even making earth inhabitable for humans. based on this understanding of the challenges, ecological economists argue that sustainability transitions ought to involve radical transformations not only of technologies but also of societal arrangements. since it is not possible to solve problems of poverty through biophysical expansion in a “full world”, there is an ethical call for redistribution of resources from rich to poor – a redistribution that could also be helpful in reducing population growth. 3. the research agenda: complementary system perspectives the research agenda of ecological economics and related scientific fields, such as political ecology, industrial ecology and transition studies, covers the potential for sustainability transitions from many different angles. some of these can be described in relation to the figure in the next page. the figure illustrates the classical ecological economic vision of the economy as a metabolic organism within the biosphere. at the boundaries, the organism takes in resources and emits waste back into the biosphere. these boundaries are immediately visible as sites for environmental conflicts that 1 calculations based on statistics collected from the international energy agency: https://www.iea.org/statistics/kwes/supply/ [5] inge røpke figure 1: system perspectives source: based on røpke (2016) may call for transition processes. studies of social-ecological systems, the management of commons and ecosystem services can be seen as examples of perspectives focusing on the boundaries (berkes et al. 2003, ostrom 2015, gómez-baggethun et al. 2010). most often, such studies concentrate on the input side of the metabolic organism – the management of land, forests, fisheries, etc. – and the scale is mostly local or regional. besides, these studies explore the climate challenge as a commons issue, involving management at a global scale of an issue on the output side (ostrom 2009). the increasing number of local environmental conflicts that follow from the ever-growing global metabolism is also the focus of studies from an environmental justice perspective (martinez-alier et al. 2016). a large number of conflicts have been mapped both on the input side, which is often characterized as the commodity frontiers, and on the output side, for instance, related to waste handling. 2 the studies not only highlight the environmental and social costs and the injustices related to biophysical growth, but also emphasize how local protests and related movements can contribute to sustainability transitions by obstructing unsustainable paths and pointing towards alternatives (scheidel et al. 2018). 2 see the maps here: http://www.ejolt.org/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] the environmental implications of increased metabolism are most visible at the boundaries, but the dynamics behind these implications mostly emerges far from the boundaries. the production processes transforming the resources into goods and services and their consumption constitute key dynamics. the concept of provision system is often applied to characterize the complex of institutions and technologies involved in the whole process of production chains and consumption that fulfils a certain function in society, for instance, referring to the provision of food, housing or transport. the need for transforming these provision systems to make them more sustainable is the core topic of the sustainability transitions research network.3 the field learns from studying historical transitions of provision systems, such as the transition from sailing ships to steamships (geels 2002) or the establishment of the electricity system (hughes 1987), in order to develop ideas for promoting sustainability transitions today. the time scale of these studies is thus relatively long, but obviously not as long as the one applied in relation to the three phases of human energy history. the system perspective in these studies highlights that “green” technologies are not always contributions to sustainability transitions, as some technological improvements may support and legitimize the continuation of systems that ought to be replaced. for instance, increasing the efficiency in the use of corn for biofuel production can be seen as counterproductive in relation to sustainability transitions of the food and energy systems. when provision systems are organized in very unsustainable ways, the background can often be found in the large global inequalities. for instance, the availability of cheap clothes and electronics in the rich countries depend on the low wages paid to workers in sweatshops in poorer countries (schor 2005). the inequality thus forms the basis for provision systems that enable rich people’s appropriation of large amounts of biophysical resources (fuchs et al. 2015). the unequal access to resources is continuously recreated through various distribution systems that cut across the provision systems. the concept of distribution systems refers to, for instance, the organization of labour markets, the rules of international trade, the organization of property and patent rights, tax systems, and rules of inheritance. the transformation of these systems is just as important for sustainability as the transformation of provision systems. this point is increasingly acknowledged and reflected, for instance, in studies on how to transform the financial systems that have contributed heavily to the deepening of inequality (røpke 2017). 3 the research agenda of the network can be found here: https://transitionsnetwork.org/about-strn/research_agenda/ [7] inge røpke much governance of the various systems mentioned above emerges from the processes that are endogenous to the development of the systems themselves and not always visible as governance. but some governance has the form of transparent interventions from the political systems that are spatially organized and characterized as geographical systems, referring to the political systems at municipal, national, regional and global levels. for instance, the national level is central to studies that focus on the relationship between economic growth and sustainability, exploring the potential for decoupling environmental impacts from gdp growth and the importance of multiplier and rebound effects (jackson 2017). increasingly, it is acknowledged that sustainability transitions can be successful in rich countries, only if improvements of environmental efficiencies are combined with rebound policies to ensure that the improvements are not followed by increased consumption (van den bergh 2011). furthermore, policies are needed to reduce inequalities so the standard of living for poor groups, nationally and globally, can increase although total material consumption has to go down. the growing field of ecological macroeconomics deals with the promotion of sustainability transitions at the national level through traditional macroeconomic policies as well as more radical institutional changes. part of the discussion is concerned with the question of whether sustainability can be achieved within some sort of reformed capitalist framework, or whether the core institutions of capitalism have to be abolished. some of the more radical positions are advocated by researchers belonging to the degrowth community, who emphasize that sustainability is not compatible with a system built on the search for profit and the continued drive for accumulation (kallis 2018). although only some of the perspectives related to ecological economics are included here, it is obvious that the study of sustainability transitions covers a broad array of approaches. in conclusion, this brief commentary emphasizes the need for working on many fronts to achieve sustainability, as well as the need for taking the interplay between different systems and aspects into account. sustainability is as much an issue of institutions and power relations, as it is an issue of technology. references berkes, f., j. colding, and c. folke, eds. 2003. navigating social-ecological systems: building resilience for complexity and change. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. daly, h. 2015. economics for a full world. great transition initiative. https://www.greattransition.org/images/daly-economics-for-a-full-world.pdf fuchs, d., a. di giulio, k. glaab, s. lorek, m. maniates, t. princen, and i. røpke. 2016. “power: the missing element in sustainable consumption and absolute reductions https://www.greattransition.org/images/daly-economics-for-a-full-world.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] research and action.” journal of cleaner production 132: 298-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.006 geels, f.w. 2002. “technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study.” research policy 31 (8-9): 1257-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00062-8 gómez-baggethun, e., r. de groot, p.l. lomas, and c. montes. 2010. “the history of ecosystem services in economic theory and practice: from early notions to markets and payment schemes.” ecological economics 69(6): 1209-1218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.11.007 haberl, h., m. fischer-kowalski, f. krausmann, j. martinez-alier, and v. winiwarter .2011. “a socio-metabolic transition towards sustainability? challenges for another great transformation.” sustainable development 19 (1): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.410 hughes, t.p. 1987. “the evolution of large technological systems.” in the social construction of technological systems: new directions in the sociology and history of technology edited by w.e. bijker, t.p. hughes and t.j. pinch. cambridge, ma: mit press. jackson, t. 2017. prosperity without growth: foundations for the economy of tomorrow. 2nd ed. london and new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315677453 kallis, g. 2018. degrowth. newcastle upon tyne: agenda publishing. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5cg82g martinez-alier, j., l. temper, d. del bene, and a. scheidel. 2016. “is there a global environmental justice movement?” the journal of peasant studies 43(3): 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 ostrom, e. 2009. a polycentric approach for coping with climate change. washington dc: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-5095 ostrom, e. 2015. governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316423936 røpke, i. 2016. “complementary system perspectives in ecological macroeconomics the example of transition investments during the crisis.” ecological economics 121: 237245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.018 røpke, i. 2017. “sustainability and the governance of the financial system: what role for full reserve banking?” environmental policy and governance 27(3): 177-192. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1753 scheidel, a., l. temper, f. demaria, and j. martinez-alier. 2018. “ecological distribution conflicts as forces for sustainability: an overview and conceptual framework.” sustainability science 13 (3): 585-598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-0170519-0 schor, j.b. 2005. “prices and quantities: unsustainable consumption and the global economy.” ecological economics 55 (3): 309-320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.07.030 steffen, w., k. richardson, j. rockström, s.e. cornell, i. fetzer, e.m. bennett, r. biggs, s.r. carpenter, w. de vries, c.a. de wit, c. folke, d. gerten, j. heinke, g.m. mace, l.m. persson, v. ramanathan, b. reyers and s. sörlin. 2015. “planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet.” science 347 (6223): 1259855. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855 van den bergh, j.c.j.m. 2011. “energy conservation more effective with rebound policy.” environmental and resource economics 48: 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640010-9396-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00062-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2009.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.410 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315677453 https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5cg82g https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1141198 https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-5095 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781316423936 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.03.018 https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1753 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0519-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0519-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.07.030 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259855 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9396-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-010-9396-z ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 127–130, january 2019 discussion importance of tightly coupled equations in modelling grassland ecological economics a response to “modelling the economics of grassland degradation in banni, india, using system dynamics” (mihir mathur and kabir sharma, ees, july 2018) chandanathil p. geevan, arun m. dixit  and chandra s. silori  the research reported by mathur and sharma (2018), referred hereafter as m&s, analyses the interactions between ecology and economy of the banni grassland, located in the district of kachchh, gujarat, through a system dynamic model factoring in area covered by the invasive mesquite prosopis juliflora (mesquite-covered area, hereafter mca, ap in m&s) and the incomes from livestock and mesquite. m&s has, however, overlooked the previous work on economy-ecology linkages of the region (geevan et al 2003, 2005). certain selections from the geevan et al study, the discussion on system dynamics modelling framework, were published by insee as a book chapter (sengupta and bandyopadhyay 2005). while m&s has cited geevan et al (2003) several times, its system dynamics model, which is central to the work, was overlooked. this oversight seems to have led to several flawed formulations in m&s. we briefly point out these. our study (geevan et al 2003) had adapted certain concepts of grassland resource dynamics modelling from the work of perrings1 (perrings 1994,  centre for environment and social concerns, c-612 siddi vinayak towers, behind dcp office off. s.g.highway, makarba, ahmedabad 380051, india; cpgeevan@cesc-india.org   centre for environment and social concerns, c-612 siddi vinayak towers, behind dcp office off. s.g.highway, makarba, ahmedabad, 380051, india; arunmdixit@gmail.com  recoftc – the center for people and forests, p.o. box 1111, kasetsart post office, bangkok 10903, thailand; chandra.silori@recoftc.org copyright © geevan, dixit and silori 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.59 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.59 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] 1997; perrings and walker 1995; perrings and stern 2000). perrings integrated an ecological model of rangeland resource dynamics into an economic analysis framework. it is important to recognize that the challenge in such studies is to model the variables as a tightly interdependent system; the separate uncoupled equations fail to provide insights into the interesting features the system dynamic model presented in our work is very briefly described here for quick reference. it incorporates three state variables x, k, and w, where x is the livestock numbers expressed in adult cattle units2 (acu), k is grazing potential per ha of the grassland, and w woody area invaded by mesquite. the terms, q1, q2, q3 and q4 represent control variables –offtake with negative values representing infusion. q1 is the off-take of livestock in acu, q2 is the grazing potential removed for milk production, q3 is the woody cover from which charcoal is produced resulting in a temporary reduction of the woody cover through coppicing and q4 is the area from which woody cover is reduced by uprooting every year. additionally, there is a discrete parameter  or switch representing the control of the mesquite re-invasion which takes the value 0 or 1; 0 with reinvasion and 1 without re-invasion (i.e. with adequate measures). it is important to note that a) biomass harvest without uprooting the mesquite (e.g., coppicing to make wood charcoal) does not significantly slow down the spatial spread and b) mesquite will reinvade areas from which it has been completely removed in the absence of measures to stop the spread. in contrast to the coupled equations employed by us to concurrently compute livestock number, grazing potential and mca (x, k, and w), m&s use a standalone approach separately for the mca and the livestock sector. for the former, they employed a single variable equation without any explicit dependency on the livestock sector. they invoke the dependency on livestock by employing a ‘graphical function’ for e, a livestock dependent multiplier of the rate of spatial spread. the following comments pertain to certain specifics of the model presented by m&s: 1. m&s use a parameter called ‘normal spread rate’ (n), the annual increment in mca. it has been assigned a value of 8.5% per year, which is a very large value for ‘normal’ (i.e., unassisted) spread. mca will nearly double in about eight years with such a large compound annual 1 discussed with charles perrings during the sixth insee biennial conference and later through correspondence. 2 expressing livestock numbers in adult cattle units (acu) is a standard practice to account for livestock across different types. [129] chandanathil p. geevan, arun m. dixit and chandra s. silori growth rate in the absence of any controlling factors. note that in the formulation of m&s, parameter ‘n’ is also multiplied by another parameter e (1 ≤ e ≤ 2), which means the effective rate of spatial spread in the model ranges from 8.5% to 17% per year, which is much higher than the observed spatial spread. the rate of spatial spread in the absence of animal vectors or any other additional dispersal mechanism will be much lower. in our work, we assigned a nominal value several orders of magnitude less for the parameter representing the natural rate of spatial spread (α3) based on inferences drawn from our own analysis of the satellite imagery data of different periods and literature. 2. m&s cite the work of vaibhav et al. (2012), the preliminary results presented at a conference, as the source for the value of ‘normal spread rate’ referred to earlier. curiously, this study is not on the spatial spread of mesquite, but on biomass regeneration under coppicing. vaibhav et al (2012) uses single satellite imagery of 2011 — a period when the banni region was invaded by mesquite and livestock presence was high. the estimated rate of spatial spread of mesquite in banni reported in a recent study was 2.1% per year (pasha et al 2014), arrived at after examining satellite imagery datasets of 1977, 1990, 1999, 2005 and 2011. since livestock vectors are present in large numbers in this landscape, the value is the livestock-mediated rate, i.e., the enhanced value, not the ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ rate. there are no historical records of any period for the banni region without large numbers of livestock. consequently, there are no known studies providing estimates of the natural rate of spread in the region in the absence of livestock. 3. m&s use a graphical representation of e, the multiplier of the ‘normal’ rate (n). in our work, we had characterized the multiplier effect on the natural rate, α3(1+εx) with ε as the parameter representing the enhanced rate of spatial spread of woody cover per thousand acu due to the presence of livestock (x) expressed in terms of acu. the device of a simple graphical lookup function, akin to a function lookup table, employed by m&s is inadequate to simulate a tightly interconnected system as it cannot concurrently generate the values of the livestock sector. 4. further, in our view, there is a major error in the way m&s have formulated the equation for the change in mca by making the rate of change proportional to the current area. our work considered this as a rather non-intuitive aspect (geevan et al 2003, 2005). it is tempting to assume that the change in area will be proportional to the current area as is usually done, e.g., the future population as proportional to the current value. however, the primary driver of an increase in the mesquite area is the livestock transporting seeds from the periphery of the mesquiteecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] covered patches. they do not graze inside the thick woody growth. therefore, in our work, we expressed the increase in mesquite-cover as proportional to the square root of the area (i.e., a proxy for the length of the periphery) as a more realistic formulation representing the spatial spread of mesquite. we recognize there are challenges in characterizing this process as realistically as possible. 5. there are also several deficiencies in the second standalone model of livestock dynamics, which we shall not discuss in detail. it will suffice to state that the equations for the dynamics of the stock of adults, b and calves, c, maturing into adults at age tm, do not seem to adequately represent the dynamics in a consistent manner. the aim of this comment is to draw attention to the nuances of developing a system dynamics model of economic activity dependent on an open access resource subject to mesquite invasion. references geevan, c.p., a.m. dixit, and c.s. silori. 2003. “ecological economic analysis of grassland systems.” eerc working paper series: cpr-5. geevan, c.p., a.m. dixit, and c.s. silori. 2005. “dynamics of the resource economics of open access grasslands kachchh district (gujarat).” in biodiversity and quality of life edited by n. sengupta, and j. bandyopadhyay, 236-252. new delhi: macmillan. mathur, m. and k. sharma. 2018. “modelling the economics of grassland degradation in banni, india, using system dynamics.” ecology, economy and society the insee journal 1 (2): 3165. doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.34 pasha, s.v., k.v. satish, c.s. reddy, p.p. rao, and c.s. jha. 2014. “satellite image-based quantification of invasion and patch dynamics of mesquite (prosopis juliflora) in great rann of kachchh, kachchh biosphere reserve, gujarat, india.” journal of earth system science 123 (7): 1481-1490. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0486-0 perrings, c. 1994. “stress, shock and sustainability of resource use in semi-arid environments.” the annals of regional science 28: 3-53. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01581347 perrings, c. 1997. economics of ecological resources: selected essays. cheltenham: edward elgar. perrings, c. and d.i. stern. 2000. “modelling loss in agroecosystems: rangelands in botswana.” environmental and resource economics 16: 185-210. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008374222463 perrings, c. and b.w. walker. 1995. “biodiversity loss and economics of discontinuous change in semiarid rangelands.” in biodiversity loss economic and ecological issues edited by c. perrings, k. maler, c. folke, c.s. holling, and b. jansson, 90-210. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139174329.009 sengupta, n. and j. bandyopadhyay, eds. 2005. biodiversity and quality of life. new delhi: macmillan. vaibhav, v., a.b. inamdar, and d.n. bajaj. 2012. “above ground biomass and carbon stock estimation from p. juliflora in banni grassland using satellite and ancillary data”. 33rd asian conference on remote sensing, november 26–30, 2012, thailand. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.34 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-014-0486-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01581347 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008374222463 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139174329.009 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 139–143, january 2021 book review a wealth of information in a novel narrative sarandha jain  dolly kikon. 2019. living with oil and coal: resource politics and militarization in northeast india (culture, place, and nature). seattle: university of washington press. isbn: 978-02-9574-395-0, pp. 204, usd 30 (pb). amplifying local voices in assam and nagaland, dolly kikon‘s ethnographic account along the border of these states shows us what marking a territory as ―fossil fuel rich‖ does to the daily lives of the people there. she uses emic metaphors to describe everyday entanglements with oil and coal in spaces of extraction, which are physically separated from local communities and heavily guarded by security forces but socially conjoined with people‘s lives. kikon‘s narrative tells us how fossil fuels rise from the ground beneath and seep into the social relations and worldviews of the locals, configuring everything from political struggles and  phd candidate, department of anthropology, columbia university, 452 schermerhorn extension, 1200 amsterdam avenue, new york 10027, usa; j.sarandha@columbia.edu. copyright © jain 2021. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.357 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.357 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] administrative procedures to personal aspirations, future plans, and subjectivities. just as the presence of rigs, wells, pipes, tankers, and gated oil sites alters the physical landscape, the presence of geologists, traders, bureaucrats, engineers, and armed forces alters the social landscape. the production of an extraction site is just as much the work of soft infrastructures and social networks as it is of material infrastructures. the effect this has on the micro and macro lives of the people living there, kikon points out, is largely shaped by violence and surveillance. the growing literature on oil extraction suggests that living with oil implies living with violence, as it isn‘t just an effect of extraction but has been fundamental to fossil fuel production (sawyer 2004; vitalis 2007; watts 2008; shever 2012). given oil‘s centrality to economic growth and state power, its sites being armed and surveilled and the people living there being displaced and doubted have become regular features. however, timothy mitchell (2011) urges us to question the obviousness of this linkage between oil and violence: can a bureaucracy and management of oil look more egalitarian and transparent if its leadership and the goals and meanings attached to it are different? or is there something inherent to the physicality of oil that leaves a trail of oppression? in most cases, certain characteristics of oil are emphasized by certain modes of its management, to coproduce the structures we have around it, which illuminates the ways in which material and human factors co-create particular regimes, which are historically contingent (jain 2020). hannah appel (2012, 2019) has illustrated the role of capitalist economies in allowing oil sites to disengage with the local, while kikon‘s research demonstrates their entanglements with the local. similar to kikon, mandana limbert (2010) studies how lives are affected by oil by exploring how locals understand the transformation of their worlds, institutions, practices, and infrastructures, and their expectations from the future. this book does not engage with these discussions. it focuses on how the indian state views the north eastern states, how that impacts the lives of the people there, and how they articulate their demands to the state in a vocabulary provided by resource richness. rights over resources—the ability to extract and sell them—become the primary talking point in political struggles, and hailing from regions rich in minerals becomes embedded in people‘s cultural and personal identities. this implies that once a place gets marked as ―fossil fuel rich‖, it changes the terms of the debate irreversibly, even for the locals. that identity, once given to them, cannot be escaped. kikon describes the ordinary ways in which place making, borders, resource richness, and the military get woven into local [141] sarandha jain stories, histories, and myths, which enable people to make meaning of their lives. resistance against the state is then also expressed in the language of oil, either via resistance to it or a fight to control it. control over oil becomes a metaphor for sovereignty. as fernando coronil (1997) elucidates, oil comes to be seen as a ―magical‖ substance, the owner of which can either be a ―devil‖ or a ―magnanimous sorcerer‖, bringing riches to the people. but once local dreams of self-determination are sought to be realized through the ownership of oil, the model of governance and socio-economic life they aspire to are often aligned with capitalist development and are not radically different from their current state. the book does not provide us with a history of assam‘s political struggle and how it is mired with oil. instead, kikon sets out to explore the ways in which a fossil fuel identity has unfolded in assam and nagaland. the extensive narrative presents a series of observations about living with oil and coal, but the text remains largely descriptive, making no solid argument and offering little theoretical insight. even the observations are often inconclusive. the one observation that is strongly emphasized is the mundane ways in which oil infrastructures interfere with quotidian lives, the militarized encounters that upend their lives, and the relationship of force and threat between the state and local citizens. while the ethnographic vignettes are appreciated, if the author is not using them to make a larger argument, they remain mere stories. one cannot help but wonder who her intended audience is. what body of literature is she speaking to? how does she position herself in the existing work on resource extraction? what conceptual framework is the book deploying and what are her theoretical assertions? what conversation does she want to open with this? if the book is meant to be read by the people she writes about, and not by academics, then too wouldn‘t a central argument that strings together their stories into a body of analyses be appreciated by them? what are the people—with the lived experiences narrated in the book—meant to derive from it? her use of emic categories is admirable, but she leaves the work incomplete by not conceptualizing them enough to draw connections between local ideas and the observations she makes about them. for instance, her use of love as an analytic tool to understand social relationships amidst oil is fascinating, but it remains confusing because the reader is left wondering what she is attempting to highlight with it. what analytical work does this tool do here? evidently, she is making connections between love, belonging, bodies, gender, ethnicity, geography, and mining. but these knots are not explained adequately. how are the different types of love tied to oil and coal? as independent stories, they are interesting empirical pieces, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] but what do they tell us about living with oil? is love a response to state violence and a form of resistance or a coping mechanism? it remains for the reader to guess. the only place where there is clarity regarding this is where she describes the relationship between state-sponsored development and citizens, which the latter define as love when the former is effective. kikon uses the framework of citizenship to analyse her field. the idea of a ―good person‖ being defined by their position vis-à-vis oil sites is insightful (142). this can be elaborated upon and analysed further by using the many frameworks of citizenship niraja jayal (2013) lays out in her capacious and authoritative theoretical work on the subject. however, kikon does not conceptualize this any further. instead, she discusses two ways of producing what she calls ―carbon citizenship‖ (143). the first is that citizens in these regions have to constantly produce documents and undergo profiling at security checkpoints. the second entails the violent interrogation of people by state authorities and oil companies in order to ensure that they are citizens. however, neither of these forms produce a ―carbon‖ citizenship. their documents are not carbonized, the way an lpg account‘s document to prove one‘s citizenship is or the documents required to procure an lpg account are. an affiliation with oil is not required to prove one‘s citizenship, or vice-versa, according to the two methods she describes. going by her descriptions, those methods are the results of the presence of carbon and end up assessing people‘s citizenship. they are not tying people—through specific carbonized documents or interrogations—to the state and producing an alternate type of citizenship emanating from fossil fuels. while they do speak of citizenship, should they be termed ―carbon citizenship‖? in sum, the book is narrative rich, but it does not deliver on the promises it sets up in the introduction. it flags some concepts but does not flesh them out or follow through. that said, because of its empirical wealth, it is informative, providing fodder for analyses of sites of extraction. it is useful for scholars of resource politics as well as scholars of north east india for whom it will act as a rich repository of knowledge for future research projects. references appel, h. 2012. ―offshore work: oil, modularity, and the how of capitalism in equatorial guinea‖. american ethnologist 39: 692–709. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01389.x _____ appel, h. 2019. the licit life of capitalism: us oil in equatorial guinea. durham: duke university press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478090243 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01389.x https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478090243 [143] sarandha jain coronil, f. 1997. the magical state: nature, money, and modernity in venezuela. chicago: university of chicago press. jain, s. 2020. ―building ‗oil‘ in british india: a category, an infrastructure‖, journal of energy history/revue d'histoire de l'énergie 3. jayal, n. 2013. citizenship and its discontents: an indian history. ranikhet: permanent black. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674067585 limbert, m. 2010. in the time of oil: piety, memory and social life in an omani town. stanford: stanford university press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804774604 mitchell, t. 2011. carbon democracy: political power in the age of oil. new york: verso. sawyer, s. 2004. crude chronicles: indigenous politics, multinational oil, and neoliberalism in ecuador. durham, nc: duke university press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385752 shever, e. 2012. resources for reform: oil and neoliberalism in argentina. stanford: stanford university press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804783200 vitalis, r. 2007. america’s kingdom: mythmaking on the saudi oil frontier. stanford: stanford university press. watts, m. 2008. ―economies of violence‖. in contested grounds: essays on nature, culture and power, edited by amita baviskar, new delhi: oxford university press, 106–36. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674067585 https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804774604 https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822385752 https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804783200 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 119-124, july 2022 insights from the field the impact of pradhan mantri krishi samman nidhi yojna on food security and the healthcare-seeking practices of agricultural households in bihar: a note from the field reshmi sengupta, debasis rooj 1. introduction pradhan mantri krishi samman nidhi yojna (pm-kisan) is a government of india (goi) initiative to provide financial assistance to farmers. its objective is to stabilize farmers’ income and support their financial requirements to invest in productive activities, including agricultural inputs. each year, the government gives ₹6,000 to eligible farmers in three equal instalments of ₹2,000 each; the amount is transferred directly into farmers’ bank accounts. the literature suggests that cash transfer (ct) programmes have a positive impact on households’ welfare (fiszbein and schady 2009; gertler 2004). as pm-kisan has been promoted as a general ct programme, and farmers are free to spend the amount on various needs, the scheme may have broader household welfare implications. therefore, this study looks at the role of pm-kisan on household welfare based on food security and healthcare utilization.  department of economics, flame university, gat no. 1270, lavale, off. pune bangalore highway, pune 412115, india; reshmi.sengupta@flame.edu.in  department of economics, flame university, gat no. 1270, lavale, off. pune bangalore highway, pune 412115, india; debasis.rooj @flame.edu.in copyright © sengupta and rooj 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.687 mailto:reshmi.sengupta@flame.edu.in mailto:reshmi.sengupta@flame.edu.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.687 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] 2. primary survey bihar is one of the poorest states in india and has a predominately agricultural population. in recent times, bihar has witnessed several climate change–related weather shocks (jha and haripriya 2019). farming households in bihar are at risk of climate change vagaries that may adversely affect their agricultural production and income stability. given this vulnerability, we chose two of its districts, rohtas and nawada, for a pilot study. we conducted a survey from 20 october to 29 october 2021. rohtas is a fertile district, whereas nawada is drought-prone. as these two districts are exposed to different climatic shocks, selecting them provided us variations in the sample so we could capture farmers’ awareness of pmkisan and the extent to which they benefit from it. further, we selected two blocks from each district. from nawada, we chose nawada rural block and akbarpur block. these are drought-prone areas near the district town. from rohtas, we chose sasaram rural block and shivsagar block, which are primarily irrigated areas near the district town. from each block, we selected five villages based on discussions with block staff and local ngos. on average, we chose 20 households from each village for face-to-face interviews; this added up to a sample of 400 households. we used a detailed questionnaire to capture household demographics, awareness about several agricultural programmes (including pm-kisan), and whether the households had benefited from pm-kisan in the last 365 days. out of the 400 households, 373 were aware of pm-kisan, 224 had benefitted from it, and 149 were non-beneficiaries. the survey also collected data on the food security of the households, the health-seeking practices of pregnant women in the age group of 15–49 years, and healthcare use, immunization, and breastfeeding practices for children up to five years of age. 3. relevant findings most of the farming households in the sample are marginal farmers (85% of beneficiaries and 75% of non-beneficiaries) who hold less than 2.5 acres of land. nearly 9% of beneficiary and 5% of non-beneficiary households are small, with landholdings of less than five acres; and 6% of beneficiary and 20% of non-beneficiary households are medium-sized, with more than five acres of land. close to 33% of beneficiary households experienced crop loss during the last cropping season, while for non-beneficiaries, this figure  we asked the respondents whether or not they benefitted from pm-kisan in the last one year, and they provided yes/no answers. henceforth, we will refer to the 224 households who reported that they availed of the scheme and the remaining 149 households—who reported that they did not avail of the scheme—as non-beneficiaries. [121] reshmi sengupta and debasis rooj stood at 45%. for crop insurance, these numbers stood at 11% and 6%, respectively. nearly 68% (table 1) of pm-kisan beneficiary households reported having adequate meals (at least three meals per day). only 9% of adults had to reduce their food consumption or skip meals during the last 365 days. in non-beneficiary families, these numbers stood at 63% and 12%, respectively. almost 28% of beneficiary households reported that they had enough food to eat in terms of quantity and variety compared to only 23% of non-beneficiary households. pm-kisan beneficiary households also reported seeking more healthcare (nearly 83% sought care) and immediate care (47%) as compared to non-beneficiary households (76% and 41%, respectively). nearly 37% of women in pm-kisan beneficiary families received treatment for health complications during their pregnancies compared to only 35% of their counterparts in non-beneficiary families. among the beneficiary households, 55% of women availed of government maternity benefits, like the janani suraksha yojna (jsy). almost 90% of pregnant women in beneficiary households sought antenatal care (anc) under jsy, compared to 85% in non-beneficiary households. more women in beneficiary households (54%) sought anc during the first trimesters of their pregnancies than their non-beneficiary counterparts (45%). a higher percentage of pregnant women from beneficiary households received at least two tetanus toxoid shots (11%) than pregnant women from nonbeneficiary households (9%). a slightly higher number of pregnant women in beneficiary households (21%) received at least 100 iron and folic acid tablets during their pregnancy than those in non-beneficiary households (20%). although an equal percentage (92%) of women from both samples delivered in an institutional setup, more women in the beneficiary sample (55%) delivered in public health facilities than women in the nonbeneficiary sample (49%). surprisingly, women in beneficiary households received lesser postnatal care (42%) than their counterparts in nonbeneficiary households (48%). finally, nearly 75% of children in pm-kisan beneficiary households received immediate postnatal care (within 24 hours of birth) as opposed to only 66% from non-beneficiary households. a marginally higher percentage of children from beneficiary households (99%) received some form of immunization compared to children from non-beneficiary families (98%). however, the percentage of full immunization in both samples remains the same (83%). furthermore, a higher percentage of children in pm-kisan ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] beneficiary households (83%) were breastfed immediately after their birth— within two hours of delivery—than children in non-beneficiary families (77%). 4. conclusion cash transfer programmes, such as the recently launched pm-kisan, can protect farmers by providing income support and influencing the households’ health and nutritional outcomes. our survey revealed that a majority of the families were aware of the policy. however, only two-thirds of the survey respondents availed or benefitted from it. further, those who benefitted from the programme exhibited higher food security and practised better health-seeking behaviours. therefore, it is evident that pmkisan can play an important role in helping farmers by providing them with income security. our preliminary findings based on the survey data and a two-sample t-test reveal that there is a statistical difference between pm-kisan beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries in terms of the means of the healthcare use and nutrition variables. it shows that pm-kisan beneficiary households are better off than non-beneficiary households in terms of these indicators. however, our interactions with farmers during field conversations revealed that many surveyed farmers are still not receiving the intended benefits because they are either unaware of the benefits or put off by lengthy bureaucratic processes—which range from filing applications to the prolonged and tiring claim settlement process, which often discourages farmers from utilizing government schemes. further interaction also revealed that farmers often grapple with availing of these benefits due to a lack of identity proof or the required bank documents. identity proof, such as an aadhar number, is needed to access these benefits. however, these households often do not possess an aadhar card. even if they hold one, there may have been errors while recording their names, and, hence, they may face issues when confirming their identity. moreover, these households are hardly aware of their bank account details, which are needed to encash the amount received through the scheme. therefore, improvement in financial inclusion and financial literacy is another aspect that we emphasize to improve the welfare of farmers. if the government can ensure better promotion and implementation of these schemes, and make the bureaucratic process less restrictive and tedious, then the penetration of these schemes may be more profound. [123] reshmi sengupta and debasis rooj table 1: food security and health-seeking behaviour among pm-kisan beneficiary and non-beneficiary households: a two-sample mean difference t-test variables pmkisan= 0 pmkisan=1 mean difference adequate meals (at least 3 or more complete meals per day) 0.627 0.677 –0.05** (0.011) enough quantity and variety of food in the last year 0.234 0.276 –0.042*** (0.005) an adult was required to reduce food consumption or skip meals 0.115 0.085 0.030** (0.014) members sought treatment for health problems, like fever, cough, diarrhoea, allergy, asthma, etc., in the last 12 months 0.76 0.829 –0.07*** (0.000) members sought immediate healthcare (within 24 hours) for health problems 0.413 0.468 –0.054*** (0.008) members sought care in private healthcare facilities 0.545 0.625 –0.079 (0.109) pregnant women sought treatment for health problems during their pregnancy 0.354 0.371 –0.016 (0.743) pregnant women sought any anc 0.846 0.902 –0.057* (0.089) pregnant women sought anc during their first trimester of pregnancy 0.451 0.543 –0.092* (0.078) pregnant women received at least two tt injections 0.098 0.112 –0.014 (0.517) pregnant women received at least 100 irf tablets 0.201 0.211 –0.01 (0.807) women delivered in an institutional setup 0.919 0.916 0.003 (0.921) women delivered in a public institution 0.486 0.553 –0.068 (0.184) women delivered in a private institution 0.434 0.363 0.071 (0.157) women received immediate postnatal care (within 24 hours of birth) 0.483 0.421 0.061* (0.087) children received immediate postnatal care (within 24 hours of birth) 0.664 0.753 –0.089** (0.022) children received any immunization/vaccination 0.984 0.99 –0.006 (0.543) children received full immunization/vaccination 0.834 0.833 0.001 (0.970) children were breastfed immediately after birth (within 2 hours of birth) 0.775 0.829 –0.055 (0.107) source: authors’ calculations; *** p<0.01; ** p<0.05; * p<0.10. figures in parentheses indicate p-values. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] acknowledgments first, we would like to thank professor mahendra dev, dr. a ganesh kumar, and dr. vijaylaxmi pandey for selecting us for the spandan grant and giving us this excellent opportunity to work on an exciting research topic. we are also thankful to prof. manoj panda for his invaluable suggestions on our paper. his recommendations have tremendously helped us refine our work. we appreciate the comments and directions given by professor brinda viswanathan during the interim presentation to improve our work. we are incredibly grateful to all the participants of the spandan workshop held on february 14, 2020, and june 25, 2022, for their insights. we would like to sincerely extend our gratitude towards prof. alakh sharma and the entire team of ihd, without whose guidance and help the primary survey would not have been possible. we also acknowledge the support provided by dr. ashwini kumar and mr. bkn singh for their tremendous support during the field work. we would also like to thank anurag banerjee, riham goel, tanisha kouli, and hashika sharma for their research support. grants this study has been funded by indira gandhi institute of development research (igidr), mumbai, and the system of promoting appropriate national dynamism for agriculture and nutrition (spandan) india references das, jishnu, quy-toan do, and berk özler. 2005. “reassessing conditional cash transfer programs.” the world bank research observer 20, no. 1: 57–80. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lki005 fiszbein, ariel, and norbert r. schady. 2009. conditional cash transfers: reducing present and future poverty. world bank publications. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-08213-7352-1 gertler, paul. 2004. “do conditional cash transfers improve child health? evidence from progresa's control randomized experiment.” american economic review 94, no. 2 (2004): 336–341. https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828041302109 https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lki005 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7352-1 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7352-1 https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828041302109 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 3–8, july 2019 commentary why india needs a unique approach to sustainability ruth defries  and ashwini chhatre  1. introduction when the united nations conference on environment and development propelled sustainable development into the lexicon in 1992, india’s population was about 900 million (united nations 2019), 45% of the population lived below poverty line (world bank 2019), and over 70% of the population lived in rural areas (united nations 2018). today, with its population approaching 1.4 billion, a decline of more than half in the proportion of people living in poverty, liberalized economy, mushrooming towns and cities, highways expanding across the country, and wide-spread aspirations for modern conveniences, the twentieth-century concept for sustainable development stands on its head. equity and social justice for the current generation are at least as essential as the 1990’s notion of intergenerational equity to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (brundtland 1987). as environmental justice and the voices of those who have not shared in the benefits of economic growth have become stronger in the twenty-first century, no one-size-fits-all pathway to sustainable development applies across countries or all places within countries. india’s trajectory calls for its own type of sustainability, one that builds from its unique, sometimes paradoxical and mind-boggling complexity.  department of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology, 1200 amsterdam avenue, columbia university, new york, 10027 usa; rd2402@columbia.edu.   indian school of business, gachibowli, hyderabad, telengana, 500 111 india; ashwini_chhatre@isb.edu copyright © defries and chhatre 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [4] 2. next generation food systems one of india’s greatest paradoxes is the success and failure of the green revolution. cereal production increased more than 2.3 fold since the 1960s and even outpaced population growth. horrific famines, such as the bengal famine of 1943 and the bihar famine of 1966-67, have not occurred since the green revolution, and india has transitioned from a food-importing to a net food-exporting country. but these successes are tempered by the onesize-fits all adoption of rice-wheat production systems that displaced local varieties of millets and sorghum. yields increased, but the loss of nutritionally-rich traditional cereals reduced net iron intake by 21% in rural diets and 10% in urban diets between 1983 and 2011, with the greatest loss (32%) in the lowest income quartile of rural households (defries et al. 2018). the tide may be turning, with some improvements in children’s nutrition and increased government attention on “nutri-cereals” and other ways to improve nutrition. as the ability of farmers to withstand climate extremes takes on urgency, ironically the options for farmers to grow climate-resilient, nutritious traditional cereals have diminished in the decades following the green revolution. such options can make the difference between disaster and survival. transition to an agricultural production system that provides sufficient food, resilience to climate variability, and farmers’ security lies at the heart of sound policies and interventions for the future. sustainable agriculture is more than a buzzword for india where the needs for healthier food and farmer-friendly agriculture are so apparent. it underscores the health and productivity of the population and the economy. 3. water, climate, and land use india’s monsoonal climate creates another paradox that many other countries do not face. too much rainfall during the monsoon and water scarcity in the dry season make storage a necessity. ingenious and sophisticated water harvesting systems made civilization possible in india over millennia. flooding in urban areas, as occurred in mumbai in 2005 and again in 2017 when nearly a metre of rain in 24 hours overwhelmed the drainage system, illustrates the urgent need for urban planners to minimize impervious surfaces as cities and towns expand. encroachment into the east kolkata wetlands, which absorb nutrients and runoff from the city, and development that paves over lakes constructed centuries ago to store water and catch storm flow in bangalore, are two examples of urban land use counter to sustainable water management. [5] ruth defries and ashwini chhatre watersheds with vegetation that absorbs water into the soil and recharges groundwater can contribute to india’s long tradition of water management. curiously, schemes to moderate water flows through upstream land management have been less prevalent in india than elsewhere, most notably in latin america (goldman-benner et al. 2012). the complexities of land tenure and fierce competition for land among agriculture, conservation, infrastructure and other uses explain why payments-for-water-services is more difficult in the indian context. india-relevant sustainable solutions for water management could provide multiple benefits for people, agriculture, and economy. such solutions might entail forest management by communities to enhance the ability of forests to recharge groundwater, watershed restoration that provides economic benefits, urban planning with green spaces that absorb storm water and provide recreational spaces, and adoption of technologies for efficient water use in agriculture. 4. biological heritage india’s status as a mega-diversity country amidst intense human pressures is a paradoxical marvel. india is one of 17 mega-diversity countries, which collectively hold more than 70% of the world’s biodiversity and each has more than 5000 endemic species (mittermeier 1997). the country houses 4 of 35 global biodiversity hot spots: the western ghats, the himalayas, north-eastern india south of brahmaputra that is a part of indo-malaya hotspot, and southern nicobar islands, a part of the sundaland hotspot. moreover, an extraordinary 460 listed languages are currently spoken in the country with accompanying vast traditional knowledge about local diversity and cultural traditions (eberhard, simons, and fenning 2019). unlike many other countries, india’s wildlife protection laws are strong, and the government has invested substantially in protected areas to maintain its rich biological heritage. as in other emerging economies, expansion of rail, roads, and energy infrastructure is essential for development. the overlap in space between places suitable for infrastructure expansion and places crucial to maintain biological and cultural heritage warrants serious attention. the potential for infrastructure to fragment habitat, sever connectivity for wildlife moving between protected areas, and threaten gains from the investments in wildlife protection is high, particularly in the case of linear infrastructure such as roads, powerlines, and railways. the boom in infrastructure expansion challenges the historical commitment to conservation, unless planners and engineers consider the needs of wildlife and cultural heritage in decisions about where to site infrastructure. the combination of relatively abundant wildlife, small protected areas, and high ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] human population densities make this challenge particularly acute in india. innovative decision-making processes could balance the needs for both infrastructure and wildlife through elevating the need to protect wildlife in the early planning stages of infrastructure projects. where routing to avoid critical habitat is not possible, mitigation structures such as overpasses and underpasses can maintain connectivity (dutta et al. 2015). 5. clean air finally, severe local environmental concerns fall under the banner of sustainable development. the country is at the crossroads between twentieth-century environmental problems and twenty-first century global sustainability concerns. as many as 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, in terms of annual mean levels of particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in diameter (gordon et al. 2018), are in india. a variety of sources contribute to these high levels of ambient pollution, including transportation, power generation from fossil-fuel burning, emissions from agricultural burning, trash burning and brick kilns. the relative contributions of these sources in different locations is still not clear, partially due to the paucity of monitoring. the meteorology and geography, with the himalayan mountains trapping pollution in the northern indian plains, add to the difficulties of addressing the problem in the indian context. yet, major cities around the world have successfully overcome severe air pollution, including athens, paris, los angeles, pittsburgh, and mexico city (pandis et al. 2016). in addition to outdoor air pollution, more than three-quarters of rural households use solid biomass for cooking and are exposed to indoor air pollution that far exceeds permissible levels. some programmes that promote biogas or lpg to replace fuelwood and dung as cooking fuel have proven effective with community involvement (agarwala et al. 2017). a sustainable future can only exist if conventional environmental problems, such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, receive sufficient attention to reduce the problem. india has untapped potential to clean its air. 6. an untrodden path overall, a development path in india that is sustainable, equitable, and respectful of the environment and human health is not optional, elitist, or a distant goal. every day, over 1.4 billion people in the country depend on water, food, clean air, and the country’s rich biological heritage for material and spiritual needs. a sustainable future will determine if these needs can be [7] ruth defries and ashwini chhatre met, which in turn will determine if people can engage in productive work, contribute to the growing economy, and meet aspirations for health and prosperity. the many paradoxes and complexities make india’s version of sustainability both more urgent and more difficult than in other places. no country has yet found a sustainable path to development. there can be no pre-packaged solution. efforts to reduce conventional environmental pollution, manage watersheds, diversify agriculture for climate resilience and nutrition, and plan infrastructure that maintains connectivity for wildlife are a few of many steps to provide a liveable environment for all. india’s unique path will define the future for more than one-sixth of humanity. references agarwala, m., s. ghoshal, l. verchot, c. martius, r. ahuja, and r. defries. 2017. “impact of biogas interventions on forest biomass and regeneration in southern india.” global ecology and conservation 11: 213-223. brundtland, g. 1987. our common future, the world commission on environment and development. oxford, uk: oxford university press. defries, r., a. chhatre, k. davis, a. dutta, j. fanzo, s. ghosh-jerath, s. myers, and m. smith. 2018. “impact of historical changes in coarse cereals consumption in india on micronutrient intake and anemia prevalence.” food and nutrition bulletin 39 (3): 377-392. dutta, t., s. sharma, p.s roy, b. mcrae, and r. defries. 2015. “connecting the dots: connectivity mapping for tiger in central india.” regional environmental change 16 (1): 53-67. eberhard, d., g. simons, and c. fenning, eds.2019. ethnologue: languages of the world. twenty-second edition. dallas, texas: sil international. https://www.ethnologue.com/country/in. goldman-benner, r. l., s. benitez, t. boucher, a. calvache, g. daily, p. kareiva, t. kroeger, and a. ramos. 2012. “water funds and payments for ecosystem services: practice learns from theory and theory can learn from practice.” oryx 46 (1): 55-63. gordon, t., k. balakrishnan, s. dey, s. rajagopalan, j. thornburg, g. thurston, a. agrawal, g. collman, r. guleria, and s. limaye. 2018. “air pollution health research priorities for india: perspectives of the indo-us communities of researchers.” environment international 119: 100-108. mittermeier, r. a. and c.g. mittermeier.1997. megadiversity: earth’s biologically wealthiest nations. mexico: agrupacion sierra madre and cemex pandis, s. n., k. skyllakou, k. florou, e. kostenidou, c. kaltsonoudis, e. hasa, and a. a. presto. 2016. “urban particulate matter pollution: a tale of five cities.” faraday discussions 189: 277-290. https://www.ethnologue.com/country/in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] united nations. 2018. world urbanization prospects 2018. new york: un. https://population.un.org/wup/country-profiles/. united nations. 2019. world population prospects 2019. new york: un. https://population.un.org/wpp/dataquery/. world bank. 2019. data: india. washington d.c.: world bank. https://data.worldbank.org/country/india. https://population.un.org/wup/country-profiles/ https://population.un.org/wpp/dataquery/ https://data.worldbank.org/country/india ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 103-106, july 2022 insights from the field food beyond counting: insights based on local knowledge from the field ranjoy gupta 1. introduction “food is a source of health, it is also a source of pleasure, and it can be the reason for illness.” these are the words of an elderly participant from the village of badnotta. this was his response to my questions on the importance of food for health as per local knowledge. this paper presents local knowledge and values on “eating food” from fieldwork carried out for a larger study to understand the local knowledge of food and health in a food system. 2. data and methodology i collected data through fieldwork consisting of 14 in-depth interviews with traditional knowledge-holders between november 2021 and february 2022. the participants were aged 60–98 years. of the 14 participants, 8 were women and 6 were men. of these, two were traditional healers. badnotta is located in a mountainous region in kathua district in jammu and kashmir. it is quite remote with poor road and infrastructure connectivity. the major sources of livelihood are labour and farming. young men are mostly involved in labour, while old men and both young and old women are involved in activities like farming and shepherding; the women also manage domestic work. people practise farming using the resources found in their surroundings, for example, by using the dung of animals as manure.  department of social work, central university of jammu, ranjoygupta007@gmail.com copyright © gupta 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719 mailto:ranjoygupta007@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] here, i discuss and reflect upon some of the important insights into their values and ideals related to eating food. 3. counting food: is it really important? eating beyond numbers food and nutrition insecurity, the triple burden of malnutrition, and hidden hunger are important global concerns. various policies and programmes have been initiated to address these concerns. at an individual level, the minimum prescribed food consumption standards (recommended dietary allowance, rda) define the quantity of food or calories required to provide energy for moderate to high physical activity. however, there are views that stand in stark opposition to these standards. for instance, discussing ayurveda in the context of food and health, kumar and kaur (2017) mention eight factors listed by acharya charaka in the ashtavidha ahara visheshayata. these factors describe different conditions to be considered while consuming food, such as quality, processing, combinations, time, quantity, habitat, directions of use, and individual constitution. further, charaka explains a whole list of eating norms. sujatha (2002) discusses local peoples’ (from a village in tamil nadu) eating norms—one among which is constancy in the quantity of food. she further explains that, as per the locals, the quantity of food to be consumed daily is not a fixed amount; rather, it depends upon the amount of physical work done. it is also based on the capacity of the stomach to hold food. she further explains that while constancy may appear to be a common criterion, the “capacity of the stomach to hold” is localized to specific conditions. the other two factors are regulation and moderation, where regulation stands for regularity in meal timings, while moderation stands for flexibility in the maximum number of meals eaten in a day. 3.1. local understanding of eating food here, i share the views of locals on minimizing consumption beyond “a particular amount and the practice of counting calories”. an elderly lady stated, “don’t count what you eat. in fact, never count what you eat, and eat as per your hunger. if you count, you won’t digest the food well. eating without counting is based on listening to your own hunger rather than listening to someone else’s instruction.” another lady said, “contentment after eating plays a major role in digestion and your body will tell you when to stop, so there is no need to worry about numbers.” [105] ranjoy gupta on further probing, they explained that food is not only needed to fill the stomach; instead, its purpose should be to provide health so that one is able to work. i asked her and a few others what matters in deciding how much should one eat and whether there was any standard rule. “there is no such standard regarding how much one should eat, but whatever you eat should bring an end to hunger. one must be able to do the required physical work, which creates satisfaction after eating, and so taste in food is very important,” i was informed. according to them, tastes can be of different types: sweet, sour, salty, astringent, and pungent. they further added that, “taste should be controlled and regulated in two ways: first, avoid repetition of the same type of taste or an excess of a particular taste in a meal, and second, maintain the process of preparation, which can be adjusted according to the season.” giving an example, another elderly lady, referring to the eating habits of her grandchildren and others of younger generations, said that, “when we were children, at least one meal of the day was different for different days in a week, but today i see that children don’t have time; they cook fast and keep feeding themselves with a particular type of taste for a long time.” she pointed out that this is where our discussion had begun—on “contentment after eating” being important for complete digestion. her statement also matched that of a traditional healer who said, “if you have three different tastes on a plate and you eat one kind of taste in excess, it will create problems in your digestion and later lead to illness if not treated on time.” i finally asked them if there was any time when taste was not considered important or a priority. to this a man said, “when you have food, you must think of taste, but when you do not have food, you should first think of ending hunger.” citing past incidents, he shared that people remember the harsh times when there was scarcity of food and they were left with no choice but to consume whatever they got, such as uncultivated greens from the forest. in such instances, taste did not matter much. 4. reflections from these interviews, i classify the amount of food intake based on three factors: availability, variability, and uniformity. availability is simply the amount of food available to be consumed. variability refers to variations in food taste; when they say, “to avoid repetition of taste”, they mean repetition of the same taste over days or weeks, which is believed to lead to illness. uniformity is maintaining the process of preparing food; there should not be a lot of changes in the method of preparation, and uniformity should be practised by adhering to set recipes over time, with changes made ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] according to the season. in relation to the eight factors given by kumar and kaur (2017), citing charaka, i assume that taste/satisfaction is another important factor in the local context. further, sujatha’s argument, regarding eating according to the capacity of the stomach to hold food rather than predetermining the amount you eat, is partially relatable to my field insights. these factors decided by people are based on their knowledge, observation, and lived experiences. these play a crucial role in their autonomy of food choice, which they believe positively affects their health and wellbeing. 5. conclusion the understanding of locals regarding how much to eat is based on fulfilling two needs: the physical requirement and satisfaction/contentment. the latter depends on taste, which is important only if food is generally available. once enough food is available to eat, then there is the consideration of taste, which is regulated by uniformity and variability. even when they eat according to the type of physical work, they do not rely on counting calories but on satisfaction/contentment as the guiding principle. their knowledge reflects their understanding of food, which ranges across factors like availability, capability to do physical work, and taste. given the context that at the local level, multiple factors determine the amount of food intake rather than it simply being a fixed amount, the primary question that arises is to what extent can localized principles be generalized on a national scale? acknowledgements i acknowledge the financial support from the university grants commission through their junior research fellowship (ugc-jrf) award. i am also very grateful to the study participants for their participation and support in the study. references kumar, harish, and harpreet kaur. 2017. “role of ayurveda in prevention of life style disorders w. s. r. to ahara.” international ayurvedic medical journal 5 (9): 1–9. sujatha, vendata. 2002. “food: the immanent cause from outside – medical lore on food and health in village tamil nadu.” sociological bulletin 51 (1): 79–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920020104 https://doi.org/10.1177/0038022920020104 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 163–168, january 2019 report a report on international biodiversity congress a. biju kumar  the loss of habitat, over exploitation of resources, invasion of species alien to the local context, water-soil-air pollution coupled with climate change continue to threaten the functioning of our life-sustaining biosphere. considering the ever-growing demand for bioresources, the un general assembly declared the period 2011-2020 as “united nations decade on biodiversity” to promote living in harmony with nature. its plan, called the 2020 strategic plan of the convention on biological diversity (cbd), aims to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, reduce the pressures on biodiversity, safeguard biodiversity at all levels, and to enhance the benefits provided by biodiversity. the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems is also reflected in many of the united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs) and targets. acknowledging the importance of biodiversity as closely linked to human well-being, the centre for innovation in science and social action (cissa), navdanya (dehradun), forest research institute (fri), indian council of forestry research and education (icfre, dehradun), uttarakhand biodiversity board, uttarakhand council for science and technology, and wildlife institute of india (wii, dehradun) came together to organise the international biodiversity congress (ibc 2018) at fri from 4 to 6 october 2018. its primary objective was to initiate and encourage interdisciplinary and inclusive dialogue among relevant stakeholders in the field of biodiversity, and to facilitate a shift towards ecological civilization that values, cherishes and conserves biodiversity in order to achieve sustainable development goals.  organising secretary, international biodiversity congress; professor and head, department of aquatic biology and fisheries, university of kerala, thiruvananthapuram 695581, india; bijukumar@keralauniversity.ac.in copyright © kumar 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.66 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.66 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] about 800 delegates and biodiversity experts from india and abroad attended the congress. the congress was inaugurated by the hon’ble chief minister of sikkim, pawan kumar chamling. he highlighted the need to exchange sustainable developmental models across the world and to mainstream biodiversity in developmental planning. giving the example of organic state model of sikkim, he reiterated the need for working towards organic himalaya in order to make agriculture ecologically sustainable and to conserve the rich diversity of the mountain ecosystem. presenting the overview of the congress, vandana shiva, chairperson of ibc and founder of ‘navdanya’, emphasised the need for women’s empowerment and their role in biodiversity conservation and the sustainable utilisation of resources. shiva underlined the traditional indian philosophy of aranya sanskriti that has conserved the diversity of nature for hundreds of years. shiva emphasized management of natural resources based on the principles of resilience, social values, cultural values, and linkage of food, nutrition, and health in order to create circular economies with happy and sustainable societies that cherish the values of ecology besides inheriting the ecological wisdom deep rooted in the society. savita, director of forest research institute, highlighted the importance of biodiversity for sustainable development and emphasised the need to educate the people for conservation of natural resources. shyam saran, former foreign secretary and special envoy on climate change highlighted the lethal implications of unsustainable developmental paradigms and the need for following mahatma gandhi’s philosophy on judicious utilization of natural resources. the ibc hosted six plenary sessions under six themes —biodiversity crisis: challenges & way ahead; legal framework for protecting biodiversity; ecosystem services and sustainability of fragile mountain ecosystems; biodiversity for food, nutrition & health; biodiversity and knowledge systems; and climate change and planetary health —ten parallel technical sessions, and four poster sessions under themes biodiversity and ecosystem services (microbial, floral and faunal diversity); biodiversity: legal and knowledge systems; biodiversity: threats and conservation strategies, and biodiversity: agro-ecosystems and food security; medicinal plants. a total of 27 invited plenary lectures were delivered in three days by eminent scholars and103 papers were presented by the delegates in parallel technical sessions, besides 410 posters. delivering indian perspective on biodiversity crisis, v.b. mathur, director of wildlife institute of india, expressed great concern over accelerated loss of genetic variability of species and highlighted prioritizing the conservation research and management programmes for the endangered species such as [165] a. biju kumar south asian river dolphin (platanista gangetica), dugong (dugong dugon), great indian bustard (ardeotis nigriceps), and brow-antlered deer or sangai (rucervus eldii) inhabiting critical ecosystems of india and facing a series of anthropogenic interventions. highlighting the “trusteeship” concept of mahatma gandhi, during discussion on “biodiversity education to address sixth mass extinction”, kartikeya sarabhai, director of centre for environment education, ahmedabad, emphasized that a range of climate friendly traditions and practices are promoting more sustainable life styles, and therefore their replication could play a key role in biodiversity conservation. jyotsna sitling from the ministry of skill development & entrepreneurship, government of india, stressed the need to develop skilled human resources to meet the challenges for nature conservation and warranted the need for reskilling and up-skilling professionals to maintain the biodiversity. sanjay molur, executive director of zoo outreach organisation, discussed the conservation strategies for different threatened taxa and highlighted the need for protecting freshwater fauna with more diversity of threatened point endemics in india. while presenting an overview of various laws, acts, government schemes and projects for biodiversity conservation, balakrishna pisupati, former chairman of national biodiversity authority, said declining biodiversity is still not seen as a threat to our survival by nonconservationists, including the general public. he highlighted the need for “social-proofing” or social informational influence through the involvement of brand ambassadors for raising awareness about biodiversity crisis. m.k. ramesh, national law school, bangalore, suggested that the biological diversity act of india is one of the finest globally in terms of managing biodiversity, though refinement is required for the implementation of the act. the experts also highlighted the need for vigil in protecting indigenous biodiversity in the spirit of conservation of biological diversity and sensitizing the people about the traditional knowledge, plant varieties and protection of farmer’s rights for controlling biopiracy. arguing that the market does not transfer money from consumers to ecosystems facilitating various services, s.p. singh, former vice chancellor, h.n.b. garhwal university, srinagar, stressed the need for incorporating himalayan ecosystem services in national accounting. the plenary lectures also highlighted the need for accelerating the r&d interventions to strengthen the mountain ecosystems under changing climatic regimes. expressing concern over biodiversity loss for monetary benefits in the western world, renate kunast, former minister of consumer protection, food and agriculture, germany, advocated the adaption of international protocols and agreement to protect biodiversity and highlighted the need to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [166] break the dependency and monopoly, and work towards pluralism for sustainable economies. james buchanan from xavier university, usa remarked that our education system is stuck in a moribund and dangerous atomistic or mechanistic worldview that is wholly inadequate for understanding the complex system of biodiversity. he said, if we are to address the growing crisis, we must begin by reshaping our education systems so that future generations understand, organize and value the world in fundamentally new ways. he then outlined the key criteria and steps in the radical reshaping of education. erach bharucha, director of bharathi vidyapeeth, pune and bittu sehgal, editor, sanctuary asia, discussed the need for incorporating biodiversity conservation case studies in formal education and the role of the youth in transforming biodiversity science and creating ecological civilization. according to ravindra singh (indo-german biodiversity program, giz), scientists, policy makers and media are the three key interconnected players in prioritizing and implementing solution for conservation challenges. in the valedictory session, b.p. singh, former governor of sikkim and former secretary, ministry of environment and forest, government of india, spoke on building an ecological civilisation and called upon to remain associated with indian concept of “unity in diversity” to preserve our biological diversity and cultural diversity which are mutually dependent. chief guest trivendra singh rawat, chief minister of uttarakhand, highlighted uttarakhand’s rich heritage and biodiversity that draws tourists, philosophers, scientists and saints. he stressed the need to combine the best of traditional wisdom and science with stakeholder participation for holistic perspective for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. the children who participated in the children’s biodiversity congress of ibc initiated a campaign to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their handprint (positive contributions towards conservation and sustainable use) for better life on the planet. the participants of the ibc 2018 took the doon valley biodiversity pledge for ecological civilization. the three-day conference forwarded the following major recommendations: (i) initiate and encourage a dialogue among stakeholders of biodiversity, including civil society organisations and farmers, to chart out programmes to facilitate a shift towards an ecological civilization that values, cherishes and conserves biodiversity to achieve united nations sustainable development goals (unsdgs), both at national and international platforms. necessary polices may be adopted by the [167] a. biju kumar governments across the world to establish a legal and policy framework that initiates a shift towards biodiversity-based civilization that facilitates green, low-carbon, and circular development and economy, promotes afforestation and protects the ecosystems and ecosystem services, strengthens wetland conservation and restoration, promotes organic and nutrition-rich farming practices, and ensures stronger action against those who debilitate the environment; implements nation-wide “biodiversity literacy programme” based on ecological civilization in order to spread the message of biodiversity and its conservation. (ii) the indian philosophy of vasudhaiva kutumbakam (one earth one family) needs to be promoted and implemented in a holistic manner for effective management and sustainable utilization of biodiversity. (iii) biodiversity utilization should be integrated with sustainable development goals and there should be holistic action plans involving the youth, women and citizen scientists to popularise the need for biodiversity conservation for sustainable development. (iv) as the governments have already announced adoption of the concept of sustainable development in planning process, the concept of biodiversity and related livelihoods should be flagged as the central principle of all developmental processes. (v) considering the fact that habitat degradation is one of the primary reasons for biodiversity loss, spatial planning using gis technology is recommended to prioritise land use for developmental and conservation planning and to demarcate areas rich in indigenous biodiversity including that of the agro-biodiversity. (vi) develop new foodscapes in cities and villages, primarily using resources from the local areas and by promoting the good food culture and conservation of biodiversity. (vii) transparent and fair labelling of food, agricultural products and other value-added products from biodiversity so as to ensure the rights of the consumers and to prevent the misuse of biodiversity. (viii) in order to prevent the rapid erosion of genetic diversity, strengthen on-farm conservation initiatives of indigenous biodiversity with proper recognition of and incentives for farmers and pastoralists involved. (ix) strengthen synergies between climate mitigation strategies and development policies in areas such as energy efficiency, fuel substitution, renewables, afforestation, and land and waste management. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [168] (x) increased communication between scientists and policy makers through programs like capacity building seminars for policy makers, people’s representatives, and bureaucrats. (xi) sustainable livelihood programmes must also focus on skill development for biodiversity conservation. reskilling and upskilling of professionals are also needed to maintain the biodiversity outside the forests. (xii) the nation should have sovereign rights on the biological resources which fall under its jurisdiction and the benefits arising from the commercial utilization of biological resources must be shared with the local community. (xiii) ecosystem services should be incorporated in national accounting in order to prioritize the value of conservation and in the backdrop of climate change, an action plan should be prepared for biodiversity conservation of the himalayan mountain ecosystem. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 107-117, july 2022 insights from the field agroecological impacts of urban demand for fresh vegetables: preliminary insights from exploratory surveys in bengaluru seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva, dhanush k m 1. bengaluru as a market for fresh produce a historical trading hub in south india during the reign of the madras presidency and the princely state of mysore, bengaluru continued to grow into a metropolitan city in independent india. state-driven industrialization during the 1960s and 70s made it a popular destination for diverse socioeconomic classes. the establishment and growth of the information and communication and biotechnology industries from the early 1990s onwards extended its popularity further (nair 2005). the middle-income classes—important constituents of these urbanization waves—drove the demand for a year-round supply of various fresh farm produces, aided by salubrious weather that had made bengaluru well known for vineyards. this convergence of the demand and supply of fresh farm produce triggered investment in private and public horticultural initiatives in and around bengaluru (ravi et al. 1995), including research institutions. the emergence of corporate players and international supply chains  professor, school of development, azim premji university, survey no 66, burugunte village, bikkanahalli main road, sarjapura, bangalore – 562125; seema.purushothaman@apu.edu.in.  research fellow, school of development, azim premji university, survey no 66, burugunte village, bikkanahalli main road, sarjapura, bangalore – 562125; vidya.s15@apu.edu.in.  research fellow, school of development, azim premji university, survey no 66, burugunte village, bikkanahalli main road, sarjapura, bangalore – 562125; dhanush.km@apu.edu.in. copyright © purushothaman, sadashiva and k.m. 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:seema.purushothaman@apu.edu.in mailto:vidya.s15@apu.edu.in mailto:dhanush.km@apu.edu.in ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] augmented the diversity of choices, price ranges, and buying ambience for fruit and vegetable commerce in bengaluru (ramachandra and rani 2013; vishnu and kumar 2019). bengaluru’s appetite for fresh farm produce is reflected in the existence of old and well-known markets, such as kr market, established in the early twentieth century; the agricultural produces marketing committee yards dedicated to fresh produce, such as yeshwantpur and singena agrahara; weekly farmers’ markets across the city, and raithara santhe in yelahanka. in these markets, fresh produce—except for fruits like oranges and apples—is supplied mainly by farming communities in the city peripheries within the state of karnataka—such as anekal, magadi, hoskote, and doddballapura taluks—and the neighbouring states of tamil nadu, kerala, and andhra pradesh. in response to the increasing demand for farm produce, intensive production techniques, such as polyhouse vertical farming, hydroponics, and polymer farming are emerging in the peripheries of this metropolis. different modes of urbanization and expansion around the city of bengaluru are known to have differential impacts on the agroecology of its peripheries (patil et al. 2018; purushothaman and patil 2019). the increasing clamour for processed food and a boom in food joints (karanth 2017) have obvious links to the dynamism in the city’s food system. just as the quantity and diversity of the agricultural produce consumed by bengaluru have made the city a horticultural hub, the agricultural land around it has started to shrink. studies reveal the repercussions of cities usurping farmlands and polluting water bodies on the lives and livelihoods of peri-urban small farmers (purushothaman et al. 2021a, purushothaman et al. 2021c). even the demand for ornamental plants for urban landscaping is known to impact peri-urban production systems (jaganmohan et al. 2012; purushothaman et al. 2021b). changing demands in the fresh produce market require farmers located in the market catchment of cities to produce certain commodities, as most fresh produce is typically sourced from adjacent agricultural areas. farmers in the neighbourhood choose their crops, varieties, inputs, and agronomic practices in response to these demand signals. this nexus between bengaluru’s food economy and consumer culture, the farming patterns in its peripheries, and the small family farms feeding the city (for a characterization of family farms, see purushothaman 2019) needs detailed exploration. bengaluru is projected to add 11.9 million more people and 251 villages to the metropolitan area by 2030 (bda 2017), further reinforcing this need. [109] seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva and dhanush k m this essay is an account of the initial insights from the first round of primary surveys conducted between september and december 2021 to understand how urban consumers’ demand for perishable agricultural produce is changing in bengaluru, and how such changes may impact periurban areas. these surveys will help us design the next phase, which will focus on the impact on the peri-urban agroecology and livelihoods. 2. data on retail buying and selling of fresh produce the city’s consumers of vegetables and fruits include resident households, its considerable floating population, food processing firms, and mushrooming food joints of various kinds. its retail market space for fresh produce consists of supermarket chains, small traders, co-operatives, online stores, street vendors, and pushcart hawkers. we designed the field survey for this study to focus on fresh vegetables supplied from peri-urban areas, covering bengaluru’s rural district and the rural parts of bengaluru district. this focus, along with the eventual objective of connecting urban consumers and producers for informed interactions in the next phase, made it necessary to choose marketing spaces that facilitate the identification of peri-urban producers and urban consumers. observations during our exploratory visits to various retail sellers of vegetables indicated the following: a) different types of retailers cater to different income groups located in different parts of the city; and b) there are two broad categories of fresh produce sold—vegetables that are common ingredients in the local cuisine and high-value exotic produce. based on these observations, we categorized retail stores in the city into premium stores, mid-range stores, and affordable markets, according to their customer base. we shortlisted two retail chains catering to each of the three categories of consumers—low, middle, and high income—for customer surveys. we targeted select stores of retail supermarket chains, online retailers, and unorganized sellers. sales data on fresh produce in organized retail stores are managed centrally in their respective corporate head offices. the store managers of these retail chains either refused to entertain us or directed us to their corporate offices in bengaluru or mumbai. this made data on the urban food–agriculture nexus mostly inaccessible. wherever sales data was accessible, it was not ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] organized or digitized. only the state-wide co-operative chain, hopcoms (horticultural producers’ cooperative processing and marketing society), was open to sharing sales data on fresh produce. thus, our strategy in the current phase was to seek informed consent from customers coming out of stores after buying fresh produce so that we could interview them using a short survey. thus, we conducted brief interviews with 34 willing customers outside six stores of retail chains catering to three income categories. next, we interviewed unorganized sellers, like street vendors and cart pullers, in nine neighbourhoods spread over three localities, catering to households from various income categories. in this very widespread retailing segment, bookkeeping was non-existent. the third step in data collection was an online survey circulated among our personal networks in bengaluru. this yielded 43 responses from the three income categories. thus, altogether, there was a purposive sample of 86 consumer responses to analyse. we summarize specific conclusions from the surveys conducted among the retailers and consumers in the next two sections. 3. vegetable retailing in bengaluru premium stores selling vegetables and catering to high-income households were located in the core of the city. hopcoms and large supermarkets belonged to the mid-range retail segment, though the latter also catered to low-income groups. accessible and affordable by all, the smaller supermarkets, neighbourhood stores, and street vendors were absent in the centre of the city. both highand middle-income customers relied partially but regularly on online purchases, especially after july 2020. this was a covid-induced shift, with most retailers entering the electronic market space. before the covid-19 pandemic, fewer options existed for the online purchase of vegetables, especially for lowand middle-income groups. all organized retail chains procure vegetables through their collection centres (cc) located in peri-urban farming areas. farmers and ccs enter buy-back contracts that enforce preand post-harvest conditions. such grading and packaging standards deter many small farmers from entering into these contracts or make them reliant on middlemen even after doing so. small retailers either directly procure produce from farmers or farmers’ collectives, or they get supplies from wholesale markets. most street hawkers get their supplies from wholesale markets, except for a few whom we met in the outskirts of the city, who were directly connecting with farmers and consumers in the second half of 2020, during the lockdown of markets and transport. [111] seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva and dhanush k m some online marketplaces announce their catchment areas for vegetable procurement, including farmers’ collectives. these are generally selfdeclared sources of “safe/chemical-free/sustainable/organic” vegetables and fruits. only a few hawkers, small stores, and some online suppliers verify the source of the vegetables they sell and the agronomic practices followed in their cultivation. 4. transition in fresh produce demand among bangaloreans accurately estimating the quantities demanded by the city was infeasible due to the data issues we mentioned earlier. the data from hopcoms show that nearly 9,150 tonnes of fresh vegetables were sold in the city in 2020–21 through its 280 outlets, some mobile stores, and its recently launched online marketing platform. the sale of exotic produce by hopcoms has been steadily increasing, from around 18 tonnes in 2014– 15 to 40 tonnes in 2020–21. the increasing demand for fresh produce in bengaluru has been attributed to the increasing population, incomes, and the changing consumption patterns of its rich and middle-income citizenry (surie and sami 2017). food consumption is also influenced by exposure to various cuisines, foodrelated advertisements, the composition of households, and the cultural and ecological features of a region and its long-term resident communities. customers visiting premium stores in bengaluru look for exotic produce for gourmet cooking. their food preferences are driven by global exposure, a penchant for appealing colours and freshness, and safety and nutritional concerns. the most commonly bought premium vegetables are broccoli, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and coloured bell peppers. these vegetables, popular among widely travelled bangaloreans, are now spearheading a notable trend in the culinary culture of the city. consumers in the middle-income bracket mostly bought vegetables that matched their culturally embedded diet patterns. within the middle-income households that have been keeping their food traditions alive, we also observed young professionals who enjoy exotic vegetables. but they kept a close watch on price trends in various retail chains. we found that their established food habits, especially those around fresh produce, were embedded in the agroecological features of their surroundings. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] figure 1: increasing shelf space occupied by exotic veggies in supermarkets located in high-income localities source: authors the literature shows how the local food culture was built over time based on the agroecological features of the city’s surroundings. for instance, seshadri et al. (2018) discuss how both the established local food tradition, and the cropping systems around bengaluru, integrated finger millet (eleusine coracana) as a staple grain and legumes like pigeon peas (cajanus cajan) and dolichos beans (dolichos lablab) as sources of protein (varshney, 2020). studies show that even while consumption pattern transitions are driven mainly by middle-class preferences, the notion of culture, freshness, and traditional food is important to a large section of the city’s population (ganguly 2017; sahakian et al. 2018). nutrition is emerging as a new consideration in addition to these slowly changing food preferences of middle-class urbanites. respondents mentioned how their buying of kiwi fruit and ginger increased with the spread of dengue fever and covid respectively in the city (yousefian et al. 2021; shrinivasa 2015; ashni 2021). for low-income families (defined as those above the poverty line with one family member working in a salaried, informal-sector job), the price of fresh produce was the determining factor. this constituency does not seem too particular about food cultures or nutritional benefits. over time, as retail chains started selling at cheaper rates, they moved from vegetable-cart pullers to large supermarkets. when it comes to cooked food, many lowincome families are increasingly relying on mobile street food sellers. [113] seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva and dhanush k m figure 2: wayside vegetable stalls in a middle-income locality source: authors overall, bengaluru’s established preference for fresh produce is being reinforced in certain ways—for instance, its demand for leafy vegetables is persistent throughout the year (prabha et al. 2009). meanwhile, bengaluru is also charting new trends in other ways—for example, the rising demand for exotic and organic vegetables (nandi et al. 2017). we found consumers who sought information on the origins and quality (in terms of food safety and nutritional value) of these vegetables only in the markets that claimed to sell safe, sustainably produced vegetables. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] 5. emerging implications for studying the city’s impact on peri-urban agroecology and livelihoods the broad conclusions emerging from the findings of our surveys are as follows: a) retail vegetable markets cater differentially to the distinct demand patterns of different consumer groups; b) the distinctions between the demand patterns of consumer groups are gradually blurring; c) the nature and quantum of fresh produce demanded by the city as a whole are changing, though the change in the nature of the demand seems to be comparatively slower; and d) quantifying the change in the demand for fresh produce is fraught with the data-related challenges we mentioned in section 2. one overarching observation is that producers and consumers of perishable commodities transacting in various markets in the city, though not too distant from each other, rarely interact. both consumers and producers of fresh produce are impacted by changes in input costs, quality of produce, and international trade (for instance, the export of high-value vegetables like gherkins and rose onions), among other factors such as weather parameters. responses to these changes generate mutually impacting influences among and between consumers and producers (thasnimol et al. 2016). a notable rise in the demand for fresh, exotic, high-value produce implies corresponding changes in peri-urban farming patterns. exotic vegetables are capitaland input-intensive crops that require shade houses with drip irrigation, temperature control mechanisms, and the application of chemicals (rao and sasanka 2015; udayakumar 2020). from a profitmaximizing perspective, these may sound reasonable if one has to capture the sunshine markets offered by a neoliberal city. however, resourceconstrained agrarian communities in the peri-urban landscapes around bengaluru find it tough to enter and sustain their livelihoods in this highvalue, low-volume market. such risk-taking, like diversifying into exotic produce in the absence of a secure livelihood, may also impact the nutritional security of farm families producing their own vegetables and fruits. farming exclusively for commerce makes agrarian skilling through experimental and social learning redundant in peri-urban areas (purushothaman et al. 2021c), as farming is entirely market driven at both ends – the input and output side. the exotic crops demanded by the city of bengaluru will be the forte of corporate entities that can invest in modern technologies and infrastructure, hire full-time migrant labour, and connect [115] seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva and dhanush k m to elite consumers. along with winter vegetables, perennial fruit crops, and tropical flowers, vegetables commonly used in the cuisines of communities long residing in the western ghats region—of which bengaluru is part— may offer better support to peri-urban agrarian livelihoods. acknowledgements this research is funded by the department of biotechnology, government of india (dbt), under the indo-german collaborative research center. we thank the retailers, consumers, and collection centres of fresh fruits and vegetables in bengaluru for their participation in our fieldwork. we deeply appreciate the support we received from hopcoms, lalbagh. references dhaor, ashni. “price of tender coconuts increases this dengue season in gautam budh nagar”, hindustan times (e-paper), october 18, 2021, https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/noida-news/price-of-tender-coconutsincreases-this-dengue-season-in-gautam-budh-nagar-101634495905303.html. bda. 2017. “revised master plan 2031 volume 3 – master plan document.”. bangalore development authority. https://opencity.in/documents/bda-revisedmaster-plan-2031-master-plan-document. ganguly, sunayana. 2017. “making sustainability palatable? changing practices of middle-class food consumption in bangalore.” international development policy (8.2): 2478. https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.2478 jaganmohan, madhumitha, lionel sujay vailshery, divya gopal, and harini nagendra. 2012. “plant diversity and distribution in urban domestic gardens and apartments in bangalore, india.” urban ecosystems 15(4): 911–925. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-012-0244-5 karanth, g k. 2017. “‘foodscapes’ in bengaluru—changing patterns of family eating out and waste generation.” international development policy (8.2): 2480. https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.2480 nair, janaki. 2005. the promise of the metropolis: bangalore’s twentieth century. new delhi: oxford university press. nandi, ravi, wolfgang bokelmann, nithya vishwanath gowdru, and gustavo dias. 2017. “factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay for organic fruits and vegetables: empirical evidence from a consumer survey in india.” journal of food products marketing 23(4): 430–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2015.1048018 https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/noida-news/price-of-tender-coconuts-increases-this-dengue-season-in-gautam-budh-nagar-101634495905303.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/noida-news/price-of-tender-coconuts-increases-this-dengue-season-in-gautam-budh-nagar-101634495905303.html https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.2478 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-012-0244-5 https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.2480 https://doi.org/10.1080/10454446.2015.1048018 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] patil, sheetal, b dhanya, raghavendra s vanjari, and seema purushothaman. 2018. “urbanisation and new agroecologies.” economic & political weekly 53(41): 71–77. prabha, r, kamal g nath, and b s ramya. 2009. “consumption pattern of green leafy vegetables among selected urban households in bangalore, india.” asian journal of home science 3(2): 180–185. purushothaman s, and patil s. 2019. “agrarian change and urbanization in southern india.” india studies in business and economics. springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2f978-981-10-8336-5 purushothaman, seema, sheetal patil, raghavendra srikrishna vanjari, and shwetha a r. 2021a. “growing cities and shrinking agriculture, small farm dynamics in india” (blog), azim premji university bangalore, november 2021. https://smallfarmdynamics.blog/2021/11/03/growing-cities-and-shrinkingagriculture/ purushothaman, seema, sheetal patil, dhanya bhaskar, raghavendra srikrishna vanjari, and shwetha a r. 2021b. “green carpet or green desert?” (youtube video), march 17, 2021, azim premji university. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skc-shbl21w. purushothaman, seema, sheetal patil, raghavendra srikrishna vanjari, and shwetha a r. 2021c. “urban wastewater for agriculture: farmers’ perspectives from periurban bengaluru.” working paper no. 20. bengaluru: azim premji university. purushothaman, seema. 2019. “the science and economics of family farms.” current science 117(11): 1763–1764. ramachandra, k, and meena rani n, 2011. “retailing of fresh fruits and vegetables in bangalore – a study on consumers’ experience in modern vis-a-vis traditional retail formats.” indian journal of applied research 3(4): 308–311. https://doi.org/10.15373/2249555x/apr2013/101 rao c c, and v m sasanka. 2015. “exotic veggies: a practical utility of innovation-lured by the easy returns.” international journal of applied research 1(12): 1038–1041. ravi, p c, b m reddy, p g chengappa, and mohammad ali. 1995. “economics of processing fruits and vegetables – a comparative study of private and public sector enterprises.” agricultural economics research review 8(2): 29–38. sahakian, marlyne, czarina saloma, and sunayana ganguly. 2018. “exploring the role of taste in middle-class household practices: implications for sustainable food consumption in metro manila and bangalore.” asian journal of social science 46(3): 304–329. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685314-04603005 seshadri, shreelata rao, suraj parab, nilanjan bhor, and latha n. 2016. “what we ate then and what we eat now: a grandmother’s tale.” working paper no. 2. bengaluru: azim premji university. shrinivasa, m. 2015. “dengue scare: kiwi fruit prices soar in bengaluru”, deccan chronicle, july 12. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/150712/nation-currentaffairs/article/dengue-scare-kiwi-fruit-prices-soar-bengaluru. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2f978-981-10-8336-5 about:blank about:blank about:blank about:blank https://doi.org/10.15373/2249555x/apr2013/101 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685314-04603005 https://www.deccanchronicle.com/150712/nation-current-affairs/article/dengue-scare-kiwi-fruit-prices-soar-bengaluru https://www.deccanchronicle.com/150712/nation-current-affairs/article/dengue-scare-kiwi-fruit-prices-soar-bengaluru [117] seema purushothaman, vidya puttur sadashiva and dhanush k m surie, aditi, and neha sami. 2017. “the urban food system of bangalore, india.” in hungry cities report no. 5., edited by jonathan crush. hungry cities partnership african center for cities and iihs. https://citizenmatters.in/wpcontent/uploads/sites/14/2018/02/hungrycities.pdf. thasnimol fasil, huchaiah lokesha, and mouneshwari r kammar. 2016. “consumption pattern in karnataka with reference to high value agriculture commodities.” international journal of applied and pure science and agriculture (ijapsa) 2(3): 133–138. udaykumar, m s. 2020. “urbanization and its impact on production diversity and income of farm households: an economic analysis across rural-urban interface of bengaluru.” economic affairs 65(4): 681–689. https://doi.org/10.46852/04242513.4.2020.27 varshney, apekshita. 2020. “bengaluru’s lost crop varieties: how we are missing out on local, nutritious food.” citizen matters (blog), august 24, 2020, https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/agriculture-biodiversity-bangalore-historychange-in-food-crops-cultivation-millets-vegetables-legumes-indigenous-varieties50218. https://doi.org/10.37200/ijpr/v24i5/pr2020698 vishnu, kedar and parmod kumar. 2019. “structure and strategy of supermarkets of fruits and vegetables retailing in karnataka: gains for whom?” working paper no. 438. bengaluru: institute for social and economic change. yousefian, neda, m soubadra devy, k geetha, and christoph dittrich. 2021. “lockdown farmers markets in bengaluru: direct marketing activities and potential for rural-urban linkages in the food system.” journal of agriculture food systems and community development, 10(2): 105–121. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.034 https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/02/hungrycities.pdf https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2018/02/hungrycities.pdf https://doi.org/10.46852/0424-2513.4.2020.27 https://doi.org/10.46852/0424-2513.4.2020.27 https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/agriculture-biodiversity-bangalore-history-change-in-food-crops-cultivation-millets-vegetables-legumes-indigenous-varieties-50218 https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/agriculture-biodiversity-bangalore-history-change-in-food-crops-cultivation-millets-vegetables-legumes-indigenous-varieties-50218 https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/agriculture-biodiversity-bangalore-history-change-in-food-crops-cultivation-millets-vegetables-legumes-indigenous-varieties-50218 https://doi.org/10.37200/ijpr/v24i5/pr2020698 https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.034 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 159–162, january 2019 book review industrialisation in india: the many worlds of discord and resistance radhika krishnan  kenneth bo nielsen and patrik oskarsson (eds.). 2017. industrialising rural india: land, policy and resistance, london and new york: routledge, isbn: 1138936715, 9781138936713; pp. 200, inr 3458 the inter-linkage of rural livelihoods, local economies and natural resources has been a popular subject of academic research. scholars have pointed out, for instance, the far-reaching impact of extensive forest transformations and agrarian change on rural communities. they have similarly spoken of the role of ‘common property resources’ – including vast grazing areas and forested regions officially designated as ‘degraded’ – in sustaining rural livelihoods, especially in dry tropical areas of india. it has been pointed out that biophysical as well as economic stresses are somewhat countered in multiple ways through the sociallymediated usage of public land and products available in the forest space.  assistant professor, international institute of information technology (iiit) gachibowli, hyderabad, telangana 500032; radhika.krishnan@iiit.ac.in copyright © krishnan 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.65 mailto:radhika.krishnan@iiit.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.65 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [160] existing research has also delineated the social and economic impacts of the loss of these crucial ecological spaces. the journey from the field and the forest to the factory is thus rarely free from multiple contestations, especially when new capital-intensive technological regimes are introduced in a predominantly agrarian, or forest dependent subsistence economy. historians and sociologists have given us several authoritative accounts of shifting technological landscapes in india, accounts which have usefully delineated tensions over land and livelihoods, resource (mis)use and alienation, nature and culture, power, decisionmaking and bureaucracy. industrialising rural india, an edited volume, is situated within this well-etched out academic backdrop. what kenneth bo nielsen and patrik oskarsson seek to do, as editors, is to provide readers with historical, cultural and deeply political insights into the vexed processes of land acquisition and policy-making in india today. this volume has been divided thematically into three sections on public policy and its evolution, governance and resistance. in the section on policy evolution viz-a-viz development in india, jørgen dige pedersen and stein sundstøl eriksen offer us a historical perspective on the broad contours of public policy. together, their essays attempt to introduce the reader to the evolution of state policy on industrialisation from the early post-independence decades of the 1950s and the 1960s, through the tumultuous decade of economic liberalisation, its aftermath, and to the present. pedersen tries to explain the evolution of increased political traction enjoyed today by movements resisting the state’s land governance frameworks. for eriksen, indian economic policy is a somewhat odd admixture of neoliberalism and statism. this is a policy paradigm that fails to put in place effective social security cushions to soften the impact of primitive accumulation and industrialisation, he argues. kenneth nielsen and sarasij majumder on the other hand present for us a fascinating exploration of ambiguous (and even contradictory) aspirations of the indian peasantry. in their study of the much-documented agitation in singur, in west bengal, against a car manufacturing unit, they tell us that the desire for and deep attachment to land (seen equally as material as well as social/cultural capital and embodiment of status and security) is matched, oddly enough, with the aspiration for respectable non-agricultural employment. this, the authors argue, could account for the ambiguous nature of resistance movements and the “contradictory and contextual” political rhetoric on industrialisation (p. 79). the following section on governance (of both nature and society) then takes this thread of ambiguity forward in interesting ways. kuntala lahiridutt speaks of the varied cultural and political universes embedded in the [161] radhika krishnan process of extracting coal in india. her carefully delineated categories of “national”, “neo-liberal”, “statecraft” and “subsistence” coal alert us to the fact that coal has both material and aspirational qualities. its myriad lives, characterised by distinctly different norms, values and actors, are shaped, she argues, through geographies and human interactions, through “biophysical heterogeneity, technology and social institutions” (p. 88). bengt karlsson also attempts an anthropological account of the life of coal, wherein he sketches the contours of “tribal” mining in meghalaya. exploitative, poorly regulated and privatised as this enterprise is shown to be in this account, coal mining is seen as the means through which a new indigenous elite emerges as a key social force. and like lahiri-dutt, karlsson portrays the fuzzy boundaries between the “legal” and the “illegal”, as coal lends itself to the creation of political power. oskarsson and siddharth sareen, in their respective pieces, bring in a different perspective to the debate on governance in relation to mineral extraction. they highlight the nature of governance in mineral-rich areas: buffeted by high-pitched, rhetorical arguments of proand anti-mining groups, characterised by chaos and symbolised by a loss of local control over resources. the final section offers an interesting ring-side view of resistance ‘from the trenches’. prakruti ramesh is particularly insightful in her reading of the anti-vedanta protests in niyamgiri and the adivasi tryst with modernity and the attendant governance paradigms. ramesh’s ethnographic study draws from and adds to existing academic work that underlines the ‘dark side’ of indigeneity as she documents particular inventions of tradition and performances of indigeneity which seek to safeguard the identity of the dongria kondhs as a “primitive”, forestand land-loving community. this volume is a useful synthesis of academic work dealing with the challenges of industrialisation in rural india. the historical perspective, the articulation of the intriguing ambiguous aspirations of ‘new india’ and the equally compelling accounts of the social and cultural worlds of mineral resources are complemented by anthropological narratives of the complex world of mineral extraction, governance and resistance. the volume has perhaps consciously steered clear from analysing ideological and tactical differences (if any) on the question of industrial policy between the major political blocks in india. an essay on the varying political compulsions of the congress-led united progressive alliance and the bjp-led national democratic alliance would have added a crucial element to this compilation. the reader would benefit, for instance, from an analysis of how different political parties establish their legitimacy amongst diverse political constituencies. in the same vein, a deeper insight ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] into the confluence (or not) between the electoral successes and industrial policy, into intricate negotiations and tensions that occur within the corridors of power would have enriched this volume. that being said, this volume is recommended reading for everyone interested in indian political economy and ecology. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 239-243 january 2022 book review role and scope of environmental models purnamita dasgupta* kn ninan (ed.). 2020. environmental assessments scenarios, modelling and policy. uk: edward elgar publishing. isbn: 978 1 78897 686 2, 288 pp. the book environmental assessments: scenarios, modelling and policy presents various perspectives on the role and contribution of environmental models in safeguarding nature and natural wealth. as its editor kn ninan wrote in a recent article, nature is the key to human well-being and prosperity. ninan is chairperson of the centre for economics, environment, and society at bangalore, india. he applies his rich experience in working with natural resources to bring together a volume of contributions by eminent scholars in the field of environmental modelling and scenario building with links to policy relevance. as anne larigauderie, * chair professor, environmental & resource economics unit, institute of economic growth, delhi; purnamita.dasgupta@gmail.com copyright © dasgupta 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.617 mailto:purnamita.dasgupta@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.617 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [240] executive secretary of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes), notes in her foreword to the book: scenarios and models have been a key component of most global, regional and national environmental assessments carried out over the last decade, including those of ipbes. scenarios and models in assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services have helped in alerting the scientific community and policymakers to the possible future risks for nature, nature’s contribution to people and the quality of their lives, and sustainable development. an elaboration on the context within which this book review was written may be in order. the ongoing pandemic has brought home the ground reality of the need to restore and maintain a human–nature balance—as much to the uninitiated as to the converted. this year, publications from three important financial institutions—the uk treasury (the dasgupta review), oecd (2021), and world bank (johnson et al. 2021) have highlighted the criticality of biodiversity and nature for human well-being, and the interlinkages between the economy and nature. an initial simulation estimate (dobson et al. 2020) suggests that the present value of prevention costs of the pandemic for 10 years, through interventions such as combatting deforestation and limiting wildlife trade, could be just 2% of the total cost attributed to the pandemic. that the degradation of ecosystems and biodiversity losses can lead to societal welfare losses running into billions of dollars is being increasingly recognised, as is the consequent worry about how best to reduce risks to ecosystems. it is here that welldesigned models and scenario analyses can contribute towards assessing risks and formulating steps to prevent or reduce these environmental consequences (and future losses). the imperatives imposed by a changing climate that adversely impacts nature’s contribution to people and exacerbates biodiversity losses are, for instance, an area that calls for urgent action to achieve food security, planetary health, and protect biodiversity (fao 2021; ipbes 2019). the potential for models to contribute towards alerting stakeholders about threats and risks to the environment has been well recognized in the scientific literature. as noted in the preface, the importance of mainstreaming such knowledge within environmental decision-making by policymakers gained traction with the ipbes, which took this up in its methodological assessment report on scenarios and models of biodiversity and ecosystem services, specifically in the context of global warming and biodiversity loss. as several scholars have noted, biodiversity loss and climate change are interlinked concerns that can be addressed [241] purnamita dasgupta simultaneously through interventions for ecosystem restoration (for instance, see strassburg et al. 2020). as the dasgupta review (2021) notes, restoration is costlier than conservation for ecosystems. the most recent insights publication, martin et al. (2021) states that: “due to climate change, ecosystems and people are confronted with unprecedented, often locally new, climate-forced impacts, with humanitarian crises looming as a result of degrading living conditions and the potential for cascading risks across various scales.” it is in this context that environmental assessments is a timely and value-added contribution to the existing literature on ways to enhance informed decision-making to avoid upsetting nature–people relationships and ensuring that environmental risks are minimised to the maximum extent possible. over 13 chapters, the book examines various theoretical framings as well as empirical applications of environmental models and scenario-building exercises, with a focus on understanding the drivers of environmental change as well as the implications for human society. the first three chapters (part i) examine theoretical and conceptual issues in specific contexts, including the paper by teh et al. (2016) in regional environmental change (re-published here) on developing national-scale integrated socioecological scenarios for canada’s oceans and marine fisheries. two subsequent chapters bring forth the complexities in estimating the economic effects of climate change in the context of integrated assessment models (prieg and yumashev) and monitoring land-use and land-cover changes at multiple spatial scales (rosa). both these chapters deal with two very important current topics, namely, the use of spatial data and integrated assessment models in the context of the environment. in part ii, a mix of applications and case studies are presented at various scales—global, regional, and national—with illustrations and cases from a range of sectors including forestry, wetlands and oceans, agriculture and livestock, fisheries, invasive species, and urban ecosystems. the global appeal of the book is in the geographies that it covers, including ocean and marine fisheries in canada, livestock and deforestation in brazil, forests in cambodia, seafood supplies in british columbia, drivers of environmental change in latin america and the caribbean, wetland management in kerala, india, municipal planning and adaptive management in nicaragua. the tone for the section is set by two key chapters, the first of which is a re-publication of the paper by kubiszewski et al. (2017) in ecosystem services, which discusses the future value of ecosystem services in the context of global scenarios. this is followed by an excellent exposition on the challenges of modelling, in the context of controlling invasive exotic weeds ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [242] in protected areas. illustrations, data, and substantive evidence are crucial for building confidence in the application of environmental studies in any form or shape. this section does an excellent job of presenting myriad ways of working with environmental models and scenarios to target the policy relevance of modelling-based research studies. an interested reader may want to begin with the introduction, which is exceptionally comprehensive and well-written. it puts together substantial information not only regarding the contents of the book but also on several basic concepts such as descriptions of various tools and frameworks and types of scenarios and models and the purposes they serve. it provides valuable direction to the reader on the heady mix of technical diversity incorporated within the subsequent chapters. this book is an important contribution to research on environmental models, providing a comprehensive overview of the literature on building scenarios and how these can contribute in decision-making to reduce risks to planetary health and human well-being. references dasgupta, partha. 2021. “the economics of biodiversity.” the dasgupta review. london, uk: hm treasury. www.gov.uk/official-documents. díaz, sandra, josef settele, eduardo brondízio, hien t ngo, maximilien guèze, john agard, almul arneth, et al. 2019. “summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services.” bonn, germany: ipbes secretariat. dobson, andrew p, stuart l pimm, lee hannah, les kaufman, jorge a ahumada, amy w ando, aaron bernstein, et al. 2020. “ecology and economics for pandemic prevention.” science 369 (6502): 379–381. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc3189. fao. 2021. “scientific review of the impact of climate change on plant pests – a global challenge to prevent and mitigate plant pest risks in agriculture, forestry and ecosystems.” rome: food and agriculture organization on behalf of the ippc secretariat. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4769en. johnson, justin andrew, giovanni ruta, uris baldos, raffaello cervigni, shun chonabayashi, erwin corong, olga gavryliuk, james gerber, thomas hertel, christopher nootenboom, et al. 2021. the economic case for nature: a global earth-economy model to assess development policy pathways. washington, d.c.: world bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35882 license: cc by 3.0 igo. http://www.gov.uk/official-documents https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abc3189 https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4769en [243] purnamita dasgupta kubiszewski, ida, robert costanza, sharolyn anderson and paul c sutton. 2017. “the future value of ecosystem services: global scenarios and national implications.” ecosystem services 26: 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.05.004. martin, maria a, olga alcarez sendra, ana bastos, nico bauer, christoph bertram, thorsten blenckner, kathryn bowen, et al. 2021. “ten new insights in climate science 2021: a horizon scan.” global sustainability 4 (25). https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2021.25. oecd. 2021. “biodiversity, natural capital and the economy: a policy guide for finance, economic and environment ministers,” oecd environment policy papers 26. paris: oecd publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1a1ae114-en. strassburg, bernardo bn, alvaro iribarrem, hawthorne l beyer, carlos leandro cordeiro, renato crouzeilles, catarina c jakovac, andré braga junqueira, et al. 2020. “global priority areas for ecosystem restoration.” nature 586 (7831): 724– 729. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9. teh, louise, william cheung, and rashid u sumaila. 2016. “scenarios for investigating the future of canada's oceans and marine fisheries under environmental and socioeconomic change.” regional environmental change 17(3): 619–633. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788976879.00012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2021.25 https://doi.org/10.1787/1a1ae114-en https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788976879.00012 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 33–36, july 2019 conversations: practising sustainability science: challenges in teaching and research sustainability: challenges in teaching seema purushothaman  sustainability could very well be the vantage point from where we can look at anything and everythingbe it food, farming, forests, water, industry, livelihoods, lifestyles or civilisation itself. this universal applicability comes with a prerequisite for a pluralistic but integrative lens. i join others in this conversation on the need to have interdisciplinary teams and people undertaking co-enquiries in the interface of development and environment. at azim premji university, we are working on a project on these lines with the adivasis of central india.1 ‗sustainability‘ has an obvious difference from its close and widely used ally —‗sustainable development‘ (sd), enshrined in our common future (wced 1987). prominently anchored in neo-classical welfare economics, the sd approach has churned out monetary values of environmental changes, greenwashed business strategies and ushered in initiatives like payment for ecosystem services and carbon markets. the meek presence of ‗inter-generationality‘ in sd was translated into bequest values in several economic valuation exercises. nevertheless, sd for whom, at what cost and who bears the cost are questions at large. what could ‗sustainability‘ as a concept offer and stand for? while sd in our common future is perceived as closer to sustainable economic growth (carruthers 2001), ‗sustainability‘ is nuanced and sophisticated and more difficult to handle as a subject in both teaching and  azim premji university, pixel park, pes campus, hosur road, bengaluru, 560100; seema.purushothaman@apu.edu.in copyright © purushothaman 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.73 1 adaptive skilling through action research is undertaken in parts of jharkhand and madhya pradesh, in collaboration with pradan, a development organization. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.73 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] research. evidently, it has shed the suffix development. it could thus freely manoeuvre from the sustainability of the planet towards that of human society.2 in that sense, ‗future‘ is inbuilt in ‗sustainability‘, as it can choose to be sensitive to all biotic and abiotic entities as well as to distributional equity within and across generations. thus, it could be conceptualized as pertaining to ecosystems; to a social normative (much like justice or democracy); a way of life or a means leading to diverse ends; a new religion or even as the evolution of new cultures. these approaches involve conversations among diverse stakeholders while negotiating development trade-offs. this note reminisces on the learning from designing and teaching sustainability at apu.3 unlike the notes by nitin rai and rashid hassan in this section, this write up focuses on sustainability education in an interdisciplinary masters‘ programme aimed at moulding reflective development practitioners. the commonality in sustainability education at masters‘ and phd programmes is the need to instil a holistic but questioning and ‗people first‘ attitude. apu offers a perspective that identifies sustainability with its intrinsic elements of social, ecological, political, scientific, technological and humane sensibilities (purushothaman et al. 2016). teaching and learning such a versatile concept envisage innovative approaches. the first course begins with sharing of learners‘ initial understanding of sustainability and ends by sharing their transformed definitions of the concept. the curriculum emphasises interactive learning and considers the classroom as learning ‗commons‘. there is a caveat here; the classroom needs to reflect diversity in the society while being not too large to enable the chosen pedagogic tools and to accomplish the learning objectives. an essential requirement for our ma students has been the need for trans-disciplinary interpretations and explanations using a simple vocabulary of disciplinary academic evidence from contexts that are closer home. this often requires intra class translations of conversations into multiple vernacular traditions. classroom deliberations engage with both abstract and tangible interpretations of the concept, as well as empirical real-life topics around us. 2 there are many definitions for a sustainable society, starting with the one by world council of churches (1974) 3 basically, two courses of three credits each—―sustainabilityan interdisciplinary exploration‖ offered in the third semester and ―sustainability in planning and practice‖ in the fourth semester of the ma development programme. [35] seema purushothaman lived experiences of people in the class, as well as structured debates around questions arising from deliberations, are used as pedagogic tools in the first course. structured and graded debates happen in identified outdoor premises of accessible institutions engaged in practicing sustainability—for instance, selected residential collectives, educational institutions or agricultural interventions around bangalore. while debates bring to the fore the inevitable complexity and divergence, exposure to experiments diminishes the abstraction and complexity of the concept. student feedback on the course reflects the transformative experience, beginning with unlearning pre-conceived notions by engaging with rich conceptual analysis and finally coming to terms with the reality of inevitable complexity both in concept and in practice. by mid-semester in the first course, students tend to think about sustainability as an oxymoron and by the end of the course, they deem it as a conscious work in progress. while the first course on interdisciplinary approaches undertakes conceptual disambiguation, the course on planning and practice in the following semester familiarises learners with challenges in different sectors. the second course involving field work connects individual students with interdisciplinary approaches to issues like waste management, urban mobility, water commons, etc. technical skills are imparted in optional courses, including those on social-ecological systems, economics, law and justice, water, land change, agriculture, forests and urban commons, all of which follow the sustainability framing originating in the first course. the challenge has been to engage with the following questions: if sustainability is eclectic and lending itself to various interpretations,4 then how do you define, conceptualise and articulate it for the common person? does the concept allow itself to be pinned down to a clear proposition and hence to be taught as a textbook subject? can studying and teaching sustainability confine to unpacking the complexities or does it inevitably entail questioning and adapting one‘s own way of life? the teaching approach distances itself from the bandwagon of sustainable development, though it evades paralysis at the hands of complexity and vagueness. the primary accomplishment is to unravel sustainability as a multi-dimensional normative to be pursued despite complexity and vagueness. 4 for instance, as the ability of human civilization (as we know/ want it to be) to sustain into prolonged—if not infinite—-time period or defining it as context-specific adaptive abilities (e.g. in sustaining a water body, crop productivity or biodiversity). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] references carruthers, d. 2001. ―from opposition to orthodoxy: the remaking of sustainable development.‖ journal of third world studies 18 (2): 93-112. purushothaman, s., c. ravi, h. nagendra, m. mathai, s. mundoli, et al. 2016. ―sustainability in higher education for the global south: a conversation across geographies and disciplines.‖ sustainability in debate 7(1): 156-173. https://doi.org/10.18472/sustdeb.v7n1.2016.17424 world commission on environment and development. 1987. report of the world commission on environment and development our common future. oxford: oxford university press. world council of churches. 1974. report of ecumenical study conference on science and technology for human development. geneva: world council of churches. https://doi.org/10.18472/sustdeb.v7n1.2016.17424 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 1–2, july 2019 editorial sustainability science remains a challenge for academia kamal bawa  sustainability is the defining theme of this century. sustainability science based on the integration of a wide range of disciplines including arts and humanities is one of the means to achieve sustainability. the inclusion of arts and humanities indeed calls into the question the use of “science” in sustainability science. putting this question aside, this journal itself is symbolic of efforts to nurture and foster sustainability science. the current issue covers a range of topics that constitute the core of sustainability science. forests in many countries of the global south are contested domains, with local communities and the state having different perspectives about the use and governance of forest ecosystems. in the opening essay, one of our leading thinkers on sustainability renews his call for new approaches to meet challenges related to governance of forest ecosystems. if integration of various types of knowledge is a key element of conservation science, integration of ideas, perspectives and approaches also underpins the practice of sustainability. and, indeed the merging of knowledge and practice is the basis of transdisciplinary conservation science. the conversations section with commentaries by prominent educators, who are bringing innovations in graduate programs, shows the ways to build the future leadership in sustainability science. fresh thinking is also the key element of the essay that explores the role of science and uncertainties in decision-making. various research papers, notes from the  coordinating editor (2018–19). university of massachusetts, boston, ma 02125-3393; and ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree), bengaluru, 560 064, india; kamal.bawa@gmail.com copyright © bawa 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.68 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.68 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] field, reports and book review describe several other aspects of sustainability. altogether the articles in this issue show the promise and the distance the academia and society—as i also argued in in my editorial in the last issue— need to cover to make our world more sustainable. although, the global community has set lofty goals in the form of united nations sustainable development goals to secure a better future for the planet and its people, the countries, especially in the global south, where sustainability challenges are becoming more severe day by day, have not taken steps to advance knowledge and practice that will ensure a sustainable future. as the authors of various pieces in the conversation section imply, nothing short of a radical transformation in curricula, the research enterprise, including funding, and the way knowledge is integrated with policies and action are required. we need far more centers in academia than what exists today. sustainability science centers are scarce even in the united states and europe, and much fewer in countries of the south, posing a challenge that is not being addressed with the urgency it deserves. south asian countries and more specifically india with vast human resources and numerous institutions of learning have the means and successful indigenously developed models to encourage and support a major expansion of higher education programs in sustainability science. there is also considerable expertise in sustainability in the private sector, particularly in the information technology sector. there are thus opportunities for many types of partnerships to foster sustainability science within the universities, policy makers, university administrators and faculty have to accord the primacy to sustainability science. everywhere, the undergraduate programs at most universities are woefully inadequate to prepare students for meeting the future societal challenges. it is inconceivable that in this day and age, any college or university can graduate a student without exposure to basic concepts and approaches underlying sustainability science. the journal and the wide community that support the journal have an important role to play in articulating the case for the rapid expansion of research and education in sustainability science. perhaps a future issue could explore the constraints to such an expansion and the ways to overcome such constraints at all educational levels. at stake is the planet’s future, and by association, ours. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 139-143, july 2022 book review the making and re-making of adivasi worlds nishaant choksi sangeeta dasgupta, reordering adivasi worlds: representation, resistance, memory, new delhi: oxford, 2022 reordering adivasi worlds is the culmination of sangeeta dasgupta’s decades-long research on the oraon community of chhota nagpur, central india, and, in particular, her equally intense scholarly engagements with the tana bhagat movement. for those who are familiar with her earlier writings, this is a much-anticipated synthesis of the different arguments and research presentations she has made over the years. for the unfamiliar, on the other hand, it bears mentioning that dasgupta has been singular in urging researchers on the adivasi groupings in india to be particularly attentive to how there has been a “continual  iit gandhinagar, nishaant.choksi@iitgn.ac.in copyright © choksi 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.727 mailto:nishaant.choksi@iitgn.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.727 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] remaking of community boundaries” (dasgupta 2022, 28). the book is divided into two major sections. the first section discusses the “representation” of the oraon community through early and late colonial, missionary, and ethnographic texts. the argument suggests that the yardstick of “authenticity” to which groups had to conform to determine their tribal status was primarily developed as a result of colonial interventions in chhota nagpur in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. early colonial accounts of the oraon, in fact, did not classify the oraons as “tribal”; rather, they saw them and the other adivasi groups of chhota nagpur as a stratified agricultural society, albeit one that went beyond the “civilized” aryan pale. dasgupta traces the descriptive interplay in these accounts by analysing the terms used to describe them, such as mleccha, borrowed from sanskrit, which sees oraons as wild forest-dwellers, and dhangar, which signalled their poor economic condition, propensity for hard work, and position as precarious agricultural labour. with the rise of orientalism, ethnography, and disciplinary anthropology in britain, colonial administrators began to reinterpret the complex identity of the oraon as a homogenous ethno-linguistic community or as a “tribe” with unique racial, linguistic, and cultural characteristics that represented both their nobility and their primitiveness. in this time—and through the works of colonial ethnographers such as dalton, campbell, and risley—the oraon and other adivasi groups in chhota nagpur were projected through the arcadian lens of the “noble savage”: as isolated, primitive people in communion with their ecology and, therefore, easily taken advantage of by the outside world. this move—to an ethnographic definition of the tribe—impacted the later representations of the community by missionaries and indian anthropologists such as sarat chandra roy. the “noble savage” idea encouraged missionary activity, as missionaries believed that these heathen races were the least touched by hindu influence. this led to an intense investigation and even appreciation of the “material and cultural world” of the oraons and particularly their “village system” (dasgupta 2022, 103). missionaries also made a distinction between sections among the oraon who adhered strictly to the system of nature and spirit-worship, and who therefore were considered “authentic”, and others who accepted their status as “inferior” hindus (109). like with other tribes, such as the santals and mundas, missionaries were also instrumental in documenting in detail the kurukh language of the oraon and their folktales, thereby textually establishing the distinct origin of the community. in seeking to convert the oraon, these missionaries also ended up contributing to building up what was later seen, even by many oraon themselves, as the foundation of an independent community identity. [141] nishaant choksi dasgupta then traces how these missionary and colonial representations shaped the discipline of anthropology in india through an exploration of the work of sarat chandra roy, who wrote extensively on the oraons. from his roots as a “scientific” anthropologist in the colonial mould, in his later work, roy changed his stance from one of an observer and documenter of oraon customs and traditions to an “avid ‘champion’ of the aboriginal cause”, along the same lines as others, such as verrier elwin, who worked at the same time. the oraon, through roy’s work, went on to become the subject of a national debate on how adivasis could be integrated into the new postcolonial nation-state and on what terms. while the first part of the book is informative and offers new insights in relation to the colonial history of the oraons and the rise of anthropology as a discipline in colonial and postcolonial south asia, i believe its true strength lies in the second section, which is a historical examination of the “many narratives of the tana pasts”. it is in this section that dasgupta makes a significant contribution that challenges the homogenous and fixed representation of the oraons by anthropologists, historians, and colonial administrators by taking seriously how oraons—in this case, those that form part of the small but influential spirituo-social movement known as tana—understand their own history. in many ways, the tana bhagats (as tana followers are known) seem to be outliers to dominant representations of the “tribe” or “adivasi” constructed through the colonial archive and ethnographic texts. their proscriptions against spirit worship, animal sacrifice, meat-eating, dancing, and singing seem very much to mirror a move toward brahminical hinduism or christianity. yet, the tanas actively positioned themselves against both upper-caste hindus and christian missionaries. consequently, they did not fit in any of the framings of the tribe as a “pure” aboriginal race following animistic ways or as inferior hindus or christian converts. as a historian, dasgupta locates the emergence of the tana movement as a form of resistance not only as a part of a “tribe” against oppression by outsiders, but also as the struggle of oraons who were positioned lower on the economic and cultural hierarchy within their own community. british colonial interventions, dasgupta argues, exacerbated the divide between the bhuinhar—the class of oraon whom authorities believed were the guardians of customary law and traditional land—and the poorer oraons who worked the land of the bhuinhars or travelled to the plains as migrant labour. the tana movement, made up mostly of the latter group, therefore, targeted the socio-spiritual authority of the bhuinhars, who controlled access to both land and spirits. the demand to give up the plough because it hurts cattle, return to the forests, and prohibit ritual interaction with ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] spirits and animal sacrifice, dasgupta suggests, should be seen in light of the struggle within oraon society as well as against the colonial state structure. moreover, far from being an “isolated” group, the tana actively incorporated ongoing national and international events into their struggle. as the movement coincided with the beginning of world war i in europe, tanas incorporated “german baba” as one of their prophets and referred to “zeppelins, bombs, and cannons” (253) in their speeches. this meant they were aware that their existing situation was linked to the british raj, and that there were external forces (in this case germany) that could potentially undermine this status quo. later, in the 1920s, as dasgupta discusses extensively in chapter 6, this awareness laid the groundwork for the tana bhagats’ active embrace of gandhi (“gandhi baba”) and the nationalist movement. along with the founding prophets, the “raj” that gandhi had presumably promised in tana ideology would free them from oppressive agricultural hierarchies and allow them to live a life of swaraj (self-rule) according to their understanding of the term. throughout the book, dasgupta writes as a historian engaging with colonial source material, but in the last chapter, she moves more to an ethnographic rather than a strictly historical modality when discussing how the tana bhagats sought to understand their own past. this involves analysing contemporary tana performances, gatherings, and the textual material produced by the community in an attempt to grasp what aspects of their history remain relevant for them. for instance, in contemporary pamphlets and retellings at tana functions, the bhagats tend to stress their links with gandhi and the national freedom movement while omitting the more militant aspects of their movement. this gesture to non-violence could be interpreted as efforts to leverage their participation in nationalist struggles, like the no-rent campaign to reclaim land rights. for the tanas, the past is one that resonates with the situation they find themselves in within both post-colonial india and chhota nagpur, much of which now lies in the state of jharkhand. dasgupta does not dispute their interpretation, but rather uses this material to demonstrate how history survives among a people, interacting with the contemporary moment to produce different kinds of political struggles. by challenging the homogenous representation of tribes and attempting to take seriously movements like the tana, dasgupta’s book advances studies on adivasi communities, colonial india, and the nationalist movement. in addition, it shows a way forward by which historians can be attentive to the archive while also remaining sensitive to people’s own interpretations of their pasts. thus, it can also be read as an excellent contribution to the [143] nishaant choksi historiographical method that has wide relevance for other social science disciplines as well. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 153-156, july 2022 report a report of the roundtable on “pathways towards transition to low carbon for industry in india and developing countries”, the centre for development and environment policy (cdep), indian institute of management calcutta arunika mishra, shreyasee das , samhitha kasibhatta , himadri shekhar chakrabarty 1. background the centre for development and environment policy (cdep),1 an interdisciplinary platform under the aegis of the indian institute of management calcutta, as part of the building roadmaps for industrial decarbonisation and green economy (bridge) initiative, organized a roundtable on 16– 17 may, 2022, in kolkata. the roundtable was attended by more than 30 researchers and policy practitioners from varied disciplines such as economics, finance, political science, environment studies, and climate change, who brainstormed and formulated ideas that would contribute towards cdep’s annual report on the theme ‘transitioning away from  doctoral student, public policy group, indian institute of management calcutta, diamond harbour rd, joka, kolkata, west bengal 700104, arunikam21@iimcal.ac.in  doctoral student, strategic management group, indian institute of management calcutta, diamond harbour rd, joka, kolkata, west bengal 700104. shreyasee.dass@gmail.com  doctoral student, finance group, indian institute of management calcutta, diamond harbour rd, joka, kolkata, west bengal 700104, samhithak19@iimcal.ac.in  doctoral student, economics group, indian institute of management calcutta, diamond harbour rd, joka, kolkata, west bengal 700104, himadric17@iimcal.ac.in copyright © mishra, das, kasibhatta, and chakrabarty 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.755 1 see the centre for development & environment policy page on the iim calcutta website: https://www.iimcal.ac.in/faculty/centers-of-excellence/centre-for-developmentenvironment-policy/centre-for-development. mailto:arunikam21@iimcal.ac.in mailto:shreyasee.dass@gmail.com mailto:samhithak19@iimcal.ac.in mailto:himadric17@iimcal.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.755 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] coal for energy generation’. the two days of the conference were divided into four sessions with themes such as providing alternative pathways with a macroeconomic approach keeping in mind the need for a just transition, governance and policy perspectives in the adoption of low carbon technologies, opportunities and challenges for industries, and the role of investors and shareholders. at the outset, the roundtable recognized the goals set by the government of india in its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2070 to manage the impending climate crisis. more importantly, the paths and means of achieving those targets were discussed in great detail through a review of various government roadmaps, targets, and scenario forecasts of agencies like the international energy agency. the group agreed on a bottom-up approach to managing the menace. further, another key topic of discussion was the importance of fostering dialogue between research and policy through implementable solutions that cater to not just technoeconomic interests but also socio-economic considerations, given the existence of a large informal labour market in india. 2. session summary the first session stressed the need to repurpose distressed coal plants for uses like renewable energy generation, storage, and ancillary services. it was further recognized that better utilization of old assets needs to be ensured. however, it was agreed that energy justice must not be compromised in this process. the transition must take into account not only the interests of the nation but also those of individuals who may be directly or indirectly affected by it. in this context, where energy, environment, and the economy are highly integrated, the role of the government and other regulatory bodies was recognized as significant, especially in facilitating a democratic and decentralized energy framework. thereafter, the discussions moved towards understanding the governance structure for the carbon transition and the alignment of priorities between national and sub-national government agencies through a proper evaluation of revenue flows, transaction and transition costs, and the role of subsidies and taxes. in this regard, the second session threw light on various beneficial global policy practices in enabling carbon transition finance with a focus on technology transfer. the broad architecture involved the use of interest rate subventions for adaptation measures, identifying and assessing transition risks, providing micro-credit for sustainable development, and implementing bio-rights, along with drawing meaningful lessons from disaster finance. further, since state-owned enterprises are often the https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/agenda-for-cop26-how-to-achieve-net-zero-79878 [155] a.*mishra, s. das, s. kashibhatta and h. s. chakrabarty conduits for implementing the renewable energy goals of the government, arguments favouring concessional financing mechanisms through explicit or implicit state guarantees were placed before the house. these could reduce capital costs and attract private investments to the renewable energy sector. the need for defining new business models through change management in organizations, along with the need for assessing the potential for decarbonization along the value chain for coal, was the focal point of discussions in the third session. it was widely opined that evolving business strategies need to incorporate sustainability risks and opportunities by taking climate risk and wider environment social governance (esg) issues into perspective. thus, the need for a ‘new and improved’ industrial policy was put forward, where the government works in tandem with the industry to address demand-side requirements like the promotion of low-cost technologies and supply-side initiatives like upstream policies on research and development and downstream policy support for new technologies. this process of energy diversification would not only create new channels of energy security but also open up opportunities for job creation. however, long-term planning would be required to ensure that job losses from dislocation are minimal and a proper skills gap assessment is undertaken for new jobs. finally, the last session centred on avenues for firms to tap financial institutions for easier access to credit. further, the need for repurposing domestic financial institutions to fund the transition and channel financial resources into renewable energy technologies was discussed. to achieve india’s carbon transition goals by 2030, the need to assess exposure emerging from transition risk, along with the need to attract funds from multilateral agencies and have a specific financial intermediation strategy, were recognized. 3. conclusion and way forward the workshop aimed to create a knowledge base by putting together findings from the extant literature and practices under a common umbrella to facilitate collective reflection and work towards making the research area more mainstream. there was a consensus that it must not be ‘just a transition’ but a concerted effort towards operationalizing a ‘just transition’ by exploring credible opportunities and making it lucrative for investors to finance projects. the critical discussions and reflections are expected to translate into contributed articles and sections in the cdep’s annual report. this report is expected to be ready for publication before the g20 summit to be held in india in 2023. the same group is expected to meet ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] again later this year to finalize the report, which could be the beginning of a journey which india undertakes in walking the talk on carbon transition. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 93–125, january 2019 research paper quantifying air pollution vulnerability and its distributional consequences: some perspectives from delhi shivani gupta, sukanya das  and m.n. murty  abstract: this paper estimates vulnerability index of air pollution in delhi taking into account exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity of households. a general health production function model and a vulnerability assessment framework are used for this purpose. data was collected through a survey of sample households located in close vicinity to 10 air pollution monitoring stations in delhi. the estimated vulnerability index is used to show the effect of household exposure to air pollution. the vulnerability index takes into consideration sample households’ socio-economic status, demographic profile and other characteristics. result showed that households of lower socio-economic status were the most vulnerable to air pollution and its consequences. the study also quantifies the economic benefits to delhi households from reduction in air pollution to the standard safety limits of pm10 (100 µg/m3). estimates show that the total annual economic (health) benefits for a typical household is rs. 33,978 and for the whole population of delhi is rs. 52.4 billion. the study also found that a household of a lower socio-economic status could save much more out of their annual income (4.96 per cent) as compared to a household of a higher socio-economic status (1.97 per cent) from reduced air pollution. keywords: environmental inequity; air pollution; health production function; vulnerability framework, coping capacity; health benefits  research analyst, poverty, health and nutrition division, international food policy research institute (ifpri), new delhi 110008, india; shivaniguptaa76@gmail.com.   associate professor, department of policy studies. teri school of advanced studies,10, institutional area, vasant kunj, new delhi 110070, india; sukanya.das@terisas.ac.in.  former professor, teri school of advanced studies,10, institutional area, vasant kunj, india, new delhi 110070 and former professor, institute of economic growth, new delhi 110007, india; mn.murty71@gmail.com. this study was carried out in 2015-16 as a part of masters’ thesis of the corresponding author at teri school of advanced studies, new delhi. copyright © gupta, das and murty 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.57 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.57 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] figure 1: pm10 levels (specific cities, period 2008-2012) source: figure 3 in who (2014, 2) abbreviations: pm10: fine particulate matter of 10 microns or less; afr: africa; amr: america; emr: eastern mediterranean; eur: europe; sear: south‐east asia; wpr: western pacific; lmi: low‐ and middle‐income; hi: high‐income. 1. introduction 1.1. background air pollution has very significant health effects on urban households in major cities of india, especially in the national capital of delhi. who (world health organization) (2014) report found that delhi had the most astounding mean level of particulate air pollution among 1,600 noteworthy urban cities around the world. delhi had pm10 concentration of 286 µg/m3 compared to beijing’s 121 µg/m3 during the period 2008-2012. this is four times more than the permissible limits of pm10 (100 µg/m3) as shown in figure 1. recently, a report (world bank 2015) in its study of 381 cities from developing countries globally branded delhi as the worst in air pollution. amongst the many causes of air pollution in delhi, industrial and vehicular pollution remain as major factors for emissions of pm10. they emit pm (particulate matter) along with cox, nox, and sox (carbon, nitrogen and sulfur oxides) and metal compounds in the air. a judgment of the supreme court of india in 2001, in this regard, compelled all delhi public transport [95] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty to run on compressed natural gas (cng), which led to a reduction in pm10 levels. similarly, the delhi metro operation also helped to reduce levels of pollution. however, over the years, these gains are seemingly nullified by rapid urbanization and growing vehicular pollution. in 2016, a 15-day “even-odd policy” was also rolled out by the government to ration road traffic and its pollution. even though this was a good experiment for curbing vehicular air pollution, it was not altogether successful in producing significant results, leaving delhi still polluted as it was earlier. previous studies have shown that the health (morbidity and mortality) effects of air pollution are severe in key urban areas of both developed as well as developing countries. however, one important problem is to study the differential effects of air pollution on different socio-economic status (ses) classes of population, which in turn raises a question of – why there might be inequity in air pollution? inequity in the health effects of air pollution in an urban community could exist due to differences in exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity of different socioeconomic classes. these differences could be due to poor living conditions, material deprivation, already meager health position, heritable predilection and apprehension (psychosocial). moreover, due to lower levels of social, financial and infrastructural amenities, individuals/ households/ communities with lower ses could also be confronted with lower adaptive or defensive limits to combat the consequences of air pollution. 1.2. research evidence most studies quantify inequity of health hazards from air pollution by examining the linkage between exposure to air pollution and socioeconomic traits, and mostly these are in the context of developed countries. some other studies, on the other hand, examine ses as a modifier in the association between air pollution exposure and its health impact. a study done by freeman (1972), using geographic coverage of three cities in the u.s., established that there was an inverse relation between income and so2 particulates exposure and the highest exposure was faced by black subpopulation. gianessi et al. (1977) evaluated the distributional aspect of air pollution on a nation-wide basis using an integrated cb (cost benefit) analysis. according to the study, standardization creates redistribution and the net benefits accrue to the low-income groups leading to race and environmental equity. a cb assessment of the impact of the uniform regulation by income groups confirmed a greater welfare support to blacks in the urban polluted residential areas. harrison and rubinfield (1978) tried to analyze the dissemination advantages from an air pollution controller technique for boston using a housing value and health damages technique to estimate the willingness to pay benefits for 7 different income groups. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] results suggested that tangible benefits from upgrading the air quality of urban areas go to the poor rather than the rich, and when measured in pecuniary terms, including workplace benefits, it showed that distribution was much less towards the poor. another evidence was given by asch and joseph (1978), who investigated both interand intra-city variations in air quality in the u.s states. their study shows that exposure to particulates is associated with cities characterized by low income and hence, low education, low property value, and crowded population. using generalized linear models (glms), jerrett et al. (2004) showed that air pollution was related to expansive deaths in intra-urban zones of low socioeconomic characteristics. also, low education and high manufacturing employment in the zones substantially enhanced mortality impacts of air pollution exposure. another study by pratt et al. (2015) studied the inequities in exposure to air pollution from traffic and the related risk in the state of minnesota, america. they found that the risks and exposures were differentially larger than expected value for ethnic minorities and low ses population. in similar studies in europe, fecht et al. (2015) examined inequities of exposure to air pollution in england and the netherlands at country, city and regional levels. results showed a greater concentration of air pollution in those areas of the two countries with more than 20 per cent non-white population and the most deprived neighborhoods in england. a related study in africa by rooney et al. (2012) examined the spatial patterns of pm and its sources in four neighborhoods of varying ses in accra using mixed-effects regression model and found that community ses was inversely associated with both pm2.5 and pm10 levels. in one of the asian studies highlighting air-pollution inequity, fan, lam and yu (2012) tried to exemplify the spatial variations in hong kong’s urban population by analyzing the relationship between ses and exposure to vehicular pollution. the study concluded that there was more inequality in private housing lands than their public counterparts. also, older and low ses population faced relatively greater exposure to air pollution in contrast to higher ses people. however, with all residents clubbed, results showed no status prejudice in air pollution exposure attributable to the housing mechanism in hong kong, where the poor live in government-provided housing with relatively better air quality. there are not many studies on the inequity aspect of air pollution in india. most studies primarily look at the health consequences and analysis of cost and benefits of improved health from a reduction in air pollution. in a study on delhi, cropper et al. (1997) estimated a dose-response function of health status of households to pollution levels. results showed that more [97] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty than two per cent of non-traumatic deaths in delhi were related to increased pollution levels (total suspended pm), and that this relationship was significant for children and adults. similar studies were done by other authors. kumar and rao (2001) analyzed the economic benefits of improved air quality in haryana and found that a representative household has willingness to pay (wtp) rs. 12 to rs. 53 per month for reducing particulate matter to the level of who standards. using health production model and household survey data from delhi and kolkata, a study by murty et al. (2003) found the annual health benefits from reducing air pollution levels to safe levels in the urban areas of delhi and kolkata as rs. 4896.6 million and rs. 2999.7 million, respectively. on similar lines, using a household health production model, gupta (2006) examined the economic gains from reduction in air pollution in kanpur and found that a typical city resident would annually save rs. 165, if pollution was reduced to standard levels and the whole population of kanpur would gain rs. 213 million annually. in one of the few studies of its kind, garg (2011) analyzed the equity aspects of air pollution reduction by examining who bears the cost of pollution abatement and who benefits from it. the study showed that the health effects of air pollution are more detrimental for the poor. the study had quantified mortality and morbidity due to pollution for various socioeconomic groups in delhi with spatial data on concentrations of pm10 and ses. it inferred that health benefits from better air quality laid differentially, more with poor. a contextual study by makri and stilianakis (2008) demonstrates the vulnerability to air pollution and its health consequences through risk assessment. according to this study, subpopulace characteristics have a few socio-economic components that enhance vulnerability, impact on exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity factors. another study by kathuria and khan (2007) investigated the relation between air pollution exposure and socio-economic characteristics. using a two-step methodology for computing a household-specific exposure index for 347 houses in proximity to pollution monitoring station in delhi, the study examined the relationship of air pollution exposure with socioeconomic and demographic characteristics using a multivariate regression. the results reflected that economically weaker sections were more exposed to air pollution than their counterparts, however, for socially (caste-based) weaker sections, the relationship with air pollution exposure was not significant, and no relation existed with the aspect of religion. a recent study by foster and kumar (2011) in delhi found that people who remained outdoors for long hours had stronger health impacts of air pollution. the study also pointed out betterment in their health following ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] the strict regulation of air quality policies. a meta-analysis of global literature on air pollution by hajat, hsia and neill (2015) provided overall similar results as presented above. as seen, most of the studies on india have analyzed the health impact of exposure to air pollution and health benefits from its reduction. however, only few limited studies are available on-air pollution and its distributional consequences from a vulnerability context. this paper, aiming to analyze the distributional effects of urban air pollution in delhi, can be a useful and timely study in the indian context. it estimates a household vulnerability index for determining the role of exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity to air pollution. it also quantifies the relationship between exposure to air pollution and vulnerability in the background of socioeconomic and demographic features of the households in delhi. finally, it looks at both efficiency as well as equity aspect of reduction in air pollution by estimating the economic health benefits for reduction in air pollution and distribution of these benefits amongst different socio-economic classes of households in delhi. 2. materials and method 2.1. health production function model: theoretical framework this study uses a simplified version of the health production function model framework for estimating vulnerability from exposure to air pollution and economic benefits from reduction in air pollution to safe limits in delhi. as proposed by freeman (1993), the health production function (hpf) and the mitigating demand function (mdf) are implicitly defined by an individual’s behavior who wants to maximize utility (u). on similar lines, as used by studies of freeman (1993), dasgupta (2001), murty et al. (2003), gupta (2006), chowdhury and imran (2010) and adhikari (2012), an estimate of marginal willingness to pay (mwtp) of a representative urban household for reducing air pollution to safe-limits can be obtained as follows:1    +  +== 1 dq dh h u q m.pm dq dh.wmwtp dq di (1) where u: u (q, h, i), household utility function, health-status (h): sickdays due to air pollution related diseases, q: air quality, m: demand function for mitigation, w: wage-rate and pm: demand price of mitigation. 1 for derivation, look at freeman (1993) [99] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty mwtp of a household for health benefits from reduction in air pollution ) dq di( is obtained by the summation of three terms in equation (1): marginal earning that were lost due to sickness ) dq dh.w( , marginal mitigating cost ) q m.pm(   and disutility of sickness in money terms ). dq dh h u(     1 . estimation of mwtp using this equation requires the estimation of simultaneous equation model consisting of health production function and the demand function for mitigation. another possible way is to estimate a reduced form dose-response-function with health as a function of the physical and socio-economic aspects pooled with estimation of demand function for mitigation as a function of common set of variables as from health production function estimation (freeman 1993; gupta 2006). this requires estimating the following two reduced form equations of the model2: )z,i,q,pm,w(hh = (2) and )z,i,q,pm,w(mm = (3) where, z represents a vector of other household characteristics. ignoring disutility that air pollution causes, the paper estimates mwtp or cost of illness (coi) of a household for a small change in air pollution levels as a lower conservation bound:2 q m .pm dq dh wcoi   += (4) usually, the dependent variable in dose-response-function is workdays lost but due to data unavailability number of days of sickness is taken as a proxy.3 2 here, the lower bound is due to absence of measure of loss due to averting expenditure. in a general health production framework, demand for averting activities is estimated separately. however, due to difficulty of measuring aversion behavior in monetary terms, it is only implicitly captured in the health production function estimation. the conservative bound is due to absence of disutility term which is not captured because of its difficult to measure tangibly. 3 the proxy may overestimate the coi as work-days lost are also included in wage loss reduction ) dq dhw(  term in equation (4). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] 2.2. the vulnerability framework for air pollution 2.2.1. different views on vulnerability john et al. (2008) suggests that there are “three components of vulnerability, namely: differential exposure, susceptibility and coping mechanisms, and these are used to derive an initial vulnerability-framework.” ipcc (2012) report views vulnerability as a “universal methodology that defines exposure, susceptibility and societal response capacities as its factors”. commission for environmental cooperation (2014) argues that “differential vulnerability to chemical exposures is characterized by the degree of exposure, an individual’s susceptibility to the harmful effects caused by the chemical and the capacity to cope with and mitigate chemical risks”. vulnerability as an idea can be depicted by various indicators and through different channels. kasperson (2002) considers four main variables which affect the physical as well as social characteristics of the population and make them “vulnerable”. these variables are (a) “susceptibility”, which refers to an improved probability of maintaining a longer run defensive impact by a sub-populace in comparison to general population; (b) “differential exposure” which includes the behavioral, educational, background and occupational exposures, along with restlessness/disutility which are in some cases disregarded in an evaluation; (c) “differential preparedness” and lastly (d) “coping ability” which includes assets of the communities/populace needed to survive and recover from the environmental impact. considering all these views, vulnerability is defined as a function of exposure, susceptibility and coping capacity in this paper. vulnerability=f (exposure, susceptibility, coping capacity) (5) 2.2.2. vulnerability-framework (a cobweb of factors and sub-factors) it’s important to note that society’s vulnerability to air pollution is intricate because of its multi-dimensional connections with ecological behavior inherent as extraneous susceptibility, differential exposure, adjusting and coping capacity (epa 2003; kasperson et al. 1995). hence, it is useful to draw a vulnerability-framework template appropriate for reduced-form analysis, yet comprehensive to a universal problem (turner et al. 2003). many institutions and expert groups have made remarkable advancement in the scheming of these frameworks (kasperson et al. 2001). [101] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty figure 2: vulnerability framework: differential exposure, differential susceptibility and differential coping capacity to air pollution source: adapted from john et al. (2008, 6) due to the complex multifaceted relationship between factors of vulnerability, it becomes difficult to account for all factors and many subfactors, implied in the literature, in assessment of vulnerability to air pollution. therefore, in order to fill this gap, this paper tries to account for all the three vulnerability factors (though all sub-factor may not be considered due to data and other constraints). in line with kasperson et al. (1995), epa (2003), turner et al. (2003), and john et al. (2008), this paper derives the required modified and simplified version of vulnerabilityframework for air pollution using the factors of health production model framework explained above, using the framework in figure 2. as seen in figure 2, there are numerous channels of assessing vulnerability to air pollution. regarding susceptibility, the population characteristics which could lead to differential health impacts of air pollution and other chemical encounters are mainly – underlying poor health (past resistant reactions) and disease state, conceivably hereditary predilection, race and gender distribution. this commonly cited variable, “susceptibility” can be internal – if it originates from factors such as age, gender, birth, health defects or race (which is the root for genital sensitivities), as well as external ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] – which is mainly due to health status, bad habits (such as drinking, smoking, etc.) that could lead to chronic diseases, obesity, etc. (morata et al. 1997; epa 2003; john et al. 2008; lipfert 2004; stilianakis 2015). concerning differential exposure to air pollution, it could be due to behavioral exposures from unhealthy living conditions, exposure to busy traffic/rail road and long hours spent outdoor, indoor air pollution exposure caused by poor fuel type and/or appliances, occupational exposures due to informal or unorganized sector jobs, and finally, exposure due to educational status, family background and deprivation of assets (epa 2003; john et al. 2008; lipfert 2004; stilianakis 2015). finally, the coping capacity, which is the ability to incur abatement expenditures, could be dependents on sub-factors such as socio-economic position, health care access (like medical insurance), awareness of air-borne diseases, economic status (through employment status and educational level) and governmental support (deguen and zmirou-navier 2010; epa 2003; john et al. 2008 and stilianakis 2015). establishing a vulnerability definition along with its parameters remains essential for its assessment. indicators and sub-indicators have been established based on existing literature, available data, expert judgments and modeling capabilities of the health production function model. this framework will further be used to construct a household specific vulnerability index, which is a feature scale score calculation of subindicators (as independent variables of the health production and mitigating demand function models), indicators (as estimated dependent variables of the health production and mitigating demand function models) and final vulnerability index score. the methodology for the construction of this index is given in section 2.4. 2.3. sample design and method of data collection information on average pm10 concentration was collected from central pollution control board (cpcb), delhi for 3 months (october-december 2015). as compared to average concentrations of no2 and so2, which were below safe levels, pm10 level was much above the safe limits (100 µg/m3) of national ambient air quality standards (naaqs) and was therefore mainly considered for this study. of the 17 pollution monitoring stations (pms) across delhi, 11 stations provided consistent levels of pm10 data. this study is based on pm10 data from 10 pms that capture diverse locations in the west, east, south and north delhi, both residential aswell-as industrial areas including: anand vihar, mandir marg, r.k. puram and punjabi bagh monitored by delhi pollution control board in addition [103] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty to i.t.o., siri fort, pitampura, shahzada bagh, janakpuri and shahadra monitored by cpcb. data on health-status, socio-economic and demographic factors was collected through a household survey conducted in january 2016. a pilot field test was conducted in december 2015 to refine as well as fine-tune the draft questionnaire. for a comparative analysis of the inequity aspect of air pollution, the survey sample households were identified from slums, middle income group areas and high-income group areas. for this, a two-stage stratification was followed as done by gupta (2006) and adhikari (2012). in stage-1, an equal number of households were identified within 2 km radius of each of the 10 pms. in stage-2, an equal number of households under different categories were identified on the basis of their locality and accommodation type: high class (independent housing), service class (flat type housing) and slums across each pms. in this study, 180 households were surveyed; 18 households within 2 km radius of each of 10 pms. further, each set of these 18 households were classified into low, middle and high socio-economic categories based on the location and accommodation setting (6 random households for each category under each pms). data on health-status, mitigating expenditure as well as averting activities to combat airpollution impact was collected in the recall period of three months, also capturing information on household members suffering from any chronic disease and their awareness about air pollution related diseases. comprehensive recall data included – number of days of sickness for each member, household medical expenses (medical expenses, including medicines, doctor’s fee, cost of diagnostics, travel, etc., of air pollution related ailments), family health insurance and treatment type. pollution aversion activities included family opting to stay indoors, travelling extra kilometers, using gas masks, air purifier, air conditioner (ac) transport and other activities such as using a scarf or closing door/windows to avoid air pollution. for housing characteristics, information collected included – household type, ownership, drinking water, number of rooms and so on. data on utilization of air conditioner, type of cooking fuel, heaters was also collected to analyze indoor air-quality. for socio-economic characteristics, information obtained included – caste, religion, family background, educational attainment, hours spent outside, unhealthy habits (smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, etc.), occupational profile, wage/income and job being indoor/outdoor. for demographic characteristics, details included – age and gender, household size, number of working and school going family members and so on. lastly, households’ monthly income and other ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] indicators of wealth, i.e., durable assets owned, and monthly family expenditure were also collected. another survey of 10 random doctors was conducted in february 2016 to elicit information on severity of health impact (on the population in general) of the 11 chronic diseases that were taken in household survey using a likert scale (1-3). 2.4. econometric model specification: household health production function model in the health production function model used in this paper, number of sick days in the household and medical expenses due to air pollution are considered as dependent variables. the data collected for family sick days represent count data and data on medical expenses observed zero censor for several data points. as in studies by gupta (2006), chowdhury and imran (2010), and adhikari (2012), poisson regression (pr) model4 and tobit-regression model could be used for estimation of health status and mitigating expenditure, respectively. however, the assumption of equality of conditional mean and variance acts too restrictive for pr models and is unable to account for over-dispersion of data, leading to a huge standard error of estimation which was corrected using negative binomial regression (nbr) model. owing to an unequal mean (53.66) and variance in health status suggesting over-dispersion in data, nbr was used for estimating health production function over pr and was validated by a likelihood-ratio test. also, the data showed only few occurrences with zero mitigating-expenditure (only 16 per cent of sample) and a near normaldistribution with log-transformation. hence, a log form ordinary least square regression (olsr) model was selected for modelling the mitigating demand function over tobit-regression. empirically, this study estimates the household hpf and mdf as represented by the two reduced form equations with health -status, and mitigating expenditure, both dependent on a common set of independent variables: reduced form equation 1: hpf h = h0 + h1logheii + h2cii + h3habi + h4fami + h5sesi + h6sufferi + h7awarei + h8averti + h9soci + h10insi + h11genderi + ui (6) 4 the poisson model is given by: (prob hi = hi/xi) = , such that hi=0, 1, 2.... is a count variable that captures numbers of days of sickness in ith household and hi is the mean as-well-as variance of sick days. [105] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty reduced form equation 2: mdf logm = m0 + m1logheii + m2cii + m3habi + m4fami + m5sesi + m6sufferi + m7awarei + m8averti + m9soci + m10insi + m11genderi + ei (7) where ui and ei represent error terms these two equations are estimated using cross-sectional regressions nbr used to estimate the health status and log-form olsr to estimate the log (mitigating expenditure). the description of variables used are as follows: 2.4.1. dependent variables health-status(h): the sum of number of days of sickness due to air pollution related diseases in each household over the recall period of three months. mitigating-expenditure(m): the medical expenses of the household in the recall period of three months due to air pollution related diseases on medicines, doctor fees, journey cost to doctor and diagnostic tests. 2.4.2. independent variables household exposure index (hei)5: it was constructed using data on mean pm10 (µg/m3) concentration of the location-specific pms, household working profile and hours spent outside home by working members assuming differential exposure to air pollution for working members (11 hours) followed by school/college going members (9 hours) and nonworking (2 hours). the average hei was 117.84 µg/m3 against pm10 average of 360.38 µg/m3. amongst the pms’, anand vihar, on an average, was the most polluted whereas mandir marg was the least polluted in the study period (see figure 3). chronic diseases index (ci): weighted average of the prevalence of 11 chronic diseases in a particular house including bones problem, pneumonia, eye-disease, thyroid, diabetes, bronchitis bp, tb, asthma, cancer and heart-disease. weights are based on the severity score of the diseases calculated using the doctor survey. 5the hei is calculated for particular station and household as: heiij = pi*(nw*hw+nnw*hnw+nsoc*hsoc/24*family size) in ith household and jth pollution monitoring station, where p: mean pm10 (µg/m3) nw: working members, nsoc: school/college going members, nnw: non-working members whereas hw, hsoc and hnw represent the average hours spent outside by the working, school/college going members, respectively. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] figure 3: average concentrations of pm10 and household exposure index in µg/m3 for 10 pollution monitoring stations in delhi (october to december 2015) source: cpcb, delhi and authors’ calculation habits (hab): unhealthy habits of a household as the ratio of number of family members with unhealthy habits scaled to family size. these habits could either be smoking or drinking or not exercising for any member. socio-economic status index (ses): one of the most important variables for the study was ses index which represented the household’s social and economic status, computed using a principal component analysis (pca)6 method. it facilitated easy interpretation as it presented the data under a single-dimension rather than multi-dimensional framework (cordova 2009). the variables used for construction of the ses index, were captured using highly correlated variables under three household characteristics namely: wealth, housing and socio-economic characteristics (table 1). the data was transformed by dividing it into three quantiles based on the ses index where top, medium and bottom 33.33 percent were generated to differentiate between the high, middle and lower ses households, respectively. 6 in pca, weights are assigned to each observed variable summed up by determining the data variance direction, as the set of correlated variables are transformed into an uncorrelated component set. pca captures the maximum amount of information that is identical for all variables to be used as an index that is linear for all variables and provides appropriate weights for every variable such that the index captures the largest variations. [107] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty table 1: socio-economic status index variables wealth characteristics tv washing machine micro-oven fridge a.c heater geyser music system car laptop phones housing characteristics rooms water facility socio-economic characteristics education better off (location) organized sector source: authors' own compilation avert (avert): the following were taken as a score measured from a household’s strategies for averting air pollution: staying indoors, travelling extra kilometers, using gas masks, air purifier, ac-cars v/s public-transport and other activities such as using a scarf or closing door/windows of the households to avoid air pollution. gender (gender): the ratio of females to family-size. school/college going (soc): the ratio of school or college going members to family-size. this is used in order to capture a demographic factor in the modelling. awareness index (aware): it is defined as respondent’s awareness of the number of diseases out of the 17 diseases known to be clinically caused by air pollution. suffer (suffer): it is the ratio of members suffering from air pollution related diseases to family-size. it is used as a physical health control variable. health insurance (hi): a dummy variable defined as ‘1’ if the household has family health insurance, and ‘0’ otherwise. family size (fam): number of members in a household. 2.4.3. vulnerability index for air pollution the vulnerability framework (explained above in figure 2) is used to build a household-specific vulnerability index (v) in order to examine the role of exposure, susceptibility and coping mechanism in determining vulnerability to air pollution. this comprises 2 components: model-estimated values of hpf represented by ĥ and negative of the estimated value of mdf represented by ^ lm . here, vulnerability is dependent directly on ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] susceptibility factor, captured by ĥ and negatively dependent on copingcapacity factor, captured by ^ lm . the exposure factor in case of vulnerability to air pollution is not easy to estimate alone, as it does not act as a behavioral variable directly (also due to unavailability of weather-related data) but has linkage to susceptibility and coping capacity factor of air pollution. hence, the exposure factor of vulnerability to air pollution is captured implicitly as household exposure index by health production and mitigating demand functions, both. the vulnerability index is calculated as a function of the health production function, which captures the exposure and susceptibility factors, and the mitigating-expenditure which will capture the exposure and coping-capacity factors of vulnerability. unfortunately, no available study on air pollution computes a vulnerability index at a household level. however, many studies, such as by christenson et al. (2016), kissi at al. (2015), baeck (2014) and kallis et al. (2010) have computed vulnerability index for climate change impacts (heat stroke, flood risks, etc.) at a regional or city level. in line with these studies, this study has developed a household-specific vulnerability index/score7 for air pollution using the following formula: vulnerability score = susceptibility score + (-) coping capacity score (8) feature scaling score method is used for standardizing the factor scores of susceptibility and coping-capacity8 making them comparable to get an accurate value of vulnerability index as is done by undp (2002) in building the human development index. this is done since ĥ has a count unit whereas ^ lm has rupees unit. the feature scaling is done using the formula given below: feature scale score = )value(min)value(max )value(minvalue − − (9) 7 vulnerability index is calculated with the supposition that each of the factors have an equal role in determining vulnerability with only contrast being that exposure factor is being captured implicitly in susceptibility and coping-capacity scores. 8 susceptibility score and (-) coping capacity score are given by following equations: susceptibility score = )ĥ(min)ĥ(max )ĥ(minĥ − − and (-) coping capacity score = )lm(min)lm(max )lm(minlm ^^ ^^ − − . here, the ĥ represents the predicted value of health status whereas ^ lm represents negative of the predicted value of log (mitigating expenditure). [109] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty the summary statistics shows that the mean vulnerability index is 0.76. 2.5. empirical model of inequity in air pollution as discussed through literature, air pollution inequity captured by vulnerability is principally dependent on ses of the subpopulation. for a statistical analysis, the paper uses a multivariate regression model with dependent as vulnerability index on independents as socio-economic characteristics (sec), demographic characteristics (dec) along with other control variables: vij = f (secij, decij, controlsij) (10) where i=1, 2….180 households and j=1, 2….10 pms. for this study, the empirical specification of the model is given by: v = v0 + v1loghe1 + v2sesi + v3genderi + v4hii + v5infoutdoori + v6bgi + v7adultsi + zi (11) where, zi is the error term. socio-economic characteristics of the household are captured by the ses index and family background (bg) as a dummy, 1 for urban and 2 for rural. demographic characteristics are captured by age (adults) as the proportion of members who are 15 years or older and gender (gender). the household exposure index (hei) measuring the exposure factor was only implicitly accounted in calculating the vulnerability index and hence is taken as an independent control here. other control variables taken into consideration are informal outdoor occupation (infoutdoor) given by the ratio of members with informal outdoor occupations (like petty traders, construction workers, etc.) to working members and lastly, a health insurance (hi) dummy. the descriptive statistics of the dependent and independent variables used in all the estimation models are provided in table a1 in appendix. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] table 2: estimates of the health status (h: family number of days in sickness) variable negative binomial coefficients health status: dependent variable log (household exposure index) 0.45**= h1 chronic index 0.16** socio-economic status index -0.083*** habits 0.39*** family size 0.087** suffer 1.16*** awareness index -0.039 avert activities -0.138*** school/college going 0.87*** 1. health insurance 0.016 gender 0.093 constant 0.46 ln alpha -0.76*** observations 180 source: authors' own calculation legend: * p<0.10; ** p<0.05; *** p<0.01. likelihood-ratio test of alpha=0: chibar2 (01) = 3194.63 prob>=chibar2 = 0.000 3. results and discussions 3.1. household health production function model results of the estimated hpf using the nbr9 model are given in table 2. it shows that eight out of eleven parametric estimates have significant relation to health status with expected directions. the coefficient of variable hei is positive while the coefficient of variable ses index is negative as expected and they are significant at 5 per-cent and 1 per-cent levels, respectively. table 3 provides the results of the estimated mitigating expenditure function. this reduced form function has common independent variables with hdf function. ten of eleven independent variables in the model have coefficients with expected signs and significant at 1 to 5 per cent levels. the independent variables hei and ses index have positive coefficients as expected which are significant at 5 per cent and 1 per cent levels, respectively. the awareness index has a negative coefficient which is significant at 5 per cent level. 9 the significant p value of lr-test (as given in table 2) suggests that nbr is better over a pr model validating the results of estimation. [111] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty table 3: estimates of the log mitigating expenditure: log (m) variable ols (log-form) coefficients log (mitigating expenditure): dependent variable log (household exposure index) 0.44**= m1 chronic index 0.089 socio-economic status index 0.16*** habits 0.39*** family size 0.16*** suffer 1.23*** awareness index -0.103** avert activities -0.29*** school/college going 1.03*** 1.health insurance 0.32** gender 0.75** constant 4.92*** observations 177 source: authors' own calculation legend: * p<0.10; ** p<0.05; *** p<0.01 figure 4: scatter plot between ses quantiles and vulnerability index source: authors' own calculation 3.2. estimates of empirical model of inequity in air pollution estimates show that lower ses households have a mean vulnerability score of 0.97 while the higher ses households have a mean vulnerability score of only 0.58. figure 4 shows that the households in the lower ses quantile group have higher vulnerability scores as compared to households in the middle and higher ses quantile group. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] table 4: estimates of the vulnerability index (v) variable ols coefficients vulnerability index: dependent variable log (household exposure index) 0.061*** socio-economic status index -0.032*** gender -0.18*** health insurance -0.094*** informal outdoor occupation 0.065*** background 0.041* age 0.0302 constant 0.55*** observations 180 source: authors' own calculation legend: * p<0.10; ** p<0.05; *** p<0.01 table 4 provides the estimates of vulnerability index function. results show that as socio-economic status of a household decreases, vulnerability to air pollution increases significantly (1 per-cent significance-level). as expected, the parameters of independent variables pollution exposure, proportion of members with informal outdoor occupation, absence of health insurance and rural family background are positively and significantly associated with vulnerability to air pollution. however, age shows no significant effect on vulnerability. the parameter gender reflects an unexpected result: it shows that with increased proportion of men in family, vulnerability to air pollution increases which might be because men have a higher working exposure than women in delhi. the results as hypothesized, found presence of air pollution inequity in the context of delhi. 3.3. estimates of monetary benefits from reducing air-pollution to safe limits in delhi using equation (4) of the household health production model explained above, the cost of illness (coi) or household health cost of air pollution could be estimated as: hei m hei h .wcoi   +   = (12) in other words, the health benefits of reduced air pollution consist of reduced cost of work days lost in the family and the reduced mitigating expenditure. [113] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty the welfare gains to a typical household from reduced pollution are estimated considering sample mean values of variables: household exposure index (heim), mitigating expenditure (mm), family size (famm)), health status (hm), family daily wage rate (wm), and household exposure index safe (hei.safem)10. table a2 in appendix provides descriptive statistics variables used in the estimation. the methodology for calculating total annual benefits to a typical household is given as follows: a typical household’s marginal willingness to pay for reduction in air pollution exposure by 1µg/m3 for last three months recall is calculated by summing up the marginal effect of reduction in wage loss11 and the mitigating expenditure in last 3 months (recall period) quarter given by:         +         = m m m m m m hei m m hei h h fam w qmwtp 11 (13) where h1 and m1 represent the estimated coefficient of household exposure index for health production and mitigating demand function regression model, respectively. now, a typical household’s marginal willingness to pay for reduction in air pollution exposure by 1µg/m3 is annualized by weighting12 the last quarter (3 months recall period) as compared to the other three quarters of the year: 10 the household exposure index at safe level of pm10 is given by hei.safeij = 100*(nw*hw+nnw*hnw+nsoc*hsoc/24*family size) in ith household and jth pms , where 100 µg/m3 is the safe pm10 limits given by cpcb (naaqs), nw: working members, nsoc: school/college going members, nnw: non-working members whereas hw, hsoc and hnw represent the average hours spent outside by the working, school/college going members, respectively. 11 the marginal effect of reducing air pollution exposure (from reduced work days lost) by 1 unit for a typical household is multiplied by family wage rate and divided by family size in order to get the benefits for just the working members. this is because health status has been taken as proxy of work days lost. 12 for annualizing the marginal willingness to pay, a rank sum method was incorporated to calculate the weight for the three months recall period data. since, the household survey was conducted around winter season (october-december 2015), studies and air pollution seasonal trend analysis by cpcb has shown that winter season traditionally has been the most severe in terms of air quality levels. according to the report “naqi status of indian cities in 2015-16” by cpcb, the national air quality of delhi around winter season was seen in severe/ worst category. hence, the highest rank was assumed for the study period last quarter out of the four yearly season quarters and was used to calculate weight for it. the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] 40. qmwtp mwtp = (14) for calculating the total annual economic benefits for a typical household from reducing air pollution exposure from current (study period) level (hei) to safe level (hei.safe at pm10 of 100µg/m³), the mwtp for 1 unit fall in air pollution exposure is multiplied by the change in exposure from current level to safe level: total annual economic benefit = mwtp * (heim – hei.safem) (15) for inferring economic benefits for the whole population in delhi, extrapolation is done using data of census (2011) in india, which shows the population in delhi as 0.0168 billion and workforce participation rate (percentage of people employed in the population) as 33.4 per cent. the particulars of the calculated economic benefits from reduction in air pollution are provided in table a2 in appendix. the above formulation and information gives the annual economic benefits from the reduction in workdays (sick days taken as a proxy here 13) lost from pollution exposure to safe levels (100 µg/m3) as rs. 28,820.35 for a typical-household, and as rs. 6,080.24 for a representative working individual. entire working population of delhi gets benefits worth rs. 34.11 billion from reduced workdays lost, if a typical household’s benefit is extrapolated using working participation rate as 33.4 percent (census 2011). similarly, the annual economic benefits from reduced mitigating expenses for a typical household due to reduction in air pollution exposure to safe level is estimated as rs. 5,157.77 and rs. 1,088.13 for a representative individual. the extrapolated benefits for entire delhi population from reduced mitigating expenses are estimated as rs. 18.28 billion. hence, the total annual monetary gain from reduced air pollution exposure (from current to safe level) to the national capital of india is rs. 52.4 billion. to a typical household and an individual, the total annual gain amounts to rs. 33,978.12 and rs. 7,168.37, respectively. an estimate of share of annual benefits from reduced air pollution to safe levels comes to about 2.54 percent of annual income of a typical delhi household. formulae used for weight of the last quarter is (rank of the last quarter/sum of all ranks) 40 10 4 .== 13 the proxy may overestimate the economic benefits, as work-days lost are also included in wage loss reduction ).( dq dhw term shown in equation (12). [115] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty 3.4. distribution of economic benefits the annual economic benefits to a typical household from reduced air pollution exposure from current to safe levels (100 µg/m3) are quite high as shown above. however, the question that remains is who actually gains the most from pollution reduction? to answer this question, the shares of total annual economic benefits for the three different ses quantile of the households (low, middle and high ses) in delhi are estimated. figure 5 provides the distribution of economic benefits due to reduction in air pollution amongst different socio-economic classes of households in delhi. as shown in table 5, estimates of annual economic benefits from reduction in pollution exposure to safe levels for a typically lower socio-economic household is rs. 8,701.33 which is much lower than that of a higher ses household which saves as high as rs. 50,631.95, while a typical middle-class household gains a mediocre amount of rs. 28,376.92. this means that in absolute terms a higher ses household gains the most out of pollution exposure reduction. this estimate though essential does not show the true and real depiction of the distribution of gains and reality could be inferred by looking at the gains in relative terms, estimating the annual benefits share as a percentage of annual income for the three classes of households. these estimates show that a lower ses household saves 4.96 percent out of their annual income which is much larger than a higher ses household saving which is merely 1.97 per cent out of the annual family income, if pollution exposure is reduced to safe levels. for a middle-class family the saving rate out of income is estimated as 2.23 per cent. table 5: distribution of economic benefits by reduction in air-pollution amongst different socio-economic classes of households ses annual benefit annual benefit share (%) low rs. 8,701.33 4.96 middle rs. 28,376.92 2.23 high rs. 50,631.95 1.97 source: authors’ own calculation 4. conclusions and policy suggestions the econometric results show that ceteris paribus, households with lower ses have a higher vulnerability to air pollution and its consequences. vulnerability is more prominent for household members with informal outdoor occupations and families who have higher air pollution exposure. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] moreover, households with health insurance have lower vulnerability to air pollution which could be due to lower mitigating expenditure and better coverage of health facilities. however, age shows no significant effect on vulnerability. these results conclude that households/communities with lower educational attainment, pronounced deprivation of wealth assets, higher proportion of people in unorganized job sectors and poor living conditions (such as living near busy roads or in slums, having unhealthy water facilities) will be the most vulnerable to air pollution and its impacts. the results are in line with the findings of landrigan and goldman (2011) and hajat et al. (2015). estimates of economic benefits (in terms of health) from air pollution reduction to safe limit (100µg/m3) from current levels (study period) for a typical household amount to rs. 33,978.12 and for the entire population of delhi it is rs. 52.4 billion. a typical household can save about 2.54 per cent per year of their annual income from reduction in pollution exposure to safe levels. it can be concluded that reduction in pollution (in delhi) can have critical monetary benefits through improved health status and lowered medical expenses on air pollution related illness by the households and the population of delhi. there are already a few other studies done in the past which show similar results, though, with much lower annual benefits in the context of other cities. for instance, gupta (2006) found the economic benefits for the city of kanpur to be around rs. 200 million per year. this highlights the plausibility of a high estimated value of economic benefits for the whole population, given delhi being amongst the most polluted as well as highly populated cities in the world. however, these estimates only provide information about the gains to a typical household or population from pollution reduction. the critical question is who gains the most from economic benefits of pollution reduction and whether the policies that lead to air pollution reduction can also lead to “pro-equity” benefits to all socioeconomic segments along with overall “pro-efficiency” benefits to a typical household of delhi. distribution of the economic gains from air pollution reduction reflects that in absolute terms a typically higher ses gets higher annual benefits which may be since these have higher annual income and hence will save more in absolute terms. in reality, looking at the gains in relative terms by estimating the annual benefits share as a percentage of annual income for the three classes of households, estimates shows that a lower ses household saves the maximum proportion of its annual income, i.e., 7.93 per cent as compared to higher ses household for which annual benefit share is merely 3.15 per cent of the annual family income if exposure to air pollution is reduced to safe limits. [117] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty thus, it can be concluded that a lower ses household with a higher vulnerability to air pollution will benefit the most from reduced air pollution (in relative terms). studying the impact of socio-economic position on vulnerability to air pollution can help assess policy implications in tackling the menace of air pollution and population’s vulnerability to it. a cooperative strategic policy can help economically poor households use appropriate defensive behavior and activities to reduce the severity of air pollution consequences and thus, reduce inequity in the environmental aspect along with the reduction in air pollution. in recent years, several significant studies have addressed policy suggestions for air pollution in the context of delhi. a recent source apportionment study by teri (2018) identified multiple sources for the variation in pm2.5 and pm10 concentrations during summer and winter months transport, biomass burning, industries and dust being the significant ones. it proposed several interventions, ranging from liquified petroleum gas penetration, introduction of gaseous fuels and enforcement of new and stringent so2/nox/pm2.5 standards for industries using solid fuels, inspection and maintenance of vehicles, strong implementation of bs-vi (bharat stage) norms to congestion management, etc. further, attention has been given at the national and sub-national level to issues of proper management of cropresidue burning such as implementing blanket ban, promoting subsidies and compensation programs for farmers to buy advanced and modern equipment for in situ crop residue management, initiatives to diversify the crop production and straw management, creating market for agri-residues, while focus given to embedded socio-economic, cultural and behavioral elements responsible for widespread practice of burning of agri-residues has been limited (kumar et al. 2015). looking at the course of action from the distributional aspect, social variables that have prompted air pollution inequity as shown in the study should additionally be given due importance along with those policies that will help in reduction of air pollution. ujjwala scheme has been promoted by the government for higher penetration of liquified petroleum gas in the households from lower ses. more attention is needed for reducing occupational exposures, thereby, improving the working conditions of people. legal structures also need to be effectively designed to protect workers in outdoor jobs and other vulnerable groups. another strategy prospect could be more focused awareness creation about consequences of air pollution and procurement of more information on the health impacts of air pollution, which affect individual’s adaptive and mitigating capacity to combat with it. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] this study found it important to analyze efficiency as well as equity matters of air pollution in delhi. a general observation made by authors such as blank (2002) is that the trade-off between equity and efficiency only exists in the shorter run (as efficiency can only be persistent in the longer run when these are balanced); in the long run, both go hand-in-hand (berg and ostry 2011; krugman 2014). in terms of air pollution inequity, the gap between the two can be minimized by implementing pro-poor policies with support from the community and government, through policies that mandate efficient pollution control standards and finally, through redistribution of payments viasubsidies, health insurance facilities and increasing education investment to reduce both distributional vulnerability to air pollution along with reduction in overall exposure. vulnerability to air pollution and its consequences cuts across various sectors at different scales, and thus calls for coherence and integration at the policy level to deal with such an imminent problem. this study serves as a potential 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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120505355 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.06.077 http://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2018-08/aqm-sa_0.pdf http://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/2018-08/aqm-sa_0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1231335100 [123] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty appendix table a1: descriptive statistics of variables used in estimation of health production function and mitigating demand function model, and in estimation of vulnerability to air pollution model variable mean std. dev. min max health status 53.66 50.58 0 255 mitigating expenditure 6506.63 9317.5 0 60950 vulnerability index 0.76 0.197 0.35 1.37 household exposure index 117.054 44.96 46.15 288.304 chronic index 0.531 0.69 0 4.3 socio-economic index -9.31e-10 3.206 -4.48 11.39 habits 0.74 0.54 0 3 family size 4.74 1.77 1 11 suffer 0.63 0.29 0 1 awareness 10.47 2.52 0 16 avert 1.73 1.36 0 5 school/college going 0.24 0.2006 0 0.75 health insurance 0.55 0.49 0 1 gender 0.49 0.18 0 1 outdoor job 0.29 0.41 0 1 background 1.32 0.47 1 2 adults 0.81 0.19 0.33 1 table a2: estimates of total annual economic benefits and annual benefit share (%) for reduction in air-pollution h1 m1 mean values last three months famᴹ wᴹ incᴹ d e lh i p o p u la ti o n  (b il li o n ) d e lh i w o rk in g p ar ti c ip at io n r a te * e st im at e d c o e ff ic ie n t o f h o u se h o ld e x p o su re i n d e x f o r h p f r e g re ss io n m o d e l e st im at e d c o e ff ic ie n t o f h o u se h o ld e x p o su re i n d e x f o r m d f r e g re ss io n m o d e l heiᴹ hei. safeᴹ hᴹ mᴹ f am il y s iz e f am il y w ag e r at e ( r s. ) a n n u al h o u se h o ld i n c o m e (r s. ) h o u se h o ld e x p o su re i n d e x h o u se h o ld e x p o su re i n d e x s af e f am il y d ay s o f s ic k n e ss m it ig at in g e x p e n d it u re ( r s. ) 0.45 0.44 117.05 32.7 53.67 6506.63 4.74 3139.64 1337399 0.0168 33.4 annualized economic benefits (rs.) to a typical household for reduction in pollution exposure by 1 µg/m3 gain from reduction in sick days (for working family members) gain from reduction in mitigating expenses (for all family members) annual willingness to pay (household) rs. 341.67 rs. 61.14 rs. 402.82 annualized economic benefits (rs.) to a typical household for reduction in pollution exposure from current to safe level (100 µg/m3, pm10) [125] shivani gupta, sukanya das and m.n. murty gain from reduction in sick days (for working family members) gain from reduction in mitigating expenses (for all family members) total annual economic benefits (household) rs. 28820.35 rs. 5157.77 rs. 33978.12 annualized benefits share (%) to a typical household for reduction in pollution exposure from current to safe level (100 µg/m3, pm10) 4.06% annualized economic benefits (in rs. billion) to delhi population for reduction in pollution exposure from current to safe level (100 µg/m3, pm10) gain from reduction in sick days (for working population) gain from reduction in mitigating expenses (for entire population) total annual economic benefits (delhi) rs. 34.11 billion rs. 18.28 billion rs. 52.4 billion source: authors’ calculation  population and working participation rate, census (2011) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 125-128, july 2022 book review large dams, adivasi struggles, and their untold stories thounaojam somokanta oza, nandini. 2022. the struggle for narmada: an oral history of the narmada bachao andolan, by adivasi leaders keshavbhau and kevalsingh vasave. hyderabad: orient blackswan, 273 pages, isbn 978-93-5442-292-3. narmada bachao andolan (nba) is among the most prominent antidam coalitions in india. the nba spearheaded one of the most sustained and prolonged grassroots movements against dam construction on the narmada river and significantly informed and inspired a substantial intellectual critique of the global large dam industry. at the heart of the nba agitation, however, was the fate of the adivasi people—forest-based subsistence communities, often referred to as tribals. given that many of the large dam projects in india have been located in places where tribal and other marginal communities are predominantly settled, ethnic-based and indigenous peoples have  assistant professor of sociology, department of humanities & social sciences, indian institute of technology kanpur, 208016, india; email: somo@iitk.ac.in copyright © somokanta 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719 mailto:somo@iitk.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.719 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] unsurprisingly become central to the anti-dam resistance movement (somokanta et al. 2021). despite the existence of substantial literature and a widening body of work that critiques large dams in india (nusser 2013; klingensmith 2007; khagram 2004), there remains little effort to explore and explain the adivasi perspective on the debate surrounding large dams in india. in other words, the emphasis by the scientific and activist communities has been to speak in their support through research, documentation, and leadership, mostly carried out by india’s middle-class and upper-caste activists. the adivasi voice, hence, has been sorely lacking in the narration of their own stories, anxieties, and travails, even as they have been central to evolving the challenge against large dams in india. nandini oza’s the struggle for narmada, however, attempts to admirably close this gap through a careful and systematic effort to record, document, and understand the hitherto unheard voices of the adivasis, particularly regarding how they perceived their own role during the nba campaign. oza is a writer and has been a full-time activist in the nba for over 12 years. the struggle for narmada is an effort in oral history that aims to capture the multifaceted complexities involved in the struggles of the adivasi people. she emphasises the courage and fortitude with which they sought to prevent their displacement by the narmada dams. the book was originally written in marathi but translated into english by suhas paranjape and swatija manorama. much of the book is based on oza’s interviews and interactions with two principal adivasi leaders: keshavbhau and kevalsingh vasave. in the foreword of the book, indira chowdhury offers a helpful outline of the various resistance efforts of the adivasis against large dams and their many efforts, despite the odds, to retain their culture, livelihoods, and ecology. following the context laid out by chowdhury, oza explains her own troubled and difficult journey from being an activist to attempting an oral history of the anti-dam narmada campaign. oza divides the book into two core chapters that focus on the untold story of keshavbhau vasave and kevalsingh vasave. the oral accounts of these leaders reflect the troubled and trying efforts of adivasis to prevent their displacement by the sardar sarovar dam, which was touted as having been carried out in the interests of the nation and development. oza interviewed them twice, first after their displacement from their villages in maharashtra and again after their resettlement. this allowed oza to focus on the various layers of emotion and traumatic experiences that the adivasis experienced due to their forced marginalisation and the overall impoverishment of their [127] thounaojam somakanta community. both leaders provide riveting accounts of their role in the resistance movement and how they conceived their challenges against the powerful dam builders. they also share with a sense of triumph the relative successes during the course of their struggles, such as when the nba-led campaign managed to compel the world bank to suspend its funding of the narmada project. moreover, these oral accounts help highlight how the adivasi sense of the narmada river was uniquely cultural in that the river came to represent more than a resource or their livelihoods. oza does well to extrapolate from her interviews how the flow of the waters was deeply woven into adivasi traditions and identity-making, suggesting that daminduced displacement is never simply a matter of compensation or justice as it involved the profound ending of a unique cultural imagination and indigenous worldview. in sum, oza’s innovative effort to capture the hitherto unheard voices of the adivasi people provides us with much insight into how the anti-dam protests were perceived and comprehended by the affected communities themselves. unhindered thus by middle-class-dominated activist narratives and their ideological filters, these oral accounts suggest that the adivasis possessed considerable agency in shaping various mobilisation strategies against the narmada dams. the book will be a useful tool for academics, activists, and journalists who want to learn about oral history as a method of understanding victims’ perspectives. one minor comment on the book is that only photographs of the two adivasi leaders were used in the book despite the availability of rich photographs of the narmada valley (frontline 2022). inserting more photographs may help give a clear visual representation of the site of the movement. additionally, adding a brief conclusion discussing the wider implications of the book in the context of the national development discourse might have given more heft to the argument for oral history research. the struggle for narmada is certainly an important and welcome addition to the growing literature, both academic and popular, against the global large dam industry. references frontline. 2022. “review of the struggle for narmada, by nandini oza.” frontline, june 12, 2022. https://frontline-thehinducom.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/frontline.thehindu.com/books/book-review-adivasiperspective/article65490740.ece/amp/. khagram, s. 2004. dams and development: transnational struggles for water and power. ithaca: cornell university press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501727399 klingensmith, d. 2007. one valley and a thousand: dams, nationalism, and https://frontline-thehindu-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/frontline.thehindu.com/books/book-review-adivasi-perspective/article65490740.ece/amp/ https://frontline-thehindu-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/frontline.thehindu.com/books/book-review-adivasi-perspective/article65490740.ece/amp/ https://frontline-thehindu-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/frontline.thehindu.com/books/book-review-adivasi-perspective/article65490740.ece/amp/ https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501727399 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] development. new york: oxford university press. nüsser, m (ed). 2013. large dams in asia: contested environments between technological hydroscapes and social resistance. berlin: springer. somokanta, t, e feitelson, and a tubi. 2021. “south asian dams at a tipping point? the case of tipaimukh dam in manipur, india.” water alternatives 14(2): 491–519. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 177-194 january 2022 research paper food choices and beliefs: factors influencing dietary preferences in chandigarh, india suraj das and priya abstract: food choices are influenced by a myriad factor, ranging from socioeconomic to socio-cultural. socio-cultural influences, in particular, are neglected at the policy-formation stage, hampering implementation among the target population. a culturally diverse region, chandigarh is home to varied communities including jats, sikhs, gujjars, rajputs, and migrant groups. hence, analyzing collective food and dietary patterns from a socio-cultural perspective helps us understand the underlying social relations that affect food choices as well as nutritional security. we utilized data from this preliminary cross-sectional study i) to explore the impacts of socio-cultural and socio-ecological factors, and ii) to examine the impact of demographic and lifestyle factors on traditional food choices and eating practices. using a mixed-methodology approach—with a sample of 70 respondents, of which 15 were also interviewed in-depth—we identified that social and cultural norms, besides ecological factors, significantly influence dietary habits. however, demographics relating to age and gender have no significant influence on traditional food practices. therefore, it is crucial to integrate value-based and culturally acceptable foods so as to transition to sustainable eating habits and an evidence-based, inclusive food security policy. keywords: socio-cultural influences; food security policy; dietary preferences in chandigarh 1. introduction eating habits are a complex phenomenon, deeply entwined with rituals, social functions, faith and spirituality, values and beliefs, cultural identity, and feelings of membership for particular groups and communities (mintz & du bois 2002). anthropologists have long recognized the significance of food in defining cultural differences, especially behavioural norms  indian institute of technology, roorkee, sdas@hs.iitr.ac.in  indian institute of technology, roorkee, priya@hs.iitr.ac.in copyright © das and priya 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by–nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.492 mailto:sdas@hs.iitr.ac.in mailto:priya@hs.iitr.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.492 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [178] surrounding the selection, preparation, and allocation of food (lévi-strauss 2012). even scholarly research on the anthropology of food acknowledges that food choices are a symbol of ethnic identity. eating culture can be defined by a “particular flavor and food type, recipes that combine food elements in particular ways, meal formats that aggregate the dishes in predictable manners and meal cycles that alternate meal formats into ordinary and festival meals” (messer 1984, 226). thus, each community possesses distinctive dietary habits, which depend upon localized ecological niches. another important expression of cultural adaptation to the environment is religion, which often emphasizes sustainable good choices (mukerji 2019). yet, there are multiple research gaps; most research related to food beliefs and behaviours in india focus on the nutritional content of traditional food choices rather than exploring the socio-cultural belief systems attached to them (tirodkar et al. 2011). furthermore, various researchers have proposed that cultural habits are integral to ethnic identities, implying that dietary patterns hold special significance for ethnic communities (adekunle, filson, and sethuratnam 2012). for instance, food consumed on special occasions such as festivals are an integral part of routine dietary habits, and, thus, a means to maintain specific communal traditions (azar et al. 2013). analyzing collective food and dietary patterns from the socio-cultural perspective helps us understand the underlying social relations affecting food choices. giddens’ structuration theory has been used to study food choice patterns, especially his concept of social practices, which he proposes is an interplay of “agency” and “social structure”, or, in other words, rules and resources (giddens 2004). on the one hand, society’s socio-cultural dimensions are often considered a “drag” in the modern era, holding back progress and development. on the other, the dominance of exclusively techno-economic developmental projects has resulted in the high incidence of failure of such projects. thus, it is imperative to acknowledge the importance of often-overlooked factors such as cultural beliefs and norms. further, traditional knowledge of dietary habits has emerged more relevant in the age of globalization, where due to negligence of the socio-cultural dimension, the chances of policy failure are higher (wood, tappan, and hadj 2004). chandigarh, located in the shivalik range of the himalayas, is a culturally diverse state as it is home to migrants from different states of india. however, the diversity of food choices and eating practices of various cultural groups such as sikhs, jats, gujjars, and rajputs has not been widely recognized (mukerji 1980). [179] suraj das and priya there have been only a few exploratory studies on food behaviours in chandigarh compared to studies that focus on food consumption at the macro level in terms of quantity and nutritional value (sachdeva et al. 2011; bharti and sakshi 2016; kaur et al. 2018). further, local perspectives, i.e., the local community’s beliefs about traditional food, are entirely unacknowledged (das 2021). while research has accounted for socioeconomic perspectives, at least in agriculture and related areas, it has failed to integrate social and cultural beliefs associated with traditional dietary habits in studies around food cultivation and consumption (diamondsmith et al. 2016). our study explores the societal and cultural factors that influenced food choices during the pandemic and the larger period of significant climate change in chandigarh, india, in the early 2000s. the preliminary research focused on examining the significance of various socio-demographic elements such as age and gender in the selection of food. as chandigarh is one of india’s most modern cities, studying the impact of socio-cultural norms and values on local food habits would be highly educational and informative, as it would serve as a frame of reference for other modern cities in india. hence, in this study, we have employed a mixed methodology approach to examine and document the factors influencing food choices—specifically, chandigarh’s traditional foods and eating culture. the pilot study aims: (i) to examine the importance of social and customary factors in food choices, and (ii) to analyze the significance of sociodemographic elements among the local residents of chandigarh, india. based on the reviewed literature related to the significance of customary beliefs in food choices and having identified some key gaps, the current study explores the dynamics of food and culture. 2. methodology 2.1 sampling and data collection our study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive survey design, as this method permits the incorporation of multiple variables simultaneously (sedgwick 2014). since there are diverse ethnic communities in chandigarh, a descriptive survey design will help in developing a comprehensive understanding of the mentioned themes (cresswell et al. 2003; cresswell and clark 2017). the questionnaire was divided into two sections. section a captured the demographic information of the respondents, i.e., age, gender, and marital status; and section b consisted of the questions for the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [180] conceptual model, related to socio-cultural, individual, societal, and climatechange factors. a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree; 4 = strongly agree) was used to measure the responses. a literature review was also conducted to better understand the phenomena; for the in-depth analysis, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 respondents. a sample size of 70 respondents were surveyed between september and october 2020 for the primary study through convenience sampling in chandigarh, india. due to the restrictions and limitations posed by the pandemic, convincing people to participate in the study was challenging. due to the constraints on the sample size, time, and space, convenience sampling was the only viable option that allowed us to interview people for the pilot study. 2.2 analytical tools and techniques we conducted a literature review using well-reputed databases such as google scholar, scopus, and sciencedirect. initially, 44 studies were shortlisted after applying filters to their titles and summaries. all the mined articles were read and filtered, after which only 32 studies were incorporated into the literature. additionally, a qualitative data analysis software, i.e., nvivo version 11, was used for data mining and extracting the relevant content from the descriptive interviews—as shown in figure 1. this was done with the aid of specific keywords or codes such as “food habits”, “food choices”, “local foods”, “dietary change”, “cultural norms”, and “traditional beliefs”. finally, themes were generated for data analysis. figure 1: flow chart for data analysis source: author’s compilation, 2020 out of the total 15 questions, 7 were close-ended (table 2), while the remaining were descriptive in nature for the sake of data analysis (table 1). to avoid confusion, poorly phrased responses were cleaned up prior to research. the data were entered into spss (statistical package for the social sciences), version 20. for the quantitative data analysis (oti 2018), both descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent samples t-test, and one way between groups analysis of variance, anova) were used to study respondents’ perceptions towards factors that influence choice of traditional foods and to determine the differences that potentially exist between groups. the [181] suraj das and priya independent samples t-test was used to compare the impact of factors where the sample could be divided into two independent groups: gender (male and female) and marital status (married and unmarried). for age, which was organized into more than three groups, anova was used. the qualitative data were analyzed based on the broad themes of the study. table 1: descriptive questions for interviews sr. no. questions significant factors 1. how do religious beliefs affect your food choices? religious beliefs 2. what cultural norms do you follow related to dietary habits? cultural norms 3. how do your personal beliefs affect your food selection? individual factors 4. how does climate change affect your food habits? climatic variabilities 5. what special ceremonies do you celebrate? customary ceremonies 6. what food do you consume exclusively at festivals? traditional festivals 7. what are some taboos that are followed in different ceremonies? local taboos 8. how did you observe the dietary shift? please explain. dietary shift source: author’s compilation, 2020 3. factors that are significant in the choice of traditional foods in chandigarh, india to investigate the factors that influence the choice of traditional foods in chandigarh, the questions were divided into four broad themes: sociocultural, individual, societal, and pertaining to climate change. for descriptive analysis, we analyzed the frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation of the gathered responses. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [182] table 2: factors affecting the choice of traditional foods in chandigarh factors responses socio-cultural factors s a a n d s d w m 1. culture plays a significant role in choosing food 18 3 4 1 2 3 3 3.8 5 2. food is an essential part of my culture 24 2 9 1 1 4 2 3.9 9 3. religious norm is an essential factor in the choice of food 12 2 5 1 4 1 0 9 3.3 mean of means = 3.71; st. d = 1.09 individual factor 4. my belief matters in the selection of foods 18 2 8 1 2 9 3 3.7 mean of means = 3.7; st. d = 1.12 societal factor 5. societal norms are fundamental 14 1 7 1 7 1 6 9 3.2 6 mean of means = 3.26; st. d = 1.315 climate change 6. i have observed a dietary shift in recent years 13 3 9 1 0 5 3 3.8 3 7. climate change is a factor responsible for dietary change 24 2 1 1 6 8 1 3.8 7 mean of means = 3.85; st. d = 1.0 st. d standard deviation, wm weighted mean, sd strongly disagree, d disagree, n neutral, a agree, sa strongly agree. source: author’s compilation, 2020 the outcome shows that climate change is the most dominant factor (m = 3.85, std. d = 1.0), followed by socio-cultural factors (m = 3.71, std. d = 1.09), individual factors (m = 3.70, std. d = 1.0), and societal factors (m = 3.26, std. d = 1.31). hence, this indicates that climate change and sociocultural factors greatly affect the participants’ choice of traditional food, even more than individual and societal factors. 3.1 climate change factors evidence from historical statistical studies and assessment models show that climate change will have varied and widespread impact on food systems. climate change will affect production and consumption patterns, [183] suraj das and priya i.e., agricultural yield, food quality, and food safety (vermeulen, campbell, and ingram 2012). some respondents explained that the climate of their region had nudged them to adopt the available food crop. they also explained that certain festivals were associated with the season and climate; thus, food choices have a contextual meaning that varies with specific seasons and the associated festivals of particular geographical regions, but climate change has affected these consumption patterns. in the northwestern belt, we prefer lentils, vegetables, and wheat chapatis, contrary to fish and rice, a staple diet in most eastern state communities. the geography of a region has a significant impact on its culture. since wheat, grain lentils, and gram cultivation are suitable for the northwestern belt, the population adapted to this food culture. (37-year-old female) there has been a loss of equable climate over time. prevalence of summer conditions is a deterrence to my non-vegetarian food habits. (43-year-old female) modak during ganesha festival, sesame laddus for sankranti, etc., is believed to be much more suitable for health to eat during the festival because of the season and climate. (49-year-old male) 3.2 socio-cultural beliefs the various religious concepts circulating within the region, for instance, ahimsa (non-violence), religious ideologies, and percepts and institutions of endogamous marriages, play a significant role in deciding food practices such as avoidance of meat and non-vegetarianism. to cite an example, most traditional jains show uniformity and homogeneity in their food practices (natrajan and jacob 2018). this statement made by a respondent highlights the significance of their religious beliefs: there are many taboos related to non-vegetarianism, like we should not eat meat on tuesday because it is dedicated to god. there are other beliefs such as those that claim that meat is meant for evil. (46-year-old male) there is a significant relationship between food and the social and cultural identity of a group. for example, some hindu castes follow a strictly vegetarian diet. hence, they are required to keep a constant watch on their daily dietary habits so as to maintain their ethical and religious food choices (bisogni et al. 2002). a respondent emphasized the importance of practising vegetarianism for various cultural festivals: for me, the dish of mahashivratri festival and new year (according to the hindu calendar) are more crucial because the food items have all the grains in the house. (32-year old male) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [184] in this context, culture, traditions, customs, and taboos influence dietary patterns significantly. religion is an essential factor that influences food habits (devi et al. 2014). for example, taboos associated with eating and drinking cultures, as made evident by the respondents’ observations, indicates that society greatly influences the eating culture. a respondent described some food taboos driven by cultural beliefs. shuran (elephant foot yam) is very relevant to the deepawali festival. my mother used to say: “eat this; otherwise, you will be born as a shrew in the next generation.” (42-year-old female) women consuming alcohol often goes against societal norms in india and is still not widely accepted. (51-year-old male) traditional knowledge associated with native food habits plays an important role in defining the identity and culture of an individual and community, which further guides cultural acceptability, sufficiency, and nutrient adequacy (tremblay et al. 2020). food and dietary habits help satisfy humans’ nutritional needs and are also an expression of social and cultural identity (adaawen 2021). individual factors are also crucial in deciding food habits. as described by a respondent, who associated his choice of food with a particular cultural and social identity: i belong to a brahmin family, and therefore, my whole family does not consume meat. still, i like chicken meat very much, so i eat it sometimes. nevertheless, my parents do not know that i am a non-vegetarian, and i do not want them to know about this either. (28-year-old male) for humans, food and dietary choices do not simply pertain to the act of obtaining nutrition for the body’s survival and wellbeing. the socio-cultural beliefs of people define the foods that are acceptable for consumption and those that are not (warde, beardsworth, and keil 1998). there is a very strong association between societal norms and personal choices (kim 2016). associating a particular festival with social interactions, and consequently to food, a respondent commented: i believe that the festival-specific sweets, til-gur during spring, chakli and modak during diwali/ganesh chaturthi, are associated with community interaction. (26-year-old male) similarly, societal beliefs are inherited through generations in the form of narratives. describing her childhood experience, a participant explained the significance of food, and in particular, food grains, with relation to god: we used to learn from our elders; food is also a god known as ann devta (grain god). we must not waste food; otherwise, ann devta would be unhappy with us. (23-year-old female) [185] suraj das and priya 4. what is the influence of demographic variables and lifestyle in the selection of foods? food choices are also influenced by caste or sect affiliation, gender, age, and societal status (appadurai 1981). our findings show that individuals’ diets are driven by normative choices, aligning with their beliefs. to illustrate this, an independent sample t-test was performed, the results of which are shown in table 3, followed by an inference. table 3: impact of gender on factors affecting dietary habits factors sex mean st. d t df sig. (2-tailed) socio-cultural factors male 3.68 1.2 –0.32 68 0.74 female 3.77 0.89 individual factor male 3.62 1.25 0.73 68 0.46 female 3.82 0.9 societal factor male 3.26 1.3 0.03 68 0.97 female 3.25 1.35 climate change male 3.8 1.61 –0.55 68 0.61 female 3.92 0.88 source: author’s compilation, 2020. there were no statistical differences in the perception of male and female respondents with regards to socio-cultural and other influences on food. the findings of beardsworth et al. (2002), pliner and mann (2004), and wardle et al. (2004) show that gender has a strong correlation with food choices. research shows that women are more sensitive to cultural influences than men while selecting foods to be consumed. women are more concerned about the ethics and morality of their food choices and also reported concerns regarding the environment and animal cruelty in relation to food production. however, the results of our study show that gender differences are insignificant in the selection of traditional foods in chandigarh. an independent sample t-test was used to analyze the effects of respondents’ marital status on traditional food choices. the results are shown in table 4. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [186] table 4: mean, standard deviation, and t-test results for marital status and factors affecting the traditional food choices factors marital status mean std. d t df sig. (2-tailed) sociocultural factors married 3.77 1.05 0.42 68 0.36 unmarried 3.68 1.13 individual factors married 3.67 1.09 0.32 68 0.74 unmarried 3.76 1.14 societal factors married 3.28 1.45 0.10 68 0.91 unmarried 3.24 1.24 climate change married 3.78 1.10 –0.44 68 0.66 unmarried 3.89 0.94 source: author’s compilation, 2020 there was no statistical difference in the perception of married and unmarried respondents with regards to the food influences we covered in our survey. the results of the studies conducted by lipowicz, gronkiewicz, and malina (2002) and deshmukh-taskar et al. (2007) show that marital status influences food choices. however, the findings of our study show that marital status does not affect traditional food choices in chandigarh. to identify the effect of age on respondents’ food choices, a one-way between-group anova was used, and the results are shown in table 5. the anova results show that there is no statistically significant difference in the socio-cultural factors [f (4, 65) = 1.21, p = .61], individual factors [f (4, 65) = 0.75, p = .55], societal factors [f (4, 65) = 1.07, p = .37], and climate change factors [f (4, 65) = 0.84, p = .51] at 0.05 alpha level based on respondents’ ages (table 5). this finding contradicts those of hendrie et al. (2013), scaglioni et al. (2018), and kim (2016), who observed that age is a significant factor in food choices. based on our results, it might be concluded that age does not affect traditional food choices. therefore, based on the analysis, socio-cultural factors play a prominent role in food choices in a traditional household along with society’s influence on individual beliefs. further, food choices greatly depend on seasonal variations, which also have cultural connotations in traditional households. in addition, from the statistical analysis, it can be concluded that demographic factors (age, gender) and lifestyle (marital status) have no significant influence on food choices in chandigarh, india. [187] suraj das and priya table 5: impact of age on factors affecting traditional food choices source: author’s compilation, 2020 factors age (years) mean std. deviation sum of squares df mean square f sig. sociocultural factors 14–23 3.65 1.13 4.43 4 1.13 1.21 0.61 24–33 3.84 0.94 78.73 65 1.21 34–43 3.11 1.97 83.17 69 44–53 3.83 0.07 54+ 1.00 total 3.72 1.09 individual factor 14–23 3.69 1.13 3.85 4 0.96 0.75 0.55 24–33 3.83 1.03 82.84 65 1.27 34–43 2.67 2.08 86.70 69 44–53 3.50 0.7 54+ 4.00 total 3.70 1.21 societal factor 14–23 3.2 1.25 7.43 4 1.858 1.07 0.374 24–33 3.45 1.35 111.93 65 1.720 34–43 2.67 1.15 119.37 69 44–53 3.50 2.121 54+ 1.00 total 3.26 1.31 climate change 14–23 3.85 0.95 3.27 4 0.81 0.84 0.53 24–33 3.94 1.01 66.61 65 1.02 34–43 3.16 1.44 69.89 69 44–53 3.75 0.06 54+ 3 total 3.85 1.00 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [188] 5. discussion customary food habits are based on the indigenous knowledge of the community, which is in sync with the cultural norms or dietary practices. traditional knowledge surrounding food cultivation and nutrition promotes the sustainable conservation of biodiversity, which further assures food security for the local population (vicziany and plahe 2017). however, due to changing dietary habits around the world and the demand for functional foods, more people are returning to traditional diets. numerous studies have observed the significance of indigenous and cultural beliefs for eating habits and dietary choices in traditional societies (otunola and martiryosan 2021). additionally, traditional sources of nutrition are more resilient against climatic variability. yet, policymakers have prioritized efficiency over customary eating habits after the success of the green revolution, due to the rising demand of the growing population (patel, sharma, and singh 2020). culture-specific beliefs and values require deeper exploration with the aim of better understanding the factors that impact the acceptance of foods. there is a need to integrate indigenous socio-cultural norms right at the policy-formation level. food security policies must be in sync with sociocultural beliefs for greater acceptance among stakeholders. the sociocultural context and people’s attitudes and perceptions towards ethnic diets get little attention in food research because of the dominance of technology and the assumption of rationality of economics. in such studies, humans are assumed to be individuals who take decisions without societal interference. however, that is far from true; according to social scientists’ research, individuals are always influenced by societal norms and values. similarly, food choices are also governed by socio-cultural beliefs. therefore, cultural perspectives and contextual variations that influence dietary choices and practices should be accounted for while designing policies to ensure food security for a community. the socio-ecological aspect of society evolves with the interaction of ecological, demographic, technological, and economic factors. ecological and related resources are primarily stable in society because they are naturedetermined (ritu and gupta 2014). for example, in a study conducted in andhra pradesh, india, local food choices that aligned with cultural values were promoted through women farmers’ organizations known as sanghams. the integration and promotion of traditional foods such as healthy fats, pulses, vegetables, roots, and tubers resulted in the prevention of women’s chronic energy deficiency (salomeyesudas et al. 2013). also, due to the failure of authorities to accommodate traditional foods and indigenous cooking knowledge, it is unreasonable to expect traditional communities to [189] suraj das and priya follow their dietary advice. therefore, scott (1997) emphasized including culturally relevant resources to disseminate information related to health advisories. the significance of indigenous foods has only recently been recognized in policy discussions around sustainable consumption. still, plenty more needs to be done to integrate culturally vital food practices into food policy conversations. the eating practices of the canadian population is a typical example of food having been strongly influenced by cultural and ethnic norms (halloran et al. 2015). the desire for traditional foods is evident among the indigenous communities of canada, as observed in a participatory research project, which showed that people were curious about traditional food, despite some degree of consumption. additionally, the participants conveyed their support for traditional cuisines and emphasized the significance of the socio-cultural beliefs of the community (hanemaayer et al. 2020). further, the distinctive features of traditional diets have a special place in indigenous societies. in romania, for instance, raw material produced locally is preferred in traditional recipes due to customary dietary habits, along with the association of food with specific values, cultures, and history (nagy and dabija 2020). like in our study, some participants also revealed that the concept of drying certain vegetables in sunlight was based on their customary and traditional habits. our observations are analogous to the earlier study conducted by baloch, jogezai, and mohamad ismail (2020), which noted the strong influence of societal norms on the dietary habits of an individual in a community. in chandigarh, socio-economically backward and underprivileged groups constitute a significant portion of the population, i.e., 21% of the population fall below the poverty line and suffer from food insecurity (rbi 2020). further, social and cultural norms dominate their way of life. thus, it is imperative to integrate these cultural norms in policies aimed at ensuring food and nutritional security to underprivileged communities. therefore, koenig et al. (2012) emphasized that community values are vital for sustainable dietary practices. in addition, religious beliefs are crucial in defining dietary choices; therefore, policy-makers could also consider highlighting specific teachings of holy scriptures to stress moderate and light consumption of certain foods according to dietary guidelines. the dissemination of culturally relevant, appropriate, and ethically valid information should be the focus of ethnic media, faith-based organizations, cultural events, and various other platforms where people gather (mukherjea et al. 2013). we conducted this ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [190] study to develop an in-depth understanding of the factors that affect the food choices and dietary habits of local communities. the results indicate that individual norms and belief systems also matter in addition to economic and scientific knowledge. therefore, for greater acceptance and adoption of food security policies, the socio-ecological perspective of local communities must be integrated. 6. conclusion food choices in chandigarh are influenced by various factors ranging from socio-economic to socio-cultural. however, most often, the latter gets neglected at the policy-formation level, which further hampers implementation among the targeted population (fao 2021; unesco 2021). hence, we conducted a pilot study to document and explore the significance of social and cultural factors for food behaviours. based on the findings, our study concludes that several factors influence food choices, but socio-cultural factors are particularly crucial in influencing dietary practices. however, we found that demographic variables (gender and age) and lifestyle variables (marital status) did not significantly influence the local population’s dietary habits. food and eating practices are a crucial element of the culture of chandigarh. hence, socio-cultural factors play a significant role in determining whether a diet is accepted (baloch, jogezai, and mohamad ismail 2020). additionally, sustainable food consumption has a low environmental impact and has the potential to boost food and nutritional security for present and future generations (meena et al. 2019). therefore, it is crucial to integrate value-based and culturally acceptable food to transition towards sustainable eating habits and an evidence-based, inclusive food security policy (mazac and tuomisto 2020). declaration of ownership the authors declare that the present article is an original research work. conflict of interest the authors declare that there are no competing interests. references adaawen, s. 2021. “understanding climate change and drought perceptions, impact and responses in the rural savannah, west africa.” atmosphere 12 (5): 594. 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research the current state and challenges to advancing sustainability science and education rashid hassan  1. preamble key circles and players in the global community, including the general public, policy makers, and scientists, have become convinced by the mounting scientific evidence over the past three decades that the viability of life on earth is seriously threatened by the accelerating pressures from population growth and urbanization rates, expansion in energy-intensive production and consumption activities, climate change, etc. the world has responded in various ways to these risks, recognizing the need for urgent action to prevent or ameliorate the expected disastrous consequences of crossing the boundaries of natural limits. commitment to the emergent sustainable development (sd) agenda through several global initiatives, protocols, policy measures, and action programmes and strategies has, as a result, dominated the international political and professional debates and cooperative interactions. examples of such responses include major intergovernmental processes such as the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) and its protocols (kyoto, paris, etc.), millennium ecosystem assessment (mea), intergovernmental platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes), protection of biodiversity and combating desertification protocols, and un declaration on sustainable development, among others.  emeritus professor, centre for environmental economics and policy in africa (ceepa), room 2-6, agricultural annex building, faculty of natural and agricultural sciences, university of pretoria, main campus, hatfield, pretoria 0001, rsa; rashid.hassan@up.ac.za copyright © hassan 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.76 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.76 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] emergence of sustainability science in research and education is one such important response. scientific research has generated credible knowledge about the causes, nature, magnitude, and consequences of the various threats to the integrity of life on earth and potential technological, policy, and institutional innovations and intervention options to address them. the design and implementation of the above-mentioned global responses and initiatives have generally been informed by findings of scientific research relying primarily on inter and transdisciplinary collaboration, which has defined the principle foundations of sustainability science (clark 2007, salas-zapata et al. 2017). many challenges, however, remain in face of the need to advance the role and contributions of ss in research and education. 2. challenges facing the practice of sustainability in research and education the rise of ss is evident from the vast volume of published research outputs and the large number of authors, journals, and networks (fora, conferences, societies, etc.) engaged in this field over the past two decades (bettencourt and kaur 2011). one key and novel feature of sustainability science is that it aims at finding solutions to societal problems associated with managing the complex dynamic interactions between nature and society. this requires transdisciplinary collaboration and engagement of affected communities and other non-academic entities (business, government, etc.) in all phases of the research undertaking, from framing the research questions, through implementing the scientific investigation, to reaching solutions (spangenberg 2011, lang et al. 2012). these principal features, however, present major challenges, many of which remain unresolved in the way of advancing the practice of sustainability science. the difficulty with integration across disciplinary boundaries in adaption and use of mixed methods for cogeneration of systemic knowledge and development and validation of solutions remains, maintaining a persistent divide, especially between natural and social sciences (wehrden et al. 2017). this divide is also found in the still limited integration of normative knowledge from the diverse social, political and value systems of nonacademic stakeholders, leading to weak participation and ownership, especially in framing of problems and co-creation of solutions (brandt et al. 2013, lang et al. 2012). in this conversation on sustainability science, rai explains more, with examples, how academics and researchers can be discouraged from critical scientific examination of the underlying objectives of major state initiatives to preserve the status quo and protect interests of key stakeholders. [43] rashid hassan the sd agenda triggered a series of global, regional and national higher education declarations committing to sustainability, from the talloires (1990) to the ubuntu (2002) and bonn (2009) declarations and the unescu conference on higher education in 2009 (tilbury 2011). this led to an upsurge of various university alliances and networks committing to infusing sustainability in teaching and learning and emergence of specialised course modules, including tertiary degree training programmes on sustainability in a number of universities, particularly in the north (kates 2011). nevertheless, resistance due to disciplinary loyalties, fear of intrusion into academic freedom, weak structural incentives and low demand for specialized skills in sustainability science continue to hinder progress in transforming curricula and the practice of sustainability science in teaching and learning (jones, selby and sterling 2010). 3. sustainability science and education in the developing world apart from a few exceptional cases, progress with practicing sustainability science in knowledge generation and education in the developing world has been very limited. observed participation and engagement of developing countries in sustainability projects and initiatives has been primarily catalysed through support from international promoters (tilbury 2011). there is a pressing need for home-grown initiatives and genuine national and regional level commitment to and sufficient investments by public and private sectors in advancing the practice of sustainability science through academies of sciences, universities and research institutions in these parts of the world. successful experiences of the southern african development community regional environmental education program (sadc-reep) provide an example to be enhanced and replicated for effective promotion of the practice of sustainability science in research and education (mandikonza and lotz-sisitka 2016). purushothaman and rai document valuable lessons from the experiences of azim premji university and ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, respectively, in advancing sustainability science education in asia. references bettencourt, l. m. a. and j. kaur. 2011. “evolution and structure of sustainability science” pnas 108 (49): 19540–19545. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102712108 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102712108 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] brandt, p., a. ernst, f. gralla, c. luederitz, d. lang, j. newig, f. reinert, d. abson, and h. wehrden. 2013. “a review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science.” ecological economics 92: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.04.008 clark, w. c. 2007. “sustainability science: a room of its own.” pnas 104 (6): 1737–38. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611291104 jones, p., d. selby and s. sterling, eds. 2010. sustainability education perspectives and practice across higher education. london: earthscan. kates, r. w. 2011. “what kind of science is sustainability science?” pnas 108 (49): 19449–50. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1116097108 lang, d., a. weik, m. bergmann, m. stauffacher, p. martens, p. moll, m. swilling, and c. thomas. 2012. “transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges.” sustainability science 7 (supplement 1): 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0149-x mandikonza, c. and h. lotz-sisitka. 2016. “emergence of environment and sustainability education (ese) in teacher education contexts in southern africa: a common good concern.” educational research for social change 5 (1): 107–130. https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2016/v5i1a7 salas-zapata, w. a., l. a. rios-osorio, and j. a. cardona-arias. 2017. “methodological characteristics of sustainability science: a systematic review.” environment, development, and sustainability 19 (4): 1127–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9801-z spangenberg, j. h. 2011. “sustainability science: a review, an analysis and some empirical lessons.” environmental conservation 38(3): 275–287. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0376892911000270 tilbury, d. 2011. “higher education for sustainability: a global overview of commitment and progress.” in higher education in the world 4: higher education’s commitment to sustainability: from understanding to action edited by global university network for innovation. uk: palgrave macmillan. http://www.guninetwork.org/files/8_i.2_he_for_sustainability_-_tilbury.pdf wehrden, h., c. luederitz, j. leventon, and s. russel. 2017. “methodological challenges in sustainability science: a call for method plurality, procedural rigour, and longitudinal research.” challenges in sustainability 5(1): 35–42. https://doi.org/10.12924/cis2017.05010035 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.04.008 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0611291104 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1116097108 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0149-x https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2016/v5i1a7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9801-z https://doi.org/10.1017/s0376892911000270 http://www.guninetwork.org/files/8_i.2_he_for_sustainability_-_tilbury.pdf https://doi.org/10.12924/cis2017.05010035 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 15-19, july 2022 commentary role of energy efficiency and demand-side management in india’s clean energy transition seema paul, amit khare, aditya chunekar abstract: india aims to achieve 500 gw of non–fossil fuel capacity by 2030, a substantial share of which would be contributed by variable and intermittent solar and wind. further, india’s electricity demand is expected to increase with urbanization, income, and temperature. energy efficiency and demand-side management programmes can play a critical role in india’s clean energy transition by reducing the demand for electricity and shifting it to times when solar and wind power can be most efficiently generated. balancing the supply-side push for renewables with energy efficiency and demand-side management would be more cost-effective, less resource-intensive, and pose fewer social and environmental challenges compared to a renewables-only approach. this commentary highlights the importance of such an approach to india’s clean energy transition. keywords: clean energy transition, energy efficiency, demand-side management, renewables. 1. context as delhi temperatures hovered at 44 degrees celsius in april this year, much sooner in the year than the typically warm/hot summer months of may and june, millions of indians struggled with their daily lives. the peak power demand surged to a record high of 207 gw, and electricity distribution companies (discoms) scrambled to supply electricity to their customers (the indian express 2022). rajasthan, a renewable energy–rich state, announced scheduled power cuts of one to three hours for general consumers and provided only 50% of the required load capacity to  programme director, sequoia climate foundation, spaul@sequoiaclimate.org.  programme manager, sequoia climate foundation, akhare@sequoiaclimate.org.  fellow, prayas energy group, aditya@prayaspune.org. copyright © paul, khare and chunekar 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.791 mailto:spaul@sequoiaclimate.org mailto:akhare@sequoiaclimate.org mailto:aditya@prayaspune.org https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.791 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] industrial customers between the unusual hours of 6 pm to 10 pm (the economic times energy world 2022).1 in this context, balancing india’s supply-side push for renewables with demand-side management programmes and energy efficiency provides a significant opportunity to manage such crises and spur the clean energy transition. moreover, doing so would contribute to meeting the country’s climate objectives, as it would reduce the dependency on coal for balancing the grid as more renewables are added to the supply mix. at present, india’s power system relies heavily on coal; the country is trying to balance the need to reliably supply electricity to its people and businesses while simultaneously meeting its climate objectives. the international energy agency (iea) has said that “all roads to successful clean energy transitions go via india” (iea 2021, 16). as the first major economy to be developing in a carbon-constrained world, india could pioneer an economic growth and sustainable development model that breaks away from fossil fuels. if india is successful, it can act as a template for other countries on the frontiers of development in asia and africa. at the 2021 glasgow conference of parties to the climate convention, prime minister modi announced five commitments or “pachamrit”, raising to a new level india’s ambitions for addressing climate change (ministry of external affairs 2021). one of these goals involves achieving 500 gw of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030. as of december 2021, india’s installed renewable capacity was about 151 gigawatts (gw), making it 38% of the total installed capacity of 393 gw (central electricity authority 2022). while renewables are important for fostering the clean energy transition and achieving energy independence, they require colossal amounts of investments. to achieve the goal of 500 gw of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, for example, it is projected that india will need to invest $30 to $40 billion each year in infrastructure (garg 2022). in this context, it is important that india not allow its energy demand to outpace its goals. to use the analogy of a faucet and a tub, if we wish to fill the tub (achieve energy security through renewables) while increasing supply, we must also reduce the leakage (i.e., inefficiently managed demand) by promoting energy efficiency. one critical step involves improving appliance efficiency standards. in the last six years, the government-owned energy efficiency services limited achieved significant success when it distributed over 300 million led bulbs to replace cfl lights, thereby saving 39 million tonnes 1 high solar radiation, wind speed, and availability of land to establish utility-scale solar parks make rajasthan a renewable-rich state in india. [17] seema paul, amit khare and aditya chunekar (mt) of co2 emissions annually (energy efficiency services limited 2022). success at this scale needs to be replicated for the top 10 appliances whose ownership is expected to accelerate significantly in this decade and beyond. these appliances include air conditioners, ceiling fans, refrigerators, tvs, lights, electric water heaters, agricultural pumps, washing machines, and motors. modelling shows that india’s peak electricity demand from the top 10 most electricity-consuming appliances and equipment alone will constitute 200 gw or ~60–70% of the projected total peak demand before 2040 (abhyankar et al. 2017). this is equal to the output of nearly 400 large thermal power plants. managing the growth in energy demand—especially during peak hours— would be extremely beneficial to india, including by reducing the investment required for the unabated expansion of non-fossil fuel power, which also runs into the challenge of limited land availability. furthermore, it helps in managing the challenge of a clean grid posed by the intermittent nature of renewables. at present, to supply consumers with power when renewables are not available, discoms rely on fossil fuel–based resources. one of the most important solutions to a fossil fuel–free grid is battery storage. despite being a robust technology, grid-scale batteries are not yet cost-competitive in india, leading to a reliance on coal plants, which contribute to air pollution. however, india can easily consider cheaper yet reliable demand-side options or demand response/demand flexibility— including distributed storage and load shifting—to remain firmly on the clean energy transition trajectory. in the us, utility-administered demand response (dr) programmes play an essential role in lowering peak demand to lessen the chances of blackouts (us energy information administration 2019). dr programmes typically offer customers a financial incentive for reducing energy use during specified hours and help reduce the need to build new generation plants to meet peak power demand. another complementary approach is leveraging distributed storage systems. these are small-scale standalone systems such as electric vehicle batteries or small battery systems that can send electricity back to the grid during peak hours to manage reliability. the california public utilities commission (cpuc) recently approved three vehicle-grid integration pilots to manage peak power demand and achieve climate benefits ( california public utilities commission 2022). combined, such comprehensive approaches constitute ‘demand flexibility’, which benefits discoms, consumers, and the environment. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] these demand-side options would remain relevant even when battery storage becomes cost-competitive because they will reduce the extent to which additional power infrastructure, including power plants and batteries, would be needed. 2. efficiency first any path towards a self-reliant india that also addresses energy security and environmental challenges must go concomitantly with ‘energy efficiency’. investing in energy efficiency programmes and managing electricity demand is much cheaper than building new power plants as the cost of conserved electricity through energy-efficient appliances in india is lower than the consumer tariff (abhyankar et al. 2017).2 doing so has the potential to save 300 terra watt-hours (twh) of electricity annually, reducing the peak load by ~80–100 gw, reducing power cuts such as those being witnessed in new delhi right now (abhyankar et al. 2017). as per the iea india energy efficiency outlook (2016), the power sector is going to avoid producing approximately 875 twh in 2040, about an $18 billion per year reduction in investment for electricity generation, through improved energy efficiency. 3. conclusion around the world, key economies are vying to have a clean electricity grid—one that is free of fossil fuel use—as fast as possible. while india does so, it is also essential to maximise the potential for energy efficiency and decouple economic growth from energy intensity. adding more renewables to meet india’s growing energy demand and replace fossil fuel– based generation is critical to india’s sustainable growth; however, a renewables-only approach that ignores energy efficiency will produce reliability-, cost-, and land-related challenges. additionally, energy efficiency will produce multiple benefits for the nation and the people while addressing concerns arising from india’s growing demand for electricity, especially during peak demand periods in the summer months. energy efficiency is a precursor to india achieving its climate goal, and along with other approaches being prioritised, will help place india strongly on the netzero emissions by 2070 pathway. references abhyankar, nikit, nihar shah, virginie letschert, and amol phadke. 2017. “assessing the cost-effective energy saving potential from top-10 appliances in 2 energy efficiency measures are considered cost-effective when the cost of conserved energy (cce) is lower than the price of energy it replaces. [19] seema paul, amit khare and aditya chunekar india.” 9th international conference on energy efficiency in domestic appliances and lighting (eedal): 25. https://international.lbl.gov/publications/assessing-cost-effectiveenergy. california public utilities commission. 2022. "cpuc supports transportation electrification with approval of pg&e vehicle-grid integration pilot programs." accessed may 13, 2022. https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/news-and-updates/allnews/cpuc-supports-transportation-electrification-with-approval-of-pge-vgi-pilots. central electricity authority. 2022. "dashboard." accessed may 13, 2022. https://cea.nic.in/dashboard/?lang=en. energy efficiency services limited. 2022. ujala – energy efficiency services limited. accessed may 13, 2022. https://eeslindia.org/en/ourujala/. garg, vibhuti. 2022. renewables investment trends in india. institute for energy economics and financial analysis. accessed june 17, 2022. https://ieefa.org/sites/default/files/202206/renewables%20investment%20trends%20in%20india-june_2022.pdf. iea. 2016. energy efficiency outlook for india – sizing up the opportunity. “indiaenergyefficiencyoutlook_20161215_final.pdf.” international energy agency. accessed may 13, 2022. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/a27eeef7-b4ef-44f2-b7ca0c85db33d0b7/indiaenergyefficiencyoutlook_20161215_final.pdf. ———. 2021. india energy outlook 2021. international energy agency. access may 13, 2022. https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/1de6d91e-e23f-4e02-b1fb51fdd6283b22/india_energy_outlook_2021.pdf ministry of external affairs. 2021. “national statement by prime minister shri narendra modi at cop26 summit in glasgow.” accessed may 13, 2022. https://www.mea.gov.in/speechesstatements.htm?dtl/34466/national+statement+by+prime+minister+shri+nare ndra+modi+at+cop26+summit+in+glasgow. the indian express. 2022. “india’s peak power supply touches record level of 207gw on friday.” 2022. the indian express, april 29. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indias-peak-power-supply-touchesrecord-level-of-207gw-on-friday-7894174/. the economic times energy world. 2022. “scheduled power cuts in rajasthan from thursday – et energy world.” etenergyworld.com. accessed may 13, 2022. https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/power/scheduledpower-cuts-in-rajasthan-from-thursday/91142488. us energy information administration. 2019. demand-side management programs save energy and reduce peak demand. accessed may 13, 2022. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38872. ———. 2021. india has the opportunity to build a new energy future – news. accessed may 13, 2022. https://www.iea.org/news/india-has-the-opportunity-to-build-anew-energy-future. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 0-0, january 2023 research paper measurement of vulnerability to climate change in char areas: a survey mrinal saikia* and ratul mahanta** abstract: threats caused to the environment and human life by climate change have become an urgent issue. climate change often aggravates hazards in a given area and has harmful effects on the people residing there. affected by massive floods, land erosion, and the destruction of agricultural lands, char people live a risky life. char dwellers are among the communities that suffer the most as a result of the effects of climate change. few studies discuss the vulnerabilities of communities living in char areas to climate change. this paper attempts to summarize the existing research. it also discusses data-related issues in the measurement of vulnerability to climate change. it ends by raising some policyrelated considerations. keywords: char, lvi, lvi-ipcc, cvi, vulnerability index journal of economic literature (jel) classification code: q540, q560 1. introduction vulnerabilities induced by floods and soil erosion render it difficult for char dwellers to make a living1 and cohabitate with the river (lahiri-dutt 2014). floods and sand deposition on cultivable land impact char livelihoods and vulnerability (ashley et al. 2000). char land erosion is highly unpredictable, leading to traumatic shocks to the livelihoods of char dwellers and causing households to lose their land, assets, and shelter (egis 2000; kamal 2011; * phd research scholar, department of economics, gauhati university. mrinalsaikia872@gmail.com. ** professor, department of economics, gauhati university. rmeco@gauhati.ac.in. copyright © saikia and mahanta 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.679 1 char areas are “the new riverine lands and islands created by the continual shifting of the rivers, and emerge from the deposition of sand and silt from upstream. chars are found along all the major river systems, both lining the banks of rivers and as mid-river islands” (dfid 2000, 3). mailto:mrinalsaikia872@gmail.com mailto:rmeco@gauhati.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.679 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal rakiba et al. 2019). in the indian subcontinent, char areas are located in the ganga–brahmaputra–meghna plains (lahiri-dutt 2014). according to lahiri-dutt and samanta (2013), char areas are vastly different from other wetlands; the closest geographical structures to char areas are the mouths of deltas. in north-east india, char areas are spread across the brahmaputra valley of assam, across four agro-climatic zones: the upper brahmaputra valley, north-bank plain zone, middle brahmaputra valley, and lower brahmaputra valley (goa 2002–2003). these unique landforms in assam are affected by several types of natural disasters, making char dwellers one of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in assam (kamal 2011). the intensity of soil formation in the river, and hence, the survival and formation of chars, is influenced by several factors such as riverbank erosion, river flow patterns, soil loss, and floods (goswami 2014; chakraborty 2012/2014). in addition to floods, chars are highly impacted by erosion, which makes the lives and livelihoods of char dwellers uncertain and highly prone to vulnerability (hdr 2014). in the char areas of assam, income opportunities, health and educational facilities, and so on are limited and are further hindered by floods and other climate-driven factors (kumar and das 2019). following the views of birkmann (2013, 29), “environment is the shaper where natural hazards and climate variability originated; it is at the same time an important resource for many people who are highly exposed to these hazards.” natural hazards have detrimental effects on communities and hinder their socio-economic development. climate change, through its effects on natural and human systems, plays a significant role in determining the intensity and frequency of these natural hazards and the risks associated with them (islam et al. 2015a; panthi et al. 2016; simotwo et al. 2018; azam et al. 2019; ipcc 2014). these climate-induced hazards and risks can cause considerable damage to human life and property globally (rakiba et al. 2019). a huge section of the world population lives in earthquake zones, floodplains, riverine islands, and low-lying coastal areas that are inherently risky (lahiri-dutt and samanta 2007). a population’s vulnerability to climate impacts is influenced by local factors that vary with time and space (alam 2017). the study of vulnerability to climate change is important in the context of risk assessment; this need has also been emphasized by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) (2014). climate vulnerability can be studied using two approaches: qualitative and quantitative. measurement or assessment of vulnerability is a quantitative approach to studying vulnerability. assessment of vulnerability is important as it helps identify suitable adaptation techniques (o’brien et al. 2009). quantitative approaches to vulnerability may be either indicatorsaikia and mahanta based or econometric. in indicator-based approaches, an index representing vulnerability is constructed, while in econometric approaches, econometric tools are used. econometric methods are useful for understanding the factors that influence the extent of which climate hazards impact people’s lives and livelihoods and the economic impacts of vulnerability (noy and yonson 2016). a vulnerability index is important for making comparisons across different contexts, monitoring vulnerabilities over space and time, and allocating resources to undertake mitigation and adaptation strategies (preston et al. 2011). it can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of development policy frameworks (eriksen and kelly 2007). as vulnerability is influenced by local factors, several researchers have argued in favour of contextand place-specific assessments of vulnerability (cutter et al. 2003; füssel 2010; fraser et al. 2011; wood et al. 2014; alam 2016; alam 2017). to estimate the extent of vulnerability of char areas, researchers have used a variety of indicator-based methods such as the livelihood vulnerability index (lvi), lvi-ipcc, and climate change vulnerability index (cvi). although several methods have been used to measure vulnerability, there is no consensus on which tool is best to measure vulnerability, specifically in char areas. hence, this paper briefly describes the methods available to measure vulnerability in char areas, discusses various issues related to those methods, and identifies the most suitable method of vulnerability measurement. the paper is divided into six sections. in section 2, a discussion is presented on char areas and how the idea of vulnerability is linked with them. section 3 includes a detailed discussion on the methods used to measure vulnerability to climate change in char areas. section 4 examines the data and the measurement-related issues associated with these methods. section 5 summarizes the results of various quantitative studies on vulnerability in char areas. section 6 concludes the paper. 2. char and vulnerability there are two types of char areas (figure 1): island chars, or mid-river islands, and attached chars, which are connected to riverbanks (goa 1983; lahiri-dutt 2014). the formation of a char at a particular time and in a specific area is highly dependent on varied factors such as the river’s flow pattern, the occurrence of floods, discharge of sediment due to soil loss, and erosion of sand material from the riverbanks (lahiri-dutt 2014). rivers like the ganga and brahmaputra change their courses frequently (lahiridutt 2014); this leads to erosion and the emergence of char lands (sarker et al. 2015). changes in the course of the river, its flow pattern, and the distance of the river from the char all significantly influence the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal permanence of a char (khandakar 2016). changes in the size and location of chars could adversely affect the habitations of char dwellers and the availability of land for agriculture and animal rearing (mondal et al. 2016; das et al. 2020). in assam, char areas result from sedimentation by the river brahmaputra. the brahmaputra is considered the second-most sediment-charged river in the world (chakraborty 2009; hoque 2015). as the river flows, its velocity reduces, as does its capacity to carry sediment (chakraborty 2009). as a result, it deposits silt, which eventually gets covered by vegetation. a socioeconomic survey of char areas in assam estimates that there are 36,092 hectares of char land in assam, occupying approximately 5% of the state’s total geographical area (goa 2002–2003). figure 1: island char and attached char source: lahiri-dutt (2014) the morphology of rivers, the physical characteristics of their geographic locations, and the climate during the monsoons make char areas vulnerable to natural disasters (coleman 1969; baqee 1998; islam et al. 2015a). char dwellers are extremely vulnerable to hazards caused by climate change, such as storm surges, rising salinity, riverbank erosion, floods, irregular rainfall, droughts, hailstorms, water logging, and pest infestations. as water levels rise, saline water enters cultivable land, which drastically reduces fertility. char dwellers live in extreme conditions during floods, which adversely affect their crops, livestock, houses, and other property. char dwellers consider normal floods—which are short, predictable, and low in intensity—as a blessing as they benefit them environmentally and saikia and mahanta economically by making their land more fertile and suitable for cultivation. moreover, researchers describe char areas as lands ripe with possibility for their dwellers (lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013; hoque 2015; lafaye de micheaux et al. 2018). though these lands are risky, unstable, and fragile, they attract the attention of some people, mainly those belonging to marginal communities, since these lands are fertile and suitable for cultivation (lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013). 3. measuring vulnerability in char areas two methods are used to measure vulnerability to climate change in char areas: the econometric approach and the index-based approach. the econometric approach considers factors such as vulnerability as expected poverty (vep), vulnerability as low expected utility (veu), and vulnerability as uninsured exposure to risk (ver). under the indicator-based approach, a number of indices have been developed and used by various researchers. these include the social vulnerability index (sovi) by cutter et al. (2003), another social vulnerability index (svi) by vincent (2004), the vulnerability index by deressa et al. (2008), lvi and lvi-ipcc by hahn et al. (2009), the livelihood effect index (lei) by urothody and larsen (2010), the climate vulnerability index (cvi) by pandey and jha (2012), the social vulnerability index (svi) by ge et al. (2013), the index of social vulnerability by lee (2014), the socio-economic vulnerability index (sevi) by ahsan and warner (2014), and the physical vulnerability to climate change index (pvcci) by feindouno et al. (2020). a considerable number of researchers have studied vulnerability to climate change in char areas. some of these studies are qualitative in nature (egis 2000; ashley et al. 2000; kamal 2011; lahiri-dutt and samanta 2013; chakraborty 2009/2012/2014; islam and hussain 2014; islam et al. 2015b; rakiba et al. 2019); other researchers use quantitative approaches (toufique and yunus 2013; alam et al. 2017; azam et al. 2019; sarker et al. 2019; das et al. 2020; ahmed et al. 2021). econometric methods are widely used to study vulnerability to climate change. however, few studies on char areas use these methods. most studies are qualitative in nature. these researchers draw on descriptive studies, ethnographic research, focus group discussions (fgd), participatory rural appraisals (pra), and rapid rural appraisals (rra), and generate descriptive statistics. a limited number of studies have used indices for quantitative analyses of vulnerability to climate change in char areas (toufique and yunus 2013; alam et al. 2017; azam et al. 2019; sarker et al. 2019; das et al. 2020; ahmed et al. 2021). there are three main indices ecology, economy and society–the insee journal used by researchers: lvi, cvi, and lvi-ipcc. the lvi and lvi-ipcc were developed by hahn et al. (2009) and the cvi is the updated version of the lvi, developed by pandey and jha (2012). this section discusses all three methods. the three indices are based on the ipcc (2001) definition of vulnerability; that is, vulnerability is considered a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. therefore, vulnerability = f (exposure, sensitivity, adaptive capacity) however, it is to be noted that in the ipcc’s (2014) definition on vulnerability, it has removed exposure component from the idea and expressed vulnerability as a function of sensitivity and adaptive capacity only. the lvi aims to quantify the strength of communities’ livelihoods; people’s access to healthcare and water sources; and the capacity of communities to adjust to the threats posed by climate change (hahn et al. 2009). the balanced weight approach is used under the lvi approach to calculate vulnerability; that is, even though each major component includes various subcomponents, each subcomponent contributes equally to the overall lvi. hahn et al. (2009) consider seven major components—social networks, livelihood strategy, socio-demographic profile, access to food, healthcare, and water, and the impact of climate variability and natural disasters. again, each major component has a number of subcomponents. this method is useful in that it allows the addition or subtraction of indicators on the basis of the need and scope for research in any particular area (hahn et al. 2009; pandey and jha 2011; alam et al. 2017). since the subcomponents are measured at different scales, it is important to standardize them using an index. standardization is done as follows: index ya = where ya is the original subcomponent of area ‘a’. ymax and ymin are the maximum and minimum values of each subcomponent, respectively. for variables measuring frequencies, like the percentage of households having access to clean water, the maximum value is considered as 100 and the minimum as 0. after converting the values of the subcomponents into indices, one can derive the value of the major component by taking the average of the subcomponents. saikia and mahanta xa = here, xa is one of the seven major components of area ‘a’. is the ith standardized subcomponent of the respective major component. and ‘n’ represents the number of subcomponents present under the major component. once the seven major components are calculated, lvi can be calculated using the given formula: lvia = where lvia is the livelihood vulnerability index for area ‘a’, a weighted average of all the seven major components, and indicates the number of subcomponents under the zth major component. weights are assigned so that all subcomponents contribute to the overall lvi. the lvi-ipcc is an alternative to the lvi approach. it was developed to calculate the lvi by incorporating the ipcc (2001) definition of vulnerability; in the lvi-ipcc, the seven major components are organized into three dimensions of vulnerability, and the index value of these three dimensions are calculated separately. hence, the lvi-ipcc approach comes one step closer to the ipcc (2001) definition of vulnerability to climate change. in the calculation of lvi-ipcc, the adaptive capacity dimension includes components such as households’ socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, and social networks. sensitivity includes access to health, food, and water; and exposure refers to the occurrence of natural disasters and climate variability in the district. the lvi-ipcc differs from the lvi in its method of calculation. the lvi-ipcc presents the overall index as the difference between the exposure value and the value of adaptive capacity multiplied by the sensitivity index. now, let’s have a look at how the lvi-ipcc is calculated for a district, say ‘a’. da = where da is a dimension of the lvi-ipcc for district ‘a’. are the main components of the ath district indexed by ‘i’. each major component’s weight is defined by and the number of main components under each dimension is defined by ‘n’. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal now, lvi-ipcc can be calculated using the following formula: lvi-ipcca = (ea – ad.ca) * sa where ea is the estimated exposure score of district ‘a’, ad.ca represents the index value of the adaptive capacity of the respective district, and the sensitivity score of the district ‘a’ is denoted by sa. the value of lvi-ipcc varies from −1 to 1. a value closer to 1 indicates a higher state of vulnerability, whereas −1 denotes less vulnerability. the lvi and lviipcc both consider the same major components and use the same method to measure the index value of each major component. the dimensions of the cvi are the same as those of the lvi. each component has relevant subcomponents under it. a conceptual improvement of the cvi over the lvi is that despite measuring vulnerability, the cvi aims to define a society’s capacity to attain a ‘no vulnerability’ status. therefore, methodologically, according to pandey and jha (2011, 497), “the inverse relationship for sensitivity has been considered keeping in view of analysing the per unit strength of the system bearing capability on absolute performance under the climate threats.” based on the three dimensions of vulnerability, the major components have been segregated—adaptive capability includes socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategies, and social networks. the dimension of sensitivity contains the health, food, and water components; and exposure captures the occurrence of natural disasters and climate variability (pandey and jha 2011). the subcomponents can be standardized using the same formula used in the lvi. the index values for exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity are calculated separately, as follows: exp = where exp is the index of exposure. and are considered weights of the indicators, which are the number of subcomponents under the indicators nd and cv, respectively. where sen stands for the index of sensitivity; are the weights; and the number of subcomponents are h, f, and w. the index of adaptive capacity (ada.cap) is calculated as follows: ada.cap = saikia and mahanta where are the weights, which are the number of subcomponents of sd, ls, and sn respectively. the cvi considers an inverse relationship between sensitivity and the ability of a system to perform under climate threats. it explains the capability of a society to attain the status of no vulnerability. the cvi is calculated as follows: cvi = 1 – [{ }]* ni is the number of major components under the ith dimension of the cvi. no number has been assigned to the sensitivity dimension, because its components cancel out each other. the value of the cvi falls within the range of 0 to 1. as it reflects the capability of people to reduce their vulnerability, the higher the value of the cvi, the lower the level of vulnerability, and the smaller the value of the cvi, the greater the level of vulnerability. 4. challanges in measuring vulnerability in the context of riverine islands various methods have been used in the literature to measure vulnerability. some indices are more inclined towards the socio-economic dimension while others emphasize the physical or biophysical aspects of vulnerability. the biophysical aspect covers the sensitivity components of vulnerability, while adaptive capacity covers the socio-economic. however, adaptive capacity and sensitivity are interlinked, and it would not be appropriate to calculate one without mentioning the other (deressa et al. 2008). all three indices, lvi, lvi-ipcc, and cvi, cover both the socio-economic and biophysical aspects of vulnerability. researchers use primary data on social networks, livelihood strategies, socio-demographic profiles; access to food, healthcare, and water; and climate variability and natural disasters to calculate vulnerability indices (toufique and yunus 2013; alam et al. 2017; azam et al. 2019; sarker et al. 2019; das et al. 2020; ahmed et al. 2021). 5. overview of findings from empirical studies on riverine islands india and bangladesh share about 54 transboundary rivers that extensively support the livelihoods of a large number of riverine communities. however, various climate change associated factors, such as the increased frequency of floods, unpredictable changes in the courses of rivers, and a continuous increase in the width of these rivers, are having significant ecology, economy and society–the insee journal adverse effects on the lives and livelihoods of communities (sentinel 2022). sumanta biswas, senior programme officer, cuts international, in an interview, said that along with climate change, deforestation, rising urbanization, and more intensive agricultural practices have adversely affected many rivers in south asia by altering their courses and changing their flow rate (suri 2021). as a result, increased erosion, siltation, and unexpected floods have become common in riverine communities. transboundary river systems* are also under serious stress due to various factors, including the overuse of resources such as newly emerged sandbars for cultivation and sand mining, overfishing, and so on, thus increasing the variability of resources. disruptions in the livelihoods of transboundary riverine communities can be clearly observed at the national and subnational levels; flooding severely affects these regions and excessive rain leads to devastating conditions (suri 2021). alam et al. (2018), in their study on the vulnerability of people living in the char lands of the brahmaputra– jamuna river system of bangladesh, argue that the livelihood strategies of those living on char lands are considerably different from those of people residing on the mainland. the majority of the population is engaged in agriculture, and during the off season, char dwellers also take up non-farm activities. thus, their lives are severely affected by floods and land erosion compared to the people residing in the mainland. the main challenges include seasonal flooding, geographic isolation, and anthropogenic as well as climatic stressors. though riverine communities have adjusted their livelihoods and cropping patterns to observed flooding patterns, due to climate variability, the occurrence of early floods has become a common issue linked to the washing away of crops. bhuiyan et al. (2017) found that massive land erosion is the most significant vulnerability factor among char communities in bangladesh. a study by salam et al. (2019), on char lands in bangladesh, showed that flooding is the main contributor to vulnerability among char dwellers. floods in char lands affect various aspects, including people’s health and habitation, agriculture, economic activities, the availability of clean water sources, and sanitation status. to quantitatively analyse the livelihood vulnerabilities of char communities, three indices—the lvi, lvi-ipcc, and cvi—have been used by different researchers. researchers study vulnerability to climate change in the char areas to compare it to the mainland (toufique and yunus 3013) and to compare island and riverbank chars (alam et al. 2017; das et al. 2020). * the indus, ganges, and brahmaputra are known as the major transboundary river systems of south asia. by providing energy, food, water, and ecosystem services, these river systems across the subcontinent support about 700 crore people (suri 2014). saikia and mahanta studies have also analysed vulnerability to climate change in terms of the distance of the char villages from the administrative headquarters (sarker et al. 2019). this section summarizes the major findings of the research on vulnerability to climate change in char areas using quantitative techniques. many studies report the high vulnerability of char areas. river erosion, floods, and droughts are the major climate-driven risks facing char dwellers, and these events have significant negative effects on char livelihoods, which are primarily based on agriculture (ahmed et al. 2021). char dwellers are highly sensitive and exposed to natural disasters and have a low level of adaptive capacity (azam et al. 2019; ahmed et al. 2021). char communities with a large number of marginalized households are more vulnerable (azam et al. 2019). char dwellers are more vulnerable to climate change compared to inhabitants on the mainland. the major components influencing this difference are social networks, food, and access to water (toufique and yunus 2013). differences in vulnerability are also evident between the island chars and attached chars. alam et al. (2017) found that the inhabitants of island chars are more vulnerable compared to attached ones due to relatively less access to educational, health, and financial institutions, greater exposure to natural disasters, and more limited crop diversification. limited availability of food and water further exacerbate the vulnerability of char areas. healthcare, education, and government services are less available to island char dwellers, making them more vulnerable. again, island chars are more exposed to frequent floods and riverbank erosion compared to attached chars. vulnerability to climate change is also determined by the distance of the char villages from the district headquarters. char villages that are nearer the district administrative headquarters are comparatively less vulnerable than those char villages that are further away due to the latter’s lower access to education, basic public services, healthcare, and financial assets. the latter have comparatively low social capital, making inhabitants of further away chars financially more vulnerable (sarker et al. 2019). 6. conclusion both socio-economic and environmental factors determine social groups’ vulnerability to climate change (deressa et al. 2008). in the discussion on the socio-economic impacts of climate change, vulnerability and adaptive capacity have been gaining importance over the last few years, more specifically, after the ipcc (2001) report on climate change, indicating a growing prioritization of the field of vulnerability research (ahsan and warner, 2014). according to hoddinott and quisumbing (2003), vep and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal veu determine a benchmark of welfare (poverty or utility). the ver model studies both biophysical and socio-economic factors and the impact of these factors on loss of welfare in the form of a reduction in consumption (narayanan and sahu 2016). researchers have used only indicator-based approaches to quantitatively study vulnerability to climate change in char areas. three indices are used: the lvi, lvi-ipcc, and cvi. it is important to note that all the three vulnerability indices are based on the ipcc (2001) definition, where vulnerability to climate change is a function of sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. however, the ipcc (2014) report separates the exposure component from the idea of vulnerability and expresses it as a function of sensitivity and adaptive capacity only. however, even after the reformulation of the concept of vulnerability in the report, later studies on vulnerability to climate change in char areas have continued to use the exposure component as part of the measurement (alam et al. 2017; azam et al. 2019; sarker et al. 2019; das et al. 2020; ahmed et al. 2021) therefore, some adjustments to these indices may be necessary to incorporate the updated idea of vulnerability to climate change. as discussed earlier, the research on vulnerability to climate change in char areas using quantitative approaches employs indicator-based methods; an econometric approach has not yet been applied. however, since both the econometric and indicator-based approaches have advantages, using both in tandem may lead to a better understanding of vulnerability. for instance, an indicator-based approach will facilitate an understanding of the extent of vulnerability to climate change, while an econometric-based approach would help to study the economic impact. declaration: the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. data sharing not applicable—no new data generated: data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data was created or analysed in this study. saikia and mahanta references ahmed, zobaer, gauri s guha, aaron m shew, and monirul gm alam. 2021. “climate change risk perceptions and agricultural adaptation strategies in vulnerable riverine char islands of bangladesh.” land use policy 103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105295. ahsan, nasif, 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https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677018-0096-2. surie, mandakini devasher. 2014. “desecuritizing transboundary water in south asia.” the asian foundation, september 17, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9338-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-015-0833-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0129-1 https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajme.20170304.11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.054 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061623 https://www.sentinelassam.com/topheadlines/livelihoods-along-india-bangladesh-trans-boundary-rivers-in-peril-584771 https://www.sentinelassam.com/topheadlines/livelihoods-along-india-bangladesh-trans-boundary-rivers-in-peril-584771 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677-018-0096-2 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40677-018-0096-2 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal https://asiafoundation.org/2014/09/17/desecuritizing-transboundary-water-insouth-asia/. surie, mandakini devasher. 2021. “valuing water from a transboundary perspective in south asia.” south asia nadi sambad, april 7, 2021. https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-southasia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20rive r%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,subcontinent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and %20ecosystem%20services. toufique, kazi ali, and mohammad yunus. 2013. “vulnerability of livelihoods in the coastal districts of bangladesh.” the bangladesh development studies 36 (1): 95– 120. urothody, ashique and helle overgard larsen. 2010. “measuring climate change vulnerability: a comparison of two indexes.” banko janakari 20: 9–16. https://doi.org/10.3126/banko.v20i1.3503. vincent, katharine. 2004. “creating an index of social vulnerability to climate change for africa.” working paper. tyndall centre for climate change research. wood, stephen a, amir s jina, meha jain, patti kristjanson, and ruth s defries. 2014. “smallholder farmer cropping decisions related to climate variability across multiple regions.” global environmental change 25: 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.011. https://asiafoundation.org/2014/09/17/desecuritizing-transboundary-water-in-south-asia/ https://asiafoundation.org/2014/09/17/desecuritizing-transboundary-water-in-south-asia/ https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-south-asia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20river%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,sub-continent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and%20ecosystem%20services https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-south-asia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20river%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,sub-continent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and%20ecosystem%20services https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-south-asia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20river%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,sub-continent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and%20ecosystem%20services https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-south-asia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20river%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,sub-continent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and%20ecosystem%20services https://soanas.org/valuing-water-from-a-transboundary-perspective-in-south-asia/#:~:text=south%20asia%e2%80%99s%20major%20transboundary%20river%20systems%20%e2%80%94%20the,sub-continent%2c%20providing%20water%2c%20food%2c%20energy%2c%20and%20ecosystem%20services https://doi.org/10.3126/banko.v20i1.3503 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.011 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 15-21 january 2022 commentary crop diversification for sustainable agriculture raj paroda abstract: in india, over the years, the new cropping systems have become predominant in view of their higher productivity as well as income for farmers. examples are rice-wheat cropping system in the north, groundnut in gujarat, sugarcane in the north, chickpea in southern states, arhar in the north-western states, soybean in madhya pradesh and adjoining states, and winter maize in bihar. unfortunately, most of these systems require diversification for greater sustainability and conservation of natural resources. time is ripe now to bring in needed reforms in the existing cropping systems that are more scientifically based and more suited to varying agro-climatic conditions. the possibilities of future crop diversification that can increase farmers’ production as well as income and also ensure conservation agriculture through sustainable intensification are described in this commentary. there is a need for long term planning and development of various strategies for crop diversification in the best national interest. crop diversification, defined as the introduction or addition of new crops to the existing farming system, can occur at the individual farm level or at larger scales. it involves the practice of cultivating more than one variety of crops belonging to the same or different species in a given area through rotations and/or intercropping. it can be one of the most ecologically feasible, cost-effective, and rational ways of reducing uncertainties in agriculture—especially among smallholder farmers (joshi 2005). crop diversification also increases resilience, is more agronomically stable, and ensures greater spatial and temporal biodiversity in farms (holling 1973; joshi 2005). the resilience is due to factors such as reduced weed and insect pressures, less reliance on nitrogen fertilizers (especially if the crop mix includes leguminous crops), reduced erosion (because of the inclusion of  chairman, trust for advancement of agriculture, raj.paroda@gmail.com copyright © paroda 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by–nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.611 mailto:raj.paroda@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.611 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] cover crops), and increased soil fertility and yield per unit area (lin 2011). diversification can also enhance climate resilience (economic survey 2019– 20) and conservation of natural resources (soil, water, and biodiversity) by replacing more exploitative approaches and focusing production systems on regenerative agriculture. traditionally, prior to the green revolution, agriculture was more diversified and sustainable when it came to crops and livestock, with silvipastoral systems and agroforestry approaches working with animal-based farming systems (paroda 2019). scientific advancements and options for improved varieties and new crops led to a shift towards a few crops having the potential to yield more and provide a higher income. such an approach eventually narrowed down dependence to just a few crops like wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, etc. returning to higher crop diversification could contribute to all three main principles of climate-smart agriculture (csa): improving productivity and livelihood outcomes, increasing the resilience and sustainability of farming systems, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. additionally, crop diversification has a positive impact on climate change due to increased carbon sequestration. crop diversification has helped attain more sustainable agriculture in other parts of the world. for example, the most sustainable cropping system accounts for 38% and 35% of maize and soybean production in the us, respectively, producing around 360.25 and 120.56 mt in 2020. over 85% is produced in the north-central region known as the “corn belt”, where twoyear maize–soybean rotation is the dominant cropping system (grassini et al. 2015). israel, once the world’s leading fresh citrus producer and exporter, now grows more than 40 types of fruits including avocados, bananas, olives, apples, cherries, figs, plums, grapes, dates, strawberries, prickly pears, persimmons, loquats, and pomegranates. the fruit crops have eventually replaced wheat and cotton. similarly, several varieties of dates were tried in coachella valley in california, but ‘deglet noor’, an algerian variety, became most popular, covering approximately 90% of the area under date cultivation in california today. in the green revolution era (1967–68 to 1977–78), the major focus was on cereals (mainly rice and wheat). over the years since then, fortunately, our food basket has started to diversify again, although more progress still needs to happen. the pattern of cropping has shifted mainly to more profitable crops like pulses, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane, vegetables, fruits, and spices. at the state level, andhra pradesh, maharashtra, and gujarat seem to have the highest crop diversification followed by west bengal, bihar, and karnataka. most of the other states, especially odisha, madhya [17] raj paroda pradesh, and the north-eastern states, are still confined to a few traditional crops. there are two main types of agricultural diversification prominent in india: i) horizontal diversification (multiple cropping or mixing of crops instead of growing a single crop), and ii) vertical diversification (incorporation of industrialization along with multiple cropping, wherein farmers invest in supplemental activities like horticulture, agroforestry, livestock rearing, culture of aromatic plants, etc.). today, with regional diversification patterns, there is still a predominance of rice–wheat cropping systems in punjab, haryana, and uttar pradesh; groundnut in gujarat; sugarcane in the north (mainly due to the nobilization of sugarcane by transferring both drought and disease tolerance from saccharum spontaneum); chickpea in south india (due to the breeding of short duration varieties); pigeonpea (cajanus cajan) in north-western states like haryana, punjab, rajasthan, and gujarat (due to early maturing varieties [120 days]); soybean in madhya pradesh and adjoining states; and winter maize in bihar with very high productivity (>7.0 tons/ha). despite these dominant crops, there are still opportunities for shifting areas to short-duration varieties of chickpea (cicer arietinum) in non-traditional areas of andhra pradesh, bihar, tamil nadu, and karnataka; mixed cropping of urd bean (vigna mungo), mung bean (vigna radiata), and pigeonpea in central and peninsular regions; introduction of short-duration pigeonpea in gujarat, rajasthan, haryana, and punjab; and lentils (lens culinaris), mustard (brassicaspp), and peas (pisum sativum) in rice fallows in bihar, west bengal, odisha, assam, and some of the north-eastern states. currently, we are short of pulses in the country, and to achieve additional production, there is a need to breed and promote short-duration (less than 110 days) pigeonpea hybrids for the north-western region and improved varieties of soybean and kabuli chickpea for the north-western region; popularize improved short-duration, disease-resistant varieties of mung bean to fit rice–wheat cropping systems during summers in the north; and promote urd bean in rice fallows in the coastal regions of andhra pradesh, odisha, and west bengal. the decline in the production of sorghum and pearl millet is largely due to changes in dietary habits, low yields, and shifting of areas towards more remunerative crops such as cotton, soybean, wheat, oilseeds, and pulses. though farmers have been cultivating sorghum (both in kharif and rabi) and pearl millet in rainfed areas, their production has been highly volatile largely due to low and erratic rainfall (paroda 2006; 2018). these changes from traditionally grown, less remunerative crops to more productive crops that are ideally suited to some geo-climatic, socioecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] economic, and technological options have invariably been gradual. however, it primarily accelerated after india’s independence (1947) when cradles of success such as policy support, good institutions, human resources, and infrastructure were put in place. the current challenge is to breed early hybrids to replace hhb67 in the very dry region (a1 zone) in rajasthan, and varieties/hybrids of rabi sorghum to replace the predominantly cultivated older variety, “maldandi”, in maharashtra. introducing quality protein maize (qpm) hybrids suited to different agro-climatic zones, and improving coverage of the area under single cross maize hybrids, will further enhance maize production. for future diversification, pseudocereals (grain amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa), legumes (rice bean, faba bean, adzuki bean, and moth bean), and small millets (finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, little millet, barnyard millet, and kodo millet) having high nutritional value and niche for high drought and heat tolerance have considerable potential. soybean, popular in madhya pradesh and maharashtra, has the potential to replace rice to some extent in north india. there is a need to promote the cultivation of specific crops in new niches to harness their maximum genetic potential (paroda 2019). past experiences have amply demonstrated that expansion of crops in nontraditional, newer areas can lead to more rapid progress in diversification due to faster adoption of full technological packages without any preexisting prejudices from traditional practices. some good examples of this are puddled rice in north india, use of wide permanent rows for groundnut planting in gujarat, cultivation of soybean in madhya pradesh, rabi maize in bihar, etc. such an approach is most beneficial when it is based on scientific land-use practices. other good examples of diversification are hybrid rice in eastern india, soybean in the eastern and north-eastern regions, and, to some extent, sunflowers in north india. after brazil, india is the second-largest producer of sugarcane in the world. it has the best r&d infrastructure and is known globally for nobilization of sugarcane resulting in short-duration, drought and disease-tolerant varieties, which enabled its spread to central, northern, and western india. earlier, productivity in uttar pradesh, haryana, punjab, and maharashtra was even lesser than the national average despite the availability of good varieties and production technologies. with increasing area under a new variety (co238), the scenario for productivity and sugar recovery has changed significantly. the yield potential of maize can also be enhanced significantly by bringing more area under single cross hybrids that [19] raj paroda are high yielding. its extension to eastern uttar pradesh, bihar, jharkhand, and west bengal is already taking place (paroda 2019). crop diversification largely depends on technological innovations aimed at sustainable intensification and increased productivity while reducing the cost of inputs so as to raise the income of farmers. the dynamic aspect of diversification includes the accommodation of new crops or cropping systems that are best suited to prevailing eco-regional conditions while ensuring higher production and income. by growing a variety of crops, farmers lower their risk and can gain access to national and international markets. agricultural intensification has helped us achieve food security in the past, but now we need to reorient existing cropping systems to be more sustainable and to continue addressing our household food, nutrition, and environmental security. it is necessary to develop a shared conceptual understanding of diversification. often, terms such as diversity, diversification, crop rotation, and mixed cropping are used interchangeably, preventing generalization of results. the crop diversification approach provides information on (i) problem definition, (ii) baseline definition, (iii) scale definition, (iv) characterization of the experimental design including a minimum set of target variables, and (v) defining the impact systematically to assess and report the effects of the diversification measures. the main challenges facing agricultural diversification are land degradation, a decline in soil health, groundwater depletion, environmental pollution, and a decline in total factor productivity. these constraints must be addressed if existing cropping systems are to be made both more sustainable and remunerative for farmers. farmers need to be continuously motivated and encouraged to pursue crop diversification for better sustainability as well as income and employment opportunities. given that an accelerated pace of diversification will have positive impacts on income, employment, conservation, and use of natural resources, there is a need for increased investment in r&d and scaling of innovations linked to sustainable farming systems that are best suited to varying agro-ecologies. however, while adopting crop diversification, cultivators must ensure that it does not adversely affect the existing environmental balance concerning available natural resources. for crop diversification, future strategies must aim at: i) horizontal approaches that integrate crop intensification and crop substitution with species that are most suited to specific eco-regions; ii) vertical approaches for enhancing productivity using genome editing and good agronomic ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] practices (gap) aimed at judicious use and increased efficiency of costly inputs such as water, energy, fertilizers, and pesticides; iii) post-harvest processing, value addition, branding, packaging, etc. to enhance income; iv) water-use efficiency through micro-irrigation, especially in drylands; v) varietal diversification introducing both high-yielding varieties and hybrids for higher productivity; vi) incorporation of legumes; vii) large-scale adoption of integrated pest management; and viii) risk management through inter-cropping and mixed cropping, a shift towards low-volume high-value crops, and mixed farming. such an approach would require scaling of innovations to improve resource-use efficiency through appropriate policies and programmes. in this context, scientific land-use planning so far has been a weak link. fortunately, vast opportunities in unexplored frontiers of science exist with potential for new gains from the application of science, technology, and innovation (sti) for sustainable agricultural growth and development. there is a need for further diversification around local food systems, as has been emphasized by the un food systems summit held in september 2021 and the second international agrobiodiversity congress (iac) organized in october 2021. covid-19 has further highlighted this particular requirement for crop diversification for greater sustainability of agricultural production systems, as well as for household nutrition security and improved health and immunity. required actions include: i) ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all; ii) shifting to sustainable consumption patterns; iii) boosting nature-positive, eco-region-specific production; iv) advancing equitable livelihoods; and v) building resilience against vulnerabilities, shocks, and stress. india needs the right mix of policies, moving from subsidy-driven to investment-driven, from price-focused to income-focused, and from exploitative to sustainable agricultural diversification around more nutritious food. it also needs to incentivize the private sector, especially young entrepreneurs, to build efficient and inclusive value chains for farmers’ prosperity, giving due importance to environmental sustainability. references economic survey. 2019–20. “economic survey 2019–20 – volume 1 (january 2020).” new delhi: department of economic affairs, ministry of finance, government of india. [21] raj paroda grassini, patricio, james e specht, matthijs tollenaar, and ignacio ciampitti. 2015. “high-yield maize–soybean cropping systems in the us corn belt.” crop physiology: 17–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-417104-6.00002-9 holling, crawford stanley. 1973. “resilience and stability of ecological systems.” annual review of ecological systems 4 (1):1–23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245 joshi, p. 2005. “crop diversification in india: nature, pattern and drivers.” new delhi, india: asian development bank. lin, brenda b. 2011. “resilience in agriculture through crop diversification: adaptive management for environmental change.” bioscience 61 (3): 183–193. https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.4 paroda, rs. 2006. “strategy for increasing productivity growth rate in agriculture.” strategy paper for the planning commission, government of india for the proposed draft xi five-year plan (submitted on 12th july 2006). new delhi: trust for advancement of agricultural sciences. paroda, rs. 2018. “reorienting indian agriculture: challenges and opportunities.” oxfordshire: centre for agriculture and bioscience international (cabi). https://doi.org/10.1079/9781786395177.0000 paroda, rs. 2019. “report on policies and action plans for a secure and sustainable agriculture.” new delhi: committee report submitted to the principal scientific adviser to the government of india. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-417104-6.00002-9 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245 https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.3.4 https://doi.org/10.1079/9781786395177.0000 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 4 (1): 71–88, january 2021 special section: the commons: a revisit the economics of common pool resources: a review bhim adhikari  abstract: the paper analyses open access and common property resource systems drawing insights from new institutional economics, especially property rights theory and policy analysis. this analysis of common pool resources (cprs) under common property regimes indicates that local communities devise formal and informal institutions in managing the local commons. the paper further discusses how n. s. jodha‟s empirical work on the economics of cprs has enhanced our understanding of the role of cprs in the livelihood strategies of the poor in the developing world. devolution of authority to local resource users is emphasized as an institutional imperative in designing appropriate forms of governance structures for cpr management. keywords: common pool resources; institutions; collective action; resource users; economics. 1. introduction in the late 1980s, there was a strong push to protect common pool resources (cprs) in developing countries because of their impact on local livelihoods, local-level economic development, and biodiversity conservation. transferring resource management authority to local communities was a major policy thrust in cpr management in areas such as water resource management (especially irrigation), forests, rangelands, fisheries, and other village commons (meinzen-dick and knox 1999). these changes aligned with the shift from centralized economic planning toward a reduction in governmental intervention and control of the economy accompanied by increased democratization (agrawal and gibson  international development research centre (idrc), 150 kent street, ottawa, k1g3h9, on canada; badhikari@idrc.ca. copyright © adhikari 2021. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.377 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i1.377 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] 1999). many governments, international agencies, and non-governmental organizations have increasingly accepted the institutional imperative of devolving greater power to village communities in managing the local commons (agarwal 2001). establishing well-defined property rights over these resources is considered a cornerstone in generating incentives for internalizing externalities in the management of cprs. scholars have highlighted several underlying factors for environmental degradation: market failures (externalities), government failures (environment adverse policies), population growth, and property rights failures (gordon 1954; scott 1955; hardon 1968; ostrom 1990; pearce and turner 1990; ostrom 1999). market failure broadly refers to conditions under which the free market does not produce optimal welfare. important examples of such failures include external effects (externalities), public goods and cpr problems, poorly defined property rights, noncompetitive markets, and imperfect (or asymmetric) information, to name a few. policy failure occurs either when the state fails to take action to correct market failures or when policies further distort prices and act as disincentives for sustainable natural resource management (davies and richards 1999). common examples include forest nationalization without an adequate institutional arrangement, insufficient knowledge and recognition of traditional management institutions, undervaluation of the price of ecological services, adverse land tenure policies, and perverse incentives that lead to the over-exploitation of cprs. commons scholars, therefore, advocate for an appropriate property rights structure as cprs are characterized by a range of pervasive market and policy failures. in the absence of well-defined property rights or in conditions of open access, individual rational behaviours often result in collective irrational behaviours (ostrom 1999). three different schools of thought have been proposed as potential solutions for managing the commons and avoiding the “tragedy of the commons” situation. in the first solution, the property rights school argues that only creating and enforcing private property rights can help prevent the over-exploitation of the commons. the main thesis is that private property is the most efficient way to internalize the externalities associated with resource use and consumption. an open access, unregulated common pool regime does not give individuals the proper incentives to act in a socially efficient way (baland and platteau 1996). thus, the property rights school contends that private property rights will immediately increase economic efficiency (demsetz 1967). the second option involves the allocation of full authority to an external agency to regulate the cprs. since the main goal of managing natural resources is maximizing long-term economic rent, until [73] bhim adhikari recently, many scholars believed that community-based management generated little or no rent. therefore, scholars have long questioned the efficiency of cprs under common property arrangements (gordon 1954; scott 1955); solutions such as state control and management (hardin 1968) and privatization of the commons (demsetz 1964) have been proposed. the third possibility is that local communities manage cprs. communities not only understand the problems well, but they also create solutions to them since their livelihoods depend on these resources. they will have greater incentives to manage these resources sustainably over time. historical and contemporary evidence shows that resource users often create institutional arrangements and management regimes that help them allocate benefits equitably over a long period and with only limited efficiency losses (mckean 1992; ostrom 1992). privatizing cprs may cause distributional problems or ecological concerns that lead to the reoccurrence of negative externalities because of imperfect or absent markets. moreover, in some ecological settings, the transaction costs associated with assigning private property rights are greater than the potential benefits to be derived due to the spatial scale involved. an increasing number of scholars, therefore, advocate for decentralized collective management of cprs by their users (ostrom 1990; berkes 1989; wade 1988; jodha 1986; baland and platteau 1996). in recent years, resource management under a common property regime has emerged a major policy agenda in land reform; land titling; conservation of forest, grazing, and wildlife resources; fisheries management; water management, and so on. according to a report by the food and agriculture organization (fao), in the 62 countries assessed across the world, 732 million hectares (about 28% of forests) are currently managed under a community forestry system or common property regime (fao 2016). 2. conceptual foundation for cprs under common property regimes in an economic sense, it is difficult to manage cprs at the individual or household level because of their spatial scale as well as the externalities involved. externalities occur as a result of both consumption and production activities; they cause market failures, which in turn lead to suboptimal resource allocation. open access cprs will eventually cease to be sustainable or optimal because of the temptation to free ride (ostrom 1999). free riding and other mechanisms that lead to the undersupply of public goods may also cause the overuse of cprs unless institutions are strong enough to limit access to their users. under these conditions, it is ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] difficult to assign rewards and punishments that provide individuals with incentives that ensure their contribution towards the management of environmental resources. the assurance problem in cpr management suggests that interdependent choice creates incentives to establish and maintain institutions that coordinate expectations based on rules of fair-mindedness (runge 1984). common property institutions are generally able to tackle the assurance problem and make resource users confident that their efforts will be reciprocated by other users and therefore will be privately optimal in the long run. cprs are like public goods in the sense that it is difficult to exclude anyone from their use and they are subtractable. however, it is possible to create defined user groups for the utilization of cprs to avoid free riding. in fact, evidence suggests that such options are even better than state or private property solutions, as compliance with these institutional arrangements is higher as they are devised by community members. many early scholars have also emphasized the effectiveness of local management institutions as basic units from which one can build efficient cpr management systems. gibbs and bromley (1989) demonstrated that a well-functioning common property regime will probably be distinguished by i) a shared perception of fairness among the members with respect to inputs and outcomes, i.e., the regime will be equitable; ii) a minimum (or absence) of disputes and limited effort necessary to maintain compliance, i.e., the regime will be efficient; iii) a capacity to cope with progressive changes through adaptation, such as the arrival of new production techniques, i.e., the regime will be stable; and iii) a capacity to accommodate surprise or sudden shocks, i.e., the regime will be resilient. (1989, 22–32) combining these economic, social, and ecological dimensions of cprs is, therefore, critical for the performance of a resource under common property arrangements. economic measures focus on the extent to which the best economic outcome is produced through a combination of inputs at the lowest cost (hanna, folke, and maler 1995). a broader economic measure of performance would also consider an economic outcome that accounts for the depleting and damaging effects of resource use (daly and cobb 1989). social measures of performance focus on the equity properties of the regime and reflect social definitions of fairness in the distribution of benefits and costs across beneficiaries (hanna et al. 1995). ecological performance deals with the context in which stocks of natural capital are maintained over time (costanza 2003). the failure of cpr institutions to incorporate the diverse interests and values of stakeholders is often reported to be one of the main constraints [75] bhim adhikari for equity and efficiency in a common property regime (hanna et al. 1995). effective management of cprs requires the compliance of resource users. a good resource management process must represent the range of user group interests and have a clear purpose and transparent operations to be equitable. the extent to which participants‟ expectations are homogenous, with respect to the process and its objectives, influences perceptions of fairness and, consequently, the equity and efficiency of management regimes (hanna et al. 1995). hence, there is a need to understand cpr management from a structural perspective to maximize the equity and efficiency of collective action arrangements. ostrom (1990) formulated eight design principles for cpr management that she considered prerequisites for the success of local institutions. these principles include clearly defined boundaries; congruence between appropriation and provision rules and local conditions; collective choice arrangements; monitoring; graduated sanctions; conflict-resolving mechanisms; minimal recognition of rights to organize; and nested enterprises. clear boundaries and the exclusion of outsiders is one of the most important preconditions for any kind of community-based resource management (condition 1). there is also is a need to recognize that resource exploiting rules that are appropriate in one setting may be inappropriate in another (condition 2). resource users should be able to participate in modifying the operational rules of the common property regime (condition 3). the remaining design principles concern the internal “sociology” of decision-making and focus on democracy, legitimacy, and institutional effectiveness. ostrom later elaborated on the attributes of resources and resource-using communities for self-governing associations to be formed. resource attributes include the possibility of feasible improvement of the resource, availability of reliable and valid indicators of the condition of the resource system, predictability, and sufficiently small spatial extent for the appropriators to have knowledge of external boundaries. attributes of user groups include an awareness of the salience of the resource, common understanding, low discount rate, trust and reciprocity, autonomy, and prior organizational experience and leadership. researchers later proposed two additional variables: the cost–benefit aspect of resource management and historical inequalities within households, which may create incentives or disincentives for the management of commons at the local level (sekher 2001). design principles focus primarily on internal and external variables, such as the key attributes of the resource and community, but not on household socio-economic characteristics in a dynamic context, giving less attention to the distributional inequality inherent in property rights ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] transformation (adhikari 2005; 2008). cox et al. (2010) examined the validity of the design principles and assessed if they are inherently part of a blueprint approach to cpr management. they concluded that the design principles, although not complete, are empirically well supported. the general conclusions from these studies show that local user groups are instrumental in determining the rules for the allocation of resources between different users in a way that the users themselves deem equitable (meinzen-dick and knox 1999). 3. equity and distributional implications of common property regimes: some lessons participatory approaches to natural resource management have received much attention following the rio earth summit, which established that resource users have the greatest stake in the sustainability of resources and institutions (world bank 1996; dearden, carter, kowalski, and surridge 1999; agrawal 2001). governments in more than 50 countries have already ceded some control over resources to local users (agrawal 2000). the fao actively supports community forestry (cf) in several countries through its forests, trees and people program. in nepal, community forestry started in the late 1970s, when national forests were handed over to the local community. this programme was certainly one of the most important attempts to convert open access forests to common property by devolving ownership and control of forests to their historic users. forest user groups (fugs) were granted usufruct rights to forests. similarly, joint forest management (jfm) was initiated in india in the late 1990s to involve local people in forest management. jfm, in which communities have access to non-timber forest products (ntfps) as well as a share of timber products, is being increasingly applied in many states of india. chopra and dasgupta (2002) explored the cpr–poverty relationship in india and found that cprs play an important role as a safety net for the poor. the devolution of cpr management enhances environmental outcomes and empowers community members in india in the context of forestry, irrigation, and wildlife management (shyamsundar 2008). in southeast asia (e.g., cambodia, philippines, thailand, and vietnam), partnerships between local communities and the government are instrumental in protecting and regenerating degraded forests while meeting people‟s needs in a sustainable manner. despite these successes, research shows that the socio-economic and livelihood implications of common property regimes are mixed (soussan et al. 1998; malla 2000; branney and yadav 1998; richards, kanel, maharjan, [77] bhim adhikari and davies 1999), particularly the distributional aspects of common property regimes within communities (adhikari, di falco, and lovett 2004; adhikari 2005). some empirical studies found that formalized systems of property rights have led to the gradual but systematic exclusion of the poor from cprs (beck and nesmith 2001). the structured form of common property arrangements is not always inclusive and equitable compared to traditional institutions (hobley and wollenberg 1996). for example, cooke (2000) found that the imposition of common property management institutions in villages in nepal resulted in a reduction in the consumption of key products from forests and questioned whether significant welfare gains were generated after the institutional change. common property research has so far largely focused on the institutional arrangements by which communities act collectively (saxena 2000); the decisions and actions of individuals have been given less attention. in the context of participatory forest management in south asia, there is a tendency to assess impact in terms of biophysical and institutional changes rather than the effect on villagers‟ livelihoods (das 2000). for example, adhikari (2005) found that the cf programme in nepal was primarily motivated by the timber and intermediate forest products oriented management regime that can be utilized by households with large land and livestock holdings, consequently marginalizing poorer households whose livelihoods depend on ntfps. while this does not suggest that the benefits generated by intermediate forest products do not support the poor, the assumption is that ntfps and cash-oriented management regimes prompt poorer people to participate in and benefit from collective action. other studies suggest that well-off group members, such as with larger land and cattle ownership, are often likely to gain a larger share of benefits from a resource than those who are worse off (agrawal 2001). davies and richards (1999) conducted an extensive review of economic analyses of communitybased forest management to understand stakeholders‟ incentives for participatory forest management. they concluded that most of these studies tend to be biased towards i) reviewing valuation studies as opposed to providing clear methodological guidance; ii) non-market valuation for global and national stakeholders as opposed to adding marketable value for local stakeholders; iii) benefits in general as opposed to ones such as transaction costs; iv) ex ante studies for project preparation as opposed to ex post monitoring and impact analyses; v) treating forestry as a separate enterprise as opposed to adopting a more holistic livelihood focus; vi) efficiency and profitability as opposed to equity, gender, and institutional issues; and vii) returns to land and capital as opposed to returns to labour. the major concerns revolved around the real costs and benefits of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] participation and how they are distributed among various actors (hobley and wollenberg 1996). a large body of literature has demonstrated the success of common property regimes in conserving local resources (wade 1988; berkes 1989; ostrom 1990; berkes and folke 1998). early research efforts, however, mainly focused on the rules, mechanisms, and institutions that rural communities adopted in managing cprs, without examining the distributional implications of these institutions. it is commonly assumed that, under common property armaments, local communities are capable of collectively managing resources and ensuring egalitarian access and distribution of benefits among their co-owners (appasamy and menon 2000). many of these studies focus on communities as opposed to households, and the stated objectives of inter-household equity were often not met (meinzen-dick and knox 1999). meinzen-dick and knox (1999) argue that common property resources have not always been used efficiently, nor have the benefits been equitably distributed. in many cases, common property regimes have failed to recognize that resources often have multiple uses and that there tend to be sub-groups of users with different use patterns. several past studies explored the institutional arrangements for managing the commons at the local level (nugent 1993; uphoff 1993). significant studies have identified key variables that support the self-organization of user groups for participatory resource management, such as the physical and technical attributes of the resource, characteristics of user groups, and attributes of institutional arrangements (wade, 1988; bromley and cernea 1989; ostrom 1990; oakerson 1992; tang 1992; bardhan 1993; nugent 1993). some efforts have also been made to empirically examine the conditions under which user groups organize and the impact of such local organizational presence on the management of cprs (pender and scherr 1999; meinzen-dick, raju, and gulati 2000). another recent area of research focus is the contested role of group heterogeneity and the performance of collective action. this body of literature has initiated a discussion on whether socio-economic inequalities among resource users hinder or enhance the performance of collective action (bardhan and dayton-johnson 2000; baland and platteau 1996;1999; varughese and ostrom 2001). one group of studies argue that cooperative solutions for the management of cprs may be difficult to implement in an economy with highly heterogeneous agents. asset inequality within a community makes the implementation of collective action more difficult since higher income and asset endowments make some sections of the community more productive in terms of resource utilization as well as influential in the [79] bhim adhikari sphere of public decision-making; this may undermine the equity property of cpr institutions. for example, chopra, kadekodi, and murthy (1990) found that endowments of cultivable land, cattle, and machines and harvesting tools determined household use of cfs and grazing lands in india. the very notion of a single, identifiable “community” for “community-based resource management” may be a fallacy when users are from diverse social backgrounds and while varied socio-economic positions often result in diversified interests in resource management. much of the rhetorical weight of community comes from papering over differences that usually prevail within existing communities; such homogeneity help enhance cooperative efforts, reduce hierarchical and conflictual interactions, and promote better resource management (agrawal and gibson 1999). nonetheless, quite a few studies that explore cpr management at the local level recognize that there are different subgroups, and within these subgroups, there are individuals with varying preferences for resource use and management (kant 2000). a high degree of heterogeneity within communities may hinder collective action due to the presence of different interests in resource management, which substantially increase the transaction costs of coordination. moreover, in heterogeneous societies, members often have a lower level of trust in each other, giving rise to higher transaction costs. zak and knack (2001) posit that heterogeneous societies, especially those with weak formal and informal institutions, have lower trust levels and slower economic performance that less heterogeneous societies with higher trust levels. the transaction costs of resource management reduce with an increase in the level of trust levels between actors and institutions that provide incentives for lasting cooperation. transaction costs may be significantly higher in communities with a high level of socio-economic differentiation. in such communities, a failure to address complex social factors such as institutional and political realities, gender issues, caste differences, and economic disparities may lead to inequitable access to the resource base and result in social conflicts. inequality in power, for example, may mean that equal division would be unacceptable to the powerful, while any other distribution may be subject to conflict. as somanathan, prabhakar, and mehta (2002, 2) point out, “heterogeneity removes a natural focal point for agreements, and, simultaneously makes one subgroup uncertain about other group‟s preferences, thus making agreement less likely as each group tries to drive a hard bargain, one that may be unacceptable to the other groups”. runge (1986) shows that greater heterogeneity in a community makes cooperation more difficult because it increases the costs of working together. ghate (2008) also highlighted how social stratification and ethnic ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] heterogeneity in indian villages matter with reference to jfm. mukhopadhyay (2008) explored the impact of heterogeneity on asset ownership and cooperation in the context of agrarian transitions in goa, india, and offers several insights to ensure the sustainability of village commons. olson (1965) suggests that in a heterogeneous group, a dominant member who enjoys a large part of the benefits from collective action is likely to ensure its provision even if they have to pay all of the costs themselves, with the smaller players free riding on the former‟s contribution. thus, olson holds that inequality may favour collective action. in a similar vein, ostrom (1992) claims that heterogeneity in asset structure can favour collective action, especially where there is a need for leadership and entrepreneurship. however, despite impressive advances in our understanding of the impact of institutional form on the performance of commons-using communities, the role of socio-economic heterogeneity and its impact on collective action and equity of resource distribution are still under-researched. dasgupta (2008) offers several underlying theoretical insights on the management of cprs under common property regimes and warns us by presenting both the pros and cons of collective relationships. despite common property regimes having some weaknesses, evidence of successful self-governance of natural resources by users has engendered considerable optimism that turning responsibility over to organized user groups will improve the efficiency, equity, and sustainability of the resource base. the devolution of power engenders a deep sense of ownership over natural resources and creates incentives for investment in management. there have been significant advancements in commons research over the past two decades. policy interventions in many countries are geared towards crafting mechanisms and procedures to represent disadvantaged groups in decision-making and to support local livelihoods through more scientific methods in the management of cprs. 4. concluding remarks this review demonstrates that the absence of well-defined property rights results in open access to the resource system that is unregulated and free to everyone interested in resource appropriation and exploitation. rent completely dissipates under an open access equilibrium. there is an overuse of resources that results from resource users ignoring the effects of their consumption on the costs that other users bear. similarly, there is also overuse resulting from users ignoring the effect that their consumption in the present year will have on the costs they will face in the following years. [81] bhim adhikari on the supply side, open access cprs are like public goods. individuals cannot enjoy the benefits of their investments in these resources, and as a result, investments are inefficiently low, resources are misallocated, and there is under-investment in information to resource users (wallace 1981). since individual interests are unlikely to lead to the sustainable management of cprs in an open access condition, institutional arrangements for resource management must be designed in such a way that they ensure long-term incentives for the individual resource user. the review has highlighted that economic gains from the community-based system of resource management are among the most important factors contributing to the success of collective action. scholars unequivocally emphasize that these gains (institutional change) should be distributed among all user groups in a manner that benefits everyone. the economics of cprs have advanced quite a bit since the late nineties. dr jodha‟s contribution to this line of scholarly enquiry is commendable as he was one of the pioneers of cpr research in relation to rural poverty and the management of village commons in south asia. jodha‟s (1986) study of 80 villages in 21 districts in india demonstrates the importance of cprs for rural livelihoods (e.g., 15–25% of the total income of poorer households comes from collection and gathering activities). his work also offers ample evidence of extensive use of cprs by rural households for key economic activities such as consumption, production, and asset formation. his work emphasizes the need for the provision of equal opportunities in all aspects of cpr management and decision-making processes as well as in sharing costs and benefits. as a strong researcher and practitioner, he advocated for the right policy intervention in managing local commons by creating a set of synergies such that different sections of the community can benefit from common property resources management. the relationship between resource degradation and cprs is another dimension of jodha‟s work (jodha 1985a; 1986; 1990; 1995). some early studies on the poverty–environment nexus demonstrate the empirical linkages between population growth and resource degradation (jain 1988; mabogunje 2001). another stream of literature explores the dependency of both poorer and better off households on local commons, and some of these studies report a higher degree of reliance among poor community members on cprs (chambers 1994). these studies establish that poverty is among the principal sources of environmental damage across countries (masron and subramaniam 2019). jodha (1995; 1985b) demonstrates that although poorer households are relatively more dependent on these resources (if there are fewer restraints imposed by local management institutions), the better-off sections of society appropriate more benefits https://www.tandfonline.com/author/mabogunje%2c+akin+l mailto:masron%20school%20of%20management,%20universiti%20sains%20malaysia,%20penang,%20malaysiacorrespondencetams@usm.my https://www.tandfonline.com/author/subramaniam%2c+yogeeswari ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] from the commons. further, he convincingly shows that these communities can limit the overuse of resources for subsistence and use cprs as an insurance mechanism. a few years prior to elinor ostrom‟s famous book governing the commons (1990), jodha had already made the case that decentralized collective management by local users could be an appropriate system for addressing the over-exploitation of cprs (jodha 1986). jodha (1997) demonstrates how changes in institutional arrangements, such as the legal status of cprs, contributed to the decline of cprs in india. consistent with the theoretical insights presented earlier, jodha‟s work reminds us that the management of cprs is influenced by a the local socioeconomic, legal, political, cultural, and ecological variables of the community within which it operates. because of the enormous variability in the resource base, socio-economic conditions, and history of cooperation, no single blueprint is appropriate for all situations. to this end, jodha‟s (1992) work describes the key role of donors in sensitizing national agencies to the importance of cprs and supporting policies that enforce local institutional arrangements. policy insights emanating from jodha‟s work help inform forest policy–related legislations in south asia and elsewhere. many of these policy changes have stipulated a strategy to hand over the authority to conserve and use forest resources to local people; this engenders a deep sense of ownership over forests and creates incentives for investment in forest management. jodha‟s work rightfully emphasizes the importance of capacity building among various stakeholders involved in common property management, such as forest officials, ngos, and the local community, which would facilitate a forward-looking and anticipatory approach to forest management (jodha 2000). jodha (2008) offers several useful policy insights for managing cprs in south asia, especially in situations where there has been a rapid disintegration of the community‟s collective stake in the village commons. in a nutshell, jodha‟s work has contributed immensely to the economics-related and institutional aspects of cpr management and poverty alleviation in south asia. references adhikari, b. 2005. “poverty, property rights and collective action: understanding the distributive aspects of common property resource management.” environment and development economics 10: 7–31. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355770x04001755 adhikari, b. 2008. “is cooperation costly with diverse economic agents?” in promise, trust and evolution: managing commons in south asia, edited by n. s. jodha, r. ghate, and p. mukhopadhyay, 238-259. new york: oxford university press. 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opportunities with diminishing states and expanding markets.” world development 21 (4): 607–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750x(93)90113-n varughese, j., and e. ostrom. 2001. “the contested role of heterogeneity in collective action: some evidence from community forestry in nepal.” world development 29 (5): 747–765. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00012-2 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.2.1.493 https://doi.org/10.2307/2130438 https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750x(86)90128-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750x(86)90128-2 https://doi.org/10.1086/257653 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1389-9341(01)00060-0 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213832.003.0004 https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-750x(93)90113-n https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00012-2 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] wade, r. 1988. village republics: economic conditions for collective action in south india. cambridge: cambridge university press. wallace, m. b. 1981. “solving common-property resource problem: deforestation in nepal.” unpublished phd dissertation, harvard university, cambridge, massachusetts. world bank. 1996. the world bank participation sourcebook. washington, d.c.: the world bank. zak, p. j., and s. knack. 2001. “trust and growth.” the economic journal 111 (470): 295–321. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00609 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00609 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 11–16, april 2018 commentary global population size and the united nations’ sustainable development goals partha dasgupta  1. introduction of all the factors influencing humanity’s demand for the biosphere’s products, the global population size is conspicuous by its absence in ecological economics. in this note i redress the neglect ever so slightly by reflecting on the way the subject has been both touched upon and avoided in international discourse. for illustration i focus on sub-saharan africa. today the region is home to about 13 per cent of the world’s population. proportionately that is small, but it won’t remain small unless the region engages seriously in matters relating to family planning. the opportunities being missed there speak to the enormous cost that is likely to be faced by african societies in future years. the problems looming there are mirrored in those that continue to face parts of south asia. in a well-known paper ehrlich and holdren (1971) noted that the biosphere responds to the demands we make of it, not to rates of change in those demands nor to rates of change in the rates of change in those demands. their observation has not had much influence on either economics or demography; nor has it had any influence on the popular mind. that the growth rate of the global population has been declining in recent years is seen among development experts as a hopeful sign of a transition to sustainable development (world bank 2016). in fact it says little about the prospect of realizing sustainable development. under foreseeable technological developments and institutional arrangements, a long-run population of 10–11 billion can be expected to make far greater  university of cambridge, the old schools, trinity ln, cambridge cb2 1tn, uk; pd10000@cam.ac.uk copyright © dasgupta 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.6 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.6 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] figure 1: total population by region, 2015-2100 source: un (2017) demands on the biosphere than one of, say, 3 billion.1 declines in fertility rates in india and bangladesh, for example, do not speak to the socioeconomic difficulties people in the region face on account of the high rates they experienced in the past. a number of books have recently drawn attention to the remarkable gains in the average living standard that the world has enjoyed during the past century. they have pointed to advances in scientific knowledge and the accumulation of manufactured and human capital, but they have mostly ignored the state of the biosphere and its trends accompanying economic progress (micklethwait and wooldridge 2000; ridley 2010; deaton 2013; lomborg 2014; norberg 2016). but humanity’s future will be shaped by the portfolio of assets we choose to hold and the balance we strike between them and the size of our population. it should be a concern today that the enormous economic success the world has enjoyed in recent decades may be a down payment for future failure. 1 if 3 billion reads unrealizably small, it is worth noting that the global population as recently as 1950 was 2.5 billion. [13] partha dasgupta 2. unmet need and family planning programmes in year 2100, the united nations (un) projects, the world population will be 11.2 billion (figure 1). more than three-quarters of the increase from today’s 7.4 billion is expected to be in sub-saharan africa, where the population in 2100 is projected to rise from today’s approximately 1 billion to 4 billion. attempts to raise incomes there even to the current global average [15,000 (international]) in the face of a three-billion rise in numbers will require an increase in the region’s annual output from $3.5 trillion to $60 trillion. that rise, assuming that it is possible, is likely to have severe consequences for the continent’s ecology, contributing to further societal conflicts there and greater attempted population movements both within the region and out of it. the un’s sustainable development goals (sdgs) are reticent about population, and yet it is inconceivable that they can be met without addressing the subject. today the world community conceptualizes family planning programmes in terms of women’s reproductive rights. the programme of action of the international conference on population and development (unfpa 1995), a landmark document, has been the basis on which family planning programmes are now framed and implemented. unfortunately, there are two problems with the framework. the first lies in the restrictive sphere to which 'rights' have been consigned. because the biosphere is in large measure a global common, additional human numbers give rise to detrimental externalities, and the rights of those who are adversely affected by new births—especially, perhaps, people in the future— are ignored. no doubt one way to dampen the clash of rights is to reduce environmental externalities, but so long as there are no collective agreements on our use of the biosphere the clash will remain.2 the other problem has to do with the way success in implementing family planning programmes is measured. the unfpa (1995) took it that family planning and reproductive health policies should address 'unmet need', meaning that they should be made to serve women aged 15–49 who are seeking to stop or delay childbearing but are not using modern forms of contraception. there are deep problems here. unmet need for modern contraceptives as calculated from responses to survey questions is based on the respondent’s expressed wants for biological children. the need for family planning programmes is then inferred from the unmet need. but in matters of life 2 sen (1982) likens the emission of persistent pollutants to torturing future people. the clash between reproductive rights and adverse environmental externalities allied to new births is at its most striking under his reading. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] and death needs assume an independent status—they even serve as the basis on which commodity rights are founded. the philosopher david wiggins has argued that a statement of the form 'person a needs commodity x' is tantamount to a challenge to imagine an alternative future in which a escapes harm without x (wiggins 1987, 22). expressed wants (or desire) for children may not adequately convey her need for family planning, that is, for her own best interests. a poor woman living in a setting where she is more or less obliged to have sex and suffering from iron deficiency has a need for contraception for her own benefit that could remain undetected in her responses to questions on the wants she expresses for biological children. to infer needs solely from wants is therefore to undervalue the significance of family planning. moreover, none of the survey questions that are in current use is conditioned on the behaviour of others. that runs counter to the fact that our preferences are socially embedded: we look to see what others do before we ourselves choose our doings. this interconnectedness of people in society is as true in fertility desires as it is in consumption practices. periodically they are expressed in fads and fashions. the line joining need to expressed wants is tortuous. fabic et al. (2015) define 'total demand' for modern contraception to be the number of women who want to delay or limit childbearing (that is, the sum of contraceptive users and women with unmet need). the role of family planning, the authors argue, is to supply that demand. the suggestion is that the success of family planning should be measured by the ratio of family planning users to the total demand. the un have adopted this measure in their sdg 3.7.1. the measure is known as 'demand for family planning met with modern contraceptive methods' or, for short, 'demand satisfied'. formally, if x is the number of women aged 15–49 who are users of modern contraceptives, y is the number of women with unmet need, and z is total demand for modern contraception, then z = x+y, and the un’s 'demand satisfied' is x/z = x/(x+y). reproductive rights are at the heart of x/z, which is its attraction. the indicator reflects voluntarism, rights and equity, informed choice, and the imperative of satisfying individuals’ and couples’ own choices with regard to the timing and number of children. but there are problems. the use of x/z as the measure of success could create perverse incentives among programme managers. a programme’s performance would improve if more women were to declare that they want to get pregnant. so long as women want many children, y (unmet need) remains small, and therefore z (total demand) is only marginally greater than x (the number of modern contraceptive users). the country scores well in the indicator 'demand satisfied', and appears not to need further [15] partha dasgupta family planning programming. the success could mask a situation where contraceptive use is low and stagnant and high fertility rates persist. moreover, as noted above, fertility preferences (which contribute to the measurement of y) are themselves influenced by the behaviour of others. y could therefore be small in a society that harbours another equally stable state of affairs in which y is large.3 3. an example niger’s total fertility rate (tfr) is currently 7.6. only 12 per cent of married (or in union) women are estimated to use modern methods of contraception. but unmet need for family planning is low: among married (or in union) less than 17 per cent women say they do not wish to get pregnant and are not using contraception. they also say their desired number of children is 9.5. income per capita there is $940 international, meaning that the average person’s income is only a bit above the internationally accepted level of poverty (1.90 dollars). the country’s population in 2012 was 17.6 million and is projected to rise in 2050 to over 72 million. it is more than difficult to imagine what resources will be available for the millions who will be born there in the coming years. and, yet, inferring 'unmet need' from expressed desires and using that to give expression to reproductive rights could even suggest that married (and in union) women in niger should be helped to raise their fertility. the clash of rights is self-evident. 4. undervaluation of family planning the concept of reproductive rights as currently framed and put to use by the un undervalues family planning. there are collective benefits to be enjoyed if members of a community are enabled through discussions to alter their fertility desires in a coordinated manner. family planning can help to bring about changes in the norms that guide personal desires and behaviour. our analysis doesn’t run against rights as a plank for family planning; it expands the sphere in which rights are acknowledged, protected, and promoted. 3 formally, i am speaking of coordination games, harbouring multiple equilibria: if all other households are large, the representative household plans for a large family; but if all other households are small, the representative household plans for a small family. and it may be that all households would prefer the latter outcome to the former. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] acknowledgements this note has been prepared for the inaugural issue of ecology, economy and society. the demographic evidence presented here is drawn from dasgupta and dasgupta (2017) and i am grateful to aisha dasgupta for the many discussions we have had on the subject. the views expressed here are, however, entirely mine. references dasgupta, a. and p. dasgupta. 2017. “socially embedded preferences, environmental externalities, and reproductive rights.” population and development review 43 (3): 405–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12090 deaton, a. 2013. the great escape: health, wealth, and the origins of inequality. princeton, nj: princeton university press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847969 ehrlich, p.r. and j.p. holdren. 1971. “impact of population growth.” science 171 (3977): 1212–1217. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.171.3977.1212 fabic, m.i., y. choi, j. bongaarts, j.e. darroch, j.a. ross, j. stover, a.o. tsui, j. upadhyay, and e. starbird. 2015. “meeting demand for family planning within a generation.” lancet 385 (9981): 1928–1931. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01406736(14)61055-2 lomborg, b. ed. 2014. how much have global problems cost the world? a scoreboard from 1900 to 2050. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139225793 micklethwait, j. and a. wooldridge. 2000. a future perfect: the challenge and promise of globalization. new york: random house. norberg, j. 2016. progress: ten reasons to look forward to the future. london: one world. ridley, m. 2010. the rational optimist: how prosperity evolves. london: 4th estate. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(10)61556-4 sen, a. 1982. “approaches to the choice of discount rates in social benefit-cost analysis.” in discounting for time and risk in energy policy edited by r.c. lind. baltimore, md: the johns hopkins university press. unfpa. 1995. programme of action of the international conference on population and development. new york: united nations population fund. un. 2017. world population prospects: the 2017 revision. new york: united nations, department of economic and social affairs, population division. wiggins, d. 1987. “claims of needs.” in needs, values, truth. oxford: basil blackwell. world bank. 2016. development goals in an era of demographic change. washington dc: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12090 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400847969 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.171.3977.1212 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61055-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(14)61055-2 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139225793 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0262-4079(10)61556-4 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 23-30 january 2022 commentary framework for a collective definition of regenerative agriculture in india shannon b. olsson, minhaj ameen, saransh bajpai***, ravikanth gudasalamani****, chirag gajjar*****, srajesh gupta+, søren hvilshøj++, jyotsna krishnakumar+++, crispino lobo++++, rohan mukherjee+++++, abhayraj naik, ajay raghavan##, hansika singh###, kesavan subaharan#### abstract: the concept of regenerative agriculture has received increasing attention worldwide as a method to restore and conserve natural resources while maintaining crop productivity. however, there remains a lack of consensus as to what conditions define regenerative agriculture, making it difficult for decision-makers,  global director, the echo network; special scientific envoy to india, danish academy of technical sciences, copenhagen, denmark; associate professor, national centre for biological sciences, tata institute of fundamental research, bangalore, india. shannon@echonetwork.in  ceo, national coalition for natural farming. minhajameen@gmail.com *** senior manager, climate program, world resources institute india. saransh.bajpai@wri.org **** senior fellow, ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, bangalore, india. gravikanth@atree.org ***** individual expert. chirag8315@gmail.com + programme associate, national coalition for natural farming. srajeshg792@gmail.com ++ global division director, water resources. rambøll. srhs@ramboll.com +++ director, community well being programme, keystone foundation. jyotsna@keystonefoundation.org ++++ managing trustee, watershed organisation trust; executive director, sampada trust. cslobo1@gmail.com +++++ programme coordinator, keystone foundation. rohan@keystone-foundation.org  co-founder, initiative for climate action & visiting faculty, azim premji university, bengaluru. abhayraj@actionclimate.org ## initiative for climate action. ajay@actionclimate.org ### principal strategist, forum for the future & community, member, initiative for climate action. h.singh@forumforthefuture.org #### principal scientist, icar national bureau of agricultural insect resources, bengaluru. kesavan.subaharan@icar.gov.in copyright © olsson, ameen, bajpai, gudasalamani, gajjar, gupta, hvilshøj, krishnakumar, lobo, mukerjee, naik, raghavan, singh and subaharan 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web) doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.662 mailto:shannon@echonetwork.in mailto:minhajameen@gmail.com mailto:saransh.bajpai@wri.org mailto:gravikanth@atree.org mailto:chirag8315@gmail.com mailto:srajeshg792@gmail.com mailto:srhs@ramboll.com mailto:jyotsna@keystone-foundation.org mailto:jyotsna@keystone-foundation.org mailto:cslobo1@gmail.com mailto:rohan@keystone-foundation.org mailto:abhayraj@actionclimate.org mailto:ajay@actionclimate.org mailto:h.singh@forumforthefuture.org mailto:kesavan.subaharan@icar.gov.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.662 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] researchers, the agricultural sector, and the public to adopt regenerative agriculture practices. here, we present the initial process to create a unified, cross-sectoral definition for regenerative agriculture in india that considers the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders and addresses the current challenges faced by the indian agricultural sector. to this end, we compiled interactions with individuals from across india to identify the most pressing concerns for india’s human and environmental ecosystems. we conducted over 30 hours of workshops to discuss these concerns with 50 experts from five sectors and four countries. we summarize these discussions and propose a common framework to collaboratively develop region-specific techniques that employ existing and supplementary resources to generate evidence for regenerative agriculture and foster conducive practices. keywords: food security; sustainability; ecosystem services; biodiversity; climate change the un estimates that during the period 1998–2017, india suffered climate-related losses amounting to $80 billion (unisdr 2018). germanwatch currently places india seventh-highest in the global climate risk index for 2021 (eckstein, künzel, and schäfer 2021). apart from the damage and losses it inflicts, climate change is also causing a decline in the productivity of many cereal crops, especially wheat and rice, which form the bulk of south and east asian diets. meanwhile, water-use efficiency is low across all key crops in india. more than 50% of the country’s farmland grows water-intensive crops such as rice, wheat, sugarcane, and cotton. the government of india (goi) predicted in 2021 that while rainfed rice yields are likely to reduce by up to 2.5%, irrigated rice yields are projected to decrease by 7% by 2050 and 10% by 2080; wheat yields by 6–25%, and maize yields by 18–23% by 2100 (rao et al. 2019; moa&fw 2021). further, a report compiled by the national institution for transforming india (niti aayog) in 2018 indicated that india continues to face one of the “worst water crises in its history” (niti aayog 2018). in addition, the world resources institute’s aqueduct tool ranked india 13th for overall water stress in 2019 (wri 2019). diminishing groundwater resources demand better water management practices from all water-consuming sectors, including agriculture. a lack of access to water, coupled with the intensification of floods and droughts due to climate change, can lead to socioeconomic insecurity with inconsistent crop yields and low returns to farmers, a lack of storage and transport facilities, and limited access to markets, leading to food wastage. these issues can lead to a stagnation in productivity and trigger significant rural to urban out-migration from farming to other vocations. women, in particular, face extreme disadvantages: 85% of rural women in india are employed in agriculture, yet they own only 13% of the land (oxfam 2018). [25] shannon b. olsson et al. a lack of autonomy, financial distress, and feelings of hopelessness in these rural communities are also related to gender-based violence, which disproportionally impacts these same women (who 2005). there is an urgent need for strategies that empower small and marginal farmers to protect and regenerate their environment using science and technology innovations that complement and respect traditional and indigenous practices for improved productivity and sustained income. these strategies should incorporate experimental and replicable crop production and protection models in the indian context to scientifically validate appropriate and sustainable mechanisms to improve yields and the value chain. the term “regenerative agriculture” has received increasing attention worldwide as a means to restore soil health and other natural resources while maintaining crop productivity (rhodes 2017). the concept itself has existed since the initiation of the rodale institute’s “farming systems trial” in 1981 (rodale institute 1981). a recent stakeholder meeting, hosted by several indian organizations, identified several points of action to promote regenerative techniques across india, including scientific research to evaluate regenerative agriculture in the indian context; analysis and quantification of how regenerative agriculture contributes to and benefits from existing national policies and support; and integration of multiple viewpoints (taas et al. 2021). a clear science-based and india-focused definition of regenerative agriculture is necessary for the widespread adoption of these efforts. however, there is currently no legal definition in india or the world that outlines or restricts what constitutes regenerative agriculture, and a recent review of over 200 articles and websites found a wide variety of definitions and usages of the term (newton et al. 2021). indeed, there are several alternative farming systems that can ensure soil health (although not necessarily crop productivity), including low-input sustainable agriculture, conservation agriculture, organic farming, natural farming, and zero-budget natural farming (taas et al. 2021). this lack of consensus in terminology and practice can confuse researchers and the public as to what defines regenerative agriculture (newton et al. 2021). such confusion can reduce the credibility of solutions and make it difficult to establish policies, funding, technologies, and programmes that promote their adoption (newton et al. 2021). creating a unified science-based definition for regenerative agriculture that appropriately weighs inputs from both scientific and social sectors requires cross-sector exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration. the echo network is a social innovation partnership with the specific focus of increasing scientific awareness, engagement, and insight regarding india’s human and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] environmental ecosystems. we have developed a unique process for enabling multisector interactions between decision-makers, knowledge generators, and on-ground actors to generate effective knowledge resources and targeted science-based actions that can be quickly adopted in our communities. these efforts have already contributed to other programmes dedicated to ecosystem-based sustainability efforts, such as ecosystemsbased adaptation for resilient incomes (ecobari 2021). in 2019 and 2020, the echo network facilitated interactions with more than 250 individuals from academic, industrial, governmental, nongovernmental, and philanthropic sectors, and public at large to identify the most pressing concerns for india’s human and environmental ecosystems. we used an analytical technique known as semantic network analysis (drieger 2013) to summarize over 400 statements we gathered from our public interactions and generate networks that could be used to identify related themes and topics across the statements (paranyushkin 2021). one of the four major clusters generated from these statements was influenced by agriculture and food security. statements in this cluster were dominated by four major concepts relating to sustaining our water and farming systems. the following indicate the percent of total statements that were connected by the given topic sentence: • improving the quality of farmer livelihoods (19%) • developing sustainable agriculture practices that address food security (nutritional needs) and sustainable development (15%) • conservation and management of water and carbon for ecosystems and biodiversity (13%) • mitigating the impact of climate change on the health of natural systems for our prosperity (11%) we then examined structural gaps where these four clusters were not directly connected to each other in the network, indicating that the concepts in those separate clusters did not occur together in any of the gathered statements. the topics of conservation and management of water and carbon and the health of our natural systems (see topic sentences above) were not directly connected in any of the gathered statements and thus served as a potential focus area to unite clusters together (paranyushkin 2021). through this process, we identified the following unifying question: how can we improve the productivity and livelihoods of india’s agricultural sector by leveraging water and carbon conservation to mitigate the impact of climate change on our natural systems? [27] shannon b. olsson et al. this question, gleaned from our many cross-sector public exchanges, also broadly connects many regenerative agricultural definitions (rhodes 2017; newton et al. 2021). therefore, we propose that understanding how science and technology can address this question in the indian context can help establish a collective, science-based definition for regenerative agriculture in india. to this end, from november 2020 to july 2021, the echo network hosted a series of discussions with 50 experts from five sectors (government, academia, non-governmental organizations, philanthropy, and industry) and across four countries (india, united kingdom, denmark, and the usa). we conducted a total of 32 hours of workshops on this topic to identify ways in which science and technology can address the central question we identified, given the current status of indian agriculture. our experts agreed with the conclusions of another recent stakeholder discussion on regenerative agriculture (taas et al. 2021) suggesting an urgent need for adaptive strategies that address biodiversity-based and climate-resilient agriculture in regional contexts of india. specifically, while there are numerous examples of such practices worldwide (rhodes 2017; newton et al. 2021), we need to better adapt and standardize solutions to match region-specific requirements. in addition, the experts noted that several existing innovations are yet to be implemented at scale in the indian context and do not fully take into account users’ needs or their potential response to new types of institutional arrangements among suppliers, farmers, innovators, and other stakeholders. though extension and developmental agencies are involved in transferring technologies, there remains a gap in transferring ecosystem-based technologies and information between farmers and researchers to assess crop disease, pests, and soil quality. this gap is exacerbated by a lack of availability of biological resources at scale, including, for example, manure, biomass, and botanical materials to develop sufficient quantities for pest control measures. there is also a lack of financial support and collaborative efforts between sectors that have created silos from the highest to the lowest levels. further, the indian public does not yet adequately recognize the importance of ecosystems and their inter-relationships with human welfare and well-being, so there remains insufficient penetration and scaling of ecosystem-based practices. there is, therefore, a need to galvanize interactions between like-minded institutions and communities to create regenerative agriculture solutions that all stakeholders can adopt. we need human-centred design approaches to address institutional challenges such as the need for new and innovative financing mechanisms, re-imagination of extension services, and technological innovation for scaling regenerative agriculture through ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] suppliers and practices. we recommend gathering a set of cross-sector stakeholders and communities to compile the information necessary for implementing regenerative agriculture techniques; crowdsourcing existing work through as broad a process as possible; establishing deep-dives into specific efforts to understand context and potential; and executing convenings between similar efforts. we can then use this information to develop a holistic data system that provides accurate weather and climate forecasting and modelling; efficient delivery of crop advisories; ecosystembased technologies; and implementation protocols and impact assessments for use by farmers, community organizations, and governments for crop productivity and protection. using this cross-sector data platform, existing innovations in agricultural institutions, financing mechanisms, and service delivery (rhodes 2017; taas et al. 2021) can then be synergized with traditional systems and knowledge to validate, adapt, and scale regenerative agriculture across india. in parallel, long–term data collection through sustained research efforts in strategic agroecological zones should account for the future impacts of climate change on agriculture. such research should also explore the efficacy of ecosystem-based, climate-resilient, and agroecology-based practices concerning yields, crop health management, nutrition intensity, soil conservation, climate change mitigation, and ecosystem services. this cross-zone approach can then be used to develop context and regionspecific standards. these standards must be accompanied by measures that build adaptive capacities and overall resilience to economic and climatic shocks to ensure farmer buy-in, thereby avoiding delays in adopting alternative approaches due to inappropriate methods. such measures would necessarily include significantly improving the efficiency and productivity of natural resource use (such as water, soil, and biomass); regenerating ecosystems; conserving local biodiversity; and facilitating remunerative returns to farming investments with appropriate incentives that align consumer demand and preferences. through these efforts, we can provide farmers and rural communities with timely and accurate forecasts together with customized farm management advisories (on areas such as crop, livestock, soil, and land management), to enable them to reduce weatherinduced risks and mitigate the impacts of climate change [see, e.g., farmprecise (wotr 2021)]. this process can, in turn, help us understand how we can promote and stimulate the implementation of science-based standards in different scenarios in india at scale through the massive deployment of digital technologies. it is important to note that as we leverage the transformative powers of digitalization and technology, we must maintain contextual specificity and sensitivity to respect and [29] shannon b. olsson et al. complement any traditional systems that might already be profoundly regenerative. thus, this humanand ecosystems-centred approach should include the community knowledge, history, and culture of that particular agro-climate. in summary, rather than articulating a concrete definition of regenerative agriculture immediately, we propose that regenerative agriculture in the indian context must be understood as an adaptive farming process that combines science-based, climate-resilient, and agroecology-focused practices with the community knowledge, history, and culture of each particular agro-climatic zone. we, therefore, propose to work as crosssector consortia across several communities, governments, institutes, and organizations to share ideas, data, field sites, conversations, and planning that will lead to solutions and standards adapted and shaped for the specific needs of the region where they will be implemented. we hope that this process will serve as a template for developing trust, value, and responsibility for our ecosystems across india and the world and inspire similar efforts to tackle sustainability issues through a collective process of co–creation and co-ownership among all stakeholders. references drieger, philipp. 2013. “semantic network analysis as a method for visual text analytics.” procedia social and behavioral sciences 79: 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.05.053. eckstein, david, vera künzel, and laura schäfer. 2021. “global climate risk index 2021.” germanwatch e.v. https://germanwatch.org/en/19777. ecobari. 2021. “ecosystem based adaptation for resilient incomes.” november 19, 2021. https://wotr.org/ecobari/. rodale institute. 1981. “farming systems trial.” rodale institute, january 1. https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/farming-systems-trial/. moa&fw, ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare. 2021. “effect of climate change on agriculture.” pib delhi, february 9. https://pib.gov.in/pressreleasepage.aspx?prid=1696468. newton, peter, nicole civita, lee frankel-goldwater, katharine bartel, and colleen johns. 2021. “what is regenerative agriculture? a review of scholar and practitioner definitions based on processes and outcomes.” frontiers in sustainable food systems 4 (october): 577723. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.577723 nitiaayog, national institution for transforming india. 2018. “composite water management index: a tool for water management.” niti aayog. http://social.niti.gov.in/uploads/sample/water_index_report.pdf. oxfam. 2018. “move over ‘sons of the soil’: why you need to know the female https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.05.053 https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.577723 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] farmers that are revolutionizing agriculture in india.” oxfam gender justice, november 15.. https://www.oxfamindia.org/women-empowerment-india-farmers. paranyushkin, dmitry. 2021. infranodus. https://infranodus.com/. rao, c a rama, b m k raju, adlul islam, a v m subba rao k v rao, g ravindra chary, r nagarjuna kumar, m prabhakar k sammi reddy, and s bhaskar and s k chaudhari. 2019. “risk and vulnerability assessment of indian agriculture to climate change.pdf.” national innovations in climate resilient agriculture icar central research institute for dryland agriculture. http://www.nicraicar.in/nicrarevised/images/publications/risk%20&%20vulnera bility%20assessment%20of%20indian%20agriculture%20to%20climate%20change .pdf. rhodes, christopher j. 2017. “the imperative for regenerative agriculture.” science progress 100 (march): 80–129. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3184/003685017x14876775256165. taas, trust for advancement of agricultural sciences, indian council of agricultural research icar, national academy of agricultural sciences naas, international maize and wheat improvement center cimmyt, and international fertilizer development centre ifdc. 2021. “regenerative agriculture for soil health, food, and environmental security.” new delhi: secretary trust for advancement of agricultural sciences (taas). https://www.taas.in/documents/pub-activity-47.pdf. unisdr, united nations office for disaster risk reduction. 2018. “unisdr annual report 2017.” united nations. https://www.undrr.org/publication/unisdr-annual-report-2017. who, world health organization. 2005. “integrating poverty and gender into health programmes: a sourcebook for health professionals.” module on genderbased violence. world health organization regional office for the western pacific. manilla, philippines. https://iris.wpro.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665.1/5514/9290611944_eng.pdf. wotr, watershed organization trust. 2021. “farmprecise.” 2021. http://farmprecise.org/. wri, world resources institute. 2019. “aqueduct.” 2019. https://www.wri.org/aqueduct/. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 151–154, january 2019 book review shooting at the wrong target eswaran somanathan  julien-françois gerber and rajeswari s. raina (eds.). 2018. post-growth thinking in india: towards sustainable egalitarian alternatives, new delhi: orient blackswan, isbn: 9789352873937; pp. 388, inr 1075 the contributors to this book are united in their dismay and condemnation of two aspects of life in india today – the ecological and environmental ruination, and the inequality and poverty of many. they see these problems as inter-related and a consequence of the capitalist system. many of them conclude that there is no way to solve these problems without putting an end to economic growth itself. others are less categorical, merely suggesting that economic growth be given less importance than it presently receives. at least two of the authors, jayati ghosh and kanchan chopra, do not buy the argument that economic growth must end forthwith. they argue for equitable growth that does not come at the cost of undue environmental destruction. it is a strength of the book that different  professor, economics and planning unit, indian statistical institute, 7, s. j. s. sansanwal marg, new delhi 110016; som@isid.ac.in copyright © somanathan 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.63 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.63 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] perspectives and points of view are included, although not all of them are equally convincing. anyone who lives in india today cannot be unaware of the horrendous damage inflicted on the environment, or the continuing poverty and inequality. does economic growth cause environmental degradation? evidently, it does. economic growth means greater consumption of mineral and biological resources, more waste generation and, therefore, fewer intact ecosystems. however, the first (majority) group of authors then makes a leap of logic: they conclude that economic growth is, therefore, bad, and should be halted forthwith. it is clear that solving poverty and inequality means moving to a more equal economy. but this has no connection with economic growth – if anything, it gets harder to solve the problem of poverty if there is less to go around. what about the environment? the nature of growth can be changed – growth can be made less damaging. why not reduce or even eliminate the damage, rather than attacking growth itself? arguments are made that this is not feasible – for example, that energy is required for growth and energy production is necessarily environmentally harmful. it is claimed that renewable energy technologies too are environmentally harmful, even if less harmful than the conventional technologies, and that they take too much land, etc. these criticisms of particular technologies would be unconvincing even if they were fully correct (which they are not). after all, what is relevant is not current technology developed in a system that does not penalize pollution enough, but the technology that we would develop if we had the incentive to do so – as we would if pollution were appropriately penalized. in fact, this is the solution to environmental problems that mainstream neoclassical economics proposes – penalize externalities so that companies cannot profit by shifting damages to others. what is remarkable is that the antigrowth authors do not even attempt to address this solution. they simply never mention it. but does it work? do we, in fact, see that the places that have stricter environmental regulations or high pollution charges, there is less pollution and cleaner technology? the answer is an overwhelming yes. for example, sweden was one of the first countries to introduce a carbon tax, back in 1990. since then, the swedish economy has grown as fast or faster than other industrialized countries, while its carbon emissions have also declined more rapidly than elsewhere. more generally, countries that enforce strict environmental regulations have much cleaner environments, and their [153] eswaran somanathan economies are not noticeably poorer as a result. the industrialized countries generally have a stricter environmental regulation than the developing countries, and obviously bluer skies and cleaner waterbodies. however, this was not always so. in fact, since they industrialized earlier, many of them haveaho been through the horrors we are experiencing today. yesterday, as i travelled through one of the more industrial parts of northern india, i was struck by the thought that j. r. r. tolkien could have modelled his land of mordor on it. this is not a coincidence. in fact, manchester, london, and other british cities at the time tolkien was writing did have problems similar to those we are experiencing today. the infamous london fog of the winter of 1952 that killed 4000 people was caused largely because people densely packed into a city were burning coal to cook and keep themselves warm. replace coal with wood, dung, and crop residue, and you have northern india today. how, then, did london and other cities escape the problems we face today? not by returning to the land, but by replacing coal with gas, and taking other measures to clean up pollution. the rich countries today are not just rich, they are also mostly clean. the assumption that cleaning up the environment can only come by reducing consumption is simply not borne out by experience. of course, this is not to say that sweden or other rich countries have solved all environmental problems. but it does suggest very strongly that the remaining problems should be addressed directly, rather than attacking economic growth in the hope that this will make the problems vanish. if india is the epitome of an environmental disaster, it is because we have allowed polluters to get away with polluting without paying for the consequences, and because we have, as a society, made little effort to help the poor among us afford alternatives to polluting traditional technologies. several contributors provide examples of community management of natural resources and revival of traditional techniques for land and water conservation to promote the idea that a good society is possible without economic growth. these are valuable and inspiring cases. the effort to raise agricultural productivity without polluting the land is crucial. but it does not follow from these examples that a good society is possible without economic growth. the examples do not address issues like air pollution. how is this to be tackled with traditional technology when the population density is 1000 persons/sq km as it is in those parts of india with the most people? the latest comprehensive study on the sources of air pollution in india shows that the largest single source is cooking fires (health effects institute, 2018). this should surprise no one who has read the history of pollution in the industrialized countries, or for that matter, even anyone ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] who has read the sherlock holmes stories. the only way to provide clean cooking for everyone is to expand access to electricity for cooking and heating, and/or lpg. reducing electric power generation in the name of de-growth will only hinder the expansion of access. instead, the effort must be to provide cleaner electricity generation. this is just one example, but it highlights a major flaw in the de-growth arguments made in this book. india has 1.3 billion people. presenting the example of a traditional economy and society such as that of ladakh before the tourism boom, or other traditional solutions to our environmental problems evades two awkward facts. it is not possible to even feed the population we will have in the next two decades with our traditional agricultural technologies, let alone provide them a decent education and healthcare. traditional economies also had much higher infant and child mortality, and it was this that allowed them to maintain their life styles. mortality was high enough to ensure a very low population growth rate, thus avoiding resource scarcity. life expectancy in india in 1960, before the green revolution up-ended traditional agriculture, was 41 years. in 2015, it had risen to 68 years. this was a consequence of less poverty, better nutrition and water supply and the wider availability of modern medical technology, all enabled by economic growth. the demographic transition to lower mortality and lower fertility is well underway and it has avoided misery for millions of parents who would have suffered the deaths of their children, had it not occurred. modern educational, health, and contraceptive services are needed to help complete this transition, and that is possible only in an economy that can provide the necessary industrial infrastructure of electricity, clean water, sanitation, medical education, and communications. it is impossible to achieve this without growth. towards the end of the book, kanchan chopra gently makes the argument that the focus should not be on reducing economic growth, but on green growth — improving the environment and protecting ecosystems while moving to an equitable economy. i could not agree more. reference health effects institute. 2018. burden of disease attributable to major air pollution sources in india. https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/gbd-air-pollution-india https://www.healtheffects.org/publication/gbd-air-pollution-india ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 77–92, january 2019 special section: ecological distribution conflicts in india environmental justice movements in india: an analysis of the multiple manifestations of violence brototi roy  and joan martinez-alier  abstract: with each passing year, defending land and water, livelihoods and cultures appears to become more violent. against the alarming number of murders of environmental activists or environmental defenders, which is the easiest way to recognize violence, this article aims to analyse other visible and invisible ways in which violence is manifested. using a multidimensional approach and referring to case studies from the ejatlas and other sources, it looks at the multiple manifestations of violence. it concludes that a south-south collaboration in academic-activist coproduced research on environmental justice movements would shed light on realities which often escape mainstream ecological economics and political ecology. keywords: ejatlas, ecological distribution conflicts, multidimensional violence, environmental justice movements, political ecology 1. introduction on 8 november 2018, anti-coal activist agnes kharshiing and anita sangma were assaulted with stones and sticks, allegedly by coal mafia, under broad daylight when their car was blocked by a mob of 30-40 people, while returning to shillong after a meeting with police officials in the coal town of lad rymbai in the east jaintia hills region of meghalaya (ejatlas 2018a; saikia 2018).  institute of environmental science and technology, autonomous university of barcelona, spain; brototi.econ@gmail.com   institute of environmental science and technology, autonomous university of barcelona, spain; joanmartinezalier@gmail.com copyright © roy and martinez-alier 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.56 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.56 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] this incident is, in no way, an isolated case. according to global witness (2016), india has the highest number of murdered land and environmental defenders in south asia, and the second highest after the philippines in asia. every year, the act of defending nature and natural resources, which are often homes of the defenders, is increasingly becoming more violent, with reported murders of 197 defenders in 2017 across the globe (watts 2018). in the ejatlas the proportion of environmental conflict cases in india where environmental defenders (one or more) have been killed is about 12 per cent, roughly similar to the proportion in the world in general, larger than in europe, lower than in latin america. although murder or physical harm is the most common manifestation of violence, it is not the only way in which defenders of land, water, livelihoods and cultures are persecuted. death is, of course, an extreme form of violence; these conflicts leave in their wake very many wounded people, and even those who escape physical harm, they bear the cost of manifold loss. such violence manifests structurally, culturally, ecologically; it can be swift, and it can be slow (galtung 1969; nixon 2011; zalik 2004). there are many studies that have analysed the interplay between environmental conflicts, violence and power relations (omeje 2013; peluso and watts 2001). there are also some recent attempts beyond the casestudy approach that analyzes different forms of violence in specific commodities, such as hydroelectric conflicts around the world (del bene et al. 2018). navas et al. (2018) provide a multidimensional approach to understanding violence by looking at ecological distribution conflicts from central america. this article aims to apply this framework in the indian context to highlight the perverse ways in which violence manifests itself in environmental justice movements in the country. the article is structured as follows: the next section provides the theoretical framework and methodology of this article. section 3 provides a brief history of environmental justice movement in india and analyzes intensity of conflicts from the ejatlas database. this is followed by a discussion of only a few cases to understand the different manifestations of violence, based on our experiences in different environmental conflicts and finally, the concluding section draws comparisons from other parts of the global south to promote the need for more south-south collaboration in academic-activist co-produced research on environmental justice movements. [79] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier 2. theoretical framework and methodology ecological distribution conflicts (martinez-alier 1995; martinez-alier and o’connor 1996, martinez-alier 2002) can be studied as struggles for environmental costs and benefits emerging due to inequalities in power and income and are embedded in the broader context of race, class and gender inequalities (robbins 2004). the environmental justice atlas (ejatlas), which was launched in march 2014, is a tool to document and catalogue ecological distribution conflicts around the world. the theoretical framework, rooted in activist knowledge and the bottom-up methodology of creation of the data collection form of the ejatlas, is explained by temper et al. (2015; 2018). we use data from the ejatlas, complemented by our personal knowledge of some of the environmental justice movements through either fieldwork or secondary literature review, to discuss violence in each of the cases. our definition of violence is based on the work by navas et al. (2018) who suggests a multidimensional understanding of violence, classifying it into five categories and matching it with variables from the ejatlas; the categories are direct violence, structural violence, cultural violence, slow violence and ecological violence. the value of such research lies in analytical instead of statistical generalization (zografos and martinez-alier 2009; gonzalez-hidalgo et al. 2014). this research aims to add new perspectives to better understand not only what constitutes as violence in environmental justice movements, but also comparing them across different geographies in the global south. 3. environmental justice movement in india 3.1. a brief history the environmental justice movement in india has a long history. the chipko andolan of 1973 is seen as the first environmental justice movement of the country, although concerns for environmental protection can be traced back to protests against the commercialization of forests in the early twentieth century under the british rule (guha 2000; sahu 2007). such early grassroots resistances with ecological undertones like the bengal peasant revolt of 1859-63 against indigo plantations are considered to have resemblances to the present day protests against industrial tree plantations in the global south (akula 1995; gerber 2011). gandhi’s freedom movement also rang with concerns for the ecosystem and its people (guha 1995; 2018). after independence, there was a heavy boost to large infrastructure for nation building such as multi-purpose dam projects and steel plants. although this impetus on rapid industrialization couldn’t bring the desired economic growth, it unwittingly ushered in a wave of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] environmental justice movements in the country, such as the narmada bachao andolan or the appiko movement or the silent valley protest. the protests over the bhopal accident of 1984 have lasted until today. since 1991, after the liberalization of the indian economy, 283 cases of ecological conflicts have been reported in the ejatlas as of 24 december 2018. these cases account for more than one-tenth of all the environmental justice movements documented worldwide in the ejatlas. although this article draws from the ejatlas, we are aware of other outstanding repositories of documented environmental conflicts and movements in india such as the green files, india environmental portal and land conflicts watch (bisht and gerber 2017). in the last 45 years, the hows and whys of environmental justice struggles in india have been reshaped in many ways. yet, the basic premise of nonviolent direct action, which follows from the gandhian principle of satyagraha, remains. it takes unique forms depending on the context, be it the koyla satyagraha (ejatlas 2016) against coal mining in tribal areas of central india or zameen samadhi satyagraha (ejatlas 2017a) against land acquisition in rajasthan. these mostly peaceful manifestations are sometimes met with direct violence, as evidenced by the number of cases with high intensity of conflicts, discussed in the next sub-section. in section 3.3. we then turn towards other ways in which violence is exerted. 3.2. intensity of conflicts in the ejatlas database,1 each case can be categorized as a conflict with unknown, latent, low, medium or high intensity. latent conflicts are those that are still brewing and have no visible organization. the low-intensity cases have some local organization while the medium ones have more visible mobilizations such as street protests, rallies etc. the high-intensity cases include more widespread mass mobilization, often including violence. unknown intensity cases are the ones without sufficient information. in india, more than 85% of the cases are either high (46%) or medium (40.4%) intensity cases. the low and latent intensity cases together constitute 12.1% with 1.5% of the cases remaining unknown in terms of their intensities2. a total number of 125 high-intensity cases have four categories: water management (28), fossil fuels and climate change (26), industrial and utilities conflicts (20) and mineral ores and building extraction (18), together constituting about three-fourth (92) of all the high-intensity cases. there are 24 cases of low mobilizations, which entail some local 1 this sub-section has been abstracted from roy (2018). 2 these figures are based on the cases registered in the ejatlas till april, 2018. [81] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier organization, and 110 cases of medium-intensity conflicts which entail visible mobilizations through demonstrations, sit-ins etc. this is different from the global picture, which has cases of medium intensity as the most frequently occurring one (43.3%). figure 1 illustrates the percentages of intensity of conflicts for world and india. high-intensity cases in india are the most frequent and they often have either the occurrence or the anticipation of large-scale displacement of people either for water management, which often involves the destruction of huge areas of forest land, or for opencast coal mining. 4. manifestations of violence we now turn towards in-depth analysis of a few cases from the ejatlas, covering different categories and geographies within india to understand the multiple ways in which violence in manifested. 4.1. direct violence the case of direct violence is perhaps the easiest to pinpoint. it refers to threats of bodily damage, physical intimidation and harm, and death as the most extreme case of direct violence. the category of high-intensity conflicts, which covers close to half the conflicts listed from india, points to all of this. however, as remarked above, the number of conflicts leading to deaths are only about 12%. in many of these conflicts, there are multiple simultaneous deaths, since the defenders are often killed during confrontations at protest marches or rallies. figure 1: percentages of intensity of conflict for world and india (in the ejatlas) source: roy (2018). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] one such case is that of the kashipur bauxite mining conflict (ejatlas 2017b). after the economic liberalization of 1991, much thrust was provided for the ‘development’ of the ‘backward states’, which comprised large forest covers with high concentration of minerals underneath and tribal populations inhabiting those forests. in this context, in march 1993, the new national mineral policy was announced opening the mining sector to private investments. in the same year, the utkal aluminium industrial limited (uail) was formed as a consortium, originally as a joint venture between alcan, canada; hindalco of birla group, india; tata, india and norsk hydro, norway with the motive to mine bauxite from the baphlimali hills of kashipur block in rayagada district in odisha and construct an alumina refinery, also in rayagada to refine it for exports. the open-cast mine was scheduled to produce bauxite. the project, however, was resisted since its very inception by the local indigenous people residing in the area, which although led to massive delays in the operationalization, was unable to stop the project in the end. commonly known as the kashipur anti-bauxite movement, it has a long and violent story, and is one of the historic environmental justice movements of odisha. kashipur block in the rayagada district has 412 revenue villages and 109 hamlets governed by 20 gram panchayats (gps) with a total area of 1,505.90 sq. km and a population of 1, 21,044 (as per the 2001 census), out of which 61% belong to scheduled tribes and 20% to scheduled castes (naik 2012; padel and das 2010). the reason why the people resisted the project right from the beginning was their lack of confidence in the promises of employment, basic amenities and infrastructure and development, as nalco had made similar promises in the early 1980s in the neighbouring regions for the creation of the biggest bauxite mine and refinery of the country. opposition to the kashipur bauxite mine was spearheaded by the prakrutik sampad surakshya parishad (pssp) movement and several adivasi-dalit movement organizations in south odisha in addition to various national and transnational solidarity groups, including actions against norsk hydro and the movement called alcan’t of montreal. pssp had more than 1000 members, many of them tribal, many of them women. these non-violent forms of protest systematically met with violent repercussions from the state — be it the police force, or the goons employed by the mining companies. the most memorable one is the police firing on adivasis on 16 december 2000 in maikanch village of kashipur block, killing three protestors (grassroots environmental defenders, as they would be called today), permanently disabling 6 and seriously injuring 30. [83] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier the people had put up a barricade on the road at maikanch as part of their resistance against the alumina project. the day before the massacre, this barricade had prevented a delegation of political leaders from fraudulently representing the people in a ‘multi-stakeholder dialogue’ organized by the company at nuagaon village. uail and care international (a corporatefunded ngo) had allegedly formed this “all-party committee” by handpicking representatives of various pro-project electioneering parties. the people forced these pro-project leaders to return to rayagada, the district headquarters. the people alleged that the firing was a consequence of this action (das 2001; sarangi et al. 2005). 4.2. structural and cultural violence the different types of violence very often complement each other. in many cases, however, due to the presence of direct violence, it is hard to understand the extent of structural or cultural violence exerted on the marginalized. the case of kalinganagar (ejatlas 2014) shows how direct violence, resulting in multiple deaths, together with structural violence, achieved the continuation of the project. kalinganagar is located under sukinda and danagadi blocks of jajpur district of odisha. the place is located about 30-40 km from the district headquarters and about 100 kms from the state capital, bhubaneswar. government planned to convert the area into a 13,000-acre industrial centre. factories located in the area would produce about 25 million tonnes of steel a year. along with the steel factories, there would be an airport, a hospital, schools and new houses supplied with water and electricity. the government of odisha signed more than 40 mous with various private companies to set up the steel plants in the state. the industrial infrastructure development corporation of orissa (idco) was responsible for developing the facilities for the proposed industrial complex. idco started acquiring land in the year 1992-94. although idco had acquired the land in the early 90s, only a portion of it had been actually transferred to different industries and the remaining land was still in actual possession of people, who were cultivating it as before. the idco allegedly purchased land from people at a minimal rate while it sold the same land to the corporate beneficiary at much higher prices. also, the compensation for land was given to only those who had patta on the land (legal document of ownership). this left a section of people uncompensated, as they had no patta over the land they possessed. another section of people, who cultivated land as sharecroppers, didn’t receive any compensation. after acquiring land from people, idco sold the land to different industries at a much higher price. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] the name kalinganagar became famous when on january 2, 2006, the state police opened fire on a protest by local adivasi against the takeover and seizure of their land by a tata steel plant. as many as 16 people were killed, four more died in the hospital, besides a police constable was also killed in the clash. despite this, tata’s projects for steel making in kalinganagar went ahead, portraying a concoction of direct and structural violence (pandey 2008). 4.3. slow violence the concept of slow violence, popularized by nixon (2011), can be understood as delayed destruction of nature and bodies. the centre for science and environment has been using the concept of ‘slow murder’ to explain the health effects of air pollution in delhi, or the effect of using endosulfan in cashew plantations in kerala (narain 2017). it is important to know that just because a conflict encounters slow violence, doesn’t mean that it foregoes direct or cultural ones. the case of the sterlite copper smelting unit in tuticorin, tamil nadu, spanning more than two decades can be taken as an example of this (ejatlas 2018b). the sterlite copper smelter plant had begun operations in 1996. protests against the plant began almost immediately, with hundreds of fishermen blockading the port with their boats, in order to prevent the ships carrying copper ore from unloading in march and october of 1996. however, this did not stop the plant from operating. in july 1997, 165 women in a neighbouring factory—ramesh flowers, fainted as a result of a toxic gas leak from the plant. some of these women later had miscarriages. since then—over a period of more than two decades—villagers and local residents have been protesting against noxious sulphur dioxide leaks and bad effluent management. since 1996, several complaints have been made to no avail. in march 2013, the ‘anti-sterlite people’s committee’ started protesting following a gas leak incident on march 23, 2013, when many people from neighbourhood areas fell sick. it is common knowledge that the toxic sulphur dioxide gas is a by-product of smelting. after this incident, 5000 people participated in the protest, a bandh (strike) was called and the town was shut down for several days in march 2013. due to this, the tamil nadu pollution control board issued a notice directing the vedanta group company to close the plant. at the time, according to the tamil nadu pollution control board, a sensor in the smelter’s smokestack showed sulphur dioxide levels were more than double the permitted concentration, which resulted in a temporary shutdown of the [85] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier plant. however, the supreme court of india eventually permitted the plant to restart operations under the condition of a payment of inr 100 crore (~15 million usd at the time) to compensate for polluting the surrounding land and water sources since 1997 and for running the smelter without various environmental clearances for a few years. in september 2017, the national green tribunal found the sterlite plant responsible for dumping copper slag in the upper odai river and causing the blockade of the river stream. the judgment also revealed that between 2013 and 2017 the plant operated without authorisation under the hazardous wastes (management, handling and transboundary movement) rules, 2008, and ordered vedanta-sterlite group to compensate the affected villagers for the pollution it had caused. since then, aside from occasional resistance, it was not until the announcement for expansion of the plant that public anger revived strongly. the plant was set to increase the smelter’s capacity from 400,000 tons to 800,000 tons per year within the next 24 months. in corporate statements, vedanta-sterlite stated that this expansion would make the tuticorin smelter, “one of the world’s largest single-location copper smelting complexes”. protests re-emerged with residents calling for an indefinite dharna (protest) and hunger strike on 12 february 2018. it was reported that in the beginning of february, villagers had petitioned the district collector several times seeking closure of the unit, but no action was taken, showing structural violence. the plant is located beside the fragile gulf of mannar, where toxic waste has damaged fish populations affecting the livelihood of thousands of fishermen. “there are lot of environmental dangers as well as health dangers, particularly cancer. almost every house is affected by cancer. children are most affected. throat cancer has increased. eye cancer has also gone up”, fathima babu, the convener of the antisterlite people's movement was reported as saying. eventually, when top district officials failed to reach an understanding, around 250 people began an indefinite fast. over 500 people, including many women and schoolchildren, blocked the company gates until they were rounded up and arrested on 14 february 2018. since then, protests had been ongoing day and night, especially in the villages surrounding the plant which were the worst affected on 22 may 2018, the hundredth day of the peaceful protests, more than 20,000 villagers marched to the collector’s office demanding the closure of the plant. police were not ready to take care of such a large number of people, and shot at the protestors, killing 13 of them. due to a lot of public and international pressure following this incident, when claims were made ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] on crony capitalism and industry-government collusion, the plant was finally ordered to be shut down. however, it is still not certain if this order will be carried out as the national green tribunal has termed the arguments for the closure of sterlite plant as “hyper technical” (thirumurthy 2018). 4.4. ecological violence the case of an industrial sacrifice zone, situated in the north of chennai, bounded by the korttalaiyar river, ennore creek and bay of bengal can be seen as an example of ecological violence (ejatlas 2017c). the case was the topic of a study by ecologist nityanand jayaraman that later was converted into an acclaimed carnatic song by t.m. krishna. the song explains that ennore creek (with its mangroves and fishing grounds) was a true poramboke, a “commons”, although the word poramboke is now used in the sense of “waste-land” or even “waste-people”.3 this industrial area has three operational state-owned coal thermal power plants, next to the ennore port from where the coal comes. the site hosts several other polluting chemical industries, including paint, fertilizers, cement and pharmaceutical, as well as a landfill. this case combines issues of coastal protection and enormous environmental damage by industry and utilities and can be considered as a case of ecological violence. fisherfolks, environmentalists and citizens have complained against this ecological violence over the years. in recent years, fisherfolks lodged their protest against the industrial encroachment and pollution that has destroyed mangroves and adversely affected aquatic life affecting their livelihoods. the industries are expanding; apart from the three operating cfpp, another one has been cleared. within 10km, there will be 6 000mw of coal plants. all have environmental clearances, but environmentalists argue that these documents mean little. clearance by the ntecl (tamil nadu energy company limited) has proclaimed that the “boundary for the proposed power project would be outside the crz [coastal regulation zone]”. but the plant boundary encloses mangroves. this industrial hell of fly ash and fumes is far from the eyes of the city dwellers who benefit from the electricity and the other products. instead, the people living here (such as fishers and immigrant workers), despite bearing all costs, don't get any of the benefits. we report two examples. 3 the song, which is a cultural expression of environmental justice movement can be viewed in this link: https://video.scroll.in/826772/watch-tm-krishna-sings-to-arouse-people-intopreventing-chennais-environmental-degradation https://video.scroll.in/826772/watch-tm-krishna-sings-to-arouse-people-into-preventing-chennais-environmental-degradation https://video.scroll.in/826772/watch-tm-krishna-sings-to-arouse-people-into-preventing-chennais-environmental-degradation [87] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier the workers who have at once been employed to construct one of the power plants, now live with their families in miserable huts right on one of toxic fly ash dump without any facilities (water, sewage or electricity) and are left to their destiny. the residents are all casual workers, many from odisha and jharkhand. environmentalist nityanand jayaraman reports that one odiya worker from keonjhar said: “we came here more than 15 years ago to build the power plant. we used to live there”, he said pointing inside the plant:,“once it was built, we had to get out. now we get by with odd jobs here and there”. sivanpadai veethi kuppam, an inland village of the fishing community, has been devastated by pollution, ill-health and dwindling catches. there are hardly any fish in the creek now, villagers report. many species have disappeared. those with boats sail to less polluted waters to fish. others who use hand-cast nets walk along the banks all the way to the river mouth more than 8 km away, a full day's work with uncertain results. years ago, this area was home to mangroves and fishing communities. today, the whole site is highly contaminated. fly ash from the thermal power plant is dumped in the nearby riverbank and wetlands. recently, locals notice the encroachment of wetlands. there are signs such as “this land belongs to ntecl” (tamil nadu energy company ltd). nityanand jayaraman explains that these signs are a lie, as this was never land but water and wetlands. until recently, this was a healthy marine ecosystem with life and livelihoods. such sprawling wetlands are excellent flood mitigators. their vast surface area allows them to swell and accommodate rain waters and tidal surges. converting them into paved real estate will exacerbate flooding and deflect the impact of storm surges to less resilient areas. on 31 december 2015, the hindu (yamunan 2015) reported: “fishermen allege that mangroves have been destroyed at athipattu owing to works undertaken by kamarajar port trust”. fishermen in ennore took to the streets protesting against the destruction of mangroves in the athipattu area by a contractor engaged by ennore port (officially renamed kamraj port limited, kpl). as severe floods had recently affected chennai, the fishermen claimed that mangroves were crucial for limiting the damage during cyclones. also, the vegetation breeds prawns, a major source of livelihood in the area. according to a. venkatesh, president of mukadhwarakuppam kadal meenavar cooperative union, a large area of mangrove vegetation was levelled by dumping rubbish. the activity was carried out on behalf of the port. in late november 2015, the port faced similar allegations when activists claimed dumping of spoils of dredging in 400 acres of hydrologicallysensitive wetland area as part of the port’s development activities. in its ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] response, the kpl said it had purchased land to the extent of about 683 acres adjoining the ennore creek from the salt department. the letter stated that: “... the dredged material has been dumped at low-level area at the south of north chennai thermal power station road where the land was purchased from the salt department. it is informed that filling is proposed in kpl land only and not in the waterbodies”. it also assured the natural flow of the creek would not be disturbed. however, mr. venkatesh disputed the claim and said the very fact that mangroves have been levelled shows that a very sensitive area has been filled. he told the hindu: “this activity is also a violation of crz (coastal regulation zone) notifications. our community will scale up the protests if this does not stop immediately” (yamunan 2015). the conflict goes unabated. 5. conclusion india has the highest number of cases reported in the ejatlas database. but few are considered as successes in environmental justice. using the multidimensional approach for understanding violence, we can argue that violence is manifested in one way or the other in every single conflict. ecological distribution conflicts follow often a pattern of brutality and violence, human rights violation, asymmetric power structures and illegal methods and intimidation tactics to coerce the ecosystem people into giving up their land, livelihood and often culture. it must be highlighted then, the tremendous effort by movements which continue to remain non-violent (as most in india are) under such exertions of violence at different levels. it doesn’t come as a surprise then, that environmental justice movements are claimed to be forces of sustainability (scheidel et al. 2018). analyzing only a few cases, in the limited space of an academic journal article, has shown how different forms of violence overlap across and within conflicts. it is coherent with the findings of navas et al. (2018), which further discusses the different ways in which environmental defenders and communities resist violence against them, and conclude that ‘the common understanding of violence in environmental conflicts as a direct event in time and space is only the tip of the iceberg and that violence can reach not only environmental defenders, but also communities, nature and the many species living in, and the sustainability of their relations’. violence has structural, cultural and ecological aspects. it is not only episodic, it is often slow and invisible for stretches of time. [89] brototi roy and joan martinez-alier in central america, the resistances are not just against specific environmental injustices, but also against the violence of patriarchy and coloniality. in india too these links are probably present in the tribal population’s resistance against internal colonialism, and in the role of women in environmental movements. they are largely unmentioned in the present article, and garners further research, both in the indian context and comparatively with other regions of the global south. meanwhile the role of dalits both as victims and agents of resistance in environmental conflicts is one facet of political ecology of india that does not appear in the same form elsewhere (sharma 2018). the social metabolic processes are similar everywhere: the violence(s) and the resistance(s) are also similar (although india has a specific vocabulary of civil disobedience), as are the protagonists and the forms of mobilization of what we see as a global movement for environmental justice. what differs are the social, cultural and political specificities. in this regard, a future agenda for academic-activist coproduced knowledge on political ecology (defined as the study of ecological distribution conflicts) should aim towards more comparative south-south collaboration to learn from other parts of the world going through the same struggles and protests, with the aim to co-create a socio-ecologically just and equal society. references akula, v.k. 1995. “grassroots environmental resistance in india.” in ecological resistance movements: grassroots environmental resistance in india edited by b.r. taylor, 127-45. new york: suny press. bisht, a. and j.f. gerber. 2017. “ecological distribution conflicts (edcs) over mineral extractivism in india: an overview.” extractive industries and societies 4 (3): 548-563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.03.008 das, v. 2001. “mining bauxite, maiming people.” economic and political weekly 36 (28): 2612-2614. 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conflict in rural catalonia.” environment and planning a 41 (7): 1726-1744. https://doi.org/10.1068/a41208 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0519-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-017-0519-0 https://doi.org/10.2458/v22i1.21108 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0563-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/03056240420005512 https://doi.org/10.1068/a41208 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 129-138, july 2022 book review contribution to the sustainability and equity dialogue sagar dhara ramprasad sengupta, entropy law, sustainability, and third industrial revolution, oxford university press, new delhi, 2020, pp. 271, isbn: 978019-012114-3. two decades after rachel carsen’s book, silent spring, woke up the world in the 1960s to the horrors of environmental pollution, there was widespread disquiet on another question—“is the current global development trajectory sustainable?” to throw light on this question, the united nations secretarygeneral, javier pérez de cuéllar, appointed the world commission on environment and development, under the chairmanship of the former norwegian prime minister, gro harlem brundtland. the brundtland commission’s definition of sustainable development, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future  male; upper class and caste; university educated; city-slicker; member of the most ferocious predatory species that ever stalked the earth—humans. in a collapsing world, other ways of writing bios are less meaningful. sagdhara@gmail.com copyright © dhara 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.720 mailto:sagdhara@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.720 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] generations to meet their own needs,” has since gained prevalence over other definitions (wced 1987, 41). but without the use of a quantitative index to measure progress towards sustainable development, qualitative definitions like the one above— notwithstanding their eloquence—may be used till the cows come home, but will remain sterile and unactionable. in the three and a half decades since the brundtland commission’s definition came into vogue, the increasingly rapid pace of unsustainable development of human society has brought us to the verge of three tipping points—climate change, peak oil (represents the exhaustion of critical nonrenewal minerals), and growing inequality between and within countries. each of these crises may independently cause the regression or even the collapse of human society, as has happened in some past civilizations. salient features of part 1 of the book the book entropy law offers a quantitative index to measure sustainable development in the form of the overall sustainability development index (osdi). the author believes that all three dimensions of sustainability— economic, social, and environmental—are equally important. he elaborates on them as follows: • economic sustainability requires cost-effective growth to reduce poverty and inequality and helps abate violence. a positive indicator of economic sustainability is the growth rate, and negative ones are unemployment, inflation, the fiscal deficit, and indebtedness. • social sustainability requires equitable distribution of resources and social products. this will alleviate poverty, inequality, and deprivation, which in turn will reduce crime and social tension and give an impetus to social inclusion, gainful employment for all, and people’s participation in governance. • ecological sustainability requires the reduction of the ecological footprint, improvement of environmental protection through resource conservation and pollution control, including co2, and avoiding ecological collapse. economic sustainability is quantified using the inequity-adjusted per capita income index (inequity-adjusted pc ii); social sustainability using the nonincome component of the human development index (non-income hdi); and environmental sustainability using the arithmetic mean of the ecological footprint index (efi) and environmental performance index (epi). the osdi is identified by computing the unweighted geometric mean of the indices for economic, social, and environmental sustainability. [131] sagar dhara a social sustainability index (ssi) consisting of non-income hdi, efi, and epi has also been computed. the book observes that the osdi for various countries has a high correlation with the inequity-adjusted pc ii and ssi, indicating that economic growth is the main driver of human development and that environmental conservation requires public financing. the conclusions drawn are as follows: a) growth of national income and its stability are necessary for sustainable development b) social spending is needed to eliminate deprivation and create universal social access to the benefits of growth for people the hdi and osdi ranks of countries have a high correlation, indicating that the osdi-computing methodology may be biased in favour of economic indicators. salient features of part 2 of the book this section discusses india’s energy status and transition pathway from fossil fuels to green energies. the abundance of coal reserves in india has led to its dominance of india’s energy basket along with oil. the share of fossil fuels in india’s energy mix is 72%. india has little oil and gas and hence imports about 34% of its energy. renewables, combustible biomass, and waste contribute 25% to the country’s energy consumption. india’s high gdp growth rate in recent decades has propelled energy consumption to grow at 4.1% pa between 1990–2013. india’s per capita energy use and co2 emissions are about one-third of the global average and one-tenth that of the usa. access to electricity and clean cooking energy is low, particularly in rural areas. yet, india’s energy and carbon intensities (per unit gdp) are lower than the global average. the abundance of biomass, solar, and wind (in some states) energy sources in india will allow green energies to replace fossil fuels and usher in the third industrial revolution. hydro and nuclear energy are green energy candidates but will not make the cut. hydro’s declining share in india’s energy basket is due to long project gestation periods, human displacement, and adverse environmental impacts. nuclear energy capacity will grow significantly only if india succeeds in mastering fast breeder reactor technologies, for which india has fuel in abundance. further, hydro and nuclear energy projects face resistance from people. the results of a demand model, which projects electricity requirements in the future in various assumed scenarios, indicate that the generation ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [132] capacity of all types of fuels will grow, though renewables will grow at a faster rate than fossil fuels. it is possible to significantly delink emissions from growth. to set up large solar and wind capacities, adequate financing and trained manpower are required. the expansion of renewables will reduce energy poverty, create energy security, and reduce the carbon footprint. the book concludes by stating that strategies for economic growth must be combined with investments for social and environmental infrastructure development. environmental sustainability requires that the ecological footprint be reduced and that steps are taken to protect the environment. the reduction of poverty and inequality will promote economic growth and human development. however, capitalist economies are designed for market development, which runs counter to controlling entropy increase. dialogue entropy law has done a creditable job in developing a much-needed quantitative index—osdi—and discussing the future of the indian energy sector in light of sustainability and equity issues. rather than view this section as a book review, it must be viewed as a continuation of the dialogue on sustainability and equity, to which entropy law has made a valuable contribution. is osdi the best indicator? in the last decades, several development indicators that prioritize diverse values have been proposed. for example, the gross national happiness index (united nations n.d.) measures the happiness and well-being of a country’s population. the genuine progress indicator separates societal progress from economic growth (cse n.d.). the environmental hdi (ehdi) foregrounds the principles of equity, historic responsibility, and planetary boundaries by internalizing the climate and ecological pressures of economic growth. in complete contrast to their hdi and osdi ranks, panama, costa rica, and sri lanka have high ehdi ranks, whereas the usa, uk, and singapore rank low (bhar and dhara 2021). osdi does not consider historic responsibility for territorial or consumptive emissions or the extraction of surplus by developed nations through unequal exchange with underdeveloped regions. these factors are important for climate and economic justice. by internalizing the efi and epi, the osdi at best indirectly covers the extent of infringement of planetary boundaries, an important factor for understanding sustainability. osdi also does not cover the happiness of the population. had entropy law argued its eminence vis-a-vis a dozen-odd ‘holistic’ indicators, it may have gained more attention. [133] sagar dhara is entropy law’s discussion on sustainability adequate? while entropy law glancingly warns of the upper limit of our planetary ecosystem’s capacity to meet human demands, it repeatedly stresses the need for economic growth in india for poverty and inequality reduction. a discerning reader would then ask, what are the planetary limits to growth? how much can india grow? is the growth of the indian economy contingent on the degrowth of global north countries; how is this politically feasible? sustainability has two aspects to it, i.e., the earth has finite resources and a finite capacity to process wastes. both aspects are discussed briefly below. there have been a series of warnings since the 1950s that the earth’s resources are finite, but these have been ignored. based on oil reserves and production data, king hubbert predicted in 1956 that oil production in the us would peak by the 1970s and subsequently decline. his theory came to be known as ‘peak oil’ and was subsequently applied to global oil, coal, gas, and other non-renewable minerals. peak oil occurred about two years ago, and oil reserves will be exhausted in another 40–50 years. likewise, gas will be exhausted in about 60 years, and coal, before the end of this century (ghosh and perlas 2009). the first report of the club of rome took the world by storm in 1972 when it raised the question of the earth having a finite capacity to provide resources and absorb wastes (club of rome 1972). sequels to this report have deepened our understanding of this issue. about 80 non-renewable minerals, including iron and copper, are expected to deplete to critical levels by 2100 because of their high rate of extraction. in his book blip, christopher clugston refers to this as “humanity’s 300-year self-terminating experiment with industrialism” (clugston 2019). likewise, that global warming is caused by human emissions has been known since 1896, when arrhenius published his first calculation. yet, it took more than a century for the world to wake up to this reality. “keep 1.5oc alive,” i.e., that global warming must be restricted to 1.5oc, was the mantra that was chanted repeatedly in the cop 26 held in november 2021 in glasgow. in its report published in 2021, climate change 2021: the physical science basis, the ipcc warns that to meet the ≤1.50c ambition, current emissions must be halved by 2030–35, and the world needs to become net carbon zero by 2050–55 (ipcc 2021). to meet those targets, emissions must reduce by 7% pa for the next 30 years. however, emissions have grown by 1.2% pa since the 2015 paris agreement was signed (ritchie, roser, and rosado 2020a). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [134] the difference between expected emissions in 2030 (based on current performance and country pledges to tackle climate change), and desirable emissions in 2030 to be ≤ 1.5oc compliant, known as the emissions gap, has doubled between the assessments made by the unep in its 2016 and 2020 emissions gap reports (unep 2016; unep 2020). efforts made so far to curb emissions have failed. there are then good reasons to believe that keeping 1.5oc alive is an unviable ambition (dhara 2022). for instance: • global warming due to greenhouse gases has already hit 1.5oc but has been temporarily muted by particulate matter air pollution. • the top six greenhouse gas (ghg) emitters, who together contribute 70% of global emissions, have shown inadequate ambition to reduce their emissions. • shifting climate targets, and climate science and policy being at odds, have not created an atmosphere conducive to emissions reduction. • a quarter-century of demand-side management to reduce fossil fuel use has failed. our current emissions control trajectory, provided all country pledges are fulfilled, will result in a warming of 2–3oc by 2100. this warming is unacceptable as it will catastrophically impact the global environment and human society. renewable energy consumption has trebled in india since the 1997 kyoto protocol was signed—as has that of fossil fuels (table 1)—in a jevons paradox-like situation. instead of replacing fossil fuels, renewable energy is supplementing them. this is a global phenomenon (table 1). entropy law does not mention this phenomenon while discussing the question of sustainability. table 1: global and indian energy use by type since the kyoto protocol agreement world india fossil fuels (gtoe) renewable energy (gtoe) fossil fuels (gtoe) renewable energy (gtoe) 1997 7,740 670 259 19 2019 11,760 1,600 733 63 source: ritchie, roser and rosado (2020b). [135] sagar dhara without considering the above aspects, how good are entropy law’s projections regarding india’s future electricity demand and how to meet it? must some other countries reduce their fossil fuel consumption to allow india to meet its poverty alleviation targets? is sustainability in one country possible along with climate justice? entropy law has touched on the divide between the global north and south nations on fossil fuel use. to protect their development standards, north nations wish to restrict emissions to avoid a temperature rise of more than 1.5–2oc. south nations that have been experiencing high growth rates (e.g., china and india) in the last three to four decades, have prioritized national development by consuming more fossil fuels over curbing emissions—despite knowing that they are among the most climatevulnerable regions with populations that have low resilience. since the 2009 copenhagen cop, differing objectives for national development and consequently dissonance in the understanding of emissions control has been at the root of conflict between north nations and high growth south nations with large emissions. there are only two solutions to this impasse. one, that the world comes together as one people to tackle climate change, agreeing to share equitably the wealth and risks that fossil fuels have produced, which is what climate justice truly is. second, the north nations impose their will on the south and curb global fossil fuels consumption without providing the south with the means to eradicate poverty and inequality, which is not climate justice. at the time of writing this review, two weeks into the ukraine war, the world is experiencing a serious oil shock, unseen since 1980. a 5% reduction in oil supplies has doubled oil prices in just the last two months to nearly $140/bbl, which will cause a global inflationary trend. the unfolding scene gives us a glimpse into a bleak resource-scarce future in an inter-connected world. by stating that poverty and inequality alleviation is necessary, but by discussing sustainability only in the indian context, is entropy law stating that sustainability and climate justice in one country is possible? if so, the book should have argued its case. energy statistics may be deceptive: entropy law states that the potential green power generation capacity is estimated to be 3,400 gw, of which solar, wind, and other new renewables constitute 95%. while this may appear to be a large capacity, only a fraction of it will deliver power. intermittence of solar and wind power: solar and wind energy have low power load factors (plf) due to intermittence. though renewables other ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [136] than hydro constituted 27% of the power generating capacity in 2020, they generated only 9% of the power (table 2). table 2: india’s power generating capacity and power generated in 2019–20 total power generation capacity/power generated fossil fuels (%) hydro (%) wind, solar, other renewables (%) nuclear (%) power generation capacity 31 mar 2020 446 gw 60 12 27 4 power generated 2019–20 1,383 twh 79 10 9 2 source: cea (2021) technology deployability: mean theoretical global wind energy is estimated to be 1,200 tw, but the deployable amount is only 1 tw due to difficulties in reaching or servicing areas that have high wind potential, the fraction of wind potential available in the lowest layer of the troposphere, the fraction of wind that interacts with the generator’s blades, and energy conversion efficiency. it is not clear whether the power generation capacity figure of 3,400 gw quoted in entropy law refers to the theoretical potential or deployable energy. depletion of critical non-renewable substances used in renewables: many non-renewable substances whose reserves will deplete dangerously within this century are used in wind and solar energy technologies. for example, a large amount of copper is used in electrical grids, motors, wind, and solar technologies. about 2.7 and 8–15 t/mw of copper is used in onshore and offshore wind generators, respectively. by 2030, about 40% of copper production is projected to be used by the renewable energy sector. given current known reserves, copper will be exhausted in about 40 years (capilla and delgado 2014). only about 40% of used copper is recycled. this implies that copper prices will shoot up to that of silver in another decade. the permanent magnets in wind turbines are made of neodymium-ironboron and dysprosium. the european union has put neodymium and  there is a rounding off error of 1% in the total of the percentage breakup of power generation capacity. [137] sagar dhara dysprosium on a high-risk supply list and the us department of energy identifies dysprosium as a most critical substance that may be in short supply in the short and medium terms (capilla and delgado 2014). has entropy law considered the low plf’s of renewable energy, the deployability of renewable energy technologies, and material shortages while quoting green power capacities? entropy and sustainability: entropy law refers to entropy and the second law of thermodynamics (the book refers to it as the entropy law). except for making a few terse statements about entropy, the book does not connect entropy to its main arguments. the book would have read better had no reference been made to entropy. conclusion if we desire a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful society, the above dialogue leaves us with these questions: • how much of nature (energy and matter) can human society use to call itself a sustainable society? if that quantity is significantly less than today’s extraction, should degrowth be an option that should be contemplated seriously, particularly considering peak oil and climate change? • why did we go into overshoot? what will keep us from repeating that mistake? • what are the principles and mechanisms for production, distribution, and ownership of goods, services, and surplus created from nature? • where will energy and material be sourced from in the future? • why is direct sunlight, the energy that is most suitable for a sustainable society, never valued? how should the valuation of goods and services be carried out in a sustainable and equitable society? entropy law has done its job by developing an index to quantify sustainability and showing how india’s energy sector can move towards renewable energy. it is for us to now carry the discussion forward. references ghosh, tk, and ma prelas (eds). 2009. “hubbert peak theory”. energy resources and systems. dordrecht: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2383-4_10 united 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https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2016 https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020 https://ourworldindata.org/energy https://www.news9live.com/world/travails-of-becoming-sustainable-egalitarian-society-is-remaining-under-15c-warming-feasible-156281 https://www.news9live.com/world/travails-of-becoming-sustainable-egalitarian-society-is-remaining-under-15c-warming-feasible-156281 https://cea.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/general/2020/general_review_2021.pdf https://cea.nic.in/wp-content/uploads/general/2020/general_review_2021.pdf https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7323 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 31–32, july 2019 conversations: practising sustainability science: challenges in teaching and research sustainability education: the importance of diversity harini nagendra  we live in extraordinary times. the vast global crisis of sustainability manifests itself on multiple frontiers. for the first time in human history, we are at risk of crossing multiple planetary boundaries related to earth system processes critical to our future survival. the recent global assessment of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services estimates that more than 1 million species are at risk of extinction, threatening the safety nets that protect the livelihoods and food security of millions of people across the world. effects of global warming by more than 1°c are increasingly making their consequences felt in a wide range of natural disasters. the severity of these impacts is bound to accelerate in the coming years. academic understanding of sustainability have failed to keep pace with the growing need. first, as hassan (this issue) stresses, there is a clear global north-south divide. our paradigms of understanding and action are dominantly driven by the global north, whereas the “ground zero” of climate change impacts is squarely in the global south. second, as hassan as well as rai and lele (this issue) point out, there is a disciplinary imbalance. insights from sustainability science and economics tend to have a greater impact in shaping global discourse as compared to insights from the social sciences, and from practice. the three papers in this special section provide diverse, yet complementary perspectives on how to address some of the challenges of the sustainability crisis through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education, drawing on  editor and coordinator for this conversations section. school of development, azim premji university, pixel b, pes campus, hosur road, electronic city, bangalore 560035; harini.nagendra@apu.edu.in. copyright © nagendra 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.72 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.72 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] educational experiences within the global south. hassan provides a global overview of sustainability science and education, and stresses the importance of learning from southern educational experiences such as that of the southern african development community regional environmental education program (sadc-reep). purushothaman (this issue) describes the learnings from sustainability education within a masters’ programme at azim premji university (in which this author is also closely involved). she highlights the importance of keeping the complexity and normative aspects of sustainability alive in the classroom without descending into vagueness. rai and lélé describe their experiences with teaching early career researchers in a phd programme in conservation science and sustainability studies at ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment. they stress the need to train students to question the value-laden biases that shape their own research from within, and to challenge existing unequal power structures from without, so that research-informed critique is linked to action. it is also interesting that each of these essays uses a different term to explore sustainability. while all three articles stress the need to bridge disciplinary divides, hassan approaches sustainability from the perspective of sustainability science, while rai and lélé focus on a normative goal of sustainable development, and purushothaman deliberately sheds both suffixes to focus on sustainability. each of these terms is carefully selected and has merit to its choice, reminding us that sustainability is a complex term, and sustainability education must not narrowly define and bound itself, if it has to have wider meaning. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 1-3, july 2022 editorial the journal: a relook after five years kamal bawa, kanchan chopra it was five years ago that we joined our colleague jayanta bandhopadhyaya (later succeeded by kuntala lahiri-dutt) as editors of this journal. our terms come to an end in early 2023. it has been an exciting journey. we wish to take this opportunity to briefly reflect on the past, present, and future. the journal has been privileged to have the support of leading scholars from all over the world by way of contributions. it has also evolved into an attractive and preferred destination of publication for younger scholars. its different sections cover important issues ranging from energy transitions to challenges facing ago-ecological farming and a great deal in between. special sections have also covered a range of issues from new epistemologies of water to a revisit of the commons. further, its papers use diverse methodologies ranging from those of standard environmental economics to social metabolism and material import–export focused ones. the current issue follows the same tradition by including papers that span a wide variety of both themes and methodologies. the two commentaries address the questions of a green recovery and clean energy transition through a macro-opinion piece and an in-depth micro perspective, respectively. one research paper examines agricultural sustainability using a livelihood security index. another attempts a critical analysis of ‘discounting disaster’ by focusing on land markets and climate change in the sundarbans region. a third studies the political economy of the water commons in  professor of biology conservation biology, college of science and mathematics, university of massachusetts, boston 100 william t. morrissey blvd. boston, ma 021253393, united states; kamal.bawa@umb.edu  former director and professor, institute of economic growth; university enclave, north campus, delhi; y-155, regency park ii, dlf phase iv, gurugram, haryana 122002, india; choprakanchan14@gmail.com copyright © bawa and chopra 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.812 https://www.umb.edu/academics/csm/ mailto:kamal.bawa@umb.edu http://www.iegindia.org/staffmembers/faculty/detail/3551/3 mailto:choprakanchan14@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.812 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] kerala. the range covered is wide by any reckoning. similarly, the books reviewed also cover subjects as far apart as ‘entropy law and sustainability from an economist’s perspective’ and ‘a study of adivasi struggles in the narmada valley’. the diversity persists and creates a niche for the journal. has the journal made a difference? five years is too short a period to observe and measure the impact. we certainly have widened our reach. ees moved to open journal systems in may 2020. this helped the journal secure a membership with crossref and made it possible for it to be archived at ag-econ, lockss (through pkp), and the environment and society portal. the journal is now being listed by scopus and has obtained the doaj seal. during the last few years, the environmental problems covered by the journal have become more acute. the pandemic has imposed additional burdens on society, slowed progress, and reduced the resources available to deal with environmental crises. at the same time, rigorous analyses of environmental and socioeconomic trends have revealed that our problems are more severe than we had thought. clearly, therefore, more communication on the themes that are the subject of this journal is needed. fortuitously, over the last few years, we have also seen the emergence of consensus that we must view issues such as climate change, the decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services, land degradation, and equity and injustice through a common lens. the causes underlying these major problems are the same: the pursuit of models of economic growth that disregard nature and how natural systems work, population expansion, inequitable and unjust development, insatiable consumption, and poor governance. not only are the causes the same, but the solutions to resolve these problems also have a common root in nature, and so are called nature-based solutions. consequently, journals such as ours, for which integration is the key pillar, have a tremendous potential to foster interdisciplinarity and serve as a platform to weave narratives into a common framework for a sustainable world. this is especially important for our region. the training of our academics and their research enterprises falls short of the requirements of contemporary sustainability science, as pointed out by the authors in one of the conversations sections devoted to the issue in the journal. neither the fundamental training, nor the career incentives offered to scholars, are directed toward fostering the needed institutional changes. furthermore, as we noted earlier, our environmental challenges are becoming more acute. public policies at the intersection of ecology, about:blank about:blank [3] kamal bawa and kanchan chopra economy, and society continue to downplay the downward trends in the quality and quantity of natural resources. regulatory regimes to access and conserve such resources in recent years have also softened. we hope that by publishing pieces using different methodologies side-byside, we will encourage researchers to follow the difficult but intellectually exciting path of interdisciplinarity and advocating for policies based on knowledge and evidence. thus, the journal can justifiably be proud of the ground it has covered. although our focus has been india, we hope that the journal will grow in its geographical coverage. we face common problems with our neighbours and beyond. furthermore, within south asia, we are bound together with a common geography, history, and culture. across the region, the same issues confront many societies. thus, while retaining the indian perspective, the journal and its readership could benefit from a greater engagement with regional scholars to realize the vision of a just and sustainable society in the region. finally, it has been a privilege and honour to work with our associate editors, managing editors, members of the editorial board, and many authors and reviewers. we are grateful for the support, advice, and counsel we have received. we have been fortunate to be part of the founding editorial team and thank our colleagues at the indian society of ecological economics for giving us this opportunity. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 37–40, july 2019 conversations: practising sustainability science: challenges in teaching and research practising and teaching sustainability under the shadow of multiple hegemonies nitin d. rai  and sharachchandra lele  1. introduction the latest report of the international panel of biodiversity and ecosystem services has concluded that biodiversity collapse is imminent, and the status quo is no longer an option. the ipcc 1.5°c report has also demanded drastic action to avert runaway climate change. simultaneously, almost half the world‘s population continues to live on less than $2.50/day and unicef estimates that 22,000 children die daily due to poverty, even as the rich get richer! the decline in environmental and social indicators has been largely attributed to the economic model of capitalist development. a reliance on economic bottom-lines, the desire for efficiency and commodification of everything is leading us into a downward environmental spiral. what do we do as practising environmental researchers and teachers to understand this multi-dimensional and interconnected global crisis; a crisis that is clearly anthropogenic? does the idea of anthropocene help us understand the roots of the crisis, or do terms such as capitalocene and technocene highlight them better? does sustainability science provide a way forward? hassan, in this conversation, deplores that ―knowledge generation in sustainability science and education in the developing world has been very  ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, royal enclave, sriramapura, jakkur post, bangalore 560 064; nitinrai@atree.org.   ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, royal enclave, sriramapura, jakkur post, bangalore 560 064; slele@atree.org. copyright © rai and lele 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.75 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.75 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] limited‖. the ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree) has explicitly embraced this idea, and has structured its research programmes around themes or sectors, rather than disciplines, and set up an interdisciplinary phd programme in conservation science and sustainability studies. we admit students from all disciplines, and introduce them to the fundamental theoretical and methodological aspects of ecology, environmental science, sociology and economics. following this, we provide training in multi-disciplinary methods and specifically in integrated approaches in environment and development that expose students to framing interdisciplinary research questions. dissertation committees are multi-disciplinary and students are encouraged to take interdisciplinary topics, which allow them to balance between the social and natural. our experience provides valuable insights into the possibilities and challenges involved—challenges created by the multiple hegemonies we confront in the real world and within academia. 2. academic hegemonies many years ago, during a meeting of conservationists and human rights activists in new delhi, gathered to discuss the future trajectory for conservation in india, a human rights activist implored conservationists to read more papers in the social sciences which she said would open their eyes to the myriad injustices and the structural violence that is waged against local people in the name of development and conservation. we believe that breaking the hegemony of the natural sciences in environmental research is an essential first step for change. although an uphill battle, given the narrow disciplinary training of indian students from class xi onwards, the tendency in academia and outside to valorize only science and technology and the predominance of natural scientists among environmentally-oriented students, our phd programme teaches students to recognize the need for a social understanding and to read across the natural-social divide. within the social sciences, again, the divide between the economic or positivist and the critical social sciences, and the hegemony of the former, poses a major challenge. explaining the assumptions and limitations of each, discussing the structure-agency debates, and offering students multiple ways of bridging the social and natural—political ecology, environmental governance and ecological economics—have proven to be useful strategies. our own research takes a similarly catholic approach, acknowledging that all bridging may be incomplete. [39] nitin d. rai and sharachchandra lele writing in oryx, william adams (2007) said that while it is important to have interdisciplinary teams, it is more important to have interdisciplinary people. and we would add that interdisciplinarity is required not for its own sake but because seeking solutions requires integrated understanding. the question, therefore, is whether our research institutions promote such interdisciplinary and applied research? the answer to this is rather dismal. the benchmarks for evaluation are borrowed from universities and hence publications become the single most important criterion for evaluation, despite knowing that interdisciplinary work is time-consuming, and that the leading journals are mostly disciplinary, with their turf guarded zealously by academics schooled in conventional systems. most importantly, an academic review can at best vouch for rigour, but does a poor job of assessing the salience of research to real-world problems. further, the state and donor agency‘s fetish for science and technology and the wider belief in technological solutions that prevails in india and probably in the developing world at large means that state support for interdisciplinary research is almost zero, while private donor support is narrowly focused on immediate impact. 3. hegemonies of values and objectivity adams also said that while environmentalists have been encouraged to ‗think like the mountain‘ (to borrow aldo leopold‘s famous phrase), it is time to now ‗learn to think like a human‘. but the term ‗sustainability science‘ only slightly humanizes conservationist thinking. purushothaman, in this conversation, says that sustainability is somehow more nuanced and sophisticated than sustainable development, but we beg to differ. that is why atree has consciously embraced the goal of promoting ―environmental conservation and sustainable development in a socially just manner,‖ openly acknowledging that environmentalism is multi-valent and that human development, equity and justice are essential concerns in it. explicitly acknowledging our concerns requires us to shed the false objectivity of applied ‗science‘ and also requires us to take positions on vital issues of public policy. this may involve speaking out against structures— of capitalism, state-ism or techno-centrism, among others. unfortunately, the institutional space for such engaged public scholarship is shrinking. work that is critical of the state or corporations is discouraged as institutions are often wary of displeasing the state or corporate donors. this is in line with a global squeeze on dissent as more and more populist and right-leaning governments take control. the attempts by the indian government to apply civil service rules to academics in government-funded ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] institutions so as to prevent them from speaking against state policy is a chilling reminder of the times we live in. this fear of state reprisals pervades the non-governmental sector even more as these organizations are vulnerable to state and corporate power. atree believes in supporting and training free-thinking intellectuals who understand the linkages between environmental and social issues. researchers acknowledge, and students are constantly trained to see, that the constructions of environmental problems are value-laden and that we need to question the basic assumptions that are often taken for granted when solutions are articulated. the central message is for students to develop an engaged science and critique. equally, we have to move from critique to action, or as paul robbins (2012) says, from hatchet to seed. this will require freedom from existing hegemonies, freedom to experiment, to look outward as well as inward, given that the roots of current environmental crisis are embedded in the very social, political and economic fabric of our lives. references adams, w. 2007. ―thinking like a human: social science and the two cultures problem.‖ oryx 41 (3): 275–276. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0030605307004131 robbins, p. 2012. political ecology: a critical introduction. 2nd edition. uk: wiley blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0030605307004131 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 7-31, july 2023 research paper does assignment of individual property rights improve forest conservation outcomes? empirical evidence from west bengal, india sandip chand and bhagirath behera abstract: the past few decades have seen significant changes in the governance of forests in india. the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of rights on forest) act (fra), 2006, was a landmark act passed in the indian parliament to assign individual property rights over forest resources that have been de facto used by local communities. this paper examines whether the assignment of individual property rights results in positive outcomes for forest conservation using village-level forest patta (forest land title) and census data from bankura district in west bengal. vegetation continuous fields data has been used to measure the change in forest cover from 2006 to 2012. the results show that the percentage of forest patta land in the village, distance to markets, the existence of pucca roads, and the presence of forest protection committees (fpcs) are negatively and significantly related to forest degradation, implying improvement in forest conservation outcomes. the presence of tribal people, a larger population, and higher literacy rate are positively associated with forest degradation, meaning that they have an undesirable impact on forest conservation outcomes. the findings of this study strongly suggest that the assignment of individual property rights to both the scheduled tribes (sts) living in the forest and other traditional forest dwellers (otfds) under the fra, 2006, tends to improve forest conservation outcomes. hence, it is suggested that the distribution of individual forest rights (ifrs) under the fra may further improve forest conservation outcomes. keywords: forest rights act, individual forest rights, forest governance, forest conservation, west bengal.  research scholar, department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology, kharagpur, india. chandsandip12@gmail.com  professor, department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology, kharagpur, india. bhagirath9@gmail.com copyright © chand and behera 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.709 mailto:chandsandip12@gmail.com mailto:bhagirath9@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.709 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] 1. introduction according to property rights theory, a person who holds exclusive rights to a property has an incentive to protect it because he or she will keep getting services from it. it further suggests that there are different classes of property rights holders, who have varying rights with respect to incentives, the types of activities undertaken, and the outcomes achieved (schlager and ostrom 1992; table 1). the bundles of property rights may be de jure or de facto. de jure rights are those that can be enforced legally with formal institutions, whereas de facto rights originate among and are enforced by resource users themselves (schlager and ostrom 1992). the right of exclusion provides proprietors considerable incentives to undertake required investments in natural resources because they can be reasonably confident of earning a return on their investment (posner 2014). therefore, exclusion rights incentivize resource owners to make long-term investments in the resource that he or she owns and make it more productive (schlager and ostrom 1992). in light of the above arguments in favour of individual property rights, it can be seen why nearly every developing country in the world is currently experimenting with some kind of change in natural resource management by devolving some rights to the community and individual users to use and manage natural resources (edmonds 2002; persha et al. 2010). for several decades, india has also devolved a significant degree of property rights concerning the management of forest resources to local communities. the first step in this regard was taken in the 1988 national forest policy, which accepted the role of local people in forest resources management, followed by the adoption of the joint forest management programme in 1990. however, in 2006, a landmark forest act, called the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of rights on forest) act, was passed in the indian parliament, which assigned individual property rights to forest dwellers over forest resources that have been de facto used by them. however, it is important to note that individual property rights granted to forest dwellers under the fra are not well defined in contrast to private property rights. for instance, under the fra, forest dwellers do not have the right to transfer/trade forest land for which the patta (documented legal right/title over forest land) has been provided, and hence, they lack exclusive ownership rights over the land (table 1), which violates the fundamental conditions needed to ensure an efficient structure of property rights with respect to a private property regime (behera and engel 2006). table 2 summarizes the evolution of major forest policies, acts, and programmes in india since independence, which clearly shows that over the [9] chand and behera years, india has devolved several critical rights over forest resources to local forest dwellers. table 1: bundles of property rights in fra bundles of rights position patta land community forest resources access and withdrawal authorized user ✓ ✓ management claimant ✓ ✓ exclusion proprietor ✓ ✓ alienation owner   source: authors section 3(1) of the fra provides de jure access, withdrawal, management, and exclusion rights in the case of ifrs, locally known as forest patta (see table 1). as per section 4(4) of the fra, the rights recognized and vested will be heritable but not transferable or alienable, and in the absence of a direct offspring, the rights will be passed on to the patta holder’s closest relatives. since forest dwellers cannot sell or lease their rights of management and exclusion over patta land under the fra, the patta holders are the de jure proprietors of that land. the official statistics of the ministry of tribal affairs (government of india 2021) indicate that 1,973,349 pieces of ifr land have been distributed, which cover 1.72 million hectares of forest land. given the above-mentioned strong arguments in favour of devolving individual property rights to achieve effective natural resources management and conservation outcomes, it is imperative to examine whether assignment of ifrs to forest dwellers under the fra in india have improved forest conservation outcomes. limited studies have examined the effectiveness of the fra in improving these outcomes. this paper attempts to bridge this knowledge gap. we identify factors that are likely to influence forest conservation outcomes through an extensive review of the related literature and using our own understanding from field visits and analyse these factors using appropriate regression techniques. these factors include the assignment of individual property rights over forests along with physical, socio-economic, and demographic factors that may influence effective forest resource management and conservation outcomes after the implementation of the fra. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] table 2: evolution of forest policies in india since independence major forest policies, acts, and programmes main features indian forest policy, 1952 introduced a functional classification of forest land. it aimed to bring 33% of the total geographical area of the country under forest cover national commission on agriculture, 1976 emphasis on meeting the requirements of forest-based industries through commercial forestry following a scientific approach to growing trees forest conservation act, 1980 minimize deforestation and conserve biodiversity and wildlife indian forest policy, 1988 recognition of the participation of local forest inhabitants in the protection of forest resources joint forest management programme, 1990 adoption of forest department and communitybased joint forest management forest rights act, 2006 devolution of forest rights to st forest peoples and other traditional forest dwellers source: authors there is a large body of literature on the variables that might explicate the differential outcomes seen in forest conservation. it is observed that forest degradation is multifaceted, context-dependent, and caused by several socio-economic and demographic processes. a significant number of deforestation drivers have been reported globally, although the causes of deforestation are complex and region-specific (ullah et al. 2022). geist and lambin (2001) arrived at a multi-causal structure of the determinants of deforestation, which describes the various interlinked proximate and underlying factors that contribute to deforestation. the proximate factors are human interventions that directly affect forest conservation or degradation outcomes—for example, wood extraction, expansion of agriculture, and extension of infrastructure. the underlying factors are vital factors that reinforce the proximate factors, which include demographic, socio-economic, technological, and policy and institutional factors (geist and lambin 2001). demographic factors significantly influence forest conservation outcomes. human population pressure has been shown to be an important factor contributing to forest degradation (wibowo and byron 1999). population size can have an impact on deforestation through the number of rural households requiring lands for farming, firewood, and timber (kaimowitz and angelsen 1998; lópez 2022). [11] chand and behera socio-economic factors play an important role in forest conservation and degradation. households associated with forest degradation have low incomes, are less educated, and own less land (mena, bilsborrow, and mcclain 2006; yanai et al. 2020). moreover, marginal farmers and labourers are more likely to be involved in deforestation due to insufficient physical and financial capital (angelsen et al. 2014; nerfa, rhemtulla, and zerriffi 2020). consequently, families with relatively lower socio-economic status are more likely to contribute to deforestation (specht et al. 2019). in addition, forest degradation is also found to be linked to closer proximity to markets and towns, shorter distance from the main roads and waterways, and greater road density, all of which assist in resource extraction activities and fuel an increase in demand for forest produce (lópez 2022; haq et al. 2022; li et al. 2015). cultural factors (e.g., beliefs and individual or household behaviours) are also important drivers of forest conservation outcomes. the indigenous and traditional cultures of india hold the religious view that plants and groves in the natural world are sacred (sukumaran et al. 2008; ray and ramachandra 2010; singh et al. 2010). since ancient times, such socio-cultural and religious beliefs among indigenous groups have helped in conserving forest areas (kandari et al. 2014). policy and institutional factors are crucial in forest conservation. as mentioned above, property rights regimes, titling, legalization, and consolidation (of individual titles) may influence conservation outcomes. in developing countries, co-management or joint forest management policies have been implemented, which have had mixed outcomes with regard to forest management and protection (datta and sarkar 2012; behera 2009). very few empirical studies exist that examine the impact of the fra on forest conservation outcomes even 14 years after the implementation of the act. khosla and bhattacharya (2020) emphasize the recognition of ifrs, which have a substantial effect on forest conservation outcomes. guntuka and kukrety (2019) studied changes in forests using geospatial tools and recorded the net impact of the implementation of the fra on forest conservation. their results show that the forest areas awarded to tribal households under the fra seem to have been adversely affected in terms of forest conservation outcomes, and the continued use of forest areas for agriculture under the fra as well as encroachment may further adversely influence the ecosystem (guntuka and kukrety 2019). some wildlife activists have opposed the fra as being anti-conservation. however, others indicate that under the act, local communities can be roped in to promote biodiversity conservation by blocking the use of forest land for ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] large-scale construction projects and by applying local knowledge and values to promote conservation (broome, rai, and tatpati 2017; sarangi 2017). the remainder of this paper is organized as follows. different provisions under the fra and a description of its organizational structure are presented in section 2. section 3 provides a description of the study area, the sources of data used in the study, and the methods applied to analyse the data. the results and discussion are presented in section 4. section 5 concludes with significant policy implications. 2. provisions under the fra and its organizational structure as indicated in section 1, the fra empowers local communities by giving them some property rights over forests, which is a radical departure from previous forest policies, including provisions under the joint forest management programme. the primary goal of the fra is to “recognize and vest the forest rights over forest land in forest-dwelling sts (fdsts) and otfds who have been residing in forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded.” the act grants forest dwellers rights over the sustainable use of forest resources, biodiversity conservation, and maintenance of ecological balance (ministry of tribal affairs 2006). therefore, it decentralizes forest management and devolves responsibility for it to forest dwellers and local village-level institutions in place of the state (lee and wolf 2018). the act applies to tribal people and otfds who have been residing for three generations—which means for over 75 years before 2005—and who rely on nearby forest resources for their livelihood requirements (ministry of tribal affairs 2006). there are three categories of forest rights that the eligible parties can claim: (1) individual rights to forest land for self-cultivation and habitation; (2) community rights of ownership, collection, and use of traditionally collected non-timber forest produce as well as other customary community rights; and (3) community forest resource (cfr) rights, which establish legitimate community-based forest governance (ministry of tribal affairs 2006; lee and wolf 2018). the act recognizes 13 specific rights of forest dwellers which previously existed in all types of forest lands, even in protected areas (cfr–la 2016; ministry of tribal affairs 2006). section 5 of the fra empowers forest patta holders and the gram sabha to act to conserve and protect forests, wildlife, and biodiversity as well as their adjacent catchment areas (ministry of tribal affairs 2006). table 3 reports the main rights and responsibilities enshrined in the fra, and figure 1 presents the [13] chand and behera organizational structure of the fra, indicating various activities and the corresponding institutional levels. table 3: rights and responsibilities of forest-dwelling scheduled tribes (fdsts) and other traditional forest dwellers (otfds) under the fra types rights and responsibilities individual forest rights (1) rights to inhabit and cultivate forest land for livelihood needs (2) rights over disputed lands and rights for the conversion of pattas or leases or grants issued by any local authority or any state government on forest land to titles (3) rights to in-situ rehabilitation and getting alternative land in case of illegal eviction community rights (1) rights to own, collect, and use minor forest products (2) community rights of forest-dependent people, for instance, nistar1 (3) other community rights such as fishing, grazing, etc. (4) rights to have access to biodiversity and intellectual property rights over biodiversity (5) habitation rights for primitive tribal groups (6) any other customarily enjoyed traditional rights excluding hunting rights to community forest resources protection and management rights over those community forest resources that they have been taking care of so far for sustainable use duties of the forest rights holder and gram sabha (1) protect wildlife, forests, and biodiversity (2) protect adjoining catchment areas and other ecologically sensitive areas (3) confirm that the regulation decision of community forest resources is in accordance with the aim of protecting wild animals, the forest, and the biodiversity source: authors 1 nistar refers to the permission given to forest dwellers to extract small trees from forest areas at predetermined rates, along with certain forest products meant for personal and legitimate domestic consumption. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] figure 1: organizational structure of the fra (activities at various institutional levels) source: authors [15] chand and behera 3. study area, sources of data, and methods this section presents a detailed description of the study area, including geographical features and forest characteristics. in addition, a detailed discussion of the data sources and methods used in this study is reported. 3.1. description of the study area forests in the state of west bengal in india are found in three major regions: in the south-west, in the north, and in the sundarbans region. this study was carried out using remotely sensed forest cover data in bankura district in west bengal. bankura district is situated in the south-western part of the state between 22 38 and 23 38 north latitude and 86 36 and 87 46 east longitude. figure 2: map showing the location of the study area source: authors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] this district has three subdivisions—bankura, bishnupur, and khatra. khatra subdivision, shown in figure 2, is our study area. most of the tribal population who are directly dependent on the forest for their livelihoods have been residing in khatra subdivision for centuries. geologically, it is a plateau fringe area. sal (shorea robusta) is the most common species in this forest; other significant species include shimul (bombax ceiba), palash (butea monosperma), mahua (madhuca longifolia), gamar (gmelina arborea), teak (tectona grandis), shirish (albizia lebbeck), arjun (terminalia arjuna), and bamboo. table 4 shows the biannual status of forest cover in bankura district from 1991 to 2021. the data shows an increasing trend in total forest cover from 1991 to 2019. however, a negative change can be seen in 2021. table 4: year-wise forest cover in bankura district year geogr aphical area (ga) very dense forest moderat ely dense forest open forest total forest cover percen tage of ga change with respect to previous assessment 1991 6,882 153 600 753 10.94 — 1993 160 660 820 11.92 11.92 1995 197 653 850 12.35 30 1997 226 641 867 12.60 17 1999 233 636 869 12.63 2 2001 453 482 935 13.59 26 2003 101 295 584 980 14.24 45 2005 100 315 612 1,027 14.92 2 2009 214 510 332 1,056 15.34 2 2011 213 510 333 1,056 15.34 0 2013 222 365 657 1,244 18.08 188 2015 212 379 673 1,264 18.37 20 2017 220 388 662 1,270 18.45 8 2019 222.33 395.27 667.9 8 1,285. 58 18.68 15.58 2021 226.34 411.67 641.3 6 1,279. 37 18.59 −6.21 source: the india state of forest reports from 1991 to 2021 (forest survey of india 2021). note: area is given in sq km. [17] chand and behera table 5: block-wise distribution of ifr titles in bankura district serial no. subdivision block total no. of beneficiaries under the fra 2006 (as provided by the po cum dwo of bcw2) total no. of beneficiaries under the fra 2006 (according to bl & lros3) 1 khatra taldangra 1,081 906 2 hirbandh 718 602 3 raipur 350 281 4 khatra 182 255 5 simlapal 792 727 6 indpur 531 310 7 ranibandh 630 511 8 sarenga 374 268 9 bankura bankura-i 0 0 10 bankura-ii 19 39 11 barjora 184 159 12 saltora 129 118 13 onda 853 829 14 chhatna 176 172 15 mejia 6 6 16 gangajalghati 273 273 17 bishnupur bishnupur 505 505 18 joypur 97 78 19 kotulpur 0 0 20 sonamukhi 233 233 21 patrasayer 324 268 22 indus 0 0 total 7,457 6,540 source: district land and land reforms office (dl&lro), bankura (2020). table 5 reports the block-wise distribution of ifr titles in bankura district. according to the project officer cum district welfare officer of the backward classes welfare and tribal development department, 2 po cum dwo of bcw refers to the project officer-cum-district welfare officer, backward classes welfare department. 3 bl & lros refers to the block land & land reforms officers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] government of west bengal, about 7,457 beneficiaries have received patta under the fra here. khatra subdivision has the largest number of beneficiaries as compared to the other two subdivisions—namely, bankura and bishnupur. 3.2. sources of data there are about 1,400 villages in khatra subdivision; among them, 89 are uninhabited and are therefore excluded from data collection. in addition, it is also observed that only 569 villages include forest areas, and these are considered in the model; 218 villages have obtained ifr titles (patta). village-level forest patta data for these 218 villages have been collected from the divisional forest office, bankura. socio-economic and demographic data have been sourced from the village and town directory, census 2011. the remotely sensed forest cover data obtained from the “socioeconomic high-resolution rural-urban geographic” (shrug) data set has been used for measuring the forest growth rate from 2006 to 2012 (shrug n.d.). since the dependent variable is continuous, the ordinary least-squares (ols) regression model has been used to analyse the data. a similar regression model has been used by other researchers (dash and behera 2015). 3.3. variable descriptions and hypothesized effects 3.3.1. dependent variable forest conservation outcomes are measured using a number of parameters: change in area under forest cover, change in canopy density, land degradation and soil erosion, reduction in wildlife numbers, and so on (basu and nayak 2011; dash and behera 2013). the change in percentage of forest cover from 2006 to 2012 has been measured using shrug data, as indicated above. it is important to note that the forest cover data available in the shrug data set are obtained from vegetation continuous fields, which is a product of the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (for more information, see asher and novosad 2019; townshend et al. 2011). the average forest cover (in percentage) for 2006 for the respective village is measured by dividing the total_forests value by num cells (equation 1). a similar method is used to determine the average forest cover (in percentage) for 2012 (equation 2). the difference in the average forest cover values from the year 2006 to 2012 is taken as a change in forest cover for the respective village, where higher difference values mean that compared to 2006, there are fewer forests in 2012. therefore, higher values indicate more forest degradation and lower values indicate less forest degradation (equation 3). the primary reason for using 2012 shrug forest cover data is so that all socio-economic and demographic variables [19] chand and behera used in the estimation of the model are from the same period because all the independent variables used in the model are taken from census 2011. the average forest cover change (%) has been calculated using the following formulas: the average forest cover (%) in 2006 = value of total_forests for 2006/value of num_cells for 2006. (1) the average forest cover (%) in 2012 = value of total_forests for 2012/value of num_cells for 2012. (2) change in forest cover (%) = the average forest cover (%) in 2006 − the average forest cover (%) in 2012. (3) 3.3.2. independent variables and their hypothesized effects it is expected that the assignment of ifrs to forest dwellers may positively influence forest conservation outcomes as people enjoy de jure rights over the forest, and this may act as an incentive for further investment in forest lands to enhance productivity. it may also remove the fear of eviction resulting from insecure forest land tenure, which is often found to have a substantial effect on forest degradation (datta and sarkar 2012). therefore, the assignment of ifrs, in our case, having a patta, could be a powerful incentive for the majority of traditional forest landholders to adopt more sustainable forest land management methods and, thus, contribute to forest growth (kothari, pathak, and bose 2011). as such, there is no record in the official data regarding the types of ifr land; we assume that the larger ifr lands are agricultural land and could be backyard plantations or orchard land, whereas the smaller lands are mostly residential land. so, it is expected that villages with a larger average per capita size of ifr land and a higher proportion of ifr land to the total forest area are more likely to undertake better forest conservation measures, resulting in less forest degradation. the existence of fpcs under joint forest management in the village is another important variable that significantly influences forest conservation outcomes. some studies have empirically shown improved conservation outcomes in forests managed and protected by fpcs (ballabh et al. 2002; behera 2008). therefore, it is expected that the existence of fpcs would be negatively related to forest degradation. many researchers have suggested that user group characteristics tend to influence forest conservation management outcomes (behera 2009; agrawal 2001). since free-riding issues are easier to resolve in smaller groups, smaller communities are more likely to be effective in the management and protection of forests than larger ones (behera 2009). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] hence, in accordance with inferences in the literature, the size of the user group is hypothesized to be negatively associated with forest cover change. here, the population size of the selected village is considered as the user group, and increased population is expected to have a positive relationship with forest degradation (wade 1987; heltberg 2001). the tribal population in the village is another important variable in forest conservation outcomes. it is commonly understood that indigenous tribal people and their lives and livelihoods are intricately connected with forests. for this reason, it is expected that they will take good care of forests, aiding conservation. hence, it is hypothesized that the higher the proportion of tribal people in the village, the lower the forest degradation. the level of education is another important variable, which can directly and/or indirectly influence forest conservation outcomes. according to several studies, higher education levels among forest dwellers could increase their opportunity costs of pursuing traditional forest-based livelihood activities; hence, they may seek better off-farm employment opportunities, which could in turn minimize the burden on forest resources and increase forest cover in the village (gunatilake 1998; adhikari, di falco, and lovett 2004). in addition, it is also observed that respondents with higher education levels tend to have a more positive attitude towards forest and biodiversity conservation in their private land than respondents with a lower education level (baranovskis et al. 2022). hence, the literacy rate of villagers is hypothesized to have a negative effect on forest degradation. marginal agricultural labourers form a sizeable population and rely on the forest and other common-pool resources for their daily livelihood activities, which is another key variable that is likely to influence forest conservation outcomes. it is observed in typical indian villages that household reliance on forest resources is substantially linked to land holding size, as landless or marginal farmers often largely rely on forest resources for their livelihoods (fernandes and menon 1987). therefore, the presence of a large population of marginal agricultural labourers is hypothesized to be positively associated with forest degradation. the distance of the village to the nearest market is used as a proxy for market access, which can significantly influence forest conservation outcomes. the effect of market access on forest conservation outcomes is a priori ambiguous (behera 2009). some authors argue that easy access to markets can have a negative impact on outcomes by raising the demand for forest resources, which may lead to increased harvesting and depletion of these resources (sundar 2000; behera 2009). however, others argue that [21] chand and behera table 6: dependent and independent variables and their expected effects on the model category variable definition expected effects forest conservation outcome ln of change in forest cover area ln of change in percentage of forest cover from 2006 to 2012 dependent variable institutional variables (assignment of property rights) ln of ifr land size ln of per capita average size of ifr land distributed to the villagers — ln of percentage of ifr land to total forest area ln of percentage of ifr land to total forest area of the village − existence of fpc dummy variable = 1, if the village has fpc; 0, otherwise − demographic variables ln of population ln of population in the village + socioeconomic variable ln of schedule tribe population ln of percentage of the scheduled tribe population to the total population of the village − ln of literacy rate ln of percentage of literate population to total population of the village − economic variables ln of marginal agricultural labour ln of percentage of marginal agricultural labourer to total working population of the village + distance to market distance to the nearest market: categorical variable = 1 if the market is available within the village; if not available within the village, the distance range code depending on where it is available—namely, 2 for <5 km, 3 for >5 km − external environment existence of pucca roads dummy variable = 1, if the village has a pucca road; 0, otherwise ? source: authors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] access to markets facilitates more agricultural activity and diversifications of livelihood to non-farm activity (agrawal and chhatre 2006). this can minimize land-use pressure on forest resources, which may decrease forest degradation. however, the literature on the direction of effect is conflicting. the existence of pucca roads is used as a proxy for forest monitoring, which can influence forest conservation outcomes. pucca roads can contribute towards better outcomes because travelling becomes easier for monitoring authorities (gautam, shivakoti, and webb 2004; agrawal and chhatre 2006; behera 2009). on the other hand, it is also hypothesized that extension of pucca roads can have a negative impact on forest cover because of various development-related changes linked to land-use pressure and easy access to the forest, which can aid in the transportation of wood (haq et al. 2022; li et al. 2015). hence, the effect of the existence of pucca roads on forest degradation is ambiguous. table 7: summary of variables used in the model variable n minimum maximum mean standard deviation ln of change in percentage of forest cover 563 −0.94 1.29 0.68 0.27 ln of size of ifr land 563 −3.07 0.67 −0.39 0.66 ln of percentage of ifr land to total forest area 563 −1.47 1.79 0.22 0.49 fpc 563 0 1 0.89 0.31 ln of st population 563 −1.11 2.00 1.31 0.71 ln of population 563 0.78 3.87 2.66 0.45 ln of literacy rate 563 1.02 1.93 1.76 0.09 ln of marginal agricultural labourer 563 −0.49 2.00 1.41 0.56 pucca road 563 0 1 0.28 0.45 distance to market 563 1.00 3.00 2.80 0.54 source: authors table 6 summarizes the measurements and definitions of the hypothesized variables as well as their expected influence on forest conservation [23] chand and behera outcomes. since the dependent variable is measured in terms of percentage change, the relationships between the dependent variable and the aforementioned independent variables are measured using ols regression. this regression equation takes the following form: ln of change in forest cover =  + 1 (ln of ifr land size) + 2 (ln of percentage of ifr land to total forest) + 3 (ln of st population) + 4 (ln of population) + 5 (ln of literacy rate) + 6 (ln of marginal agricultural labourer) + 7 (existence of pucca road) + 8 (distance to market) + 8 (fpc) + 1. (4) where,  is the intercept,  represents the vector of parameters to be estimated, and  is the error term. table 7 reports the descriptive statistics of all the variables used in the ols model. it is observed that there is considerable variation in the change in forest cover across villages. to explain this heterogeneity in forest cover change, the above-mentioned socio-economic, demographic, and institutional variables at the village level have been included in the model estimation. 4. results and discussion table 8 reports the results of the ols regression model, which estimates the determinants of forest conservation outcomes across the villages. the model is seen to be significant at the 1% level. two important violations of the assumptions of the ols regression model were tested—namely, multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. multicollinearity is tested for the explanatory variables by checking the variance of the inflation factor (vif). the value of the mean vif is 1.08, and all the vif values of individual variables are less than 1.50, which indicates that there are no multicollinearity problems among the variables. the result of the breuschpagan/cook-weisberg test for heteroscedasticity indicates that the variances are constant. with regard to the individual variables used in the model, most of them showed the expected sign except three variables. the percentage of ifr land to total forest is negatively and significantly (at the 1% level) associated with forest degradation, which indicates that villages with a larger percentage share of ifr land are less likely to contribute to forest degradation. this may be because the larger percentage of ifr land indicates larger assignments of individual property rights over forest lands, which may have incentivized the local villagers to protect the assigned land. the variable existence of fpcs in the village is found to be positively and significantly (at the 1% level) associated with forest degradation, which implies that villages having fpcs are less likely to contribute to forest ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] degradation. this could be due to better management and protection of forest resources by the fpcs. table 8: ordinary least-squares regression result of determinants of forest degradation (percentage change in forest cover) average percentage of forest cover change coefficients robust standard error t value significance vif ln of size of ifr land −0.025 0.016 −1.620 0.107 1.14 ln of percentage of ifr land to total forest −0.107 0.023 −4.680 0.000 1.06 fpc −0.105 0.032 −3.290 0.001 1.04 ln of tribal (st) population 0.084 0.014 5.850 0.000 1.10 ln of population 0.127 0.022 5.690 0.000 1.10 ln of literacy rate 0.281 0.106 2.650 0.008 1.06 ln of marginal agricultural labourer −0.022 0.019 −1.130 0.257 1.06 pucca road −0.039 0.023 −1.690 0.092 1.07 distance to market −0.061 0.016 −3.800 0.000 1.07 (constant) 0.059 0.195 0.300 0.762 number of observations 563 f(9, 554) 18.75 r2 0.1753 root mse 0.24487 mean vif 1.08 source: authors the variable tribal (st) population is found to be positively and significantly (at the 1% level) associated with forest degradation, which implies that villages with a higher percentage of this population are more likely to be associated with forest degradation. this is contrary to the hypothesis above. this may be related to the absence of any significant diversification of livelihood systems away from forest-related activities and/or a breakdown of local traditional institutions and collective action in tribal society. this needs further investigation using primary data. [25] chand and behera the variable population is found to be positively and significantly (at the 1% level) associated with forest degradation, which implies that villages with a larger population are more likely to experience more forest degradation. this could be because of the higher pressure on forest resources from the large population. the variable literacy rate is also positively and significantly (at the 1% level) related to forest degradation, which means that villages with a higher literacy rate are likely to register more forest degradation. this is contrary to our expectations as hypothesized above. this could be because educated people engage in intensive agricultural practices in the forest lands allotted to them in order to boost their income quickly. the variable existence of pucca roads is found to be negatively and significantly (at the 10% level) associated with forest degradation, meaning that villages connected by pucca roads are less likely to experience forest degradation. this could be because roads enable monitoring authorities to travel easily inside the forest, thus enhancing forest protection. the distance to the nearest market is also negatively and significantly (at the 1% level) associated with forest degradation, meaning that villages that are located far away from markets are less likely to experience forest degradation. this is because better access to markets could incentivize forest dwellers to extract more forest produce and sell them in the market, which may result in the degradation of forest cover. similar results are reported by sundar (2000). 5. conclusion and policy implications this study attempted to identify and analyse the factors that could explain the differential forest cover change across the villages where the fra has been implemented—where individual property rights have been assigned to improve forest conservation outcomes. the study was carried out within a well-defined framework of property rights, resource user characteristics, and the external environment and their relation to the percentage change in forest cover in bankura district in west bengal. the study clearly identifies the differences between a private property regime and individual property rights in the context of the fra. it is observed that the pattas distributed among forest dwellers under the fra do not conform with all the requirements for an efficient private property rights regime, such as exclusivity and transferability and/or tradability. however, even with illdefined individual property rights over forest lands, the empirical results provide strong evidence that the key hypothesized factors explain different aspects of forest management outcomes under the ifrs. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] it appears that villages having a higher percentage of ifr land are likely to experience less forest degradation, which essentially suggests that the distribution of ifrs (patta) for forest lands under the fra has contributed to increased forest cover. as discussed above, the assignment of individual property rights over forest land may have helped in reducing fear of eviction among forest dwellers, encouraging them to follow proconservation measures. in addition to permanent tenurial right, the forest dwellers also receive other support services from the forest department; more importantly, fostering mutual trust between the forest dwellers and the forest department may have contributed to the increased forest cover. the findings of this paper are confirmed by an extensive body of literature on the importance of tenurial security for better resource management (datta and sarkar 2012). hence, it may be suggested that more forest dwellers be given ifrs for better management of resources. an important institutional finding is the existence of fpcs in villages. the variable fpc is negatively and significantly associated with forest degradation, indicating that the fpcs may have better management and protection practices that help reduce forest degradation. another interesting finding, which has important policy implications, is the association between the distance to the nearest market and forest conservation outcomes. in villages that are located closer to markets, more incentives are needed to arrest forest degradation. villages with a higher literacy rate are also likely to experience more forest degradation. this could be because more educated people may have greater aspirations to improve their living conditions and, hence, may engage in intensive agricultural practices on the forest lands allotted to them; they may also indulge in selling forest produce, especially high-value wood. hence, there is a need to create awareness among educated people in the community to protect forest resources. there is also a need for adequate non-farm employment opportunities in forest communities, which could go a long way in improving forest conservation outcomes. the study also found that villages with a higher percentage of st people are likely to experience more forest degradation. it may be noted that in the absence of diversification of livelihood systems other than forest-related activities, population growth can put pressure on existing forest resources. the other probable reason for this result could be a breakdown of innate local traditional institutions and collective action in tribal society. however, it should be noted that the above findings are based on secondary data, which may have some limitations, and in-depth studies using primary data are needed to verify these findings. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with [27] chand and behera requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used in this paper is not provided in a repository as the study is secondary in nature and the data can be downloaded from the original 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ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 81-108, january 2023 research paper investigating the health of a rice field ecosystem using thermodynamic extremal principles ayan mondal, nilanjan das,** rituparna banerjee,*** sunanda batabyal,**** sohini gangopadhyay,***** harisankar ray,# nivedita biswasd,  sudipto mandal### abstract: this study investigates the dynamic behaviour of a rice field ecosystem and aims to define its integral features using the stability concept of an ecological goal function. this function is based on the extremal principles of  ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. mondalayan.zoo@gmail.com ** ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, indianilanjandas1995@gmail.com *** ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. rituparna93banerjee@gmail.com **** ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. sunanda.envs@gmail.com ***** ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. aslgsohini@gmail.com # ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. rayharisankar1996@gmail.com  ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. niveditabiswas.1143@gmail.com ### ecology and environmental modelling laboratory, department of environmental science, university of burdwan, golapbag-713104, purba bardhaman, west bengal, india. sudipto11@gmail.com copyright © mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.925 mailto:mondalayan.zoo@gmail.com mailto:nilanjandas1995@gmail.com mailto:rituparna93banerjee@gmail.com mailto:sunanda.envs@gmail.com mailto:aslgsohini@gmail.com mailto:rayharisankar1996@gmail.com mailto:niveditabiswas.1143@gmail.com mailto:sudipto11@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.925 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] thermodynamics, which assume that certain energetic processes of ecosystems— such as the rate of exergy destruction—are directed by the self-organizing informatics of the systems towards maxima or minima. in our study, we exploit the availability of substantially long time-series data relating to a rice field ecosystem to gain an evocative understanding of its growth trajectory in light of the thermodynamic principles. we accomplished this by constructing a model based on the stella 9.0 software and calculating the extremal values of growth rates (storage) and those of exergy destruction and entropy creation. the results showed that the values of both maximum dissipation and maximum exergy progressed apace with that of maximum storage till the maturation of rice and became stable thereafter, whereas maximum residence time and maximum specific dissipation values initially decreased before their asymptotic rise. a similar pattern was also observed for the maximum specific exergy. however, the maximum power dissipation curve followed a highly fluctuated course before becoming stable on the maturation of rice. keywords: far-from-equilibrium system; goal-function; rice field ecosystem; thermodynamic ecology 1. introduction ecosystems are complex, hierarchic, adaptive, and organized, as they are comprised of many components. these biotic and abiotic components interact to produce new emergent states that are impossible to predict accurately (nielsen and ulanowicz 2011). however, ecosystems exhibit certain common structural and functional characteristics that suggest they are driven by some directive principles that determine their future trajectories, such as the extremal principle of least action. modern research in ecology aims to test the application of various goal functions in characterizing ecosystems’ structure and evolution (mauersberger and straškraba 1987; jørgensen et al. 2007). using goal functions in ecology simplifies ecological modelling and stability concepts by introducing extremal principles from which the “integral features” of the ecosystem can be derived (mauersberger and straškraba 1987; jørgensen et al. 2007). according to nielsen and jørgensen (2013), there are three goal functions: biotic, network, and thermodynamic. biotic goal functions are related to biodiversity, biomass, species number, richness, and evenness while network goal functions involve flow matrix, respiration, and import–export analysis (ulanowicz 1986; baird and ulanowicz 1989; christensen and pauly 1992; fath and patten 1999). thermodynamic goal functions, summarized by yen et al. (2014), essentially seek to maximize or minimize a thermodynamic property of the macroscopic state of the system. these include a large set: “maximum exergy storage” (jørgensen and svirezhev 2004), “maximum energy storage” (odum 1988), “maximum residence [83] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal time” (fath, patten, and choi 2001), “maximum entropy production” (dewar 2010; kleidon 2010), “minimum entropy production” (prigogine 1995; martyushev and seleznev 2006), “min-max principle of entropy production” (aoki 2006), “maximum rate of gradient degradation” (schneider and kay 1994), “maximum power” (lotka 1922; brown, marquet, and taper 1993; delong 2008), “maximum empower” (odum and pinkerton 1955), “maximum ascendency” (ulanowicz 1980, 2003), “minimum specific energy dissipation” (margalef 1963), “constructal law of evolution” (bejan and lorente 2010), and “maximum rate of cycling” (morowitz 1968). several of these different quantities are, in fact, equivalent or complementary, as explained by several researchers (jørgensen 1992, 1994; patten 1995; jørgensen and nielsen 1998; fath, patten, and choi 2001; ray 2006; yen et al. 2014). limits and extremal principles are found to order many natural phenomena, such as animal sizes and the heights of mountain chains, and provide a rationale to order masses of data in an analytical framework. indeed, the first such principle to explain ecological processes was formulated in 1859 by darwin as the “survival of the fittest”—those ablest to harvest the available resources. the recognition of ecological systems as open systems powered by the sun and maintaining a dynamically stable state by exchanging energy and materials from their surroundings—like a thermodynamic engine—led lotka to propose in the 1920s that ecosystems flourished by maximizing the rate of entropy production. several related extremal principles have been formulated (figure 1) towards developing the ecology theory since then. however, the examples of testing these in the field are still too few to warrant a clear direction. in this study, we present an application of four of these formulations to data from rice fields to test their relative or collective fruitfulness in explaining the growth trajectory of rice plants. these are based on the concepts of energy, exergy, total systems throughflow, and ascendency. 2. data and application of the extremal principle the experiment was carried out at two sites: the crop research and seed multiplication farm (crsmf) (lat: 23°15'4.09"n, lon: 87°50'41.05"e) for the ecosystem of domesticated rice fields and bamchandaipur village (lat: 23°13'35.95"n, lon: 87°54'34.34"e) for the ecosystem of wild rice fields in purba bardhaman district, west bengal, india (figure 2). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] figure 1: a chronological snapshot of different propositions and events depicting the evolution in the concept of goal functions through time source: authors figure 2: study sites of domesticated (left) and wild rice field (right) ecosystems source: authors 2.1. data collection field sampling was carried out for three consecutive years, from march 2016 to june 2019. the sampling was carried out at weekly intervals during the morning (7:00–10:00 ist) and evening (15:00–18:00 ist) hours throughout the study period. accordingly, there were 170 sampling days during the entire study. there are four zones in the rice field ecosystem: benthic or littoral, limnetic, transitional, and terrestrial. various forms of [85] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal sampling were used for the multiple taxa occupying each zone to record total biodiversity. water and soil collection and sweeping were done through a randomized complete block design method to reduce sampling bias. the eight functional compartmental guilds were assigned based on trophic levels—green plants as producers, phytophagous as herbivores, predators as carnivores, omnivores, detritivores, and parasitoids. in some cases, where direct observation of food habits was not possible, a coffeetable experiment was performed to determine the food preferences, and the guild was assigned accordingly. all the collected and calculated data are provided in appendix 1. water-level data for wild rice fields were recorded at weekly intervals throughout the year and averaged to identify the monthly values (figure 5). 2.2 the extremal principles tested in this study four thermodynamic extremal principles were tested on the rice field data described in the previous section. these are emergy, exergy, total system throughflow, and ascendency; and are outlined here: 2.2.1. energy energy and exergy, the two target functions, are based on thermodynamics. emergy, or embodied energy (odum 1983), is a concept that assesses how much solar radiation is required to create a particular organism (biomass). the biomass, or its free energy, is multiplied by a factor determined by the amount of solar energy required to generate one unit of energy in the organism. the number of transfer and transformation stages a system has taken away from its input source is assumed to increase the quality of energy brought into it and its energy content. because they are farther away from solar-energy inputs than photosynthesizing primary producers, upper trophic-level animals in ecosystems are thought to have a higher energy quality. 2.2.2. exergy the amount of work a system can do when it is brought into equilibrium with its surroundings is thermodynamically characterized as exergy. exergy attempts to account for both the free energy stored in biomass and the free energy stored in information. exergy represents the quality of the ecosystem’s energy. the expression for exergy calculation proposed by mejer and jørgensen (1979) is (1) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] where r = gas constant, t = absolute temperature, ci = concentration in the ecosystem of the component, i. index 0 = inorganic components of the considered chemical element and cieq = corresponding concentration of ith component at the thermodynamic equilibrium. boltzmann’s constant (1.3803 × 10-23 j molecules-1 deg-1) equals kt lni, where i is the pieces of information we have about the state of the system and k is boltzmann’s constant (1.3803 × 10-23 j molecules-1 deg-1). this means that the exergy of one bit of information is equal to kt ln2. information transfer from one system to another is frequently a nearly entropy-free energy transfer. as an ecosystem grows, it becomes increasingly successful in capturing and dissipating the exergy of incoming solar radiation (schneider and kay 1994). schneider and kay (1994) propose the dissipation of exergy as a target function. this exergy is employed to create and maintain organization and structure. exergy accounts for the biomass and information stored in it; therefore, increased nutrient concentrations will likely result in more exergy. the ability to account for the system’s ability to use available resources would be beneficial. the concept of specific exergy is used to describe this ability, which is defined as (equation 2): (2) where β = quality factor, calculated based on the amount of information embedded in the genes, and x = biomass concentration of the ith species relative to the total biomass concentration. when the temperatures of the two systems vary, the entropy lost by one system does not equal the entropy acquired by the other. still, the exergy lost by one system equals the exergy transferred and obtained by the other. in this case, exergy is more convenient than entropy. exergy can be used to express the second rule of thermodynamics as follows (equation 3): (3) this implies that exergy is always lost, that is, work is lost as heat that cannot be used to perform work. the entropy and exergy formulations of the second law of thermodynamics are, of course, interchangeable. 2.2.3 total system throughflow (tst) the first quantitative attempt to quantify ecosystem growth was lotka’s “maximum power idea” (lotka 1932, which defined power as work per unit of time. the concept evolved into a theory by odum and pinkerton (1955), [87] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal who stated that ecosystems act to maximize their power output. tst refers to the energy flow throughout the entire system (equations 4 and 5). (4) (5) where j=1, 2,…,n although this concept was not explicitly related to energy quality or system organizational traits, it was indicated that systems that generated more power were better suited and favoured in evolutionary selection. 2.2.4 ascendency ulanowicz (1986) created the concept of ascendency to account for the throughflow of energy in an ecosystem (t) and network (a). ascendency refers to the part of a system’s intercompartmental articulation that is dictated by the entire complexity of the collection of processes that corresponds to organized flows and is weighted by the tst (equation 6). (6) maximizing this aim function should describe the autocatalytic tendencies inherent in structuring emerging ecological networks. ascendency takes into account the network’s size (t) and the information contained inside it. a is a massive variable; the size term t is the most important in most calculations (equation 7). (7) as a result, the structural exergy should be firmly linked to a-t, whereas the exergy should be more strongly linked to the size term t but perhaps also to a because t is the most dominating term. average mutual information is dimensionless and has a limited range of values—generally between 2.0 and 6.0. in non-negative real values, tst— which scales this information quantity—can be highly variable. as a result, the ascendency metric is dominated by throughflow, resulting in highly correlated findings for power and ascendency (jorgenson 1992). 2.3. model development ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] an eight-compartment model was constructed (table 1 and figure 3) to evaluate the interrelationship among extremal principles and subsequent stability analysis. the components of the model are presented in table 1. the model used these components as state variables to calculate the extremal principles. table 1: the eight major components (producer, herbivore, carnivore, detritus, detritivore, omnivore, and parasitoid) with examples components examples components examples producer detritivore herbivore omnivore carnivore parasitoid detritus nutrient source: authors the description of equations (eq) and symbols are given in appendices 1 and 2. equation 8 describes the carnivore dynamics, with inflows primarily based on pred, detcarn, and pred1 and outflows primarily based on mortfish, refi, omni3, and para3. herbivores and carnivores both had an impact on predation (eq 8.1). carnivores and detritivores both had an impact on the detcarn (eq 8.2). carnivores and omnivores both had an impact on pred1 (eq 8.3). only carnivores had an impact on both the mortfish (eq 8.4) and refi (eq 8.5). carnivores and omnivores influenced the omni3 (eq 8.6). carnivores and para were both affected by para3 (eq 8.7). eq 9 describes the detritus dynamics, with inflows primarily based on mortfish, mz, mort, mortomni, and mortpara and outflows primarily based on outdet, detfed, and omni5. carnivores had an impact on the mortfish (eq 9.1). carnivores and herbivores both had an impact on the mz (eq 9.2). herbivores and producers had a consequence on the mort (eq 9.3). the [89] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal omnivores influenced the mortomni (eq 9.4). para had an impact on the mortpara (eq 9.5). detr and qv influenced the outlet (eq 9.6). detr and water level had an impact on the detfed (eq 9.7). omnivore and detr were both influences on the omni5 (eq 9.8). eq 10 can be used to define the detritivore dynamics. detfed is the most common inflow, whereas detexcr, detcarn, omni4, para5, and rdetri are the most common outflows. detr and water level had an impact on the detfed (eq 10.1). detritivore and water level both influenced the detexcr (eq 10.2). carnivores and detritivores both had an impact on the detcarn (eq 10.3). there were detritivore and omnivore influences on the omni4 (eq 10.4). detritivore and para5 both had an impact on para5 (eq 10.5). detritivores affected the rdetri (eq 10.6) eq 11 describes the herbivore dynamics, with inflows mostly based on gr and outflows depending on pred, mz, rz, omni2, and para5. herbivores and producers had an impact on the gr (eq 11.1). herbivores and carnivores both had an impact on predation (eq 11.2). herbivores and carnivores had an impact on the mz (eq 11.3). herbivores had an impact on the rz (eq 11.4). herbivore and omnivore interactions altered the omni2 (eq 11.5). herbivore and para were both impacted by para5 (eq 11.6). eq 12 can be used to define nutrient dynamics. outflows are primarily based on up and outn while inflows are primarily based on input and detexcr. nutin, qv, and the water level all had an impact on the input (eq 12.1). detritivores and the water level both influenced the detexcr (eq 12.2). nutr, producers, and the water level all had an impact on the upt (eq 12.3). nutr and qv had an impact on the outn (eq 12.4). eq 13 can be used to define the omnivore dynamics; outflows are primarily based on mortomni, pred1, para4, and romni. in contrast, inflows are primarily based on omni1, omni2, omni3, omni4, and omni5. producers and omnivores had an impact on the omni1 (eq 13.1). herbivore and omnivore interactions altered the omni2 (eq 13.2). carnivores and omnivores influenced the omni3 (eq 13.3). there were detritivore and omnivore influences on the omni4 (eq 13.4). detr and omnivore had an impact on the omni5 (eq 13.5). the omnivore had an impact on the mortomni (eq 13.6). carnivores and omnivores both had an impact on pred1 (eq 13.7). para and omnivores had an influence on para4 (eq 13.8). the omnivorous had an impact on the romni (eq 13.9). eq 14 can be used to define parasite dynamics. outflows depend primarily on mortpara and rpara while inflows are primarily based on para1, para2, para3, para4, and para5. para and producer had an impact on para1 (eq 14.1). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] para and herbivore had an effect on para2 (eq 14.2). para and carnivore had an impact on para3 (eq 14.3). para and omnivore had an impact on para4 (eq 14.4). para and detritivore affected para5 (eq 14.5). para impacted the mortpara and rpara (eq 14.6, 14.7). figure 3: the calculation framework of extremal principles values in stella 9.0 source: authors eq 15 can be used to define the producer dynamics. upt and uptc are the most common inflows whereas gr, mort, out ph, omni1, para1, and rpro are the most common outflows. nutr, producers, and the water level all had an impact on the upt (eq 15.1). up had an impact on the uptc (eq 15.2). producers and herbivores both had an impact on the gr (eq 15.3). producers and herbivores both had an impact on the mort (eq 15.4). qv and producers influenced the out ph (eq 15.5). omnivores and producers had an impact on the omni1 (eq 15.6). para and producers had an impact on para1 (eq 15.7). producers had an impact on the rpro (eq 15.8). [91] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal the sums of rdetri, refi, romni, rpara, rpro, and rz was utilized to determine dissipation in eq 16. the exergy dynamics can be defined using eq 17, which is the sum of all the producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, deter and detritivores, and para. where the values of and . when the tst was divided by tss, eq 18 was used to calculate the residence time. when the dissipation was divided by throughflow-derived storage (tss), eq 19 was utilized to define the specific dissipation. when the exergy was divided by tss, eq 20 was utilized to define the specific exergy. eq 21 can be used to calculate the tss, which is the sum of all of the carnivore, detritivore, herbivore, omnivore, para, and producer populations. the tst is defined by eq 22 as the sum of detcarn, detexcr, detfed, gr, mort, mortfish, mortomni, mortpara, mz, omni1, omni2, omni3, omni4, omni5, para1, para2, para3, para4, para5, pred, pred1, and upt (refer appendix 1). 3. result and discussion 3.1. integration of goal function theoretical approaches have dominated the investigation of the thermodynamic extremization principle. consistencies between energy storage and dissipation showed that existing thermodynamic extremization principles might be unified. hence, interaction between the two categories (energy storage and dissipation) is possible. based on the aforementioned theories, the extremal principles could be integrated as shown in figure 5. maximal energy storage implies maximum energy dissipation (metabolic rate). because living species always dissipate energy, an ecological system can improve energy dissipation by increasing energy storage (biomass) until the energy storage reaches a maximum (that is, the system becomes resource-limited). by combining maximum energy dissipation and maximum energy storage, all thermodynamic extremization concepts are compatible. numerous thermodynamic extremization principles have been proposed and applied to ecological issues. many of the energy quantities have been linked (figure 4) to ecological quantities including biomass, food-web complexity (e.g., link density), growth rates, life-cycle duration, and community stability, all of which have been shown to follow predictable trajectories during ecosystem evolution (odum 1969; loreau 1998). the relevant literature is scattered and distinguishing between possible extremization principles has received much attention. despite their apparent differences, multiple thermodynamic extremization principles may ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] be boiled down to two main themes: energy storage and dissipation (fath, patten, and choi 2001). various energy storage and energy dissipation principles are discussed in their paper. figure 4: mathematical integration of extremal principles source: authors note: all acronyms have been elaborated in paragraph 2.2 according to energy-dissipation principles, natural systems utilize energy at extreme rates. maximum energy dissipation indicates high throughput whereas minimum energy dissipation indicates efficient energy utilization (that is, organisms using energy as fast as possible). maximum energy dissipation does not always imply poor use of other resources—such as water or nutrients—as efficient use of these resources is sometimes required for high energy dissipation. in this study, two scenarios are considered: maximum entropy creation and maximum power. according to the principle of maximal entropy production (mep), all non-equilibrium thermodynamic systems produce entropy as quickly as feasible, returning the system to a state of maximum entropy as soon as possible (martyushev and seleznev 2006). several attempts have been made to derive generic proof for far-from-equilibrium systems (dewar 2003, 2005), but none have been successful (grinstein and linsker 2007). the rate of “useful” energy usage (e.g., conversion to biomass or reproduction) (jorgensen and svirezhev 2004), the rate of “emergy” use (odum 1996, hall 2004, tilley 2004), and “fitness” or rate of reproduction have all been linked to power (brown, marquet, and taper 1993). loreau (1998) proposes that adequate definitions of power should be based on ecological processes because each of these definitions of power only covers one component of energy consumption (e.g., demography, resource use). the exergy principle has been provided as a tentative thermodynamic law that might be used as a hypothesis in the present research. ecosystems have [93] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal a lot of different paths and much exergy flowing through them. increases in system features such as distance from thermodynamic ground, structure, heterogeneity, organization, gradients, and energy quality result from incremental exergy increases that accompany rising path lengths. as throughflows increase with the increase of path length, this feature becomes more aligned with exergy and emergy. asc (ascendency) in ecosystem networks leads to the maximum of these values because tst corresponds to power output, which is often a substantial component of ascendency. as a result, the four extreme principles of exergy maximization, emergy, power, and ascendency are linked by a single process: exergy propagation in ecological networks. according to our findings, exergy, emergy, power, and ascendency are all found in the structure and microscopic dynamics of energy, matter flows, and storages in ecosystems. 3.2. health of rice field ecosystem in relation to the extremal principles the present study showed that nutrition and water level are the most important and main regulatory parameters for wild and domesticated rice field ecosystems. the nutrient content and water level in domesticated and wild rice fields were different. the nutrient content of a domesticated rice field was 40 mgcg-1 but only 18 mgcg-1 in a wild rice field environment. water concentration in domesticated rice field systems varies between 2.8–12 cm, but in wild rice field systems, it varies between 10–70 cm due to higher rainfall during monsoon seasons. figure 5 depicts the water level in the domesticated and wild rice field ecosystems. figures 6 and 7 describe the conditions of extremal principles in the domesticated and wild rice field ecosystems, respectively. zehe et al. (2010) studied the maximum energy dissipation and the connection between water flow and soil structure. they concluded that biological soil structures are crucial for infiltration and soil water flow. hence, the burrows created by the worms allow for a more efficient redistribution of water within the soil, which implies a more efficient dissipation of free energy. in the present comparison, the maximum dissipation values for the domesticated rice field ecosystem touch 175 kj near around 100 days of rice cultivation and then decrease with time, whereas, in the wild rice ecosystem, the value is nearly 16 kj around 120 days of cultivation and remain stable throughout the study period. hence, it could be said that the water flow of the domesticated rice fields was controlled and infiltration of the water-forming network within the soil ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] structure is temporary with high dissipative energy—implying higher entropy production. however, no such mechanism occurred in the wild rice ecosystem. the field was a natural wetland system and was always inundated by water flow depending upon rainfall. although the values of maximum dissipation were lower than domesticated fields, the value (17.5 kj) reached an asymptote beyond the shattering of rice seeds, implying lower entropy in the system. sheng et al. (2020) add that the shattering of rice seeds is an evolutionarily beneficial phenomenon for wild rice varieties. this trait is beneficial for dispersal, preventing the seeds from drying and losing seed dormancy. figure 5: temporal variation of water levels in domesticated (annual plant) and wild rice (perennial plant) field ecosystems source: authors in the present study, the minimum specific dissipation of the domesticated rice field ecosystem was constant (0.020) during rice cultivation. however, the values are a bit higher for wild rice fields (0.020–0.040), meaning the values were greater till the panicle initiation stage of rice and behaved the same as domesticated fields after the development of reproductive structures. ludovisi, pandolfi, and taticchi (2005) propound that specific dissipation is a good indicator of ecosystem health. moreover, the higher the specific dissipation of a system, the lower the capacity of a system to convert the incoming entropy energy into internal organization. the nutrient input of the wild rice fields was non-controlled, resulting in differential resource utilization by the rice plants until the crop reached its sexual maturity. after the panicle initiation period to shattering, the system behaved quite self-organized. however, in the domesticated fields, the nutrient input was controlled throughout the study. hence, all the rice plants showed high productivity and greater self-organization compared [95] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal with wild rice throughout the period, from germination to harvest. despite having higher entropy in the system, the rice plants managed the nutrients efficiently in the domesticated rice fields. hovelius (1997) compared the exergy and energy values for salix, winter wheat, and winter rape cultivation in sweden. she reports that the exergy values were always greater than the energy values depicting the quality of energy utilized by the crops. in the domesticated rice fields, the values ranged between 350,000–400,000 kj, which was 10 times higher than the wild rice fields throughout the study, confirming the better energy quality in the system. it also showed better resource utilization and nutrient accumulation in the biomass of rice seeds in the domesticated rice fields. the values in the wild rice fields increased like a growth curve and reached an asymptote after shattering, implying the gradual accumulation of nutrients throughout the growth period. however, the values increased till crop maturity in the domesticated rice field and then decreased after harvest, that is, the post-harvest situation of rice straws in the field. the present findings are in agreement with hoang and alauddin (2011). jekayinfa et al. (2022) observed that the use of machinery in the processing and production of soybean crops fetches higher exergy values. in the domesticated rice fields, the labour cost, tractors for irrigation, use of fertilizers and pesticides, and weeding resulted in higher cumulative exergy values than in the wild rice fields. similar results were obtained by yıldızhan (2017) during his study on wheat production in turkey. the minimum specific exergy was almost identical for wild and domesticated rice field ecosystems (40 kj kg-1 oc), showing no change in the specific exergy at each phenological stage from germination to shattering in the wild rice fields. however, variation was observed for domesticated rice fields. hence, minimal useful work was observed for domesticated rice fields. the wild rice field ecosystem possesses more faunal biodiversity than the domesticated rice fields, resulting in a complex food web and more ecological interactions among the organisms. hence, the specific exergy change between the two trophic levels is minimum and uniform. however, the man-made or domesticated system is destroyed after a certain time or harvest. also, irrigation destroys the soil structure, altering the existing biodiversity and specific exergy. the average maximum residence time in the domesticated rice fields was (0.6), while in the wild rice fields, it was (0.35)—showing higher throughput-derived storage in the previous field than the latter with the same tst values. schramski et al. (2015) advocate that the average ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] residence time of an ecological system is dependent upon the body size, temperature, and structural organization of the system. with the increase of species number in the wild rice fields, the tst, maximum power, or cycling of the nutrients and energy transfer was low compared to domesticated rice fields. the maximum storage (tss) was almost 10 times higher in the domesticated fields. hence, the ratio between tss and tst appeared to be small for the wild rice system. figure 6: temporal variation of seven different extremal principles (dissipation, exergy, residence time, specific dissipation, specific exergy, tss-storage, tstpower) in the domesticated rice field ecosystem source: authors [97] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal figure 7: temporal variation of seven different extremal principles (dissipation, exergy, residence time, specific dissipation, specific exergy, tss-storage, tstpower) in the wild rice field ecosystem source: authors 4. conclusions the present research shows that current extremization theories could be merged to exhibit a pattern of significant correlation. this integration of extremization ideas ought to make using them easier and enable a change in emphasis toward empirical investigations. it could be concluded that maximum dissipation and maximum exergy progressed apace with that of maximum storage till the maturation of rice and became stable thereafter. in contrast, maximum residence time and maximum specific dissipation values initially decreased before their asymptotic rise. a similar pattern was also observed for maximum specific exergy. however, the maximum power dissipation curve followed a highly fluctuated course before becoming stable on the maturation of rice. although they are uncommon, empirical investigations of thermodynamic extremization principles are crucial to our comprehension and use of these strategies. we used a dynamic ecosystem modelling technique in wild and domesticated rice fields to see how they reacted to various environmental conditions. this result indicates that wild rice fields are healthier and more stable than domesticated ones. our approach might be modified to forecast a wider variety of ecological patterns that could help determine how applicable thermodynamic concepts are to ecology. exciting areas of study ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] include the development of quantitative theories and the empirical verification of these hypotheses, which should make it easier to apply thermodynamic concepts to common ecological issues. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the funding agency, serb, dst, government of india, new delhi, (project no. emr/2016/002618) for conducting the research work. the authors also acknowledge the agricultural scientists of the department of agriculture, government of west bengal, and the officials of 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energetics research.” ecological modelling 84 (1–3): 291–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(94)00135-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/0266-9838(91)90024-k https://doi.org/10.1134/s0006350912030219 https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12130 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstb.2009.0308 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(94)00135-9 [103] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal appendix 1: symbols and initial inputs used in the construction of the model 1 symbol explanation values and equations pred predation rate of carnivore upon herbivore if (herbivore>3) then (0.1*carnivore*(herbivore-0.1)/(1+herbivore)) else (0) detcarn predation rate of carnivore upon detritivore 0.33*carnivore*0.17*detritivore/(detritivore+1) pred1 predation rate of carnivore upon omnivore 0.1*carnivore*(omnivore-0.1)/(0.5+omnivore) mortfish mortality rate of carnivore 0.02*carnivore refi respiratory rate of carnivore 0.06*carnivore omni3 predation rate of omnivore upon carnivore 0.04*(carnivore-0.1)*(0.2*omnivore)/(carnivore+2) para3 parasitization rate of parasite/parasitoid upon carnivore carnivore*para*0.00001 mz mortality rate of herbivore 0.2*herbivore+0.04*carnivore*(herbivore-0.1)/(1+herbivore) mort mortality rate of producer 0.25*producer+0.17*(producer-0.1)*herbivore/(producer+2) mortomni mortality rate of omnivore 0.034245*omnivore mortpara mortality rate of parasite/parasitoid para*0.03 outdet outflow rate of detritus detr*(qv+0.9) detfed feeding rate of detritivore upon detritus (0.1*detr)++((if (waterlevel<10) then (waterlevel*detr/3) else (detr/3))) omni5 feeding rate of omnivore upon detritus omnivore*detr*0.0176 detexcr excretion rate of detritivore (0.1*detritivore)++((if (waterlevel<10) then (waterlevel*detritivore/3) else (detritivore/3))) omni4 feeding rate of omnivore upon detritivore 0.04*(detritivore-0.1)*(0.1*omnivore)/(detritivore+1) para5 parasitization rate of parasite/parasitoid upon detritivore detritivore*para*0.00001 rdetri respiratory rate of detritivore 0.09*detritivore gr grazing rate of herbivore upon producer if (producer>30) then (0.4*herbivore*(producer-1)/(2+producer)) else (1) rz respiratory rate of herbivore 0.125*herbivore ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] omni2 predation rate of omnivore upon herbivore 0.04*(herbivore-0.1)*(0.2*omnivore)/(herbivore+1) para2 parasitization rate of parasite/parasitoid upon herbivore herbivore*para*0.00001 input nutrient input into system from outsource (nutin*qv)++((if (waterlevel<10) then (waterlevel*nutin/3) else (nutin/3))) upt nutrient uptake rate by producer (if (nutr>0.2) then (1.0*producer*(nutr-1)/(5+nutr)) else (0))+((if (waterlevel<10) then (waterlevel*nutr/3) else (nutr/3))) outn nutrient outflow rate from system qv*nutr omni1 grazing rate of omnivore upon producer 0.04*(producer-0.1)*(0.2*omnivore)/(producer+2) para4 parasitization rate of parasite/parasitoid upon omnivore para*omnivore*0.00001 romni respiratory rate of omnivore 0.02*omnivore para1 parasitization rate of parasite/parasitoid upon producer para*producer*0.00001 rpara respiratory rate of parasite/parasitoid 0.001*para out_ph outflow of producer from system producer+qv+0.1*producer rpro respiratory rate of producer 0.02*producer qv outflow constant 0.05 nutin nutrient input into the system from out-source 40 producer autotrops in the system 35 para parasite/parasitoid in the system 1 omnivore omnivore in the system 1.5 nutr nutrient in the system 1.6 herbivore herbivore in the system 10 detritivore detritivore in the system 0.6 detr detritus in the system 16 carnivore carnivore in the system 1 [105] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal appendix 2: equations used in the construction of the model 2 equations no 8 inflows 8.1 8.2 8.3 outflows 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 9 inflows 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 outflows 9.6 9.7 9.8 10 inflows 10.1 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] equations no 10.2 outflows 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 (11) 11 inflows 11.1 outflows 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 12 inflows 12.1 12.2 outflows [107] mondal, das, banerjee, batabyal, gangopadhyay, ray, biswas and mandal equations no 12.3 12.4 13 inflows 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 outflows 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9 14 inflows 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 outflows 14.6 14.7 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] equations no 15 inflows 15.1 15.2 outflows 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 3 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6 (1): 0-0, january 2023 book review discerning global and local of climate change in indian context alankar* nagraj adve, global warming in india: science, impacts, and politics, eklavya foundation bhopal, 2022 nagraj adve’s global warming in india: science, impacts, and politics is a booklet-length effort that aims to make the complexities of climate change and global warming accessible to school and college students, teachers, and activists. the emphasis throughout the booklet is on bridging what adve considers to be a growing chasm in the understanding of climate change between abstract high science and people’s popular perceptions about challenges on the ground. the first chapter, titled “understanding the science”, explains in a patient and accessible manner several of the technical aspects related to the * assistant professor, department of political science, ram lal anand college university of delhi & researcher, sarai programme centre for the study of developing societies. alankarsy@gmail.com copyright © alankar 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.890 mailto:alankarsy@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.890 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal debate on global warming—in particular, how different greenhouse gases (ghgs), such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and others, combine to produce the green-house effect. in north india, this would be referred to as a razai effect, the equivalent of trapping heat under a thick cotton blanket, preventing it from escaping. such, in fact, has been the intensity of human-induced emissions, that, by 2020, we reached an alarming build-up of 412 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — “which is the highest it has been in 2 million years” (adve 2022, 13). having equipped us with some of the relevant technical terminology, chapter 2 unpacks the increasingly complicated politics around climate change. adve states that there are essentially three frameworks within which the issue of blame and responsibility for the unbridled emission of ghgs is often discussed. the first is a discrete sector-wise measurement of ghg emissions—by industry, agriculture, infrastructure, transport, and energy. the second framework weighs the likely differences in terms of carbon footprint between rural livelihoods and urban lifestyles. and the third, which is also by far the most contentious, concerns deciding who the top emitter nations are. while adve is even-handed in how he discusses the various strengths and weaknesses of each approach, the actual emphasis of the chapter is on the thesis that “the roots of global warming lie in the inherent drivers of the world economy—maximizing profits and growth— and multiple inequalities of income and wealth” (23). in effect, it is the underlying logics of capitalism and economic growth that need to be discerned in order to make sense of the larger picture of ghg emissions. chapter 3 shifts the discussion to tracking how climate change impacts affect people and ecosystems. erratic weather patterns in a now rapidly overheating planet affect different strata of society (and environments) differently, and adve emphasises that such varied consequences can, and often do, further exacerbate existing political and economic inequalities within and among nations. this chapter, in particular, offers several examples from across india to demonstrate how global warming is affecting and altering seasons, biodiversity, the monsoons, and agriculture. coincidentally, the author of this book review is associated with a transdisciplinary research project, tapestry,1 the findings of which also correspond to the findings in the booklet under review regarding the 1 “transformation as praxis: exploring socially just and transdisciplinary pathways to sustainability in marginal environments (tapestry).” https://t2sresearch.org/project/tapestry/. https://t2sresearch.org/project/tapestry/ alankar impacts of climate change on marginalized communities in different parts of india. chapter 4 critically evaluates the policies and actions of the indian government vis-à-vis climate change. specifically, adve focuses on the various nationaland state-level climate action plans—solar energy, water management, sustainable agriculture, energy efficiency projects, sustainable habitats, and the green india mission. the government’s strategy is essentially two pronged: (a) mitigation, which refers to large-scale infrastructural and technological efforts to decarbonize energy and economic activities in general, and (b) adaptation, involving various programmes that help people cope with changing weather patterns or even harness some of the new opportunities that may arise from climatic shifts. interestingly, adve points out that mitigation efforts tend to attract more support in state plans because they also happen to be financially profitable and allow for private collaboration, whereas adaptation gets short shrift because it needs government spending and is mostly meant to cushion the poor against climate change impacts. chapter 4 ends with a useful mapping of the larger geopolitical scenario that has been shaping climate change negotiations. while briefly touching upon some of the main points debated during the different rounds of the conference of the parties (cop) meetings—from kyoto (1997) to paris (2015)—adve is keen to underline that it is the industrially advanced countries of the north that are reluctant to make meaningful commitments to reduce emissions. on the other hand, the poorer nations of the south, such as bolivia, cuba, and ecuador, seem to be making genuine efforts to tackle global warming–induced ecological challenges. the final chapter elucidates how individual and collective efforts can be mobilized to tackle climate change challenges. while at the individual level, several consumption choices can be pursued, such as choosing to install solar panels or buying energy efficient cars, collective or people-led struggles for climate justice, on the other hand, will involve more than scaling up local efforts. crafting global solidarities on the theme of climate change, in fact, will greatly depend not only on how the inner logic of capitalism is challenged, but crucially also on how meaningful demands are formulated for decarbonizing the economy and enabling the transition to non–fossil fuel energy. in sum, global warming in india: science, impacts, and politics is a very useful contribution. it is accessibly written, and in a compelling way, untangles many of the most complicated aspects of the climate change debate. but ecology, economy and society–the insee journal crucially as well, we finally have the teaching textbook on global warming that would bring the student community up to speed on the pivotal questions concerning planetary sustainability in their generation. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 21–30, july 2019 thematic essay understanding current forest policy debates through multiple lenses: the case of india sharachchandra lele  abstract: the forest sector in india is in turmoil again as the government proposes changes to the national forest policy and to the indian forest act, and the supreme court appears to favour conservation over people‘s rights. this essay places india‘s forests in their socio-ecological context and using multiple perspectives—from ecology, environmental economics, common property theory, and political ecology—to explain the roots of the current controversy and think of ways forward. 1. introduction across the globe, the 1990s witnessed a distinct trend of nation states transferring (or returning) rights over tropical forests to local communities (white and martin 2002). india also followed this trend. after the chipko agitation of the late 1970s in uttarakhand and similar agitations in jharkhand and elsewhere in the country, the 1988 national forest policy (nfp88), for the first time, recognised meeting the needs of local communities as a policy objective and participatory forest management as a policy instrument. the joint forest management (jfm) experiment started in 1990 with prompting from the ford foundation and much financial support from bilateral and multi-lateral agencies and spread to all states. it seemed like forest sector reform in india was very much under way (poffenberger and mcgean 1996; sundar, jeffery and thin 2001).  distinguished fellow in environmental policy and governance, centre for environment & development, atree, bengaluru.; slele@atree.org copyright © lele 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.71 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.71 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] yet 30 years later, the forest sector in india seems to be in greater turmoil than before. the government‘s proposed revisions to the forest policy (moefcc 2018) and to the indian forest act (moefcc 2019) have drawn much criticism. simultaneously, the supreme court‘s order of february 13, 2019 1 pertaining to the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of forest rights) act, 2006 (fra) triggered a wave of protests, forcing the government to request a temporary stay. why have these tensions resurfaced? how can we understand these debates and conflicts? what academic perspectives might provide useful insights into them? after providing a historical overview, i shall argue that conventional perspectives from environmental economics and even common property resource theory are insufficient to understand the forest problem in india. they must be preceded by a socio-ecological understanding of the resource, a political ecology analysis of whose rights must prevail, and then be complemented by multi-layered environmental governance theory. 2. social ecology of indian forests western ‗scientific‘ forestry treated forests as simply a set of trees to be managed for timber, i.e., essentially a privatizable good, to use the terminology of environmental economics. this explains the large private forests in the usa, a practice that was also prevalent in europe. it also ironically explains the adoption of ‗state forestry‘ in the colonies, as a means to privatize the resource in the hands of the colonizers. at the other extreme, conservationists see forests only as providers of pure public goods such as watershed protection, biodiversity and now carbon sequestration. in which case, state management is clearly called for. but tropical forests in general, and south asia‘s forests in particular, are complex socio-ecological entities. first, they are highly diverse, requiring location-specific ecological knowledge. second, they have been historically settled and used by adivasi and non-adivasi communities. therefore, access to forests is not easily controlled, neither by individuals nor by the state, making them local-level common pool resources. but local dependence and use takes multiple forms: firewood, timber, grazing, nontimber forest products, and non-use values as well, and involves trade-offs amongst different local communities themselves. third, while these forests do provide wider regional or global environmental benefits, these are often 1 in the case of wildlife first & ors versus union of india wp(civil) 109/2008. [23] sharachchandra lele accompanied by local dis-benefits—such as crop damage or human-wildlife conflict. in other words, forest management always involves trade-offs between very different stakeholders located at different scales (lele 2004). thus, the problem of ‗how to manage forests‘ is not just one of ‗how to manage a complex common pool resource‘ but also ‗for what purpose‘ and therefore ‗for whom‘. the colonial, post-colonial and post-1990s periods must be understood in terms of which (whose) goals were prioritised and who faced the consequences. 3. ‘nationalisation’ of indian forests modern day formal forestry in india began with the takeover of majority of the country‘s forests by the british government under the aegis of the indian forest act of 1878, that was subsequently revised in 1927 (hereinafter ifa). these acts created two main legal categories of forests— reserved forest (rf) and protected forest (pf)—and empowered the imperial forest department to take over, manage and protect them. for what purpose? though not explicitly mentioned in the ifa, the goals were clear: for timber and softwood production, and thereby revenue generation. a single goal, two levels of protection, and a single manager-cum-protector. the third category—village forest (vf)—was never seriously deployed. this colonial takeover deprived forest-dwellers of much of their livelihoods. shifting cultivation was banned. timber and many commercially valuable non-timber forest products such as pine resin were ‗nationalised‘. grazing fees were imposed, and grazing areas were opened or closed as per the needs of timber forestry. indeed, natural forests were felled on a large-scale and replaced with monocultures, further impoverishing the forests in terms of locally useful products, diversity, and catchment protection services. the beneficiary was the colonial state (tucker 1983). post-independence, the 1952 agricultural policy still visualised forests as providers of raw material for industry and a source of revenue for the state (gadgil, prasad, and ali 1983). so, state control of forests continued, and in fact the area under rfs and pfs expanded as the forests in princely states and under zamindari or other forms of ownership were ‗nationalised‘. following state reorganisation, the newly formed states largely copied the ifa in passing state acts, and the imperial fd became state fds, run by an ―indian‖ forest service. continuity, rather than de-colonisation, was the mantra. post-1970s, after a belated recognition that so-called ‗game‘ hunting had decimated india‘s wildlife, the wildlife protection act was passed, and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] wildlife conservation replaced timber production as the goal of forestry in some pockets. but conservation policy was still based on exclusion of local communities, and the social cost of this conservation has been high (lasgorceix and kothari 2009). of course, complete regulation of the activities of millions of forestdwellers was never possible. alienated from the forests that they still needed, local communities were forced to resort to ‗theft‘. giving forest officers police powers in a landscape populated by marginalized and illiterate communities initially led to punishments, and eventually to rentseeking and exploitation. where communities were able to protest vehemently or violently, such as in parts of the western ghats, uttarakhand, and jharkhand, the colonial masters made some concessions. post-independence, under political pressure of a democracy, these concessions increased. but in most cases, only access rights were granted, without ceding management rights, thereby making forests de facto open access and leading to their degradation. 4. attempts at reform the nfp88 was a landmark because it shifted the priorities of forestry from production to environmental and local benefits, and the structures of forest management by introducing the idea of participatory management. the jfm programmes of the 1990s, implemented under pressure from civil society groups and lubricated with funds from international donors, were supposed to institutionalise this shift. unfortunately, jfm remained a shift on paper. it did not have statutory backing, nor did it mandate that all resource use areas be handed over to communities, nor did it give autonomy to communities to manage the resource as per their needs. jfm committees, areas and implementation extent were all as per the whims of the forest departments (lele 2014). in the meantime, forest departments managed to replace revenues lost (due to conservation policies and bans on green felling) with international loans. but these loans have been used ineffectively (kumar et al. 1999) and will have to be repaid by future generations. 5. blind spot in the discussion so far, we have focused on forests. but for forestdwellers, cultivated lands-habitation-forests form a mosaic that provides integrated livelihoods. the process of forest ‗nationalisation‘ was problematic not only because it deprived communities of access to forest [25] sharachchandra lele but also because in many cases it deprived them of their rights to habitation and cultivation. this was obviously the case with shifting cultivation, which was banned outright. less obvious is the case of settled cultivation, which as per the ifa was to be recognized and excluded from forest reservation. unfortunately, the hurried expansion of national forests following independence led to major deviations from this procedure (sarin 2005; vasan 2005). rf and pf boundaries were notified without adequate enquiry. overnight, traditional forest-dwellers became ‗encroachers‘ in their own lands (sarin 2014). this ‗unsettled‘ nature of cultivation and habitation rights was a blind spot even in the jfm period, till a supreme court order in february 2002 (wp (civil) 202 of 1995) triggered widespread evictions, leading to nation-wide protests. 6. a landmark law the idea of the fra emerged originally to redress the problem of unsettled cultivation and habitation rights of forest-dwellers in improperly notified rfs and pfs, by allowing them to claim ‗individual forest rights‘ (now section 3(1)(a)). but eventually the fra as enacted also included provisions to redress the denial of forest access and management rights to forest-dwellers by introducing community resource (cr) rights (sections 3(1)(b) to (h)) and community forest resource (cfr) rights (section 3(1)(i)) that can be claimed by village communities and which gives them fairly autonomous control. by doing so, and by also giving communities the right to say no to forest diversion (even if other state authorities including forest officers have approved the diversion), the fra substantially devolves power away from state bureaucracies to communities. at the same time, the fra requires that such community forest management meet sustainability and conservation goals—a requirement that even the ifa and the so-called forest conservation act, 1980 do not have! further, section 4(2) of fra requires that communities shall not be displaced from protected areas unless it is demonstrated through due process that co-existence of communities and wildlife is not possible and there is informed consent for resettlement. no doubt, the fra has some limitations. first, the use of a single term ‗forest rights‘ to refer to two very different tenure regimes—individual rights over cultivated or inhabited land (ifrs), and community rights to access (crs) and to manage forested lands as forest (community forest resource (cfr) rights)—is confusing. second, by requiring that claims have to be made in order to recognize cfrs, it makes decentralised governance voluntary and subject to communities knowing about their ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] rights and having the courage and ability to stake their claims. third, it does not clarify the role of the forest departments once communities begin to manage cfr areas. fourth, it does not explicitly provide timber rights, when jfm was already providing for a share in the proceeds from timber harvest. nevertheless, in addressing the problem of wrongly drawn forest boundaries, in giving statutory backing for community-led forest governance, and in giving communities a voice in conversion of their forests to either protected areas or for non-forestry activities, the fra constitutes a landmark and multi-dimensional reform in india‘s forest governance. 7. resistance to reform and its explanations the implementation of the fra, however, has witnessed much conflict and bureaucratic resistance. not only have forest bureaucracies dragged their feet in implementing many provisions, especially the cfr rights, but they have (through retired forest officers‘ associations) actively filed petitions challenging the constitutionality of the fra. in this, they have been joined by several conservationist groups. these petitions resulted in the controversial interim court orders of february 2019. meanwhile, in a similar backlash, the forestry establishment has drafted a new policy that reverses the priorities set in nfp88. worse, it has now drafted an amended ifa that inter alia gives forest departments the power to set aside rights given under the fra, promotes the much less autonomous village forest model over the cfr model, and increases police powers rather than addressing the lack of accountability that has led to the (extensively documented) exploitation of forest-dwellers. the draft amendments will also empower forest departments to take over forests in the one region where they hitherto have not been able to ‗nationalise‘ much forest land, viz., the sixth schedule areas of the northeast. why should forest sector reform generate such bureaucratic resistance and backlash? is the direction of reform incorrect? which environmental social science perspective enables us to identify policy directions and tools, and also explains the opposition to reform? neoclassical environmental economics recognises the multiple values of forests, and although the concept of total economic value skirted the question of trade-offs, the concept of payments for environmental services (pes) is premised on the idea that forests may generate positive externalities that local forest-dwellers may not care about or provide unless compensated for. but this ‗marketbased solution‘ is in turn based on, among other things, the assumption of ‗well-defined property rights‘, that is, that forest-dwellers already ‗own‘ the [27] sharachchandra lele forest and may legally choose not to provide these positive externalities if they wish. this assumption of private ownership holds in the americas (hence the proliferation of pes schemes there), but not in india. and environmental economics is agnostic about how property rights should be assigned, as it only seeks economic efficiency and treats distributional questions as outside its scope. institutional analysis of the kind developed by elinor ostrom focuses on the common-pool nature of forests, and argues that community property can be a solution under certain circumstances, and can even be a more ‗cost-effective‘ solution in some cases (somanathan, prabhakar, and mehta 2009). community management rights are thus conditional and based on efficiency arguments. both economists and ostrom-school analysts treat the state as a neutral actor, taking (and implementing) decisions in the public interest based on information that research may provide. it requires one to take a political ecology perspective to foreground a different normative concern, that of equity and social justice, and to question the assumption of a neutral, undifferentiated, public-minded ‗state‘. the core question of ‗whose rights or stakes must get priority‘ cannot be answered without asking ‗what is a fair allocation of rights‘. political ecology acknowledges the unfairness (or ‗historic injustice‘, to use the language of the fra) in colonial usurpation of the customary rights of forest-dwellers and the further injustice in rendering them encroachers. devolving rights back to local communities is therefore not a matter of efficiency, nor to be justified on the grounds of the conservation-mindedness of local communities, but as a right to more democratic governance (lele and menon 2014). furthermore, political ecology alerts us to the theoretical possibility of a non-neutral state, recognises the largely exploitative intent of the colonial state and opens up the possibility that many organs may remain largely unaccountable even when the country becomes free and democratic. one should therefore not be surprised when a forest bureaucracy resists and actively undermines reforms. this organ is the biggest landlord in the country (controlling about 23% of the landscape), has remained largely unchanged in its style and structure since colonial times and proudly boasts of a 150-year old history of ‗scientific‘ forestry in a country that became free only 70 years ago! moreover, it has been resource manager, policeman, regulator, funder and de facto policymaker all rolled into one for all this time. naturally, it will not give up these sweeping powers willingly. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] 8. way forward each social science perspective is an almost inseparable combination of normative concerns and theoretical understanding of human behaviour, making it hard to reconcile with other perspectives. but if one is to find solutions, one must figure out a way of integrating across these perspectives in analysis and in action. normatively, the tendency to see forest problems as only sustainability or conservation issues has to be resisted, and the question of justice (‗forest for whom?‘) must be faced head on. indeed, the justice question is deeper than just the historical injustice perpetrated by a colonial and post-colonial state on forest-dwellers: there also exist inequities of class, caste and gender within such communities. a normative position in which the rights of forest-dwellers (and indeed of everyone) to decentralised democratic forest governance are coupled with these other societal goals will probably have broader acceptance. on the theoretical side, a recognition of the complex multi-stakeholder and multi-scale nature of the forest resource makes a case for community-level forest governance to be nested under some form of regulation. but the generic insight that power needs to be accompanied by checks and balances to safeguard against its abuse and a specific recognition of our colonial legacy cautions against the automatic insertion of the forest bureaucracy, with its unrepudiated colonial baggage, as the regulator. newer and more democratically accountable structures will have to be thought of (see joint committee 2010, chap.8). communities will also want to make a better living from forests, and will need support as they try to regenerate, protect and harvest from degraded forests and engage with markets. fairness in fiscal policy requires that they be given access to any forest conservation related funds that were hitherto the monopoly of the forest bureaucracy, and even control over eco-tourism in their areas. this implies reforming funding mechanisms, such as the accumulated compensatory afforestation funds, and granting rights to operate and tax tourism. ensuring equitable sharing within communities will require some structural changes to ensure better representation and voice for the marginalised, as well as major grassroots efforts to actualise these voices. the challenges in bringing about such a transition are of course enormous. framing the problem as multi-dimensional in both its normative and analytical aspects may provide a fruitful starting point. [29] sharachchandra lele references gadgil, m., s. n. prasad, and r. ali. 1983. ―forest management and forest policy in india: a critical review.‖ forest, environment and people 33 (2):127-155. joint committee. 2010. manthan: report of the national committee on forest rights act. new delhi: ministry of environment and forests and ministry of tribal affairs, government of india. kumar, n., n. c. saxena, y. k. alagh, and k. mitra. 1999. alleviating poverty through participatory forestry development: an evaluation of india's forest development and world bank assistance. washington, d.c.: operations evaluation department, world bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-4762-4 lasgorceix, a., and a. kothari. 2009. ―displacement and relocation of protected areas: a synthesis and analysis of case studies.‖ economic and political weekly xliv (49): 37-47+6. lele, s. 2014. ―what is wrong with joint forest management?‖ in democratizing forest governance in india edited by s. lele and a. menon, 25-62. new delhi: oxford university press. lele, s. 2004. ―beyond state-community polarisations and bogus ‗joint‘ness: crafting institutional solutions for resource management.‖ in globalisation, poverty and conflict: a critical “development” reader edited by m. spoor, 283-303. dordrecht, boston & london: kluwer academic publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-40202858-x_15 lele, s. and a. menon. 2014. ―epilogue.‖ in democratizing forest governance in india edited by s. lele and a. menon, 402-414. new delhi: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099123.001.0001 moefcc. 2018. draft national forest policy 2018, f. no. 1-1/2012-fp (vol.4). new delhi: ministry of environment, forests and climate change, government of india. moefcc. 2019. proposed indian forest (amendment) act, 2019. new delhi: forest policy division, ministry of environment, forests & climate change, government of india. poffenberger, m. and b. mcgean, eds. 1996. village voices, forest choices: joint forest management in india. delhi: oxford university press. sarin, m. 2005. laws, lores and logjams: critical issues in indian forest conservation. gatekeeper series: 116. london: international institute for environment and development. sarin, m. 2014. ―undoing historical injustice: reclaiming citizenship rights and democratic forest governance through the forest rights act.‖ in democratizing forest governance in india edited by s. lele and a. menon, 100-148. new delhi: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099123.003.0004 https://doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-4762-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2858-x_15 https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2858-x_15 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099123.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198099123.003.0004 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [30] somanathan, e., r. prabhakar, and b. s. mehta. 2009. ―decentralization for costeffective conservation.‖ proceedings of the national academy of sciences 106 (11): 4143– 4147. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0810049106 sundar, n., r. jeffery, and n. thin. 2001. branching out: joint forest management in india. new delhi: oxford university press. tucker, r. p. 1983. ―the british colonial system and the forests of the western himalayas, 1815-1914.‖ in global deforestation and the nineteenth-century world economy edited by r .p. tucker and j. f. richards, 146-166. durham, n.c.: duke press policy studies. vasan, s. 2005. ―in the name of law: legality, illegality and practice in jharkhand forests.‖ economic and political weekly 40 (41): 4447-4450. white, a. and a. martin. 2002. who owns the world’s forests? : forest tenure and public forests in transition. washington, dc: forest trends. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0810049106 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 109–110, july 2019 discussion appreciation and minor clarification for kabra (2019) adam p. novick  i thank asmita kabra (2019, 17–18) for recognising my masters‟ thesis (novick 2013) as contributing to ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation. i also thank kabra (2019, 11) for questioning the widely presumed divide between species conservation and human rights. i am humbled if my thesis has contributed to that effort. i wish to offer a minor clarification to kabra‟s description of my thesis. kabra in part interprets my thesis as finding that land-use policies can restrict active management essential to the survival of a species. to clarify, my thesis does not argue that land-use policies prohibit such management, but rather that they can discourage it. for example, the us endangered species act (esa) generally imposes uncompensated land-use regulation based on the presence of animal species identified (“listed”) as endangered, and such regulation (whether as land-use restrictions or liability for mitigation) tends to make it self-defeating for anyone to conserve or actively maintain habitat for existing populations of declining animal species on private land (langpap, kerkvliet, and shogren 2018, 77–78). for example, such regulation can impose a financial loss, by tending to decrease the market value of selectively regulated land (novick 2013, 60–61). at least in the usa, some conservation laws can indeed prohibit management essential to the survival of species. for example, without special authorisation for an “alternate forest practice”, oregon‟s forest practices act (oregon revised statutes 527.745) requires landowners to replant commercial tree species even if using commercial harvest to prevent  courtesy faculty research assistant, environmental studies program, university of oregon, c/o 3715 donald st., eugene or 97405 usa; anovick@uoregon.edu copyright © novick 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.79 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.79 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] such species from destroying oregon white oak savanna, a plant association that supports several at-risk species and which is imperiled in part by loss of historic burning by native americans (usfws 2010). or, for example, without special authorisation, the esa prohibits periodic burning or other active management if it harms individuals of a species listed as endangered, even if such management is likewise essential to the species‟ survival. such laws at a minimum create bureaucratic hurdles to saving species whose survival depends on active management. however, as reflected by the respective amounts of attention in scholarship regarding the esa, i find the disincentives from such hurdles pale in comparison to the disincentives from the risk of incurring uncompensated species-based land-use regulation.1 i can also confirm this comparison anecdotally, from personal experience with both types of disincentives, under oregon law. the distinction between prohibiting and discouraging species conservation is, in any case, irrelevant to kabra‟s central argument, namely, that “the „conservation versus human rights‟ binary tends to obliterate important debates within the ecological sciences over the theoretical foundations of exclusionary conservation” (kabra 2019, 11; emphasis as in original). the distinction is also irrelevant to kabra‟s conclusion that correspondingly broader discourse within ecology might lead to more effective conservation policies (ibid.). this is an argument and conclusion i would like to think my thesis indeed supports. references kabra, a. 2019. “ecological critiques of exclusionary conservation.” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 9–26. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 langpap, c., j. kerkvliet, and j. f. shogren. 2018. “the economics of the u.s. endangered species act: a review of recent developments.” review of environmental economics and policy 12 (1): 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rex026 novick, a. p. 2013. “risk to maintenance-dependent species from orthodoxy in species-based land-use regulation.” master‟s thesis. university of oregon. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13343. us endangered species act of 1973. public law no. 93-205, 87 statute 884. usfws (us fish and wildlife service). 2010. “environmental assessment for issuance of an esa section 10(a)(1)(b) permit for incidental take of fender‟s blue butterfly, taylor‟s checkerspot butterfly, willamette daisy, kincaid‟s lupine, bradshaw‟s lomatium, nelson‟s checkermallow, and peacock larkspur in benton county.” portland, or. accessed june 1, 2013 at http://www.fws.gov/ecos/ajax/docs/plan_documents/neas/neas_836.pdf. 1 i do not recall seeing any published references to the former as disincentives, but find plenty to the latter; e.g., langpap, kerkvliet, and shogren (2018, 77–78). https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51 https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rex026 http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13343 http://www.fws.gov/ecos/ajax/docs/plan_documents/neas/neas_836.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 109-137 january 2022 research paper valuation of marine and coastal ecosystem services in india ks kavi kumar, rc bhatta, pranab mukhopadhya, lr anneboina, p naren, megha nath+, a sharan++, santadas ghosh+++, v da costa++++, s pednekar+++++ abstract: coastal and marine ecosystems provide a host of services that are of vital importance to human well-being. we estimate the values of several provisioning, regulating, and recreational services using a combination of valuation methods. we find that the total value of these services in india was approximately ₹1.9 trillion (or us$0.11 trillion in purchase price parity [ppp] terms) in 2012–13, which constitutes about 2.4% of india’s net national product that year. recreational services account for the largest share (45%), followed by regulating services (35%) and provisioning services (20%). these estimates do not include all the services provided by coastal and marine ecosystems; therefore, our estimates should be treated as a conservative underestimate of their total economic value. to the best of our knowledge, this is the first such attempt at the national level in india. keywords: coastal and marine ecosystems; ecosystem services; economic valuation; india jel codes: q57; q51; q22; q26  madras school of economics, chennai, kavi@mse.ac.in  national centre for sustainable coastal management, chennai, rcbhat@gmail.com  goa university, india, pm@unigoa.ac.in; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9999-4938  madras school of economics, lavi.anneboina@gmail.com  national centre for sustainable coastal management, chennai, narenp14@gmail.com + national centre for sustainable coastal management, chennai, meghanath23@gmail.com ++ national centre for sustainable coastal management, chennai, sharan.abhijit@gmail.com +++ visva-bharati university, santiniketan, santadas_ghosh@yahoo.co.in ++++ goa university, india, vanessdacosta@gmail.com +++++ goa university, sulochana@unigoa.ac.in copyright © kumar, bhatta, mukhopadhyay, anneboina, naren, nath, sharan, ghosh, costa and pednekar 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.536 mailto:kavi@mse.ac.in mailto:rcbhat@gmail.com mailto:pm@unigoa.ac.in https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9999-4938 mailto:lavi.anneboina@gmail.com mailto:narenp14@gmail.com mailto:meghanath23@gmail.com mailto:sharan.abhijit@gmail.com mailto:santadas_ghosh@yahoo.co.in mailto:vanessdacosta@gmail.com mailto:sulochana@unigoa.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.536 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [110] 1. introduction there have been a series of international efforts to address a significant gap in the conventional economist’s toolkit—an understanding of the state of the environment and how it impacts the economy and human welfare (ayres 2008; dasgupta 2008). while ecological economics and environmental economics emerged half a century ago (dasgupta and heal 1979; georgescu-roegen 1971; hartwick 1977; martínez alier 1987; røpke 2004; solow 1974), the importance of the environment for sustaining life has attracted attention only in the last few decades (daly 1993; kates et al. 2001; wced 1987). national governments too have committed to expanding this knowledge base by commissioning focused studies on climate change (stern 2007) and biodiversity (dasgupta 2021). just as economists and policymakers study national accounts to understand the state of the economy, we require a similar accounting framework to understand the implications of policy interventions for sustainability. this creates the need for comprehensive national accounts that not only tabulate conventional economic variables but also flows and stocks of natural and human resources (arrow et al. 2012). the common problems that arise with natural resource accounting are that (a) many natural resources and assets do not have market prices; and (b) when they exist, these are not efficient (shadow) prices (krutilla and fisher 1975; un 2014). despite these limitations and the ethical issues that surround the valuation of natural resources (daly 1993), there has been a growing consensus that unless an effort is made to value them, public policy will fail to give the environment its due place in decision-making (torres and hanley 2017). there has been remarkable progress in the evolution of techniques in this field (arrow et al. 1993; bateman 1993; freeman 2003; haab and mcconnell 2002), and this has helped researchers place a price on natural resources to fit them into a utilitarian framework (dasgupta 2009; mäler, aniyar, and jansson 2008). one of the early studies that drew global attention to nature’s contribution estimated that ecosystem services that enhance human welfare far outweigh any contribution from conventional human-made capital (costanza et al. 1997). this triggered a worldwide effort to understand the impact of anthropogenic pressures on natural capital, which was given a more concrete form by the millennium ecosystem assessment (ma 2005). this was followed by the global initiative on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity (teeb), which managed to bring together a wide range of studies on valuation (teeb 2010). [111] ks kavi kumar et al. several studies were also commissioned in india under the green accounting for indian states project (gaisp), which attempted to replicate the methods used in global studies in the indian context (gist n.d.). of the six studies carried out under gaisp, three were on forests, and of the remaining, there was one each on agriculture and pastures, education, and freshwater. marine and coastal ecosystems were not studied separately under the gist project. india has, for some time, been contemplating the adoption of a system of natural resource accounting to complement its annual national accounts of domestic product. since 1997, the indian government has been publishing an annual report titled the compendium of environmental statistics. the central statistics office of the government of india also set up a technical working group called natural resource accounting in the late 1990s, which commissioned a set of eight studies (land, forests, air, water, and subsoil resources) across eight selected indian states (gasab 2020). india took its most significant step toward evaluating ecosystem services in 2011, with the formation of an expert committee headed by partha dasgupta (goi 2013). the framework that this committee proposed went beyond that of the system of environmental economic accounting (seea) developed under the united nation’s system of national accounts (un 2014). the report also provided a way to integrate changes in natural capital with conventional national income accounts. it went on to record that “empirical studies of the value of ecosystem services in india are sorely needed” (goi 2013, 50). in fact, the teeb database on ecosystem valuation records 1310 studies globally, of which only 32 pertain to india and only nine deal with coastal and marine ecosystems (cmes) (mukhopadhyay and shyamsundar 2012; ploeg and de groot 2010). a recent review of 146 studies conducted between 1980 to 2018 on ecosystem services in india found that only 19 belonged to the cme category (verma 2018). there have been some international efforts at valuing cme services. in a comprehensive review, schaafsma and turner (2015) cover journal articles and book chapters published between 2000 and 2014. they found that most of these are case studies in europe, the usa, and southeast asia, including 233 primary studies and nine meta-analyses. in recent years, there have been increased efforts at scaling up these valuation studies to the national, regional, and continental scale, especially in other parts of the world. we mention a few of these here. recently, trégarot et al. (2020) assessed the value of the mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and kelp forests of the whole african continent, across nine large marine ecosystems. they estimated the annual value of ecosystem services to be us$814 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] billion/year (at 2018 usd values) for four ecosystems—(a) coral reefs (us$588 billion/year); (b) seagrass (us$135 billion/year); (c) mangroves (us$91 billion/year); and (d) kelp (us$0.4 billion/year). in asia, a regionallevel study found that cme services contributed about us$72 billion a year, amounting to about 6% of the gross domestic product (gdp) of the countries involved—bangladesh, india, indonesia, malaysia, maldives, myanmar, sri lanka, and thailand (boblme 2014). the study included 10 categories of ecosystem services under the classification of (a) provisioning services—capture fisheries, aquaculture, wood-based energy, and timber and medicines; (b) regulating services—coastal protection and hazard mitigation, regulation of water flow and quality, mitigation of climate variability and change, maintenance of nursery populations and habitats; and (c) cultural services—recreational and cultural services, mainly tourism. this study relied almost entirely on benefit transfer values. in recognition of this knowledge gap, an indo-german partnership between the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (moefcc) and deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit gmbh (popularly known as giz) was formed to launch a national-level effort called the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity – india initiative (tii). the effort started with a scoping study that established the current landscape of ecosystem studies in india (parikh et al. 2012). the programme funded 12 studies on three ecosystems—forests, wetlands, and cmes— which were completed by 2016. even though these studies led to new knowledge, they were primarily case studies and have not led to nationallevel aggregated estimates of the value of ecosystem goods and services. the absence of macro-level studies on ecosystem services in india, therefore, remains a knowledge gap. the current study aims to fill this gap by estimating the value of ecosystem services provided by cmes. india, with its 7,517 km-long coastline, and over two million square kilometres of exclusive economic zone, which is rich in living and non-living resources, has a unique maritime position. the cmes of india are not only relevant from an economic and environmental perspective, but also from a social perspective, with over four million fisherfolk and other coastal communities deriving their livelihoods from cmes. the ecosystem classification we have followed derives from the millennium assessment (ma 2005) and teeb (teeb 2010). the study focuses on three types of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, and recreational services. it does not focus on supporting services due to data limitations. the results suggest that the total value of cme services in india is [113] ks kavi kumar et al. approximately ₹1.9 trillion (or, us$0.11 trillion, in ppp terms 1 ), which constitutes about 2.4% of india’s net national product in 2013. this study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first attempt to estimate the value of coastal and marine ecosystem services at the national level in india. methodologically, it improves upon earlier attempts at large-scale valuation by combining different methods as well as local values rather than relying solely on global estimates and the benefit transfer method. it thus contributes to the relatively thin literature on the valuation of coastal and marine ecosystems at the national level. the rest of the paper is organized as follows. section 2 describes the material and methods used for estimating ecosystem services. section 3 presents the results and analysis. section 4 concludes the paper and provides a brief discussion of the findings. 2. material and methods cmes provide a wide range of goods and services, including marine fisheries, seaweeds, coastal minerals, coastal salt, seawater for drinking (after desalination) and industrial cooling, coastal shipping, coastal protection, carbon sequestration, and coastal recreation. the total value of ecosystems is generally divided into two categories: useand non-use-value. the use values of ecosystems are the benefits that individuals derive from the direct or indirect use of ecosystem services. non-use-values, on the other hand, reflect the satisfaction that individuals derive from knowing that ecosystem services are maintained and that others will have access to them. in the current valuation exercise, only the use values of coastal ecosystem services are estimated, including the benefits obtained from the direct or indirect use of ecosystem services. among the direct use values estimated in this study, the values of fish, seaweeds, minerals, salt, and seawater used for desalination and industrial cooling fall under the extractive or consumptive use category, while the values of coastal shipping and coastal tourism fall under the non-extractive or non-consumptive use category. either way, both categories of direct use values are reflected in market transactions (at least partially in some cases). indirect use values are usually associated with regulating services such as coastal protection and carbon sequestration, both of which have also been estimated in this study. these may be seen as public services that are generally not reflected in market transactions. 1 the purchasing power parity exchange rates are sourced from the oecd (n.d.) database. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] following the millennium ecosystem assessment (ma 2005), the above mentioned coastal goods and services are further classified under three broad heads: (a) provisioning services, which includes the values of marine fisheries, seaweeds, coastal minerals, coastal salt, seawater used for desalination and industrial cooling, and coastal shipping; (b) regulating services, which includes the value of coastal protection provided by mangroves and the value of carbon sequestered by mangroves and seagrasses; and (c) recreational services, which includes the value derived from coastal tourism. the total economic value of ecosystem services is the sum of the consumer surplus (cs) and the producer surplus (or net rent), excluding the cost of production. in the case of essential ecosystem services that are not easily substitutable, there are no costs of production, and, thus, the product of the price and quantity estimates represents the producer surplus value. further, if the ecosystem service approaches infinity as the quantity available approaches zero (or some minimal value), the cs is negligible. in such cases, the product of the price and quantity values could serve as a conservative underestimate of the sum of the consumer and the producer surplus, i.e., the ecosystem service value (costanza et al. 1997). it must, however, be noted that such a conceptualization may provide an underestimate of the total economic value of the ecosystem service, as cs values are typically non-negligible. simultaneously, since the input costs were not subtracted, the product of the price and quantity values could be upwardly biased. the present study uses three methods to estimate the value of coastal ecosystem services: (a) the direct market valuation approach; (b) the travel cost method; and (c) benefit transfers. we use three types of methods due to the complexity involved in evaluating different types of ecosystem services. while method (a) is suitable for provisioning services, method (b) is suitable for recreational services. for the remaining types of services, in the absence of reliable data, method (c) was adopted. in fact, the benefits transfer method is the most popular among these methods, as evidenced by its use in recent large-scale studies (boblme 2014; milon and alvarez 2019; trégarot et al. 2020). where markets for ecosystem services exist, individuals’ preferences for ecosystem services are directly reflected in data from actual markets. thus, in such cases, market data such as price, quantity, and cost information has been used to value coastal ecosystem services. this is commonly referred to as the direct market valuation approach, and it may be further divided into the market price-based approach and the cost-based approach, depending on whether price or cost information is used. the values of provisioning [115] ks kavi kumar et al. services such as fish, seaweeds, minerals, salt, and seawater used for desalination and industrial cooling have been obtained by multiplying the price of the service by the quantity produced in a given year. cost-based approaches are based on estimates of the costs that would be incurred if the ecosystem’s benefits need to be recreated through artificial means (teeb 2010). one of the techniques used to estimate the value of ecosystems in this approach is the avoided cost method, which relates to the costs that would have been incurred in the absence of marine ecosystem services. the value of coastal and marine ecosystems in transporting goods via shipping has been estimated using the avoided cost method; specifically, we look at the costs avoided by transporting via sea instead of by road or rail. we use the travel cost method, which is a revealed preference approach, to estimate the value of coastal tourism. the rationale behind this method is that the opportunity costs of time, and the direct expenses that people incur when visiting a particular tourist site, represent the lower bound of the value of the recreational experience. based on the number of trips that people make to a particular site and the travel costs incurred by them (i.e., based on the demand function for visiting the site), individuals’ willingness to pay to visit the site and associated cs can be estimated. moreover, the demand function can be used to infer the value of a change in the quality or size of a particular tourist site due to changes in the ecosystem. in this study, the demand for recreational services is estimated using the zonal travel cost method. the travel cost (the total of actual travel expenses, accommodation and food expenses, and the opportunity costs of time) for domestic and foreign tourists was also estimated. this cost was deducted from the area under the demand curve to arrive at an estimate of the cs for all tourists who visited various coastal destinations in india in 2012–13. the third approach used is benefit transfer, which is the method of transferring values estimated in one study, location, and/or context to another. the advantage of using this method is that it circumvents the need to undertake several new ecological and economic studies, which are likely to prove expensive and time-consuming. the value of coastal protection (provided by mangroves) has been estimated using the benefits transfer method. the unit value of coastal protection estimated by das and vincent (2009) for kendrapada district in odisha has been scaled-up to the all-india level after adjusting for differences across coastal states and union territories (ut) in terms of a) the physical characteristics of cyclonic activity, b) the probability of occurrence of severe storms, c) mangrove quality, and d) income. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] a brief description of the approaches adopted to evaluate various coastal ecosystem services is presented below. table 1 summarizes the data sources and methodology followed to estimate the value of various coastal ecosystem services. unless otherwise mentioned, data corresponding to the year 2012–13 has been used for the analysis. 2.1 marine fisheries the fish catch statistics used in this study are taken from official sources (cmfri 2014). the marine fishery resources are classified under three broad categories—demersal, pelagic, and shellfish. pelagic species, which include common varieties such as oil sardines, mackerels, and tunas, dominate fish landings in india, amounting to 56% of landings in 2013. demersal fish, including snappers, catfishes, pomfrets, and croakers, contributed to over 26% of landings. shellfish, including crustacea, which comprise sought-after resources like prawns and lobsters and molluscs (clams, oysters, and squids), together contributed 18%. using the direct market pricing method, each fish species’ value is estimated by multiplying its annual landing quantity across india by its standardized annual average price for 2012–13. the total of all values is estimated for three broad marine fish categories. 2.2 seaweeds seaweed is commercially-processed to manufacture processing agents such as agar, alginate, and carrageenan in the pharmaceutical, food, fertilizer industries (kaliaperumal, kalimuthuand, and ramalingam 2004; mchugh 2003). in india, agar is used as a gel in food products such as processing jelly, dairy products, biopolymers, and many others. it has specific properties that make it suitable for use in solidifying agents in pharmaceuticals and disinfectants, nutraceuticals, veterinary medicines, tablet coating, and food supplements. there are three main types of carrageenan derived from red algae—lambda, kappa, and iota—each having its own gel characteristics. the culturing of kappaphycus alvarezii was introduced due to its commercial viability in the indian market. it is used as a clarifying agent while brewing beer and is used extensively in the dairy industry to stabilize ice-creams, flavoured milk, and evaporated milk products. the first attempt at culturing seaweed at a commercial scale was undertaken by pepsico holdings india ltd. in 2000, and this was further taken up by the council of scientific and industrial research–central salt and marine chemicals research institute (csir–csmcri) in bhavnagar, gujarat. using production and price (at seashore) data sourced from the seaweed association and csir–csmcri, we estimated the total value [117] ks kavi kumar et al. generated by seaweed for provisioning services. the price and quantity data have been collected at the primary stage of the production cycle to avoid double counting. 2.3 coastal minerals indian beaches and coastal dunes contain several heavy minerals including ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon, sillimanite, and monazite. information on production quantities and the average prices of these minerals are sourced from the indian mineral year book (ibm 2014). the quantity of reserves of ilmenite (including leucoxene) and rutile present in indian coasts as of 2011–12 was estimated to be 334.24 million and 28.91 million tonnes, respectively. both minerals are found in coastal states such as andhra pradesh, kerala, odisha, and tamil nadu. the annual production of these minerals is less than 1% of the reserves. a total of 56.81 million tonnes of garnet is available on indian coasts as of 2011–12, with tamil nadu and andhra pradesh—the states with the largest reserves of garnet—producing close to 4% and 0.3% of their total reserves, respectively, in 2011–12. the production of other minerals (sillimanite, zircon, and monazite) is largely concentrated in the states of andhra pradesh, odisha, tamil nadu, kerala, and maharashtra. the valuation of coastal minerals in india is based on the amount produced in 2011–12 and their respective declared average prices for the same year. 2.4 coastal salt gujarat, tamil nadu, and rajasthan are the major salt-producing states in india, meeting over 90% of the country’s requirements. the salt produced in coastal states and their respective prices were taken from the annual report of the salt department, ministry of commerce and industry (2013–14) (goi 2014). the production values were estimated by taking the difference between the salt stocks as of 31 march 2013 and 31 march 2014. for this study, only the average price of non-iodized salt in the respective states was taken to calculate the price of all salt entering the market in these states. the price of iodized salt was not considered, as the cost of iodization added to that of non-iodized salt would lead to an overestimation of salt prices. 2.5 seawater desalination given increasing water stress, several indian states have started looking for alternative sources to address water scarcity. seawater (and brackish water) desalination is increasingly being seen as an important means to address water scarcity in india. tamil nadu and gujarat, two states that have widely https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?v325ip ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] adopted desalination technologies, account for over 96% of the total installed seawater desalination capacity in the country. the value of seawater desalination is assessed as the installed production capacity multiplied by the price of water. the monetary value of the water (its scarcity cost) is taken as equal to the cost of the new source of supply, i.e., desalination. the desalination cost from the minjur plant in tamil nadu is used to value this service. the price range used to estimate the value of the desalination service is ₹48.66–60 per m3 (in 2005 prices), which, when converted to 2012–13 prices using a gdp deflator, is estimated as ₹80.9–99.7 per m3. 2.6 seawater used for industrial cooling given that power plants consume the most water among all industries, and that coal-based thermal power plants and nuclear power plants have relatively lower efficiencies and thus higher water requirements for cooling, the analysis has been restricted to valuing the benefits of seawater used for cooling in coal-based thermal and nuclear power plants located along the coasts in india. the direct market valuation approach is used to value this service by multiplying the volume of seawater used by power plants with the price of raw water or freshwater. the value represents the water costs that power companies would have incurred if they did not have access to seawater and had to use freshwater instead. to that effect, this approach can also be seen as the avoided cost method, since the benefit power companies derive is the cost they avoid by using seawater instead of freshwater. further, since the water requirements of power plants vary depending on the type of cooling system they use (i.e., once-through, closed-cycle, or dry), the valuation exercise considers the type of power plant, the cooling system it uses, and its operating capacity. the data on the capacity of power plants (cea 2013), their water requirements, and the price of raw water (cea 2012) is obtained from the reports of the central electricity authority. [119] ks kavi kumar et al. 2.7 coastal shipping the benefits of coastal shipping are assessed as the costs avoided by transporting goods via sea instead of transporting them by road and rail. the analysis takes into consideration (a) all the maritime zones through which goods have been transported in 2012–13 (the year of analysis); (b) the different commodities transported (e.g., petroleum oil and lubricants, cement, among others); and (c) the economic as well as environmental costs associated with transportation. the benefits of coastal shipping as a means of transportation are estimated as: (1) where, vsi are the benefits of coastal shipping, s, in terms of costs saved with respect to i, the alternate mode of transportation; i is the mode of transport other than shipping. only the two major modes of freight transportation, namely, road and rail transport, are considered as alternatives in this exercise; z represents a pair of maritime zones across which goods are transported. there are 12 maritime zones and 48 pairs of maritime zones across which goods were transported in 2012–13; j is the type of commodity transported across maritime zones (e.g., petroleum oil and lubricants, cement). transportation costs tend to vary by the type of commodity transported both within and across the different modes of transportation. moreover, different commodities are transported via specific routes, depending on the demand and supply of the same; k is the category of the cost estimated. economic and environmental costs alone are considered; d is the distance in kilometres between a representative port in one maritime zone and another port. note that transportation routes, and, thus, distances, vary for the different modes of transportation for the same z; c is the cost in rupees per tonne-km by commodity. costs vary not only by the type of commodity being transported but also by the distance travelled in some cases (road transport) as well as other specifics of the route (type of terrain (ghat/plain), type of road (national highway/other), type of track (single line/double line)) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] and the mode of transportation (whether diesel or electric traction; more on this in the subsequent section); and t is the tonnes of goods transported by coastal shipping between the different maritime zones. various economic and environmental cost parameters have been sourced from a planning commission study on total transport system (ttsrites) (2013). the data on the commodity-wise quantity of goods transported across the maritime zones of india is taken from the directorate general of commercial intelligence and statistics (dgcis 2013). sea distances between representative ports were calculated with the help of the searates port distance calculator, road distances were calculated using google maps, and rail distances between the main railway stations closest to the representative ports in each maritime zone were obtained from the indian railways website. 2.8 coastal protection by mangroves we used the benefit transfer method to estimate the value of the stormprotection service of mangroves. in particular, the value of the stormprotection service rendered per hectare of mangrove per year from a study for kendrapada district (das and vincent 2009) was first scaled-up to the coastal state/ut level and then to the all-india level. the coastal protection value of mangroves is estimated as follows: (2) (3) (4) where v* is the one-time value of the storm-protection service as estimated by das (2009) in inr/ha, pi is the probability of occurrence of a severe cyclonic storm over a 30-year period, i is the state/ut in question, cd is the mean canopy density in percentage, j is the category of mangroves (very dense, moderately dense, and open), cdmd is the mean canopy density of the moderately dense mangrove cover category (i.e., 55%), sfi is the statewise scaling factor, and aij is the mangrove area (in ha) of the state i under mangrove cover category j. summing the values across states and mangrove cover categories (the vijs) gives the all-india value (vai in inr/yr). the scaling factor (sf) is used to [121] ks kavi kumar et al. scale the kendrapada storm-protection value to the state/ut level based on three variables: maximum wind speed (or probable maximum wind speed), probable maximum surge height, and per capita net state domestic product. differences in the two former variables capture differences in the physical characteristics of cyclonic activity across states; meanwhile, differences in the latter capture differences in income (a proxy for the stock of goods and built infrastructure) across states. the data on the state-wise physical characteristics of cyclonic activity comes from the vulnerability atlas (bmtpc 2006). the historical data on the number of severe cyclonic storms that occurred over the past 30 years (from 1983–2013) in each coastal state is sourced from the cyclone eatlas (imd, version 2.0 web-based application). data on the per capita net state domestic product (at constant 2004–05 prices) are from the central statistics office. data on mangrove area disaggregated by states/uts and the three categories of mangrove cover were obtained from the india state of forest report (fsi 2017). 2.9 carbon sequestration the direct market pricing approach is used to value the carbon sequestration service of mangroves and seagrass meadows in india. estimates of the value of carbon sequestration by cmes is based on the sequestration potential of the respective ecosystems, the extent of coverage of the coastal ecosystem, and the market rate or the social cost of carbon. the following function is used to determine the economic value of the blue carbon sequestered: (5) where the value of carbon sequestered (vs) by a particular ecosystem (i) is measured by the product of its rate of carbon sequestration (sq), measured in tonnes co2-e/ha/year, the area (a) measured in ha, and the social cost of carbon (c) measured in inr/tonne co2. the state-wise annual rates of carbon sequestration are estimated from total biomass stocks in mangrove forests in different coastal states, the data for which is taken from sahu et al. (2015). the mean annual increase in mangrove biomass was estimated from the total biomass stock using von mantel’s formula, which states that the sustained annual yield is equal to twice the growing stock volume of the forest divided by the rotation age of the forest. for the rotation age of mangrove forests, we use the weighted average rotation period for littoral and swamp forests (averaging very dense, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] moderately dense, and open littoral and swamp forests), which is 68.67 years (verma et al. 2014). the mean annual biomass increment is converted to an annual rate of carbon sequestration, assuming 50% of biomass as carbon and 1 tc as equivalent to 3.67 tco2 following the ipcc (2003). the rates of carbon sequestration for seagrass meadows are sourced from murray et al. (2010). it combines estimates from a variety of species and considers other characteristics such as sediment characteristics and the depth range of the seagrass habitat. the social cost of carbon is obtained from nordhaus (2011). 2.10 coastal recreation there were two methods available to estimate the recreational value of coastal and marine tourism. one possibility was to estimate the recreational value using the benefits transfer approach based on average values from the received literature (costanza et al. 2014, 1997). the second possibility was to estimate the cs using the travel cost method (tcm), which is considered a robust technique (freeman 2003; mendelsohn and olmstead 2009). this study relied on state-level studies conducted to estimate the tourism demand based on surveys of tourists. using a normalization procedure, the zonal travel cost method (ztcm) was used to estimate tourism demand for coastal zones (destination states) from various regions of the world as well as every state in india (origin zones) (mukhopadhyay et al. 2020). the ztcm estimates the visitation rate (v) to a destination (zone “i”) as follows: i i i p n v = (6) where, “ni” is the estimated number of visitors from zone “i”, and pi is the total population of the origin zone. the average travel cost is calculated per visitor. it includes all actual expenses like entry-fee (if any) and the opportunity cost of time. the tripgenerating function (tgf) is the relation between the visitation rate (vi), the average travel cost from zone “i” (ti), and other zonal characteristics: vi = f (ti, zi) (7) the demand function for each zone is assessed by applying the relevant value of “zi” in the estimated tgf. the sum of such demand for all originating states to a destination state would provide an estimate of the aggregate demand curve for that coastal state. the cs is estimated as the area under the demand curve net of the visitor’s actual travel cost. [123] ks kavi kumar et al. every destination state’s demand curve will have a choke price. at this price, the visitation from that zone reduces to zero. if “ta” is the average (actual) price paid by visitors and “tc” is the choke price for a zone, then the zonal cs would be: = c a t t dtvcs (8) the sum of all such zonal cs was considered as the recreational value of the destination state site (equation 8). table 1: valuation of coastal ecosystem services – data source and methodology sl. no. coastal and marine ecosystem services data sources methodology 1 marine fisheries cmfri (2014) direct market pricing 2 seaweeds seaweed association and csir– csmcri; seaweed collectors; seaweed industries (reddy, rao, meenakshisundaram, et al. 2014; rao and mantri 2006; personal communication) direct market pricing 3 coastal minerals ibm (2014) direct market pricing 4 coastal salt ministry of commerce and industry, goi (2014) direct market pricing 5 seawater desalination bulk water purchase agreement (bwpa), 2005, between chennai metropolitan water supply and water sewerage board (cmwssb) and chennai water desalination (cwdl) (for the cost of desalination at minjur plant) (cmwssb n.d.; water technology n.d.); global water intelligence reports; chennai metropolitan water supply and sewerage board direct market pricing ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] sl. no. coastal and marine ecosystem services data sources methodology 6 seawater – industrial cooling cea (2013; 2012); batra (2012) direct market pricing / avoided cost 7 coastal shipping dgcis (2013) avoided cost 8 coastal protection (mangroves) das and vincent (2009); das (2009, 2); bmtpc (2006); fsi (2017) benefit transfer 9 carbon sequestration (mangroves) ipcc (2003); nordhaus (2011); sahu et al. (2015); verma et al. (2014) direct market pricing 10 carbon sequestration (seagrasses) 11 coastal recreation mukhopadhyay et al. (2020) zonal travel cost source: authors’ compilation. 3. results and analysis the values of different coastal ecosystem services are reported here for 2012–13 prices. this section discusses the estimated values of coastal ecosystem services. 3.1 marine fisheries the total estimated value of marine fish is approximately ₹295 billion as of 2012–13. it may be noted that because cured fish as well as subsistence fish have not been accounted for in the valuation, the estimated value is significantly lower than that reported by the central statistics office for 2012–13. on the other hand, since the value of inputs has not been deducted, the estimates reported here also overestimate marine fish value in india. among the broad fish types, results suggest that shellfish contribute 40% to the total value of marine fish, even though shellfish landings [125] ks kavi kumar et al. account for only 18% of total landings. pelagic and demersal fish contribute 31% and 29%, respectively, to the total marine fish value in india. 3.2 seaweeds the estimated value of seaweeds is approximately ₹92 million in 2012–13 prices. in terms of seaweed used in the manufacture of major processing agents, agarophyte, alginophyte, and carrageenophyte contribute about 31%, 25% and 43%, respectively, of the total value of seaweed. 3.3 coastal minerals coastal minerals worth about ₹12.44 billion were produced per year in india. ilmenite contributed close to 60% of the total value of coastal minerals, followed by zircon (about 18%), garnet (9%), and rutile (8%). owing to the non-production of monazite in 2010–11 and 2011–12 by indian rare earths limited, the estimated value of coastal minerals does not include this mineral. thus, the true annual value of coastal minerals in india is likely to be higher than that reported in this study. 3.4 coastal salt the value of coastal salt in india is about ₹12.4 billion per year, with close to 80% of this value coming from the western state of gujarat, followed by the southern state of tamil nadu (about 15%). as the recreational and cultural services offered by coastal salts are not included, the values reported here provide an underestimate of the true value of coastal salt. 3.5 seawater desalination the value of saltwater desalination is estimated to be in the range of ₹18– 22 billion per year (in 2012–13 prices), with a mean value of roughly ₹20 billion per year. since tamil nadu and gujarat have the highest production capacity in the country, together, they account for more than 96% of the value of saltwater desalination in india. since the desalination capacity in india is likely to increase significantly in the future, the value of saltwater desalination could increase fourfold to about ₹80 billion per year. 3.6 seawater used for industrial cooling for coal-based coastal thermal power plants that use seawater for cooling, the annual value of services ranges between ₹2.52–4.66 billion. plants using the once-through cooling system account for almost 60% of this value, with ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] the remaining value accruing to the plants using closed-cycle cooling systems. the value of seawater used by coastal nuclear power plants is estimated to be about ₹0.06–0.10 billion, making the total average annual value of the cooling service contributed by the seawater, ₹3.67 billion. 3.7 coastal shipping coastal shipping leads to significant savings on transportation costs for goods compared to transporting via road and rail. table 2 below presents the estimated range of values for the benefits of coastal shipping a) under the baseline scenario (i.e., considering economic and environmental costs only), b) with the inclusion of accident costs in addition to baseline costs, and c) with the removal of bottlenecks in coastal shipping, which would lead to an increase in the share of coastal shipping in the overall cargo movement. it is important to note that the first two categories of benefits are currently realizable (estimated for 2012–13). in contrast, the third category of benefits is hypothetical. an increase in the share of coastal shipping would occur only if the bottlenecks in the coastal shipping sector are dealt with effectively by the government. table 2: annual value of coastal shipping (in inr billion) category of benefits cost savings over road transport cost savings over rail transport baseline value (economic + environmental costs) 61.85 15.86 inclusion of social (accident) costs 63.80 15.88 increase in the share of coastal shipping 127.59 31.76 source: authors’ estimates 3.8 coastal protection by mangroves the annual storm-protection values for mangroves in india are estimated to range between ₹560–754 billion, with an average value of approximately ₹650 billion per year. the storm-protection value of the andaman and nicobar islands alone contributes almost 30% to the total, annual all-india storm-protection value, providing a strong basis for the conservation of mangroves on the islands. it is important to note that the values estimated in this study only include the storm-protection service of mangroves in terms of lives saved, livestock saved, and damages to buildings averted. presumably, other types of [127] ks kavi kumar et al. damages are prevented by mangroves during storms, such as damages to agricultural land and public infrastructure. similarly, mangroves could also serve as a nursery for young fish and hence contribute towards productivity enhancement in the fishery sector (anneboina and kavi kumar 2017). thus, the estimated benefits of mangroves reported in this study would be a lower bound of the true value. 3.9 carbon sequestration the carbon sequestration service of seagrasses is valued between ₹12–40 million per year (with a mean value of ₹30 million per year). in contrast, mangroves in india are estimated to provide carbon sequestration valued at between ₹0.76 and ₹1.65 billion (with a mean value of ₹1.21 billion per year), depending on the range of carbon sequestration rates and the average social cost of carbon considered. verma et al. (2014) estimated the annual per hectare carbon sequestration values of littoral and swamp forests in india to be ₹8,736 for very dense forests, ₹3,729 for moderately dense forests, and ₹1,207 for open forests. applying these values to mangrove areas with these canopy density classifications gives the total carbon sequestration value for mangrove forests in india as ₹1.94 billion per annum. this value is in the ballpark of the carbon sequestration value estimated for mangroves in the present study (i.e., mean of ₹1.21 billion), though it is slightly higher, which is expected since the values by verma et al. (2014) were estimated for all littoral and swamp forests in india, whereas the value estimated in this study is for mangrove forests alone. 3.10 coastal recreation the estimated cs by coastal recreation for visitors is estimated at ₹857.2 billion. cs for domestic visitors is estimated at ₹295 billion, and that for visitors from the rest of the world is estimated at ₹562 billion. the extent of cs generated for visitors from the rest of the world is almost 1.8 times (in aggregate) more than the cs generated for domestic visitors (mukhopadhyay et al. 2020). 3.11 consolidated values as described above, the benefits derived from a wide range of cme services are estimated for india in this study. the cme services considered include provisioning services such as marine fisheries, seaweeds, coastal minerals, coastal salt, seawater desalination, seawater used for industrial ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [128] cooling, and coastal shipping; regulating services such as coastal protection and carbon sequestration; and recreational services such as coastal tourism. the estimates of cme services across these broad categories in india for 2012–13 are presented in table 3. table 3: annual values of coastal and marine ecosystem services in india (2012– 13 prices; in inr billion) s. no. service valued method of estimation value range average value % of total value min. max. i. provisioning services 1. marine fisheries direct market pricing 294.48 20 2. seaweeds direct market pricing 0.09 3. coastal minerals direct market pricing 12.47 4. coastal salt direct market pricing 12.40 5. seawater desalination direct market pricing 18.01 22.21 20.11 6. seawater – industrial cooling direct market pricing 2.58 4.76 3.67 7. coastal shipping avoided cost 15.88 63.80 39.84 total provisioning 383.06 ii. regulating services 8. coastal protection (mangroves) benefit transfer 560.38 754.04 653.98 35 9. carbon sequestration (mangroves) direct market pricing 0.76 1.65 1.21 10. carbon sequestration (seagrasses) direct market pricing 0.01 0.04 0.03 ii. total regulating 561.16 755.73 655.21 iii. recreational services 11. coastal recreation zonal travel cost 857.15 45 iii. total recreational 857.15 iv. grand total (i+ii+iii) 1,895.42 100 note: in cases where the parameters have been borrowed from other studies (e.g., coastal protection and carbon sequestration), all necessary adjustments have been made to standardize the values for use in the present study. [129] ks kavi kumar et al. source: authors’ estimates. the total value of the provisioning services estimated amounts to ₹383 billion. the total value of the regulating services estimated is roughly 1.7 times that of the provisioning service value at ₹655 billion, with a value range of ₹561–756 billion. the total coastal recreational value is more than double the value of the provisioning services (estimated at ₹857 billion) and is the highest of the three services examined in this study. the total value of cme services in india is approximately ₹1.9 trillion, of which provisioning services account for 20%, regulating services account for 35%, and coastal recreation accounts for 45%. the net national product (nnp) at factor cost (in current prices) in 2012–13 was ₹80.3 trillion (rbi 2020). therefore, the estimated mean total cme service value for india (₹1.9 trillion or us$0.11 trillion in ppp terms) is approximately 2.4% of the net national product (nnp). 4. discussion and conclusion as discussed earlier, research on marine and coastal ecosystem services have mainly focused on provisioning services (like fisheries, seaweeds, and minerals, including sand and rare minerals), regulating services (like carbon sequestration and coastal protection), and recreation. there are several other services provided by cmes, such as marine bio-pharmaceuticals and bio-prospecting, shoreline stabilization (erosion control), and cultural and spiritual values. these are domains that the present study could not value and constitute an area for future research. knowledge gaps are not always caused by a lack of data or information—they are also caused by access restrictions and a lack of standardized data-collection protocols and coordination across different sectors. questions have also been raised about the validity of aggregating ecosystem services as independent components to determine the value of a biome, especially since the science of interlinkages and feedbacks between ecosystems and the services they produce is incomplete (barbier 2012). on the other hand, despite the increased importance of ecosystem services, coastal and marine resource policy and planning decisions are often not informed by ecosystem service valuations. a review of four major geographic regions across the globe (the european union, the united states, australia, and the caribbean) indicates that cme service values are most often used for informational purposes and rarely used to evaluate trade-offs in policy decisions (milon and alvarez 2019). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [130] studies cite a variety of reasons for this situation. the most common concerns are a lack of understanding of ecosystem services among both policymakers and the public and the limited availability of valuation information for non-provisioning services in specific settings. this decision-making context for cme services policy and planning is a classic “wicked problem” with complexities, interdependence, and conflicting social interests. this emphasizes the need for valuation research on cme services in a wealth accounting framework. an economic valuation will build a case for investment in neglected sectors that have huge potential (torres and hanley 2017). it must be reiterated that the estimates reported in this study include only three broad types of services—provisioning, regulating, and recreational services—and exclude estimates for supporting services. thus, the aggregate estimate reported here must be seen as a floor value of ecosystem services from cmes in india. the only national estimate available for comparing the values reported in the present study is the one by world bank (2013). they found the total value of ecosystem services from all biomes (including coastal ecosystems) to be ₹1.4 trillion in 2009. to put this in a comparative perspective, the value of ecosystem services was about 3% of india’s gdp in that year. the classification used for biomes (services) was forests, grasslands, wetlands (including coastal wetlands), mangroves, coral reefs, lakes, and rivers. in this classification, cmes include mangroves, coral reefs, and coastal wetlands. however, ecosystem services from wetlands have not been separated by location (coastal or non-coastal). so, the contribution of the coastal zone cannot be separated clearly. the world bank study found that wetlands accounted for the highest percentage contribution (48%), followed by coral reefs (22%) and mangroves (2%). the estimates reported in the present study suggest a much larger contribution of ecosystem services in india as compared to earlier studies. this assumes importance from the point of policy-making, where decisions about preserving natural capital need to be made. another world bank study estimated the extent of environmental degradation in india to be about ₹3.75 trillion as of 2009, which was 5.7% of the gdp (mani et al. 2012). this study focused largely on damages due to air pollution, land degradation, and water and sanitation but did not examine coastal and marine issues. unisdr/undp highlighted threats to coastal ecosystems, especially in the context of climate change and sea-level rise (2012). these findings emphasize the need for economic policies and environmental laws [131] ks kavi kumar et al. to be cognizant of the importance of ecosystems in sustaining human welfare. to better inform the management of ecosystems and the sustainable development of ocean economies, data needs to be integrated across environmental, economic, and social knowledge domains. the development of more holistic statistics and indicators to measure the contribution of cme services to society and the economy, as has been attempted in this study, is in line with the government of india’s stated policy towards the “blue economy” (goi 2020). such an attempt is also in sync with the central idea of the dasgupta review — that “economies are embedded within the nature, not external to it” (dasgupta 2021). for a comprehensive assessment of the contribution of coastal and marine ecosystem services, one must address the potential trade-offs and/or complementarities among various services to avoid overestimation and double counting and also to carry out assessments across multiple years. future research could address some of the limitations of the present study and contribute towards the development of ocean accounts that are compatible with national accounting. acknowledgements this work was undertaken as part of the project, ‘linking coastal zone management to ecosystem services in india’, funded by national centre for sustainable coastal management (ncscm), chennai. the authors would like to thank prof. kanchan chopra and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier versions of the paper. the authors acknowledge the useful comments provided by the project review committee consisting of prof. r. ramesh, prof. b. r. subramanian, prof. d. chandramohan, 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https://www.water-technology.net/projects/minjurdesalination/ https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2209 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 63-87 january 2022 thematic essay technological innovations, behavioural interventions, and household energy conservation: policy insights and lessons chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao abstract: the threats associated with climate change and the worsening ecological crisis have led to a growing interest in energy-conservation policies. policymakers across the globe have been scrambling to find cost-effective and sustainable methods to meet the world’s growing energy demands. traditional policies have so far largely focused on supply-side interventions aimed at encouraging energy efficiency via green innovation and new technologies. however, as several studies have indicated, supply-side policies alone are unlikely to be adequate to achieve the ambitious changes required to make our future sustainable. this review article draws on recent studies in behavioural economics to emphasize the need to reorient public policy towards altering consumer end-uses through behavioural interventions. in an attempt to draw out important lessons for public policy, the article reviews this emerging strand of literature and underlines the complex factors that influence energy consumption in a household. although preceding studies have primarily focused on developed nations, the output of these studies could guide policymakers in developing and emerging market economies as well. keywords: technological innovations; behavioural interventions; energy conservation; household decision-making; public policy  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology tirupati, yerpedu, 517619, india, email: csbahinipati@iittp.ac.in.  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology tirupati, yerpedu, 517619, india. rahul.sirohi@iittp.ac.in taru development initiative foundation (tdif), new delhi, 110020, india. sagarika.srinivas.18@gmail.com copyright © bahinipati, sirohi, and rao 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.530 mailto:csbahinipati@iittp.ac.in mailto:rahul.sirohi@iittp.ac.in mailto:sagarika.srinivas.18@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.530 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] 1. introduction the evolution and progress of human civilization have been predicated on its ability to manipulate and use energy. the discovery of fire almost two million years ago gave humans leverage over their environment; it allowed them to not only have better nutrition, a greater variety of food, and longer life spans, but it also enabled them to migrate and adapt to a variety of climatic conditions and perform social tasks, which was crucial for their biological and social evolution (pausas and keeley 2009). similarly, the large-scale use of fossil fuels in the nineteenth century allowed preindustrial economies in europe and the united kingdom to evolve into economic superpowers (wrigley 2013). the significance of energy for economics was recognized early on by classical political economists who emphasized the constraints imposed on economies by natural conditions. notably, ricardo (1817) highlighted the constraining effect of land supply on growth when he suggested that growth cannot be sustained infinitely in the long run due to the diminishing returns of capital and labour on a fixed supply of land. similarly, his contemporary, malthus, famously suggested that there exists a fundamental mismatch between the rate of human reproduction and the world’s natural resource base (wrigley 2013). however, the relationship between economic development and energy use turned out to be far more complex than what classical economists initially predicted. it was the “discovery” of fossil fuels that dramatically changed the nature of the growth–energy nexus (malm 2016). while “organic economies” that predated the industrial revolution primarily derived their energy requirements from “plant photosynthesis”— which was too slow and inefficient to really ignite long-term growth—the industrial revolution in europe emerged in parallel with the radical shift to fossil fuels (wrigley 2013, 1–10). the relationship between development and energy consumption has always been complex. ever since the industrial revolution, the world has witnessed ever increasing rates of energy use (vance et al. 2015; pablo– romero and de jesús 2016; malm 2016). between 1965 and 2012, it is estimated that global energy consumption grew by well over 200% (iea 2013). the share of electricity in this estimate, which was recorded to be 19% in 2017, is projected to increase from 20.3% in 2025 to 23.7% in 2040 (iea 2018). indeed, even among contemporary developing economies like china and india, which have grown at a tremendous pace over the last few decades—a ravaging hunger for energy has characterized their respective development trajectories (iea 2020). given the high estimated demand, it is clear that not only does future growth depend on the ready supply of cheap energy but that the world will face dire environmental consequences [65] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao from the accelerating use and demand for energy. there is considerable evidence linking growing energy consumption to dangerously high greenhouse gas (ghgs) emissions and the ongoing challenges posed by climate change (malm 2016; pablo–romero and de jesús 2016). the energy sector is a major contributor of ghgs as more than half of the demand is met through fossil fuels. this renders its total share of anthropogenic ghg emissions 35% as of 2010 (bruckner et al. 2014). in consideration of this, managing energy consumption and supply has garnered notable importance within national and international policymaking. it is being stressed that nothing less than a paradigm shift in terms of production and consumption will be adequate to reduce the global energy footprint (fanghella et al. 2019). in this regard, growing importance has been placed on increasing energy efficiency in extraction and conversion, shifting towards non-fossil-fuel-based energy (e.g., renewable, nuclear, etc.), and so forth. from the supply angle, the challenge has been to find contemporary and economical methods to meet the current and foreseeable growth in energy demand. the paris agreement (2015) was signed by several developed and developing countries, indicating that they are finally taking climate change seriously. there has also been a heightened emphasis on finding alternative, clean technologies for meeting energy requirements. goal 7 (affordable and clean energy) of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) is committed solely to issues related to energy. it is worth noting that this goal mainly focuses on access to renewable energy and energy efficiency (unep n.d.). technology is given utmost importance in the context of energy efficiency—this stems from the assumption that technological interventions can mitigate environmental damage by reducing the quantity of energy required for output production and by increasing the supply of cleaner sources of energy (foster 2001). however, what is often overlooked is that the availability of cheap and efficient technologies does not automatically result in their adoption by end-users. there is no apparent reason for entrepreneurs and consumers to choose energy-efficient technologies and appliances just because they are available. in fact, actual adoption patterns and consumer choices are governed by complex social, cultural, and psychological processes. moreover, as numerous studies have shown, the availability of efficient technologies can generate complex feedback loops, which may inversely encourage rather than reduce energy consumption (polimeni and polimeni 2006; sorrell 2009). from the perspective of public policy, this implies that apart from supply-side interventions, influencing demand-side determinants of energy efficiency is crucial for managing energy use (parrish et al. 2020). typically, demand can either be influenced ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] by non-price mechanisms or by various price-based incentives such as taxes, subsidies, etc. (allcott 2011a; 2011b). previous studies on the effect of monetary incentives on consumption have proved to be inconclusive (fishman et al. 2016) or even negative (sudarshan 2017; frederiks et al. 2015). price-based incentives are also much costlier to implement than behavioural nudges (allcott 2011a; 2011b). more importantly, the adoption behaviours of end-users may not always be driven by the calculus of gains and losses but are instead likely to be shaped by informal institutions, traditions, and past habits and are often shaped by boundedly rational conditions. as a result, standard price-based incentives may not always work as planned or may require complementary non-price interventions (thaler and sunstein 2009). recent literature on behavioural economics suggests that “nudging” producers and consumers by providing them with information about energy costs, environmental externalities, and other relevant information could have significant implications on their choices. it is in this context that this review paper seeks to centre consumer end-use as an important locus of public action. in contrast to the conventional one-sided emphasis on supply-side interventions, it highlights the growing significance and effectiveness of behavioural interventions in altering the energy choices of households. although a vast majority of the existing literature focuses on developed nations (abrahamse et al. 2005; andor and fels 2018; brandon et al. 2017), the outcomes of these studies are likely to provide policy lessons for developing nations and emerging markets as well, especially considering that policymakers have been making concerted efforts at tackling their growing energy footprints. taking into consideration the increasing importance of energy end-use, and the consequent pledge made by several governments during the paris climate convention to reduce their energy footprints, a careful analysis of non–price interventions is extremely important. it is with this intention that the review article is structured as follows. the section following the introduction examines the limits of supply-side interventions aimed at efficiency enhancement through technological upgradation, and the third summarizes the findings from different empirical papers that adopted nonprice-based behavioural interventions to influence the adoption of energyefficient technologies. the fourth section provides the discussion and policy lessons, while the final segment concludes the review. [67] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao 2. limits of supply-side interventions: beyond technological fixes the risks associated with rising energy consumption have been widely noted in the scientific community; however, there has also been a tendency to consider the related issues—climate change, ghg emissions, etc.—as primarily engineering tasks, i.e., a set of problems that can be solved through technological improvements alone (foster 2001; brookes 1990; geels et al. 2017). while it is true that by reducing energy input per unit output and generating energy through clean, renewable sources, technological innovations can play a key role in meeting the growing energy demands of the world economy sustainably, we argue that an exclusive focus on technological fixes is inadequate. for one, despite the consistent improvement in technology over the last several decades, energy demands have shown no signs of decline. based on this, vance et al. (2015) estimate that efficiency increases alone may not effectively influence the energy demand–supply matrix, since energy efficiency would have to grow at historically unprecedented proportions in the coming years to meet the growing needs of the global population. further, even if efficiency successfully improved to that magnitude, there is no guarantee that it would result in a reduction in the rate of energy consumption. for although technological improvements may result in the use of fewer inputs for a given level of output, this change may also generate complex backward and forward reactions that may spur producers to use more energy or consumers to increase their demand of energy-intensive goods (foster 2001). in the long run, the incentives of economies of scale may push producers to increase production of the said good, and, consequently, demand greater amounts of energy (brookes 1990). if this increase in production is accompanied by declining prices, it may give rise to additional pressures on energy use as a direct result of rising consumer demand as well. the paradoxical effects of efficiency improvements were noted in the late nineteenth century itself, when a pioneer of neoclassical economics, william stanley jevons, suggested that technological improvements may increase energy consumption rather than decrease it. he asserted that the cheapening effect these technologies have on the final product could unintentionally lead to higher consumer and producer demand than before (jevons 1906 [1865]). though originally propounded by jevons to explain how steam technology led to increased consumption of coal, this paradox has been the subject of a large body of contemporary literature that underlines the very same unintended consequences of efficiency on energy demand. several studies have emphasized these rebound effects in the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] context of both micro-level and macro-level data (polimeni and polimeni 2006; aydin et al. 2017; fowlie et al. 2018). to expound, davis et al. (2014) conducted a study on the cash-for-coolers subsidy that was rolled out by the mexican government to enable households to replace old air conditioners and refrigerators with newer, more efficient models. they reported that in some cases, energy usage increased as a result of the subsidy. the authors also found that the additional features included in the new appliance models may have driven consumers to use them more “than one would have expected based on the pure price response” (davis et al. 2014, 229). in the netherlands, aydin et al. (2017) found that the rebound effect for energy efficiency is around a third for homeowners and around two-fifths for tenants and is reported to be higher for lower wealth quantiles; further, they note a positive relation between the rebound effect and wealth. newman and kenworthy (2000), similarly, point out how the expansion of roads and freeways, often justified as a means of reducing traffic congestion, may, in reality, incentivize more automobile use than predicted, thus paradoxically contributing to more traffic congestion. in a slightly different setting, studies have noted how the increasing share of renewable sources may have complex effects on the price of electricity, which could in turn increase the overall household demand for energy, leading to a reduction in potential environmental savings. velez–henao et al. (2020) refer to this as the environmental rebound effect. more precisely, in an attempt to diversify the energy system, the colombian government adopted a policy promoting the use of wind, solar, and other sources of renewable power. the empirical analysis by velez–henao et al. (2020) shows the environmental rebound effect offsetting the potential environmental saving. in a similar context, bahinipati and viswanathan (2019a) observe that large-scale adoption of irrigation-efficient technologies may not reduce groundwater extraction in water-stressed regions in gujarat, india. it is worth noting that although rebound effects are crucial determinants of energy savings, some studies have documented relatively modest energy savings in contexts where there are no rebound effects as well. for example, evaluating a nationwide energy-efficiency programme, fowlie et al. (2018) studied a sample of 30,000 households in the us and reported that energy savings tend to be much lesser than the investment costs associated with energy efficiency. estimates also suggest that actual energy savings are significantly lesser than the predicted values. although indicative of a rebound effect, the authors find no strong evidence for the hypothesis. however, it must be noted that even in such cases, the central distinction between technological innovation and ultimate adoption remains crucial. [69] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao even if technological improvements are made at the desired rates—and we assume away the complex rebound effects that they may give rise to—an equally important issue is the challenge of getting producers and consumers to adopt green and efficient technologies. the mere existence of efficient technologies does not mean that they are diffused and put into use by default, especially in decentralized market economies. to put things into perspective, technology adoption is usually described in rather simple terms in the standard economic literature. one of the central tenets of traditional neoclassical economics is that monetary incentives are crucial determinants of consumer and producer behaviour. based on the assumption that the typical economic agent is a “lightning calculator of pleasures and pains”, the traditional, textbook model of choice tells us that economic agents, be it consumers or entrepreneurs, make choices by balancing their costs and benefits and ultimately only use those alternatives that maximize their net rewards (veblen 1898, 389). given that prices are crucial to these calculations, changes in price can have powerful effects on what actions people take. for example, as natural resources diminish and their prices increase, standard models tell us that economic agents are likely to shift towards technologies that use these inputs less intensively (velthuijsen and worrell 2002). thus, it has been argued that the introduction and diffusion of the steam engine in eighteenth-century britain were largely driven by the fact that not only were labour costs high, but coal and capital costs were low, incentivizing firms to switch towards laboursaving, energy-intensive technologies (allen 2012). or as put by allen (2012, 23), “people respond to price incentives. the timing of the shift to coal, and the invention of technologies to expand its use, reflected the prices of coal, labour, and capital.” in a more contemporary example, davis et al. (2014) have noted how incentives for large-scale appliance replacement motivated around 1.9 million households in mexico to exchange old refrigerators and air conditioners between 2009 and 2012. observing incentivizing programmes in india, bahinipati and viswanathan (2019b) observe that a pecuniary benefit, along with the removal of the ban on groundwater extraction, has played a major role in the diffusion of micro-irrigation technologies in water-scarce regions in gujarat. studies have also noted the importance of pigouvian taxes to correct the market distortion caused by environmental externalities. previous studies have suggested imposing a carbon tax based on the social cost of carbon to generate revenue and reduce ghg emissions (paul et al. 2013). obviously, following the demand law, raising electricity prices could reduce household demand, with the size effect ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] varying according to elasticity. paul et al. (2013) present evidence of changes in the electricity demand and the technology mix due to the carbon tax in the us. in the context of the european union and the united kingdom, platchkov and pollitt (2011) observe the role of price in driving energy demand, i.e., lesser demand is associated with a high price, including tax. regarding india, filippini and pachauri (2004) calculated that price elasticity varies between –0.29 to –0.51, indicating a decline in the energy use of urban households, approximately 0.3–0.5%, with a 1% increase in the price index. given the widespread prevalence of the view that choice is determined by efficiency concerns alone, which underplays the distinction between technological innovation and diffusion, it is not surprising that much of the policymaking discussions on mitigating climate change and conserving energy use focus on technology while missing broader, psychological, cultural, and social structures that determine the use and adoption of such technologies in the first place (foster 2001; geels et al. 2017). however, as several studies indicate, the issue of adoption is far more complex than it is made out to be, and decentralized decision-making does not always lead to superior, more efficient technologies being adopted, even if they are available in the agents’ choice set. in the context of eighteenthand nineteenth-century britain for instance, malm (2012; 2016) notes that the adoption of the coal-powered steam engine over alternative energy sources like water was not driven by a loss– benefit calculus alone, but also by the desire to bring workers under their control. or as malm (2012, 113) puts it, “as a prime mover based on a fossil fuel, rather than on water flowing through particular spots determined by the contours of landscapes, it granted capital the power to search out the cheapest and most disciplined labour.” to take another classic example—it is well recognized that mass transit in the us is far weaker than private transport, partly due to the influence of powerful “automobile–oil–rubber” lobbies (whitt and yago 1985, 37–65; newman and kenworthy 2000, 15– 25). more than an individual choice based on cost and benefit alone, the diffusion of the automobile was a result of hidden state subsidies, enormous volumes of cheap credit, provision of roadways, and an entire cultural industry built around automobile consumption, all of which played a pivotal role in building up mass demand for automobiles instead of public  the results of these studies must be considered in light of their contexts, because, as chen (2017) notes in a study based in taiwan, the demand curve for energy consumption could be inelastic. thus, in the complete absence of substitution options, electricity prices play an insignificant role in household decision-making. [71] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao transport (mattioli et al. 2020). similarly, historical institutionalists and new institutionalists who emphasize the importance of path dependence suggest that technological diffusion is often dictated by past historical events. once technologies are chosen, even when feasible and more efficient alternatives exist, the choice tends to be self-perpetuating, creating inertia towards the status quo (puffert 2008). more recently, randomized experiments have been used to analyze technology adoption practices, and studies have found evidence of organizational and cognitive barriers that may prevent optimal technology adoption practices in the context of developing countries (hanna et al. 2014). hanna et al. (2014), for example, studied the technology choices of indonesian seaweed farmers. the study found that while farmers are generally aware of important aspects of the farming process, a large proportion failed to notice the importance of pod size in determining output, despite high rates of literacy and long years of farming experience. inversely put, efficiency need not always dictate the choices that agents make, especially in uncertain and complex systems. this is as true of consumer choices as it is of those made by producers. a growing literature has emerged on the so-called “energy paradox” or “efficiency gap”, which points to the non-adoption of feasible and affordable energy-conserving technologies and appliances by consumers (sallee 2014; allcott et al. 2014, 72–88; allcott and greenstone 2012, 3–28). studies suggest that consumers’ reluctance to choose energy-saving options, despite the massive savings that could accrue in the long run, stems from complex behavioural factors that underlie how people make decisions when faced with informational asymmetries of various kinds and fundamental uncertainties (alcott and mullainathan 2010). while the hard sciences are useful to develop technologies, it is observed that cost-effective behavioural interventions drive households to save energy (alcott and mullainathan 2010). given that technological fixes alone may not provide a way out of the current conundrum facing the global economy—and given that a large proportion of the energy demand emanates from the residential sector—this line of analysis stresses the need to find ways to reduce energy consumption directly by influencing the demand-side determinants of technology adoption (parrish et al. 2020). it emphasizes the need to understand the non-monetary determinants of end-use, which it argues can be as powerful a tool to alter energy consumption as any technological fix; it is to these studies that we turn in the next section. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] 3. non-price based interventions: insights from behavioural economics behavioural economics incorporates insights from psychology into the study of economic decision-making. it is rooted in standard neoclassical economics in the sense that the analysis begins with the individual, but it seeks to make these models more realistic by relaxing their stringent assumptions about human behaviour (kahneman 2003; thaler and sunstein 2009). in particular, this strand of literature shows that in the context of limited information, uncertainties, and risks, people take actions that are not always optimal. more importantly, their behaviour is not merely a pathology that is to be assigned to the margins of theory but is a persistent and repeated response to the highly complex situations they are faced with. despite generally being brushed off by standard models, this behaviour can constitute the predictable, albeit irrational, response of human beings to the uncertainties that they face. these modes of behaviour can be explained by applying psychological theories on human behaviour to the economics of decision-making. in the following paragraphs, we outline the findings of papers that aim to investigate the effectiveness of nudge-like interventions in bringing down energy use at the household level. the paper surveys studies that investigate how households can be induced to reduce their energy use, either by encouraging them to cut down their energy use in absolute terms or by persuading them to make investments in energyefficient technologies. inducing households to do either requires targeted policies, and the following studies note the role of behavioural interventions in promoting these measures (andor and fels 2018). in this context, recent literature on household decision-making suggests that people repeatedly underestimate the energy savings that they can make from adopting efficient or clean technologies, which results in “the low adoption of energy-efficient technologies despite potentially large saving” (alcott and taubinsky 2013, 2). economists have started to stress on how behavioural factors can act as barriers to optimal decision-making. it has been pointed out that to calculate the costs and benefits of alternatives, a consumer requires a certain level of literacy and a familiarity with numeracy (blasch et al. 2019). energy labelling and star ratings are two mechanisms that help increase energy literacy levels, apart from conducting programmes and implementing non-price-based policies (jain et al. 2018a; 2018b). further, even in cases where cognitive barriers are not significant, it has been argued that consumers and producers simply do not make use of the available information and thus underestimate the hidden costs of their actions (kahneman 2003; allcott and greenstone 2012). this is what sallee (2014) refers to as “inattention bias”, which she defines as the unwillingness [73] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao of decision-makers to find and incorporate relevant information while making choices due to the perception that the cost of such an exercise far outweighs its benefits. this is particularly true in the case of inter-temporal choices, where agents are required to make decisions that not only impact them in the present but across several other periods as well. in a slightly different context, leard (2018) uses a household-level survey to show how inattention among automobile buyers leads them to undervalue fuel costs. his results demonstrated how estimates of savings vary between attentive and inattentive buyers. even when choices are less complex in terms of temporality, the sheer abundance of choices often pushes consumers to make decisions based on rules of thumb, heuristics, and past habits, all of which make them less likely to change their consumption patterns even when such shifts may be beneficial (abadie and gay 2006). such inertia, or what has been called a “status quo bias”, may arise when consumers deem search costs to be high when their choices are shaped not only by economic factors such as prices and income but also by existing endowments or when faced with considerable uncertainty with regards to future demand/price (kahneman et al. 1991, 193–206). thus, previous studies have uncovered a persistent tendency on the part of residential consumers to stick to incumbent electricity providers, leading to greater concentration in markets that could potentially hurt consumer welfare (brennan 2007). in a study of swiss households, alberini et al. (2013) find that price-related uncertainty tends to make families stick to the status quo when it comes to decisions regarding investments in energy-saving home renovations. in summation, due to certain psychological biases and limitations to cognitive resources, agents often fail to make choices predicted by utility maximization. these behavioural factors also affect energy consumption patterns either directly or indirectly. to put things in perspective, traditional literature has a lot to say on market failures and their effects on consumer welfare, but it has been relatively silent on failures stemming from consumer behaviour itself. behavioural economics, instead, stresses how individuals—driven by complex psychological dynamics—fail to take optimal actions. this issue can be explicated by comparing it to the established idea of externalities. traditionally, externalities lead to a noncoincidence between privately optimal actions and socially optimal ones, arising from the external costs/benefits that agents impose on one another. behavioural economics, however, points us towards the possibility that agents may impose costs upon themselves by acting in ways that do not correspond with their long-term interests. all of this has crucial implications for public policy. if psychological factors affect consumer ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] choices and behaviours, standard monetary incentives and punishments may not be enough to control under-investment in energy-saving appliances. if at all, when such incentives are applied without heeding underlying consumer preferences, there is a chance that it will backfire. as has been argued by frey and jegen (2001, 589–611) and others, external motivations of this sort may “crowd out” intrinsic motivations, including pro-environmental ones (frederiks et al. 2015, 1383–1394). under these conditions, it becomes incumbent for policymakers to consider the psychological dimensions of consumer behaviour while developing energyrelated policies. generally speaking, behavioural policy interventions can take on myriad forms. unlike price-based instruments, however, these interventions seek to influence consumer preferences directly or indirectly through what are called “nudges”. these usually involve a comprehensive set of interventions ranging from providing energy-saving information, goal-setting, and a peer comparison model of energy consumption, which allows households to compare their consumption with their neighbours (sudarshan 2017, 320– 335). while the distinction between nudges and traditional price-based instruments is often blurred, the idea behind nudges is derived from the notion of “libertarian paternalism”, i.e., the idea that interventions be designed to not overtly constrain consumer sovereignty and gently push them to adopt privately optimal alternatives (hansen 2016, 155–174). they are, in galle’s (2014, 839) words, “innocuous little speed bumps” that decision-makers can opt out of at minimal cost. more generally speaking, hansen (2016, 158) states that a nudge is a function of (i) any attempt at influencing people’s judgement, choice or behaviour in a predictable way that is motivated because of cognitive boundaries, biases, routines, and habits in individual and social decision-making posing barriers for people to perform rationally in their own declared self-interests and which (2) works by making use of those boundaries, biases, routines, and habits as integral parts of such attempts. nudging, like behavioural interventions, is considered to be an inexpensive approach to altering energy use (allcott and mullainathan 2010; allcott et al. 2014; brandon et al. 2017). based on 38 natural field experiment studies, brandon et al. (2017) concluded that behavioural interventions reduce energy consumption by 35–55% even after the end of treatment. another study by the european environment agency (2013) summarized that various behavioural interventions (e.g., feedback, target-setting, etc.) could save energy up to 20%. [75] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao often, providing consumers with relevant information regarding energy use through easy and relatively cost-effective means is an effective method of nudging them towards energy conservation (andor et al. 2020; brülisauer et al. 2020; mccalley and midden 2002; tyagi et al. 2020). in a field experiment involving graduate students at the national university of singapore, brülisauer et al. (2020, 111742) tested three treatments: (i) sharing information on energy use by air conditioners relative to total use, (ii) sharing information on the neighbour’s electricity consumption, (iii) sharing information on three unknown residents’ electricity consumption. the study reported that providing appliance-specific feedback reduces the level of consumption—i.e., the electricity consumption by air conditioners reduced by 17%. similarly, andor et al. (2020) conducted a field experiment in germany, wherein the sample households were asked to install appliance-specific smart meters. the results suggest that electricity consumption was reduced by 5%, and a further reduction was observed during peak hours, of approximately 10–15%. such a reduction could be augmented if appliance-level feedback is provided—the study estimates that such an intervention could potentially generate around €570–600 million per annum in consumer surplus for households in germany (andor 2020). in a similar context, several studies have shown how energy labels allow consumers to easily process information and make informed choices by taking into consideration the energy efficiency of household appliance models (sammer and wüstenhagen 2006; shen and saijo 2009; jain et al. 2018a; 2018b). altering intrinsic preferences can, as studies have shown, serve as a powerful mechanism to reduce energy demand. however, individual choices are made in social contexts. institutional scaffolding, social practices and mores, kinship and familial ties, broader class conflicts, and state interventions can shape the dynamics of how individuals make choices. recognizing the social contexts within which individuals act is important as it widens our understanding of the forces that drive energy transitions and thus broadens the scope of policy interventions aimed at energy transitions (stephenson et al. 2015; klaniecki et al. 2020; geels et al. 2017). behavioural economists, while being rooted in methodological individualism, partially recognize the social nature of decision-making and emphasize how “behavioural choices by individual agents (as well as their objective functions) can (either positively or negatively) be affected by other players’ preferences, material well-being, intentions and/or behavioural choices” (zarri 2010, 563). in this context, a widely commented upon nudge involves the use of social norms in the form of peer comparisons. opower’s experiment with home energy reports (hers) is one example ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] of how non-price-based interventions can positively reinforce energy savings by nudging consumers (allcott 2011a; 2011b). to change households’ use of electricity, utility companies in the us recruited opower to inform consumers regarding their energy usage. electricity bills along with hers were sent out to 600,000 households as a randomized control trial. each her had two major components: a peercomparison module and an action-step module. the reports were sent to the treatment groups at varying frequencies ranging from monthly to quarterly, and their energy usage was compared with control groups. the results uncovered by allcott (2011b) suggest that the effect of hers was “equivalent to an 11–20% short-run price increase or a 5% long-run price increase” (allcott 2011b, 1083). moreover, allcott and rogers (2014) emphasized that the opower intervention could result in long-term changes in energy-related decisions when treatments are repeatedly applied. specifically, energy consumption declined immediately after hers were received, but it then slid back to pre-treatment levels. however, in the long run, when “the intervention is repeated, people gradually develop a new ‘capital stock’ that generates persistent changes in outcomes” (allcott and rogers 2014, 3005). this capital stock, allcott and rogers (2014) note, includes energy-saving appliances that consumers invest in but also new habits that consumers imbibe and incorporate into their decision-making process. similarly, brandon et al. (2019) evaluated the effectiveness of two nudges implemented on 42,100 households in southern california by opower— which involved the provision of peak energy reports (pers) and hers to households. all households were randomly sorted into four mutually exclusive groups and received one out of four options—i.e., only her, only per, both her and per, and no correspondence (control group). while the “only per” group reduced energy consumption by 2–4%, consumption plummeted by 7% when both per and her were implemented together (brandon et al. 2019, 5293–5298). corresponding observations were reported by papers published in the 1980s. midden et al. (1983), for instance, reported that providing the information alone is ineffective and that comparative feedback is more effective in reducing electricity consumption than individual feedback. likewise, hutton et al. (1986) found that households in the us and canada reduced consumption by 4–5% when they received information along with feedback. [77] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao 4. discussion and policy implications the primary aim of this review is to underscore the importance of behavioural interventions as an alternative tool for encouraging household energy conservation. it has been established that the residential sector plays an important role in meeting energy-related goals; yet, studies show that consumers may not make sustainable choices of their own accord even when such alternatives are economically beneficial to them. in this regard, studies indicate the importance of reshaping how people make decisions. a series of studies that have emerged over the last few years suggest that public policies aimed at altering energy consumption are likely to be effective if they leverage the behavioural dimensions of decision-making. that is, if they directly alter how people make choices—“nudging” consumers into making sustainable choices. while much of this emerging body of literature has been primarily focused on developed nations, these studies hold important lessons for developing nations as well. in this regard, three issues, in particular, are worth emphasizing. first, although energy-conservation goals require new technologies and policies to scale up efficiency, several studies have found that technological fixes alone may be insufficient. for one, a mere improvement in energy efficiency may increase rather than decrease demand due to complex rebound effects. moreover, the mere availability of better technologies is not likely to result in their widespread adoption due to behavioural factors at the consumers’ end. it follows, therefore, that any policy that aims at mitigating the negative effects of growing energy consumption must emphasize the importance of directly altering consumer end-use as well. second, if consumer end-use is to be directly influenced, traditional monetary incentives such as taxes, subsidies, and so on may be of limited use as stand-alone tools. not only are policies such as pigouvian taxes likely to face implementation difficulties from a political point of view, but the carrot–stick approach may fail to leverage important dimensions of human behaviour that could be directed towards pro-environmental ends. pecuniary incentives, on the contrary, end up having complex feedback effects and may crowd out potential pro-social behaviours of households. in such contexts, “nudge”-like interventions such as goal-setting, commitment, information, peer-group comparison, appliance-specific information, and so on, may prove to be potent measures to alter energy use. there is considerable evidence of their effectiveness in recent studies (e.g., allcott 2011b; brandon et al. 2019). third, while individual behaviours provide an important site of action for policymakers seeking to reduce energy use, there are reasons to want to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] move beyond the epistemic focus on individuals and broaden the scope of analysis. individual decisions regarding energy use are deeply embedded in societal-level processes. individuals do not seek to ‘consume’ energy for its own ends, but rely on it to facilitate everyday practices such as commuting to work, being comfortable at home, or laundering clothes. these energy-using practices have become embedded in contemporary social life, and rely on complex and embedded infrastructures such as national road networks, the domestic building stock and national electricity grids. (hampton and adams 2018, 215). previous studies, have, therefore, emphasized the multi-level determinants of energy transitions and how altering energy use requires broad-based changes in “energy cultures”, infrastructure, markets, and institutions in addition to changes in user behaviour (stephenson et al. 2015, 117–123; geels et al. 2017, 463–479; klaniecki et al. 2020, 111092). moreover, transitions in energy use are likely to have contradictory effects on stakeholders and are thus likely to be deeply conflictual processes, which unless managed, could have consequences for long-term energy usage patterns (siciliano et al. 2018). behavioural economics provides an interesting vantage point to address some of these issues; but even while several strands within it recognize the crucial ways in which the social environment matters, much of the existing work is wedded to the methodological individualism of neoclassical orthodoxy and thus undertheorizes the links between social structure and individual agency (frerichs 2018). given that energy consumption is deeply embedded in everyday cultural practices (geels et al. 2017; klaniecki et al. 2020) and is affected by social provisioning processes (mattioli et al. 2020), and given that individual choices are inescapably enmeshed in complex power struggles that are ongoing within society, there is considerable room to build epistemic bridges between the sociological and behavioural strands of the energy transition debate (hampton and adams 2018). doing so is particularly crucial to extend the geographical scope of behavioural studies, which have thus far been restricted to the developed world. in non-western contexts, the distinction between public and private spheres is less clear, and conceptions of possessive individualism often co-exist along with strong collective identities. here, the social environment within which decision-making occurs is likely to have a far more salient influence than elsewhere. perhaps—precisely because of these realities—the behavioural turn in economics has not been extensively extended to the developing world yet. in fact, a striking feature in most of the studies mentioned thus far is the dearth of research in the context of developing nations. [79] chandra sekhar bahinipati, rahul a sirohi, sagarika s rao concerning india, in an empirical study, suryawanshi and jumle (2016) used a primary survey to highlight the role of socio-economic variables in determining household energy-conservation behaviour. tyagi et al. (2020) surveyed the effectiveness of behavioural interventions in developed countries and discussed their applicability in the context of developing countries. sudarshan (2017) adopted a nudging approach to assess household energy consumption behaviour in delhi and found that informational interventions helped reduce energy consumption by 7%. however, the analysis also found that households did not reduce their energy consumption when they were given both information as well as pecuniary benefits—which indicates that monetary benefits crowd out nonprice-based behavioural interventions. further, a tariff is observed to be more significant in the case of nudged households (sudarshan 2017). these results correspond with a field experiment conducted by chen et al. (2017), which found evidence of pro-environmental preferences in urban india. their study found that non-pecuniary information regarding the health and environmental effects of energy consumption can significantly reduce energy consumption. while the studies cited here all seem to suggest the effectiveness of behavioural interventions, prabhu et al. (2013) paint a more complex picture. they studied a large-scale programme launched in rural kerala to greater awareness about energy efficiency. the study revealed that sustained campaigns, training classes, and local government involvement can play an important role in raising awareness regarding energy use. the study also highlighted, however, that habits and preferences for the status quo exerted a strong inertia on energy-related decisions and acted as a barrier to the adoption of energy-efficient lifestyles. 5. conclusion the consensus that a fundamental shift in energy-use patterns is crucial for building a sustainable future is undeniable and has been widely recognized. that such a shift requires a paradigm change in energy efficiency facilitated through innovative and radical new technologies has also been widely commented upon. what is often not taken into consideration, however, is the potential role of demand-side factors that influence how end-users make decisions regarding energy use. many existing policy frameworks emphasize the role of supply-side technological solutions in achieving energy transitions and realizing low-carbon futures. however, recent studies in behavioural economics suggest that influencing consumer choice through behavioural nudges can play an important role in this regard. given these reflections, there is an immediate need to design policies that aim at reducing consumer end-use through innovative behavioural programmes, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] especially in the context of developing and market economies. rather than thinking of energy sustainability solely in terms of supply-side solutions, it is becoming increasingly incumbent on policymakers to propose holistic, multi-dimensional solutions that seek to tackle demand-side as well as supply-side determinants of energy use. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the research grant received from the indian council of social science research (icssr), new delhi, under the impactful policy research in social science scheme (impress/p1652/269/2018–19/icssr) to carry out this study. earlier versions of the manuscript were presented at several conferences such as urban arc 2021, iihs, bengaluru; 17th globelics international conference, heredia, costa rica; and environmental research 2021. the views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not of those of the supporting or collaborating institutions. the usual disclaimers apply. availability of data and materials this is a review paper, and all the materials used in this study are included in the article. author contribution ssr collected all the papers required for this review article, and these papers were distributed equally among csb, ras, and ssr to read and summarize the main arguments and findings. csb and ras authored the original draft. all authors have read and approved the final manuscript. funding this work was supported by the indian council of social science research (icssr), india, under the impactful policy research in social science scheme (impress/p1652/269/2018–19/icssr). declarations ethics approval and consent to participate: not applicable consent for publication: not applicable competing interests: the authors declare no competing interests. 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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111697 https://doi.org/10.1177/004208168502100106 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0568 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 195-221 january 2022 research paper rangeland conservation, pastoralist displacement, and long-term implications of a grazing ban in the indian himalaya rashmi singh*, kinzong sherap bhutia**, tshering uden bhutia***, suresh babu**** abstract: conservation-induced displacement has been one of the major critiques of protected area management across south asia. while there has been a steady increase in research on physical displacement, studies on loss of mobility remain limited. in 1998, a grazing ban was implemented in the state of sikkim in the eastern himalayan region of india. livestock herding in protected areas was restricted, and pastoral evictions were carried out across the state between 2000– 2002. fifteen years after the ban, we conducted this study to understand the longterm implications of the prohibition on grazing as well as that of the pastoral evictions in and around khangchendzonga national park (knp). to do so, we assess eviction processes, document pastoral responses, and explore the complex social and perceived ecological outcomes of the grazing ban. our study shows that pastoral evictions result in the further impoverishment of weaker sections of the pastoral community while powerful pastoralists appropriate benefits from conservation policies. additionally, evictions do not necessarily aid in “biodiversity conservation”; instead, they give rise to social conflicts within the local community and lead to the emergence of new conservation challenges. ex-herders’ responses to the displacement included passive acceptance, resistance and contestation, and negotiation using power and social networks. these responses were distinctly correlated with the herder’s wealth class. we conclude that instead of pastoral displacement, a successful conservation plan could be co-opting local knowledge and local institutions in identifying ways of cultural and conservation co-existence in the pastoral landscape of south asia, paying closer attention to questions of equality and sustainability. *school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi. rashmi89singh@gmail.com **khangchendzonga conservation committee, west sikkim. kinzong@gmail.com ***khangchendzonga conservation committee, west sikkim. uden.sikkim07@gmail.com ****school of human ecology, ambedkar university delhi. suresh@aud.ac.in copyright © singh, bhutia, bhutia and babu 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by–nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.335 mailto:rashmi89singh@gmail.com mailto:kinzong@gmail.com mailto:uden.sikkim07@gmail.com mailto:suresh@aud.ac.in https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.335 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [196] keywords: pastoral communities, conservation induced displacement, protected areas, biodiversity conservation, khangchendzonga national park, himalaya 1. introduction conservation-induced displacement and eviction of indigenous communities from protected areas have been the understory of biodiversity conservation and protected area management practices in south asia and africa (agrawal and redford 2009; brockington and igoe 2006; kabra 2018). despite the global recognition of community conservation approaches and the development of forest rights legislations for indigenous communities (convention of biological diversity, cop7, iucn), they continue to face state-induced evictions. globally, more than 10 million people have been displaced in the name of conservation (agrawal and redford 2009). in india alone, close to 6,00,000 have been displaced over the last two decades (fanari 2019). these numbers are an understatement at best, given that the nomadic pastoral life is difficult to account for in such specific timeand place-bound surveys. there is an emerging recognition of the role of pastoralists in managing and restoring rangelands, combatting climate change, and fulfilling sustainable food goals.† ecologists continue to explore the role of livestock grazing in rangeland management (briske, fuhlendorf, and smeins 2003; ellis and swift 1988; retzer 2006; vetter 2005), and recent studies have increasingly shown a positive correlation between traditional pastoralism and rangeland health (ingty 2021; kohli et al. 2021; pozo et al. 2021; zhang et al. 2020). however, colonial legacies of conservation and the spectre of “overgrazing” in the political narratives of pastoral landscapes have led to the curtailing of pastoralists’ access to their pastures, sedentarization, and even the removal of pastoral communities from their traditional pastures across africa, asia, inner mongolia, and china for the sake of “biodiversity conservation” (behnke and scoones 1992; caravani 2019; gonin and gautier 2015; mortimore 1998; schmidt and pearson 2016; singh et al. 2021; weber and horst 2011; weldemichel 2020; yeh 2005; zhizhong and wen 2008). scholarly engagements have showcased a wide range of social, cultural, and † there is an emerging recognition of the role of pastoralists in managing and restoring rangelands, which cover over 40% of the terrestrial area, in combating climate change and fulfilling global food sustainability goals. global agencies like food and agriculture organization (fao), international union for conservation of nature (iucn), world wide fund for nature (wwf), and the united nations environment programme (unep) are all independently as well as collaboratively supporting the call for the international year for rangeland and pastoralism (iyrp 2026). [197] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu ecological outcomes of such state-led political interventions in the pastoral landscapes (conte and tilt 2014; ichinkhorloo and yeh 2016; li et al. 2013). these results include violation of pastoral rights through unlawful encroachments of pastures by the state and private actors (mwaikusa 1993); the transformation of pastoral communities to agriculture (schmidt and pearson 2016); and loss of access to pastures and pastoral livelihoods through state violence and territorialization (caravani 2019; gonin and gautier 2015; korf, hagmann, and emmenegger 2015; saberwal 1996; weldemichel 2020; yeh 2005). india has a rich diversity of pastoralists—from the goat herders of jammu and kashmir, i.e., the bakarwals and gaddis, the world-renowned pashmina goat herders of ladakh, the yak herders of sikkim and arunachal pradesh, to the duck-herding nomads of tamil nadu. pastoralists form over 98% of the nomadic population of india, which comprises 7% of the total population of the country. these pastoral communities have critical cultural, social, ecological, and economic importance. still, given the common perception that large inviolate spaces need to be maintained for biodiversity conservation, pastoralists in india continue to face conservation-induced evictions and movement restrictions. while there is a scarcity of literature on the ecological influence of traditional herding, the scientific belief that there is a negative relation between pastoral land use and biodiversity conservation has resulted in numerous pastoral evictions in india. some of these are the gujjar pastoralists’ eviction from sariska tiger reserve, rajasthan (shahabuddin, kumar, and shrivastava 2007), van gujjars from rajaji national park in uttarakhand (muhammed 2020) and jammu and kashmir (gooch 2009), the removal of water buffalo herders from keoladeo national park, rajasthan (lewis 2003), and many more. this study aims to unpack the complex social and ecological implications of one of such grazing ban and eviction of pastoralists from protected areas. in addition, we seek to answer the question—do all pastoralists pay for “biodiversity conservation”? we argue that pastoral evictions result in the further impoverishment of weaker sections of the pastoral community while elite and powerful pastoralists appropriate the benefits of these conservation policies by gaining exclusive access to rangelands. due to the lack of state planning for alternative livelihoods and compensation, most ex-herders continue to face long-term challenges even after opting for alternatives livelihoods after being evicted. furthermore, the unplanned elimination of herders may result in the emergence of an entirely new set of conservation challenges in the long term. we present our argument based on our study of pastoral displacement in knp, which was followed by the grazing ban imposed in 1998 to preserve ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [198] the biodiversity of the state of sikkim, situated in the eastern indian himalayan region. to do so, we analyze the eviction processes used, document pastoral responses, and explore the long-term repercussions for the pastoralists of knp, along with the implications for the conservation of the park. protected areas across sikkim witnessed massive dispossession of pastoralists between 2000 to 2002. evictions in knp included two sets of people: one, the residents of tshoka village (10 households), which was situated inside the park; second, the pastoralists that herded sheep, cattle, dzo, and yak inside the park but had their permanent houses on the periphery of the park. this article predominantly focuses on the second set of people—the pastoralists who constituted more than 90% of the displaced population and who lost their mobility and access to the park, which was critical for their livelihoods. 2. conservation-induced displacement in south asia the central assumption of the exclusionary model of conservation is that local livelihoods are at variance with conservation goals (beinart and coates 1995; salafky and wollenberg 2000). the exclusionary conservation model, based on fines and fences, has resulted in widespread dissatisfaction due to the inherent conflict between the motives of biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction in third-world countries (brockington 2004; colchester 2004). critiques of conservation displacement argue that a human-free conservation model is unrealistic and unjust, where the impoverished are forced to abandon their native lands to fulfil the need for conservation (beinart and coates 1995; madhusudan and raman 2003; saberwal, rangarajan, and kothari 2001). it has been further argued that the benefits of conservation are regional, national, and global and that its costs are borne primarily by the already marginalized local poor (balmford and whitten 2003; kabra 2018). there are two kinds of conservation-induced displacement (cd): the first involves the physical displacement of forestdwellers and people from their ancestral homes, while the second results in pastoralists’ loss of access to livelihoods and mobilities inside protected areas (cernea 2005). the ramifications of physical displacement manifest in the form of several social, economic, and cultural impacts on the displaced communities, including alienation from natural resources critical for livelihood security, direct loss of livelihood, income insecurity, increased poverty, and food insecurity (cernea and schmidt-soltua 2006; west, igoe, and brockington 2006). cds and forceful evictions carried out in south asia have been critiqued widely, especially when the ecological benefits and effectiveness of protecting certain areas was much lower than anticipated (kabra 2018). in india, for instance, one of the first detailed studies to [199] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu document the social implications of cd was conducted by kabra (2009) on saharia tribe members, who were displaced from kuno sanctuary, madhya pradesh. the study showed inverse impacts on income, a livelihood shift from a self-sufficient forest-dependent economy to a wage-based market, loss of food security, and a heightened vulnerability to diseases. in another study by lam and paul (2014) in rana tharus, nepal, it was established that the compensation provided to displaced communities did not equate to an adequate replacement for their loss of livelihood. displacement from the park resulted in the loss of social capital, which implied a further reduction in access to job opportunities. while there has been a steady increase in empirical studies from south asia documenting the processes and impacts of conservation displacement (west, igoe, and brockington 2006), a recent review by kabra (2018, 117– 140) highlights that the “literature remains minuscule compared to the estimated magnitude of impacts of pa on some of the most remote and vulnerable populations of the global south.” it is important to note that out of the two types of displacement, the second kind has remained invisible in the published literature. this study addresses the call for research on the second kind of cd, where displacement may not involve physical removal but results in loss of livelihoods and mobility, which becomes critical in the case of pastoral communities. we address this lacuna of pastoral displacement studies in south asia and contribute through a case study conducted in the eastern himalayas. given that all prior research on the impacts of the grazing ban was conducted either by state actors or their collaborators (bhagwat, diwan, and venkataramani 2012; tambe, bhutia, and arrawatia 2012), and the need for an independent assessment of the entire episode of the grazing ban and its long-term implications for the evicted pastoralists, this study becomes extremely crucial. 3. study site the study was conducted in four village clusters—yuksom, darap, karzi, and uttarey in west sikkim—situated at the periphery of knp. sikkim covers an area of 7,096 km², which is only 0.2% of the total geographical area of india; however, it is an environmentally critical region, one among 34 global biodiversity hotspots (myers et al. 2000). in terms of land area, following forests (265.21 thousand ha) and barren land, including rocky and snow-covered areas (209.01 thousand ha), permanent pasture and grazing land, including cultivable wasteland (102.40 thousand ha), account for the third-largest largest portion of land cover, at 14% of the state’s total area. these lands traditionally served as pastures for rearing livestock. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [200] agriculture and tourism are the main livelihoods of the inhabitants of sikkim. most of the local population, close to 80%, is dependent on agriculture. local farmers traditionally cultivated rice, wheat, maize, finger millet, barley, pulses, tuber crop, spices, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. however, with the increase in population and fragmentation of landholdings over generations, the per capita holding has reduced; farmers have moved towards cultivating cash crops like large cardamom (amomum subulatum), potatoes (solanum tuberosum), ginger (zingiber officinale), and mandarin oranges (citrus reticulata). the study design included a landscape-based approach and therefore focused on knp; the selected clusters were identified to be the most influenced by the grazing ban and pastoral evictions. the park covers an area of 1,784 km². knp hosts a wide range of ecosystems, from subtropical to alpine, along with numerous lakes and peaks of religious importance to sikkim’s buddhist and hindu communities. the park is also home to a unique assortment of mammals, including the clouded leopard (neofelis nebulosa), tibetan wolf (canis lupus chanco), asiatic wild dog (cuon alpinus), asiatic black bear (ursus thibetanus), alpine musk deer (moschus chrysogaster), himalayan marmot (marmota himalayana), blue sheep (pseudois nayaur), argali (ovis ammon hodgsoni), himalayan ibex (capra sibirica), and the charismatic snow leopard (panthera uncia) (sathyakumar et al. 2011). it harbours extraordinary floral diversity with 18 forest types (champion and seth 1968) and 1,580 species of vascular plants, comprising 106 pteridophytes, 11 gymnosperms, and 1,463 species of angiosperms (maity and maiti 2007). holding critical ecological, religious, and cultural importance, knp has been designated a unesco world heritage site. west sikkim has a culturally diverse human community living in and around knp. historically, gurungs and mangers were shepherds, the bhutia were traders and yak herders, limbu were hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators, the chettris and bahuns were agro-pastoralists, and the tibetan dokpas were nomadic yak herders (tambe and rawat 2009). pastoral practices, before the implementation of the grazing ban, were undertaken by only 10–15% of the total households in the villages of west sikkim. traditional livestock herding followed a pattern of seasonal resource use. herders kept their yak and sheep in the high-altitude alpine regions of knp in the summers. during winters, i.e., november to march, they were brought back to temperate and sub-temperate pastures near the villages. yuksom village of west sikkim, one of the four sites of the study, is renowned among the international trekking community for being the starting point of the goechala trek to the base of mount khanchendzonga. pack animals used in the tourism sector in the region include horses and [201] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu dzo. the locals involved in tourism find employment as porters, pack animal operators, tour guides, and vehicle drivers and run establishments like homestays and hotels. over the last two decades, post-ban, households in the study area have become increasingly involved in the hotel and restaurant businesses catering to growing tourism in the region. figure 1: location of the study area: khangchendzonga national park, buffer zones, and the four village clusters source: author 4. methods primary data collection was done between october 2017 and november 2019. four village clusters in the study site were identified during the pilot survey conducted in april 2017. we used mixed methods for this study: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. the lead author compiled a list of ex-herders with the help of village elders and members of the eco-development committee, joint forest management committee, and khangchendzonga conservation committee (the second and third author). as a follow-up, a semi-structured questionnaire was developed to understand the implementation of the ban, the responses of the herders, and their long-term coping strategies postecology, economy and society–the insee journal [202] eviction. we conducted 40 semi-structured household interviews, primarily with household heads. since the ex-herders were mostly males who spent a lot of time alone inside the park, most of the interviews were conducted with males (n = 32). however, in cases where females had lived inside the park or had experienced eviction, they were interviewed as well (n = 4). in some cases, where the ex-herders were either too elderly or had died, interviews were conducted with their family members (n = 4). during these interviews, snowball sampling was employed to maximize the sampling efforts and ensure the inclusion and participation of ex-herders from all wealth classes and animal-rearing communities, i.e., sheep, dzo, cattle, and yak herders. categorization by wealth class was carried out postfieldwork, based on the number of animals owned, landholding size, and the type of house respondents owned. during the field surveys, we noticed that some of the households were still agitated about the state-led displacement and refused to engage in conversation about it. respondents were briefed about the research, and consent was taken before the interviews. the interviews were scheduled based on the time availability of the respondents. the lead author had made the ancillary effort of learning the locally spoken language, nepali. a research assistant was also employed from the study area to assist with translation and avoid any confusion or uncertainty. most of the interviews were conducted in nepali and were later translated to english. transcripts were saved with pseudonyms to preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. after the interviews, three focus group discussions and seven key informant interviews were conducted for data triangulation as well as to sort out any queries that had risen during the semi-structured interviews. 5. results 5.1 grazing ban and pastoralist evictions the grazing ban was implemented based on the assumption that “overgrazing” led to the degradation of forests due to grazing practices, illegal wildlife poaching, medicinal plant extraction, and tree felling by the herders. according to the respondents, no study was conducted before the grazing ban was implemented to understand the impact of grazing or identify the individuals who were involved in illegal practices. at the time of the ban, there were close to 103 herders who had a little over 200 goaths or temporary shelters inside the park. herders of yak, sheep, dzo, and cattle used to live for six to nine months inside the park. some of the herders also had multiple herds of buffalo, sheep, dzo, and yak that they reared with the help of hired assistants/caretakers. [203] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu table 1: summary of responses regarding the implementation of the pastoralist displacement source: author’s compilation, 2017-2019 most respondents (75%) mentioned that they had either learned of the ban at the time of eviction or from fellow-villagers just before evictions. however, the remaining 25%, primarily a few herders from the yuksom and uttarey clusters, mentioned that they had received multiple notices from forest guards between 1999 and 2001. the ex-herders of the yuksom cluster also mentioned that a sensitization drive was conducted by forest officials and conservation agencies to make the herders aware of the role of biodiversity conservation and the impacts of grazing. these respondents attributed the sensitization drive to the pro-people approach of the forest official who conducted the eviction drive in yuksom cluster. they also believed that the conservation ngo, khangchendzonga conservation committee, was perhaps the reason why the eviction drive at yuksom included sensitization programmes. in the rest of the responses, evictions were imposed by force, warnings, and threats. the ex-herders reported that the state did not plan any rehabilitation or alternative income sources for them and neither were they involved in the planning stage of the ban. only two herders received a sum of ₹10,000 for abandoning their pastoral practices. all of the ex-herders were highly aggrieved by the methods adopted by the government in implementing the grazing ban and pastoral evictions, which involved the use of force. responses associated with the grazing ban implementation percentage of respondents information attained through fellow villagers/panchayat 25.0 received no prior notice 37.5 received notice personally 37.5 believed policy implementation methods were inappropriate 100.0 believed there was no participation in the planning process 100.0 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [204] 5.2 herders’ responses to the ban and displacement out of the 40 ex-herders we interviewed, most had simply abandoned their grazing practices after learning of the ban, while the rest had attempted to resist it. those with the smallest herds (low-class) left their goaths (temporary sheds of herders inside the park) and sold their animals within a year of the ban being implemented at less than half of their actual value, mostly to herders in nepal. the greatest loss was borne by this set of herders; due to their fear of the law and lack of capital, they desisted from getting involved in legal battles. the second category of herders (middleclass) physically opposed eviction and supported the bigger, more influential herders in filing a legal case against the grazing ban. the herders in the third category used their social capital to deal with the ban, and three out of six of these herders continued herding inside the park. ex-herders’ responses to the grazing ban can be grouped into three categories: 1) passive acceptance of the ban, 2) physical and legal resistance to the ban, and 3) getting by with the use of social networks and power. ex-herders with the smallest herds (the low wealth class) (n = 18) were the first to abandon their pastoral practices out of fear of law enforcement. these herders abandoned their animals or sold them in the villages of sikkim and nepal within a year of the news of the ban. these herders ended up facing the greatest monetary loss. after quitting their pastoral practices, four of these herders joined the forest department in enforcing the eviction drive, which resulted in long-term social conflicts, since the evicted felt cheated by their own community members. the herders who had helped with the evictions continue to face social exclusion on a day-today basis in their villages. most of respondents were not even aware of the reasoning behind the ban; during interviews, they used the term “jungle band” for the ban, meaning that the forests were closed to them. as mentioned by one of the respondents: i do not know why the forest closed, but this kanoon (law) should not have come. we, the herders, did not have any other source of income besides rearing animals. after the jungle closed, i brought my animals back, but they became weak within a few days due to lack of good fodder that they used to get inside the jungle. we were not aware of the law, so we simply sold our animals. there were some active people who kept their animals for some time in the remote regions and sold them later at relatively better prices. herders from the middle wealth class resisted the ban. some of them even got involved in a physical tussle with forest guards at the time of eviction. [205] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu the ex-herders from the middle and high wealth classes were politically active and initiated meetings with the village panchayat soon after learning of the ban. they did not stop herding for almost a year but were forced to do so when the forest department began planting trees in and around the protected areas. fences restricted access to the forests, and eventually the middle-class herders—who were mostly cattle herders—stopped rearing animals. most of these ex-herders joined forces with the bigger, more powerful herders and filed a case against the grazing ban. these herders continually contested the ban and had confrontations with members of the forest department and the state during the legal battle. as stated by one of the respondents: i had gone to geyzing, and we had filed a case there with others. there were other people with me who were also against the grazing ban, from uttarey and nambu. they (forest guards) said that the herders were hunting wildlife; if that is true, they should have looked for the culprits. we tried to resist a lot for almost a year, but they pushed us out eventually. although herders from the middle wealth rank contributed monetarily and in communal strength toward filing the case, the individuals from the high wealth category became the face of the legal battle. as noted in one of the responses: we all filed a case on behalf of the village herding community—all sheep, cow, and yak herders together. the case got filed almost the same year in the district court of geyzing and then in the gangtok high court. many of the herders paid for the case, but a few influential ones became the face of the resistance and our representatives. there were one or two hearings that happened in gangtok, but we lost the case eventually. who could fight with the government? the third set of ex-herders, the high wealth class, were the most influential and affluent (n = 6). two of these herders had multiple goaths of yak, cattle, and sheep, and four had large yak herds only. these herders used different methods to cope with the ban and evictions. for example, one of the yak herders transferred his herd to the pastures of neighbouring nepal during the eviction drive. he used his social network to stay in nepal for close to six months. another moved into the higher reaches of knp, and using his political connections led the legal case for almost a year. he never stopped yak rearing even after the case was lost. two other yak herders left their animals in the park for a few months and resumed rearing them once the eviction drives had ended. it was relatively easier for the four yak herders to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [206] deal with the ban, since yaks do not require daily attention like sheep and cattle. the other two who had multiple goaths of cattle and sheep, however, sold their animals, including one herder who traded his buffaloes for metal utensils from the blacksmith. the three yak herds have now doubled in number, and at present, there are six herds of yak in knp. however, during the interviews, the owners of these herds refused to accept that the yaks inside the park belonged to them. table 2: summary of responses and explaining factors for the ex-herders in different wealth classes wealth class low middle high no. of ex-herders 18 16 6 responses to ban passive acceptance resistance and retaliation (both physical and through legal channels) did not accept the law animal-rearing practices stopped herding and sold their herds within a year of the ban at less than half of theit value resisted for three years (1999–2002) and sold animals at relatively better prices never stopped animal rearing and continued herding inside the park explaining factors lack of knowledge, power, and money to file a complaint or resist had social networks and financial capital to fight a case; formed alliances with elite and powerful herders used cross-border social networks in nepal and powerful political connections source: author’s compilation, 2017–2019 by the end of the physical evictions and political tussle, three powerful herders continued to rear their yaks and dzo inside knp. given the remote geography and limited manpower available, the forest department could not remove these herders. the number of yaks and their herds have in fact doubled in number from the time of ban. respondents also attributed their continued grazing to their connections with regional politicians. in essence, the conservation initiative eventually resulted in big herders gaining exclusive access to pastures, whereas the low and middle wealth class struggled and bore the cost of “biodiversity conservation”. in the next [207] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu section, i present the livelihood changes and associated challenges that these two sets of herders face. 5.3 from pastoralists to farmers: livelihood change and associated challenges ex-herders opted for a variety of livelihoods including cardamom cultivation and vegetable farming, rearing stall-fed animals, i.e., cattle and sheep, working as wage labourers under the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega), running shops, and raising pack animals for trekking groups (fig. 2). however, the majority of the ex-herders had no recourse but to rely on agricultural land. the ban resulted in the transformation of pastoralists into farmers, which consequently led to a drastic change in local agriculture, from self-sufficient traditional cropping of maize to market-based cash cropping of large cardamom and vegetable cultivation. traditional agricultural practices in the region involved the cultivation of a wide variety of local crops including mustard, buckwheat barley, soybean, corn, maize, and millets depending on the household’s landholding. however, when the ex-herders started farming, it was primarily to generate an income, and so they mostly planted cash crops, i.e., vegetables, maize, and cardamom depending upon the climatic conditions around their portions of land. figure 2: current livelihood profile of the ex-herders interviewed (n = 40) source: author’s analysis, 2017–2019 figure 2 shows that most of the ex-herders are involved in agriculture (55%), followed by tourism-associated livelihoods (20%), pastoral herding (12.5%), and other livelihoods (12.5%) such as driving private cars, running ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [208] shops, and working as labourers. out of our total sample of ex-herders (n = 40), the majority (n = 22) are currently dependent on agriculture (predominantly cardamom) and dairy (selling the milk of stall-fed cows) and about 20% (n = 8) are associated with tourism-related livelihoods, e.g., rearing pack animals or working as cooks and porters. five of the exherders are rearing livestock inside the park, out of which three are yak herders that continued to herd, one is a sheep herder who was evicted but started sheep herding again after obtaining the required permits from the forest department, and one ex-yak herder who had sold his yaks but is currently a caretaker for a yak herder in north sikkim. table 3: livelihood profile and income of the ex-herders after displacement source: author’s compilation, 2017–2019 the respondents mentioned that their income from pastoral practices would have been at least double of what they are earning now, even after combining multiple alternative livelihoods. the ex-cattle herders said that they used to sell butter, ghee, and chhurpi (hard cheese) in the surrounding villages and towns. sheep herders sold woolen products such as shawls locally known as raadi and jackets known as lukuni. while they used to be priced at ₹200–300, they now sell for ₹1,000. sheep meat went for ₹80–120 per kg but has now increased to ₹400 per kg. sheep ghee and butter are still used for medicinal purposes but now cost ₹1500 per kg, which is drastically higher than the former price. wool that was priced at ₹50–80 per kg is now sold at ₹300 per kg. they mentioned that the yak herders at present could number of ex-herders income options annual income in rupees (min – max in thousands) agriculture and stall-fed animal rearing 22 large cardamom vegetable dairy business 144–160 10–20 180–210 tourismassociated livelihoods 8 pack animal operators porters/guide 72–100 herding (yak and sheep) 5 yak herding sheep herding 500–600 150–200 other 5 shop and private vehicle driver 150–200 [209] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu make ₹5–6 lakhs annually, since yak herders used to sell 10–20 yaks every year, including young ones and older animals. cheese and butter from the yaks were sold in yuksom and were supplied to gangtok and darjeeling as well, and yak herders used to make 3–4 kgs of cheese in one day with ease during the months of june, july, august, and september. yak tail-hair used to be sold for ₹5,000. respondents mentioned that all these alternative options have their own limitations and associated problems. while cardamom cultivation has been lucrative over the last decade, production has reduced by half in the last five years, since 2012. the current production is between nine to ten man, a local term for 40 kgs, sold for between ₹1,44,000 and ₹1,60,000. however, cardamom cultivation was not viable in all the village clusters, especially in uttarey, where the altitude is a little high for the successful growth of cardamom. ex-herders in this cluster, therefore, sell vegetables and work as pack animal operators. ex-herders from the uttarey cluster who now farm vegetables reported a recent increase in crop-raiding by wild boar and black bear. given that it is their sole source of income, crop depredation by wild animals has emerged a new conservation challenge in the region. most of the respondents attributed the increased incidence of human–wildlife conflicts to pastoral eviction, explaining that the lack of open spaces after the removal of pastoralists, and the reduction of animal dung inside the forest, which animals such as wild boar feed on, is attracting wild animals to the villages. another income option available to the ex-herders is the mgnrega— two members of a household can work for a maximum of 100 days at the rate of ₹175 per day, but there is rarely sufficient work to engage villagers for 100 days. furthermore, even on obtaining jobs, there are delays and deductions in payments. dairy depots were started in the study sites during 2008–2009. the dairy business allowed ex-herders to earn between ₹72,000–₹1,44,000 from two cows in six months. even so, daily sales were possible only in tsong village of yuksom cluster and was not a feasible option in the rest of the clusters. ex-herders rearing pack animals like dzo and horses mentioned that they worked rotationally and were dependent on the trekking season and tourists numbers every season. one pack animal may bring in ₹8,000–₹15,000 over one trekking season (april–june or october–december). they mentioned that the animals need to be fed oil, eggs, and good-quality stall-feed before trekking tours. a proper diet is essential to ensure the satisfactory performance of the animal during the trek. on average, respondents had four to six pack animals, which earned them an annual income of between ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [210] ₹72,000–₹1,00,000, wherein they spent close to half of their earnings on the animal. they also reported that there were several instances of accidental injury or death of the animals during the treks, which is a great loss for the operator. 6. discussion earlier studies have shown that analyses that see pastoralists’ resource use as a challenge for biodiversity conservation are too linear and require far more nuanced, on-ground research. for instance, in the case of sariska tiger reserve, urban dependence on the park and timber extraction pressures were found to be far more detrimental to the park’s ecology than the sustainable pastoral practices of the gujjar herders. in another example involving keoladeo national park, the eradication of water buffalo herding led to a decline in migrant bird populations. grazing in the park had helped in maintaining the ecological balance by keeping a check on weeds; removing the herders upset this balance (lewis 2003). however, the eviction of sikkim pastoralists is not a clear-cut case of conservationinduced displacement but a unique one influenced by the politics of knowledge production and state politics around pastoralism. pastoral practices, which were seen as an integral part of local culture and were promoted during the period of monarchy until the 1950s, were reframed as a primitive way of living in the modern state of sikkim. the grazing ban is an important subject of political discussion and argument among the leading electoral parties, with the opposition party promising to repeal the ban at the time of the fieldwork of this study. most of the respondents mentioned that they had neither been aware of the grazing ban beforehand nor the reasons for the pastoral evictions. they also reported that no consent had been taken from them prior to the evictions, which was clearly against the biodiversity convention rules (kothari and pathak 2009). the pastoral evictions at knp were based on the popular “overgrazing” narrative, and no systematic analysis was conducted to establish the relation between grazing and vegetation degradation. the absence of scientific studies prior to displacement, and the lack of an objective assessment showing ecological benefits, have been some of the strongest critiques of conservation-induced displacement across india (kabra 2019; kothari and pathak 2009; lasgorceix and kothari 2009; rangarajan and shahabuddin 2009). there was also speculation about some pastoralists being engaged in illegal trade of medical plants and wildlife poaching, but instead of looking for individual culprits, the government adopted the simpler solution of a grazing ban and pastoral evictions. [211] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu 6.1 overall long-term implications of the grazing ban and displacement earlier empirical studies in india have highlighted that conservationinduced displacements have a wide variety of social and ecological outcomes. some of the examples include the case of similipal tiger reserve, odisha, where farmer evictions resulted in increased food insecurity (dash and behera 2018), and the case of sahariya evictions from kuno wildlife sanctuary, madhya pradesh, where evictions deteriorated material conditions due to loss of livelihoods and alienation from the natural resource base (kabra 2009). in the case of biligiri ranganathaswamy temple tiger reserve, karnataka, evictions resulted in the dispossession of the rural poor and reduced income post-eviction and led to the emergence of new conservation challenges in the form of increased weeds inside the park and an increase in human–wildlife conflicts (rai, benjaminsen, krishnan, and madegowda 2019). even in the case of knp, long-term implications included economic impoverishment of pastoralists, loss of livelihood due to loss of access to the park, cultural loss of pastoral practices, the transition of pastoralists to farming and other small, private, and tourism-related jobs, and a widening economic gap between the small and big herders. all these repercussions, in turn, resulted in social conflicts between community members along with the emergence of new conservation challenges. the grazing ban and evictions had questionable benefits for the ecology of the park and have not necessarily helped in solving the issue of perceived “overgrazing”. the involvement of some ex-herders in the evictions resulted in social conflicts; ex-herders faced hostility and social exclusion for breaching the trust of their own community members. ex-herders who had shifted to farming mentioned that incidents of crop depredation by wild boar and black bears had increased in the recent past after the implementation of the grazing ban. they also attributed the more frequent instances of human– wildlife conflicts to the lack of any open expanses inside the forests, as herders used to maintain empty spaces around their goaths. the frequency of these incidents has created new conservation challenges in and around knp. even the ex-herders noticed that their forced absence had negatively influenced the ecology of the region, especially of high-altitude summer pastures, noting instances of delayed flowering and increased domination by non-palatable species in the rangelands (singh et al. 2021). a small percentage of the ex-herders now worked in tourism within knp in the lowest-paying jobs and explained how the evictions had resulted in their economic impoverishment and marginalization. further, they reported that unlike the rotational grazing that they used to practice, pack animals were ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [212] kept in one area during the non-tourist seasons, resulting in negative impacts on the ecology of the pastures. big and wealthy herders gained exclusive access to the park, and, therefore, their herd sizes have doubled over the last 15 years, which has further widened the gap between small and big herders. overall, the long-term implications have been economic impoverishment, emergence of new conservation challenges, social disparities, and a wider economic gap between the small and big herders. figure 2: long-term implications of the grazing ban: social conflicts, emergence of new conservation challenges, and social disparity source: author’s analysis unplanned displacements and the absence of alternative options in other parts of india have resulted in a variety of conservation challenges. in orissa, for instance, adivasi relocation for the biodiversity conservation of lakhari valley eventually increased the rate of human–elephant conflicts (ramdas 2010). in another study, rangarajan and shahabuddin (2009) reported similar findings of newly emerging conservation challenges with the removal of herders from kanha national park in madhya pradesh, india. over time, forest officials had to manually cut and burn the understory of the forest to provide space for wild ungulates, proving that some level of human disturbance was indeed beneficial for the forests (rangarajan et al. 2010). [213] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu do all pastoralists pay for “biodiversity conservation”? while there has been limited research on the consequences of pastoral evictions, our findings share similarities with earlier work on physical displacements that highlight that conservation-induced displacement has the greatest impact on weaker sections within the displaced community (hall et al. 2014; rantala, vihemäki, swallow, and jambiya 2013). it is important to note that in knp, the grazing ban has had differing impacts on herders. responses to the pastoral evictions have also varied based on wealth class. the findings of the study conducted by rantala et al. (2013), in the derema region of tanzania, echoes ours, as it highlights the diverse impacts of displacement on displaced farmers based on wealth class. despite the influential and big farmers receiving easy and timely access to compensation, the poor did not, which further reinforced existing inequalities and social differentiation. in the case of sikkim, the lowand middle-class herders of sikkim adopted a variety of livelihoods to cope with the sudden loss of income. similar findings were observed by hall et al. (2014), in tanzania, where the lower two categories of the displaced community combined a diverse set of occupations to make a living—running shops, trading, and building rental houses (hall et al. 2014). rantala et al. (2013) have shown that the lower and the middle class used up all their money to meet immediate needs after the payment of rehabilitation packages, resulting in economic loss and reduced land size. reduced income post evictions is a similar finding that has been previously reported in a study conducted in tanzania, where a local community around uluguru nature reserve lost access to cultivation land inside a protected area. they continued to face reduced income and livelihood uncertainty even after the evictions were completed (nyenza, nzunda, and katani 2013). in short, big herders benefitted from the grazing ban and raked in increased profits, while the cost of biodiversity conservation was borne by the poor. our study, thus, contributes to the school of work that highlights that the long-term implications of unplanned conservation-induced displacement are definitively negative for lower wealth classes with absolutely no evidence of conservation benefits. 7. conclusion given the wide variety of flora and fauna in knp, biodiversity conservation inside the park is absolutely critical, and efforts must certainly be made in this direction. however, it should not be undertaken at the cost of social and economic losses or in the absence of systematic studies and planning. instead, conservation efforts should involve rural locals from lower wealth classes to identify how local livelihoods like pastoralism can co-exist with ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [214] conservation agendas in the region. the most acute impacts of the ban for ex-herders were loss of livelihood and income, following their restricted access to grazing grounds (for majority of herders from lower and middle wealth class) and transition of pastoralists to farming. while legal recourse was sought through an alliance between the ex-herders of the middle and high wealth classes, only the powerful and elite became the face of this political tussle. additionally, even after losing the legal battle, the powerful herders continued to use the pastures inside knp and have doubled their herd sizes over the past 15 years. however, the low and middle-class pastoralists were severely impacted and were further marginalized after losing access to the park. given the lack of advance planning of alternative livelihoods and rehabilitation packages, the middle and low wealth class herders continue to face long-term challenges, even after opting for other available alternatives. conservation-induced displacement without providing alternative plans and livelihood options for the displaced community has been widely critiqued as being unethical and socially unjust (rangarajan and shahbuddin 2009; brockington 2004), wherein the cost of conservation is exclusively paid by the poor for the regional and global good (beinart and coates 1995; madhusudan and raman 2003; saberwal et al. 2001). our study offers yet another example where the poor pastoralists of knp ended up paying the price for its conservation. earlier research conducted in the field of conservation-induced displacement in india mostly focussed on the immediate implications of displacement, barring a few exceptions where researchers have maintained a long-term engagement with displacement geographies and their micropolitics (kabra and mahalwal 2019). given the 15-year gap between the evictions and this research, our study seeks to further understand the long-term implications of unplanned evictions and highlights the socioecological complexities of pastoral evictions in indian himalaya. the removal of indigenous communities has been widely critiqued for being based on no scientific evidence or for focusing solely on ecosystem structure and function, without exploring variable human pressures (rangarajan and shahabuddin 2009). it has been further argued that while the benefits of conservation are reaped by regional, national, and global players, its costs are borne primarily by the local poor, who are already marginalized (balmford and whitten 2003; kabra 2018). in case of knp too, protected areas that had previously been used only by local herders were eventually made accessible to regional and national tourists, and “conservation” was achieved at the cost of pastoral livelihoods. community-based initiatives have been identified to be the best alternative to displacement in rich biodiversity sites (lasgorceix and kothari 2009). [215] rashmi singh, kinzong sherap bhutia, tshering uden bhutia, suresh babu pastoral evictions have long been believed to be the only method of conserving rangelands across asia and africa. however, as seen in the case of knp, such evictions may result in a variety of social and conservation conflicts in the long run and may completely fail to address the primary issue of “overgrazing”, whether perceived or real. within knp, there are several sites with no exposure to grazing for over 15 years as well as sites where grazing never ceased. knp can thus be an excellent model to examine the effects of grazing and study the role of pastoralism. future research in the region should consider the impacts of different grazing intensities on floral and faunal diversity and should potentially provide important insights into rangeland conservation and management. investigating the role of climate change may add another layer to this discussion. taking into consideration the current state interest in repealing the ban, future research can focus on documenting the process of reintroducing pastoralism and how the cultural and economic dimensions of pastoralism unfold with such a reintroduction. instead of removing the pastoralists, a successful conservation plan could be co-opting local knowledge and institutions and identifying ways of coexistence in the pastoral landscape of india while paying closer attention to questions of equality and sustainability. government agencies must engage with local formal and informal institutions to re-initiate rotational grazing practices, help deal with wildlife crimes, monitor livestock, and maintain equity among local herders. pastoralists’ knowledge and pastoral institutions can be extremely helpful in co-evolving mechanisms to ensure biological conservation, as well as sustainable livelihood options in and around the protected areas of south asia. acknowledgments we sincerely thank the forest, environment, and wildlife department and the 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several ecological, economic and social challenges related to the management of natural resources. these challenges are interconnected. collective action on the management of commons can play a pivotal role in addressing such challenges. well-managed commons such as rivers, tanks, grazing pastures, forests, woodlots and wetlands play an important role in mitigating poverty and distress migration through income generation and livelihood support for hundreds of millions of poor. collective action can also help us address issues like cooperative management of farms and community restoration of ponds to name a few. in addressing global challenges like climate change, collective action is required at multiple levels. instead of focusing on this positive role that the commons can play, we largely focus on narratives of the supposed ―tragedy of the commons‖, an idea borrowed from a western narrative popularized by garret hardin in the 1960s, which gained much currency in international circles. we need an alternative narrative that critically discusses the possibilities for commons to thrive and flourish. in that direction, the foundation for ecological security held four consultation meetings over a period of 14 months. the first meeting was held on 16 november 2017 in anand, gujarat; the second on 12 december 2017 in new delhi, the third (in collaboration with azim premji university) on 13 and 14 november 2018 in bangalore, and the fourth from 4 to 7 december 2018, again in anand. these four meetings helped to collectively bring together over 50 participants, representing different stakeholders like academia, grass root  school of development, azim premji university, pixel b, pes campus, hosur road, electronic city, bangalore 560035; harini.nagendra@apu.edu.in.   foundation for ecological security, post box no. 29, jahangirpura, po – gopalpura, vadod 388 370 hadgud, district anand; rucha@fes.org.in copyright © nagendra and ghate 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.82 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.82 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [122] workers, donors, bureaucrats, legal experts, ngos etc. the meetings brought together experience and perspectives from people working in different parts of the country and outside, from a range of types of commons, and different backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives. these conversations provided a rich set of observations and ideas, discussed further in this paper, that can help to galvanise an alliance for the commons in the coming years. participants in all four meetings agreed on the need for broadening the research topics to feed into better policy and practice on the commons to address the prevailing challenge of commons in india, especially to reconcile its aspirations towards development and sustainability. at present, commons constitute one of india’s most neglected resources. between 4060 million hectares of village and forest commons is informally used by local communities (constituting de facto commons), but their rights of access, withdrawal and management on most of this area were not legally recognised (i.e. not de jure commons) until recently. unfortunately, many of the village commons, especially in rocky and grassy areas are often labelled as ―wasteland‖, leaving them open to private capture. the need to restore the commons is immense with equally weighty challenges. local communities seeking to manage their commons face difficulties ranging from the erasure and fragmentation of local institutions, norms and practices of commons governance, to inadequately staffed and ill-trained local government bodies, and opaque, unapproachable, and difficult policy and regulatory mechanisms. some types of commons have achieved more success than others. in response to grassroots movements by adivasi and local communities, forest commons have been handed over to communities under the forest rights act. civil society groups, local communities and local panchayats have also spurred efforts to restore village tanks across many parts of rural india. other types of commons such as community pastures and grazing lands, rivers, wetlands, urban and coastal commons have, however, been converted into open access areas. these commons are neither monitored and managed by the state nor are these handed over to local communities. in the absence of clear management onus, they have become open access areas, and are being steadily eroded. much needs to be done to help communities gain formal recognition over their commons, as well as for strengthening local institutions and knowledge networks that can influence and create impact. the meetings emphasized the need for co-produced research on the commons, that is, through collaborations between academics, local communities and ngos to see how commons restoration can simultaneously address livelihoods. [123] harini nagendra and rucha ghate given this background, many participants expressed the need for an alliance of different groups working on the commons, from practice, policy, advocacy and research angles. such an alliance, engaging closely with governments and decision makers, is important to shape the national discourse on commons. this can contribute to strategic policy development and influence action on the ground. for a greater strategic impact, participants identified three areas — forest, pasture and water commons — where such an alliance could focus, to begin with.. at the same time, the foundation recommended engagement on other equally important but neglected commons such as community radio and internet, cultural and knowledge commons, genetic resources, urban commons, and coastal waters. it also recommended an integrated focus on outcomes, with equal emphasis on ecological, livelihood and equity aspects. an alliance for the commons could work in different ways. a gap assessment identified a number of important missing pieces, including the lack of shared vocabulary of commons, a comprehensive commons database, inadequate understanding of behavioural motivations, and research on technology as an enabler or barrier for communities. across all meetings, participants consistently identified important action points. these included developing polycentric institutions with networks of communities, development organisations, civil society and government agencies. the foundation emphasized the need to plan and commission research to fill knowledge gaps in important areas such as motivation for behavioural change and levers of transformation. after the 54th round of the national sample survey (nsso, 1999), which collected information on common property resources at the household and village level across the country, there has been no national follow-up study. a carefully designed national survey is necessary to identify major changes in the status of commons, type of dependence and economic and livelihood relevance. one way to do this could be through a participatory collaboration. participatory databases on commons can integrate technologies such as gis and remote sensing with field surveys on institutional norms and practices. such information can also be used to fill gaps in less known areas like urban commons. these are not, of course, separate points for action, but are in fact mutually reinforcing, and must be worked on in parallel. in addition, participants identified a number of key mainstream government policies and programmes, including mgnrega, national rural livelihood mission, green india mission, redd+ action plans, and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [124] programmes to meet sustainable development goals. they felt that the alliance for the commons needs to engage state and national governments to integrate commons issues into their agendas — as well as into enabling laws such as the biodiversity act and forest rights act. the meetings concluded by identifying three broad focal areas for an alliance on the commons. first, a need to build knowledge, by bringing together a suite of knowledge products, behavioural games, tools and decision support systems to support the practice of the commons, and influence institution building. second, to convene forums to improve exchanges, advance action, enable cross-learnings, federate community groups to increase their collective bargaining power, and celebrate successes. third, and most important, such an alliance must play the role of a bridge between community actors, advocacy groups, practitioner ngos, academic institutions, and governments, to join the dots between science, practice and policy. the need is immense, and the time for action has never been more urgent for collective, synergistic action on the commons. references nsso. 1999. common property resources in india. results of the nss 54th round, january-june 1998, report no. 452(54/31/4). new delhi: national sample survey organisation, department of statistics and programme implementation, government of india. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 145-148, july 2022 book review deconstructing agricultural revolutions muthuvel deivendran* richa kumar, rethinking revolutions: soyabean, choupals, and the changing countryside in central india, new delhi: oxford university press, 2016. in conventional policy narratives, it is believed that agricultural productivity can be boosted through a mix of technology, irrigation, and deregulated markets. richa kumar, in rethinking revolution, however, argues otherwise. through a detailed study of two types of revolutions that were introduced in the malwa region (madhya pradesh, india), kumar offers a compelling counter-narrative, which effectively argues that radical agricultural transformations are shaped by a range of factors, chance events, and many an unintended consequence rather than through the topdown linear implementation * researcher, french institute of pondicherry, muthuvel.deivendran@gmail.com. copyright © deivendran 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.772 mailto:muthuvel.deivendran@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i2.772 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] of a planned techno-managerial intervention. the two revolutions that kumar focuses on are the yellow revolution (the cultivation of soyabean, glycine max) and the adoption of the digital echoupal model (the information revolution), which was initiated by itcibd, which is currently one of the largest multinational companies in india engaged in agri-business. while the spurt in the cultivation of soyabean in the malwa region began in right earnest in the 1970s, echoupal—as a digital infrastructure for connectivity—was ambitiously initiated several decades later in 2000. methodologically, rethinking revolutions is heavily tilted towards the use of ethnography for describing and analysing how diverse actors—farmers, corporate interests, agri-researchers, and traders—have influenced and consequently been shaped by the processes of rapid agrarian transformation. in chapters two to six, kumar unpacks and reconsiders the varying elements that led up to the yellow revolution—notably, labour relations, environmental costs, caste, gender, and the nitty-gritty details involved in enabling agricultural production in such a dry and semi-arid environment. the first attempts to cultivate soyabean as a food crop in the malwa region can be traced back to the 1960s. the effort, however, gained traction only in the 1970s. in part, as kumar explains, the yellow variety that was initially introduced through the collaborative efforts of the scientific team from the university of illinois urbana-champagne proved to have poor germination rates and was susceptible to the yellow-mosaic virus (p. 49). following several field and experimental trials, however, soyabean cultivation found a new life, and interest in it surged after it was promoted as a cash crop that could be processed into cattle feed (de-oiled cake – doc) and edible oil. moreover, these very same farmers also capitalised on the fact that a range of environmental factors enabled the soyabean to be an excellent “filler” crop for the region. in other words, as kumar suggests: non-human factors such as the properties of the soil, the characteristics of the soyabean plant such as duration and tolerance to adverse conditions and the rainfall patterns of malwa, were critical in providing a niche for soyabean to make itself comfortable. (p. 57) in the third chapter, the narrative of soyabean’s success is placed in the larger context of india’s widely celebrated green revolution, which helped boost rice and wheat production in the great northern flood plains. here too, kumar is keen to challenge the dominant narrative that the success of the green revolution prevented a malthusian crisis in 1960s india, where the belief was that population growth was outstripping the ability of indian agriculture to feed the country’s growing numbers. through a careful and [147] muthuvel deivendran systematic review of the literature on the subject, kumar, in fact, convincingly argues that the impacts of the green revolution were rather mixed, with a range of complications brought on by overproduction, soil degradation, fertilizer dependence, farmer’s debt and the emergence of a new kind of farmer-centred politics that forced the state to subsidize agriculture. in effect, for kumar, the yellow revolution took the wrong lessons from the green revolution in that it framed the problem as one that merely requires a technical solution to address a quantitative shortfall in agricultural production. chapters four and five go on to further scrutinize the notion of productivity and how to meaningfully make sense of the phenomenon of soyabean cultivation. for kumar, the boon of soyabean lay not so much in how scientific and technological inputs boosted yields but in how the crop came to the rescue of small farmers because of the seed’s peculiar suitability to the geology and ecology of malwa. on the other hand, however, the very success of soyabean cultivation increased a range of vulnerabilities for the farmer, with the rising demand for fertilizers and pesticides with remunerative prices besides the increasingly urgent need for irrigation and the loss of common grazing lands. chapter six rounds up the section by focusing on how the migrant adivasi (tribal) farm labourers were able to drive relatively better wage bargains for themselves because of the peculiarities inherent to the “socio-technical” arrangements that soyabean cultivation required. chapters seven to ten switch from focusing on the soyabean revolution to examining the echoupal initiative of itc-ibd in the malwa region. the echoupal project is modelled after the notion of the traditional village choupal (the public meeting place) and aims to provide farmers with realtime price information through digital connectivity. underpinning this novel initiative of itc-ibd was their strong belief that the soyabean market in malwa had turned inefficient because of corrupt intermediaries—villagelevel traders—who, it was held, acquired unfair rental income by controlling the flow of information on prices. kumar, however, carefully and through detailed ethnography, unsettles this premise by effectively revealing the echoupal project as but the reiteration of a steadfast faith in neo-liberal market practices. that is, the real effort of itc-ibd was aimed at diminishing the regulatory capacity of the indian government while further formalising existing soyabean market arrangements in favour of large agribusinesses. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] unsurprisingly, village traders or intermediaries were singled out as bad actors within the echoupal initiative, which pressed forward in not only claiming that market inefficiencies were solely the result of skewed information access but that the latter’s solution lay solely in technomanagerial fixes, i.e., by ensuring digital connectivity. kumar, however, brilliantly counters these claims by showing that the layered relationships between village traders and farmers were not only complicated, involving various levels of give-and-take, but, interestingly enough, the governmentregulated mandi enabled considerable mutual accountability and even offered better bargaining possibilities for the farmer. in contrast, ironically enough, it was the formal marketing institutions of the cooperatives and private companies that proved neither accessible nor accountable to the poor and low-caste farmers in malwa. in effect, the echoupal initiative tended to benefit the upper-caste elite farmers, often at the cost of those socially and politically marginal to village life, and evidently proved that techno-managerial arrangements tended to reinforce inequalities. in sum, rethinking revolutions makes a compelling case for us to be sceptical about how conventional policy narratives regarding agrarian transformations through techno-managerial changes in india have thus far been framed. kumar, in this detailed and well-researched monograph, offers us fresh and original insights not only into the poorly studied yellow revolution and the information revolution in malwa but also critically urges us to revise our understanding of the complexity of causes, effects, and impacts that agrarian transformation involves. rethinking revolutions is unquestionably a significant contribution to agrarian studies in india and the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (sts). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 1–4, january 2020 editorial ecology, economy and society through an interdisciplinary lens kuntala lahiri-dutt  the idea of interdisciplinarity is to create new knowledge by drawing from across disciplinary boundaries. interdisciplinarity has become the buzzword of the day; academic researchers appreciate interdisciplinarity and aim to pursue it in research-related activities. in 2015, nature devoted a full issue discussing how to approach the ‘grand challenges’ that are facing human societies today, challenges involving energy, water, climate, food and human health. understanding complex topics such as nature (or climate change) requires us to go beyond discipline-based methods to develop systematic analyses that can bring together the explanations and interpretations of both the social and natural worlds. disciplines themselves are timeor space-specific constructions, and orderings of knowledge and epistemology, offering just one temporallyand culturally-grounded explanation of the world. interdisciplinarity brings to the fore the emergent properties of complex systems and the need for methodological pluralism to understand that nature and the socio-natural contexts in the world that are determined not just by one factor. scholars argue that interdisciplinary research efforts to integrate the social and natural sciences have given rise to questions such as whether a knowledge practice is too disciplinary, or interdisciplinary, or not disciplinary enough. indeed, each discipline understands and values interdisciplinarity differently, and these values differ remarkably across the sciences.  coordinating editor (2019–20). crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, the australian national university, room 3.25, jg crawford building, lennox crossing, acton, act 2601, australia; kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au copyright © lahiri-dutt 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.84 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.84 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [2] interdisciplinarity obscures as much as it illuminates the diverse practices under its rubric, making it extremely difficult to forge ties between disciplines or discipline-based methods. in reality, disciplines have continued to remain ‘discrete entities’, presenting their distinct disciplinary perspectives, usage of methods, and bodies of knowledge. the organisation of higher education is partly responsible for this. dissemination of research outputs to selective audiences through discipline-focused journal venues is also to blame. in considering our understanding of pressing ecological challenges, a conflicting and confused picture emerges; beyond the academe, disciplinary entities are becoming more fluid. yet, at the same time, researchers have increasingly discussed the various possible definitions and categories of interdisciplinarity; debating the differences between multi-, cross-, inter-, pluri-, trans-, meta-,and other forms of hybridities in research methodologies. the complexities and difficulties of moving from ‘multidisciplinarity’ to genuine ‘interdisciplinarity’ as well as the alternative trajectory of ‘transdisciplinarity’ continue to elude most researchers. the need, therefore, is to ‘think outside the box’, and creatively, in our undertaking of making research on nature and human society interdisciplinary. creative interdisciplinarity involves establishing mechanisms and instances through which individual disciplinary knowledges can be appropriately translated in order to be articulated in interdisciplinary scholarly research that can also effectively converse with heterogeneous policy communities. this issue of ecology, economy and society offers glimpses into interdisciplinary research on a broad swathe of topics. the contributions also show how working across disciplinary perspectives appears in reality, and what conversations we could now have to reflect on where these theoretical and empirically based activities are taking us. the ‘commentary’ by marina fischer-kowalski on how one of the leading religious figures is responding to the global problem of climate change and ecological destruction is an example at hand. it resonates with the observation in ees (bawa ees 2 (2), 2) that as academics and researchers we are an integral part of the society, and we must work together in order to meet the goal of sustainability. the thematic essays/research papers published in this issue reflect the ongoing conversations between scholars from different disciplines. in his article, chandan singha treats the question through a study of soil, one of the finest-grained elements of nature which sustains almost all life in the earth. the study reviews the success and failure of three kinds of action, individual, collective and government, in different parts of the world, and shows that not all the collective action by development/civil society [3] kuntala lahiri-dutt agencies and the government have been successful in ensuring successful management of the soil quality of a watershed. the research paper by dasgupta, guha and wheeler uses regression analysis of survey data from the indian part of the sundarbans to examine variations in environmental risk assessments across socioeconomic classes and localities. it shows that locally-oriented collective action, along with local governance that promotes non-elite participation, might make collective action easier when elite and non-elite households have similar assessments of environmental risks. the notes from the field also reflect interdisciplinarity. thakur and others take us to the himalayan state of sikkim, where, in the rain-shadow areas, freshwater is available only from natural sources. they show that more women are concerned about the loss of water availability than men, for in most local households, the responsibility of water-collection remains gendered. abraham and neetha show how differing perceptions of ponds and wells make a difference. the perception that ‘wells are like water atms while ponds are equivalent to saving banks’, had led to a resistance to the construction of farm ponds due to the belief that ‘precious land would be lost’ without receiving commensurate gains from improved farm outputs. however, once the resistance lessened, farm ponds yielded tangible benefits even for low-income households practising subsistence agriculture. the ‘conversations’ section in this issue is about mining in india. largescale extractive resource developments are at the heart of controversies related to the well-being of the planet, human society, and indeed the sustainability of the way economic development has been conceived. most national governments find extractive developments as the quick and easy way to earn revenues to improve fiscal health, and justify these developments on economic grounds. india is no exception. these economic opportunities, however, come with significant environmental challenges. there are important challenges regarding local communities’ rights as large-scale resource developments rarely, if ever, benefit indigenous people and local communities who suffer from the negative impacts of mining on their cultures, economies and social fabrics. there is no wonder why, in recent decades, indigenous groups and their allies have battled to change this situation, sometimes by seeking fundamental changes in the way economic benefits and costs of mining are distributed. globally, they have attempted to win greater recognition of indigenous rights in international forums, pressurised national governments and global agencies to usher in changes in legislation by taking up litigation and directing political action, and mobilising new, voluntary (as well as compulsory) rules to regulate mining. in talking about sustainability, india’s national mineral policy of 2019 does not really consider these developments. instead, it ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [4] presents a ‘business-friendly’ face, aimed at making extractive developments more streamlined, hoping to invite foreign direct investments. this section is devoted to a number of concerns on the extractive landscape in india. in providing a selective overview of the contents of this issue of ees, i underscore how, any analysis of research questions on ecology, economy and the society must involve values, rights and law as well as economic and social concerns. the journal is, slowly and steadily moving towards reflecting an understanding of working across disciplines. 404 not found ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 223-229, january 2022 notes from the field women-headed households in agriculture: report from west bengal, india kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik the year is 2018, and we are walking through thick, wet clay, without any terra firma of the kind we are accustomed to. we are trying to access one of the hundreds of chars—sandy, low-lying river islands located where the ganga, known locally as the hooghly river, meets the bay of bengal. the mouth of the delta is known as the sundarbans (or sundarban in bangla), created by the waters that flow through the land and the precious gift of mud they bring. the entire area is made of clayey silt, carried down from the mountains by the rivers over millennia. sundarban is a dynamic landscape where the distinction between land and water is blurred and farming and fishing are inseparable in building the livelihoods of people. we are going to meet women-heads of households from amarabati, shibpur, bishalakshmipur, and rajnagar srinathgram villages in fraserganj and budhakhali gram panchayats in namkhana block of kakdwip subdivision of the south 24 parganas district in west bengal. we have been working with these women through a locally-based non-governmental organization (ngo) for some months. our present purpose is to talk about recent changes in the social, economic, and physical landscapes in these villages, from where large numbers of men have migrated out to nearby cities and towns. men have migrated to earn cash, to help families cope with the growing pressures on rural livelihoods, leaving women as de facto heads of households to farm the land. men’s outmigration is a feature seen in other parts of west bengal and across india (maity, mazumdar, and das 2018; chandrasekhar, sahoo, and swaminathan 2020; garikipati 2008).  crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, the australian national university. kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au  gujarat institute of development research (gidr). itipattnaik7@gmail.com copyright © lahiri-dutt and pattnaik 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web) doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.590 mailto:kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au mailto:itipattnaik7@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.590 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [224] in this note, we offer brief glimpses into the changing lives of rural peasant women. “women-headed household” (whhs henceforth) are defined as those households where farm-level decision-making is made primarily by women. a farming whh may be led by a women farmer with a long-term migrant husband, a widow and/or abandoned wife, or someone whose husband is usually a peasant, but in most cases, is engaged in other jobs close to the village. the family of the woman may have some land (ownercultivator), she may cultivate someone else’s land on rent (bhagchashi or sharecropper), she may work on someone else’s land on a daily wage basis (agricultural labourer), or her situation might be a complex combination of these three basic categories. for example, a sharecropper can also be an owner-cultivator and even employ labour to work on her land. a whh may also be involved in other community activities such as the preparation of mid-day meals, running crèches and day-care centres, food-for-work programmes, and other tertiary activities. our survey covered 100 whhs covering four villages. in addition to these women, we deployed ethnographic methods such as field observations, interviewing locally important pepole such as village elders, village council leaders (panchayat pradhans), and leaders of self-help groups whom we thought may be able to reflect on the recent changes in the rural landscape. finally, we also held focus group discussions with village women to talk about their perceptions regarding the changing climate and its livelihood consequences for them. the result of these research processes was a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, generated through questionnaire-based surveys, and observations, interviews and discussions. we also used desk-based reviews of previous studies and secured data from secondary sources, including historical and geographical descriptions of the kakdwip subdivision and its social context, economic situation, agricultural history, and population. this research was part of our study “farmers of the future: challenges of a feminized agriculture in india” funded jointly by the australian research council and the indian council of social science research (pattnaik and lahiri-dutt 2021). the distance from kolkata to kakdwip town is only 80 kilometres, but the villages present a world that is utterly different from that of the metropolis. poverty is acute and is very observable: in namkhana block, about 48% of households fall below the poverty line (bpl) and 27% of the population is from the scheduled castes. the mainstay of the rural economy is monsoonal aman paddy. around 85% of villagers rely on such mono-crop agriculture, and annual production levels are much lower than the national average (2.225 tones/ha against the all-india average of 3.280 tones/ha). moreover, the per capita land-holding and the average size of cultivated [225] kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik land in the block are both miniscule at 0.084 ha and 0.41 ha, respectively, as compared to the national average of 1.08 ha for small farmers in india (government of india 2019). the survey reveals that the average age for the surveyed woman heads of households is 45 years. a total of 56% were married, with living husbands, 36% were widowed, and the remaining 8% were divorced or single women at the time. the average size of the cultivated land owned by whhs is 0.08 ha. the majority of whhs (68%) are unable to read or write, have a debt burden (as 71% of households have a loan to repay, usually to the local mahajan or moneylender, taken at a time of duress to tide over a financial crisis), and as many as 58% of them live in kuchcha houses made of mud. the annual average income of households is around ₹36,000 (income from various sources added together including food produced for own consumption), i.e., they are poorer than other households despite nearly half of them receiving some remittance irregularly. women’s headship of households is higher in the sundarbans than the rest of west bengal (or even india) as a whole. this high headship is due to many factors: lack of economic opportunities leading to high rates of outmigration of men (evidenced by the fact that 64% of the surveyed households have someone who has migrated from the village); high rates of tiger attacks (there is one village locally known as “the village of widows” with only a handful of men); and environment-related, such as frequent flooding, increased frequency and strength of cyclones, riverbank erosion, and salinity, as saltwater poisons the soil, rendering the land unfit for farming. all these have a gendered impact, as they lead to the out-migration of men, and families are forced to diversify their livelihoods towards nonfarm activities. of all the women heads of households in farming, owner-cultivators form 47%; in this group, 26% are exclusively owner-cultivators. among the rest, 28% are agricultural labourers (those without any land to till) and another 28% are agricultural labourers as well as owner-cultivators/contract cultivators/sharecroppers/mortgage land cultivators. as noted earlier, most of the owner cultivators have only tiny pieces of land. like in other parts of the country, in recent years, thika-khajana or contract cultivation has gained significance in the area and 25% of whhs practice some kind of contractbased farming. the terms and conditions for thika-khajana vary; usually, the contract value for barsati chas (monsoon crop) is lower than that of kharati chas (kharif crop) and is highest for boro chas (winter cultivation). many families put their land on bandhyaki-sud if they need money for an emergency such as someone’s illness, or a child’s marriage. in such cases of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [226] land mortgaging, the lender can take over the borrower’s land for cultivation as soon as the borrower stops paying the interest on the loan. on an average, agriculture contributes around 39% to household incomes (income from agriculture is calculated by multiplying the crop production with the sold price). most households take up other livelihood activities such as drying fish, fishing, and trading in rice to supplement their meagre incomes. about 23% work for the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mnrega) schemes, but the incomes generated are very low as they hardly get the opportunity to work under the scheme for more than 10-20 days. quite a few (less than 10%) women also work as domestic help or as attendants in hotels that serve the tourists who visit the nearby town. in general, most whhs cultivate paddy/rice for their own consumption and the extra amounts are sold. in the salty, low-lying lands, not many other crops can be grown. despite the varying conditions among households, the dependency burden of women heads of households is uniformly high—each individual respondent has to provide for an average of 2 children and 0.3 elderly people. the children are generally young, with 85% of whhs having children of school age. whhs feel that farming practices have changed in the last 10 or 15 years, primarily in the areas of ploughing, hybrid seed use, use of fertilizers, introduction of mechanized aid, type of labour, and technology. a total of 98% feel that paddy yield has increased due to modern technology. they observed that leasing of land—i.e., contract-based farming—has increased. traditionally, farming was a joint task shared by men and women, the latter assisting men by carrying out repetitive tasks and processing the paddy. we found that women are now taking the lead role in farming. the use of modern agricultural machinery has reduced manual labour, and many women aspire to own productive assets such as power tillers and shallow irrigation pumps. slightly over half (56%) of the whhs work as agricultural labourers, but only 28% are solely agricultural labourers, while the remaining are agricultural labourers as well as owner cultivators/contract cultivators/sharecroppers/mortgage land cultivators. this complexity reflects a local custom where most women contribute labour in cultivating the agricultural land of each other’s families. they call this custom badla (return). sharecropping has declined in the villages. the normal practice of sharecropping is if the cultivator bears all the costs of cultivation, they will get 75% of the yield and the owner will receive 25%. in cases where the [227] kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik owner bears all the costs, the share is 50:50. there is a positive relationship between contract cultivation and the income from one bigha (0.13 ha). women’s paid work as agricultural labourers and in other non-farm activities provides a somewhat better income for families as compared to working in their own fields and working in other’s fields as badla. however, the local wage rates for agricultural labour are low (only about ₹70–80), and the number of days such jobs are available is meagre at only about 15–20 days per year. while work as agricultural wage labour provides some cash, it is not easy to find such work as most of women’s labour is contributed for badla. other non-farm jobs such as casual work in hotels and employment as domestic help provide better incomes, but those opportunities are limited and dependent upon seasons, distance of residence from main roads, and so on. yet, we found that women heading households in sundarban are also increasingly involved in major decision-making within their families. it is not uncommon for them to make decisions regarding their children’s education and household finances. however, major decisions, such as those concerning building a house and borrowing or lending money, are remotely controlled by men. further, in most cases, major decisions related to farming and the sales and purchase of assets and major farm inputs tend to be taken by men over the phone. there are exceptions, of course. let us tell the story of arati baitalik (name changed for ethical reasons) is a 58-year-old widow who exemplifies our observations. arati is a victim of cyclone aila, which made landfall in the area in late may 2009. she owns 0.5 bighas of cultivating land in uttar shibpur village. however, she took a small loan from the local mahajan (lender) that she could not repay, and so the lender took her land as mortgage. arati has two dependents, both school-going children, and she confidently spoke to us about her position within the family and community. arati makes all the major household decisions but her workload is also huge. after performing her household duties, she fishes, works on her farm, and works on another farm as a part of badla. she is an agricultural labourer during the monsoon season, but for the rest of the year, she processes paddy purchased from the local market to sell in kakdwip market. when we spoke with arati about the difficulties in her life, she presented an optimistic outlook and firmly believed that her children will look after her. arati’s case is exemplary also because most women get few opportunities to find livelihood opportunities other than farming. even if she is literate, a woman usually has no training in farming, either traditionally from parents ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [228] or from agriculture extension services. they do not receive credit as well; an overwhelming majority—97%—told us that they have not received any agriculture-related aid or technical training from the government or any ngos. however, many want these exposures; while interacting with us, women stated their aspiration to learn new methods of fishing and farming paddy. some even expressed their interest in entering new income-earning work where the requirement of manual labour would be less. one woman was ready to open her own grocery store. overall, the study examined women’s interests, priorities, and challenges in farming. many of them observed that fishponds have changed due to an increase in silting, water pollution, and weed growth. many were fearful of the rapidly changing environment and worried about obtaining a good harvest. the lack of irrigation, paucity of land, and rising incidence of pests and insects are the farming-related difficulties that they observed. these, combined with the inequities caused by gender roles, exacerbate the challenges for women farmers. the saline soil requires significant amounts of effort and investment that women from poorer households are unable to garner. as we end this note, we might remind the readers of the fact that this area was the centre of a well-known peasant movement called the tebhaga andolan initiated by the bangiya pradeshik kisan sabha after the bengal famine of 1943. tebhaga andolan aimed to secure for sharecropper peasants a better deal within the existing land tenure. the movement led to the enactment of the bargadari act of 1950, which was incorporated in the west bengal land reform act 1956 (as chapter iii). the act legally recognized the sharecroppers’ right to two-thirds of the produce when they supplied the necessary inputs. unfortunately, as we saw, the act could not change the circumstances of smallholder farmers and sharecroppers in the region. studying the area seventy years later, we felt that not much has changed for poor peasants, except that they are now under even more pressure as the climate has also turned hostile towards them. women are caught under the multi-faceted pressures exerted by a combination of social, economic, and physical forces in the sundarbans. on the one hand, male outmigration has increased their work burdens. on the other, the changing climate and declining farm incomes have posed unforeseen challenges to women. trudging through the mud, we felt a sense of urgency and helplessness and the need for immediate measures. there is, however, no easy prescription that can be offered as the solution; perhaps we need more detailed investigations to understand how each of the external forces acts in conjunction with the local context and develop [229] kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik policies that are tailored to the region and accepted by the women who bear most of the brunt. references chandrasekhar, s, soham sahoo, and hema swaminathan. 2020. “seasonal migration and feminization of farm management: evidence from india”. working paper no. 630. bangalore: indian institute of management. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3745554 garikipati, supriya. 2008. “agricultural wage work, seasonal migration and the widening gender gap: evidence from a semi-arid region of andhra pradesh.” the european journal of development research 20 (4), 629–648. https://doi.org/10.1080/09578810802464870 government of india. 2019. agricultural statistics at a glance 2018. new delhi: ministry of agriculture & farmers welfare, department of agriculture, cooperation & farmers welfare, and directorate of economics and statistics. government of india. maity, kingsuk, debasis mazumdar, and pinaki das. 2018. “male out-migration and its impact on women empowerment in west bengal.” economic affairs 63 (2): 459–467. 10.30954/0424-2513.2.2018.23 pattnaik, itishree, and kuntala lahiri-dutt. 2021. “do women like to farm? evidence of growing burdens of farming on women in rural india.” the journal of peasant studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1867540 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3745554 https://doi.org/10.1080/09578810802464870 http://dx.doi.org/10.30954/0424-2513.2.2018.23 https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1867540 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 89-107 january 2022 thematic essay women’s role in agriculture and food security: learnings from gujarat and west bengal amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt and itishree pattnaik abstract: ushering in the next phase of agriculture in india requires a deeper understanding of the growth process across regions and socio-economic contexts with an emphasis on strengthening the role of women. this paper argues that it is critical to capture socio-cultural diversity across various agro-climatic zones to arrive at a more detailed understanding of women’s labour contributions within the changing landscape of food security. the paper is based on an extensive survey carried out in the states of gujarat and west bengal. the analysis shows the immense contribution of women in the agricultural sector. women’s contribution in farms is higher in west bengal than gujarat, but in gujarat their contribution in the allied sector is significant. women’s work in farms and their involvement in decision-making are the important determining factors for maintaining household food security. thus, women’s roles in the farm need to be strengthened for the next phase of agriculture. keywords: agrarian distress, feminization, food security, gujarat-west bengal and logit model 1. introduction: gendered challenges agriculture in india is changing. changes in land-use patterns and the availability of natural resources on the one hand (chand et al. 2011; gupta et al. 2018) and socio-economic impacts on the other (agarwal 1994; 2012) are impacting landholding size and productivity. how far these have influenced—positively or negatively—rural communities in the diverse regional contexts of india is yet to be determined. two aspects demand  center for development alternatives. amitagidr@gmail.com  crawford school of public policy, anu college of asia and the pacific, the australian national university. kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au  gujarat institute of development research (gidr). itipattnaik7@gmail.com copyright © shah, lahiri-dutt and pattnaik 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web) doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.630 mailto:amitagidr@gmail.com mailto:kuntala.lahiri-dutt@anu.edu.au mailto:itipattnaik7@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.630 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] particular attention: ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ensuring women’s role therein. the latter is especially important given agriculture’s role in providing food security to india’s poor. women’s dual role in farming households—where they grow and prepare food for consumption—is influential in steering how the household consumes food, thereby inextricably linking their participation in agriculture to food security. this paper investigates these aspects based on an extensive field survey carried out in two states in india. it attempts to understand, first, the trend of overall agricultural growth processes and their implications for natural resources; second, it examines the specific role of women farmers, and in particular, captures the conditions under which they perform their roles and whether their labour contributions benefit them or not; and third, it analyses women’s role in maintaining household food security. it is assumed that a specific focus on women’s role in agriculture within the overall changing scenario will help bring attention to women’s contribution to sustainable agriculture and poverty reduction, which is an overlooked link in indian agriculture. the sudden changes caused by the covid-19 pandemic have laid bare the urgent need to ensure food security for the rural poor. india, with 22% of the world’s poor (government of india 2018),1 represents how global development has been unsustainable and requires re-envisioning. food security can be ensured only in a healthy rural environment in which there is equity and protection of natural resources. scholars (quisumbing et al. 1995; krishnaraj 2005; mehra and rojas 2008) have highlighted the key role of women in ensuring food and nutritional security within rural households. the lack of secondary data on the extent and nature of women’s labour in india continues to remain a major obstacle, and the innumerable ways women help farming families remain invisible (siddiqui et al. 2017). the role of allied activities in the agricultural economy—such as dairy farming in gujarat2 and fisheries in certain parts of west bengal3—are also not well recognized, and there is a particular lack of studies on how women’s participation in these sectors strengthen and 1 according to the 2021 global hunger index, india is ranked 101 out of 116 countries. india’s score is 27.5, which implies that the country has a level of hunger that is serious (von grebmer 2021). 2 during 2017–2018 in gujarat, dairy constituted 20% of the total agricultural sector (dairy sector constitutes only 9% of the total agriculture-allied sector in west bengal; government of india 2020a). 3 during 2017–18, fisheries in west bengal constituted 14.5% of the total agricultural sector (fisheries constitute only 3% of total agriculture allied sector in gujarat; government of india 2020a). [91] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik sustain farm and farming households. further, women’s roles vary by context, and these diversities must be recognized for a better appreciation of their labour contributions. the findings of an extensive survey carried out in the states of gujarat and west bengal, which captures their intrinsic agro-climatic and socio-cultural diversities, is presented to understand the role of women in agriculture and in maintaining household food security. the micro-level study aimed to capture different agricultural systems rather than make direct comparisons. four districts were selected in each state based on a maximum-variation principle to capture the variations in local agro-climatic and agro-ecological contexts. with two villages covered in each district, a total of 16 villages were sampled. given the specific focus on women’s contributions to agriculture, only landholding households were selected.4 a complete houselisting exercise was carried out, which covered 3,235 households in gujarat and 2,770 in west bengal. stratified random sampling was used in the survey of 800 women farmers (comprising around 10–12% of the landed households in each village).5,6 the paper is structured as follows: first, the context of women’s employment in indian agriculture is presented in brief to show how the farm sector is increasingly being feminized. the second section discusses the agricultural growth process and women’s employment in agriculture in gujarat and west bengal. the third section presents the major findings, mainly capturing women’s contributions to farming, livestock rearing, and households and their role in decision-making and maintaining food security. the concluding section provides directions for future interventions. 2. women’s labour contributions in agriculture with the changes occurring in agriculture, women, who have long been treated as unpaid workers, are beginning to receive much-needed recognition as farmers. as men migrate out of rural areas, seeking non 4 women in landless households were not selected because they do not take part in farm decision-making processes, except in terms of their indirect impact on the cost of labour, in which they are involved. 5 in each surveyed household, we identified women who were “most involved in agriculture”, since they were best equipped to respond as they were most likely to be involved a broad range of activities and decision-making functions. 6 questions were asked relating to land ownership (both at the household and individual level), women’s labour contribution (in the household, farm, and livestock rearing), decisionmaking, food security, migration status, women’s involvement in training and extension services, membership in community activities, women’s like or dislike of farming, etc. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] agricultural employment, the involvement of women in the farm sector has increased. indian policymakers term this concentration of women’s labour in agriculture as the “feminization of agriculture” (government of india 2018). in fact, this is not an entirely new phenomenon in india (agarwal 1985; duvvury 1989). however, in the context of the deepening agrarian crisis (mishra 2007; singh, kaur, and kingra 2021), characterized by declining farm incomes, male out-migration, and worsening water shortages, the nature and causes of the feminization of the agricultural workforce and its implications for the future development of the agricultural sector are matters of concern. this is particularly important because, till recently, recognition of women as “workers” or “farmers” remained largely absent, leading to a lack of representation in policymaking and development programmes. 2.1 agriculture: gujarat and west bengal the economies of gujarat and west bengal differ substantially. the percapita annual income in 2018–19 for gujarat and west bengal was ₹195,845 and ₹101,138, respectively, as compared to the national average of ₹126,521 (goi 2020). the annual average growth rate of income from agriculture from 2011–2012 to 2016–2017 was slightly over 3% in gujarat and slightly less than 2% in west bengal (cso 2019). this could be partly because gujarat’s agriculture has gained from groundnut and cotton7 cultivation despite having a large proportion of dry land. against this, paddy8 is the dominant crop in west bengal. unfortunately, the relatively higher growth in gujarat has not positively impacted the poor in a significant manner as the population below the poverty line is similar in the two states.9 a total of 65.01% of males and 88.08% of females are engaged in agriculture in gujarat (government of india 2020b). better connectivity to urban areas, heavy urban industrialization, and migration are the causes of lower employment in the rural non-farm sector (shah and pattnaik 2021). in west bengal, 50.02% of males and 57.12% of females are engaged in agriculture. the state shows higher rural non-farm employment than gujarat. 7 the share of the area under cotton and groundnut farming during 2019–2020 was 24% and 14%, respectively (directorate of economics and statistics n.d.). 8 the share of the area under paddy farming was 60% during 2019 (directorate of economics and statistics n.d.). 9 the share of the population below the poverty line was 16.6% in gujarat compared to 19.9% in west bengal during 2011–2012. the share of the population below the poverty line was 21.9% across the whole of india during the same period. [93] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik 2.2 trajectories of the agricultural sector over time even during the early years following independence, the growth of the agricultural sector of the two states followed different trajectories. in the 1950s, gujarat’s agricultural sector benefited from well irrigation and cooperatives producing milk, sugar, and cotton, which were mainly concentrated in the central, southern, and northern regions of the state. while the saurashtra region (western region) did not benefit from cooperatives during this time, the agricultural sector saw some growth due to the immense political mileage gained from the groundnut oil lobby—telia raja.10 after the 1990s, cotton also contributed significantly to the growth of saurashtra’s agriculture. saurashtra, a dry region, has mainly depended on groundwater resources and farm power supplies to fuel its growth. the development of the dairy sector is another major factor that accelerated the high growth of agriculture and allied sectors (kumar et al. 2007). in west bengal, on the other hand, the agricultural development process was significantly impacted by the land reforms that started immediately after independence and were mainly designed to protect the rights of poor cultivators. in the early 1970s, land reforms and the decentralization of local self-government became the main political agenda (rogaly et al. 1995). unlike in gujarat, the focus here was on defining the rights of the poor rather than supporting agro-based industrial development. it is important to note that only after liberalization in the 1990s, commercialization and rapid agroindustrialization were promoted in west bengal (shaw 2020). since the 1990s, the share of non-food grain cropped areas and areas under potato farming have significantly increased. how the agricultural growth process has helped unlock various alternatives, especially for women, has been addressed in the following analysis. 3. major findings: women’s work, decision making, and food security 3.1 women’s work although increasing numbers of rural families are supplementing their household incomes by seeking jobs outside agriculture, this does not seem to have happened for women. many women are engaged in more than one 10 producer and mill owners of groundnut oil in saurashtra region are called telia rajas as they have strong connection with political leaders, interested guilds, apolitical outfits, political parties, the bureaucracy, and the government and all these begin with the price of the groundnut. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] occupation, but mostly in the agriculture and allied sectors. the data show that 96% and 89% of the surveyed women are involved in the agricultural sector in gujarat and west bengal, respectively, as their primary occupation. the diversification (towards the non-farm sector) of the rural economy has had a limited impact on rural women workers, and men have gained more than women. importantly, 71% of men and 74% of women in gujarat, and 65% of men and 69% of women in west bengal, are engaged in more than one occupation. however, women’s occupations, outside of cropping, are limited to livestock-rearing in gujarat and fishing in west bengal.11 in gujarat, around 80% of women reported working in the dairy sector, either as a main or subsidiary occupation. in west bengal, 49% of women reported fishing as a subsidiary occupation. women’s increased labour participation in agriculture and allied sectors in gujarat is mainly due to the major role played by women in the dairy industry. another reason might be that men have been able to find opportunities in urban areas, leaving women to manage agriculture. women do not seem to be receiving the same opportunities outside of agriculture as men in gujarat, presumably due to the state’s industrialized–urbanized economy which led more male migration. this situation is different from that in west bengal where the rural manufacturing sector employs the major share of workers, both male and female (government of india 2020b). further, in west bengal, though employment in the non-farm sector has been growing over time, more than 90% of businesses are ownaccount enterprises (home-based small businesses) that do not generate enough surplus incomes for employment (rajeev and bhattacharjee 2018). women’s labour in households is higher in both states, followed by livestock-rearing and farming (figure 1). livestock-rearing is considered an extension of household activities, which are done almost exclusively by women, especially in gujarat. the development of the dairy sector in gujarat is also a political topic, which, over time, has brought women to the centre (known as the white revolution; kurien 2004). however, in west bengal, fishing is mainly conducted for household consumption and only a small share is sold. appropriate institutional support may have given a better push to the allied sector in west bengal. 11 a major share of women in west bengal reported the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) as their subsidiary occupation. mgnrega is a state-funded guaranteed employment programme that employs labourers for a fixed number of days and fixed wages. [95] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik figure 1: participation in farming, livestock-rearing, and domestic work in gujarat and west bengal note: 1. agriculture: all kinds of farm activities; livestock: all kinds of livestock activities; hh traditional farming: activities that take place within the home; hh other work: activities related to marketing and managing budgets. 2. the indices are generated from a series of questions in the survey in which female respondents were asked the extent to which 11 different activities relating to their agricultural land (such as ploughing, weeding, harvesting, storage, marketing, etc.) were undertaken “entirely by men”; “mostly by men”; “equally shared by men and women”; “mostly by women”, and “entirely by women”. responses were converted to numerical values by allocating a score (1 to 5) of 1 for each response that was marked as being undertaken “entirely by men” and a score of 5 for “entirely by women”. the average of all scores was then calculated, so that the higher the score, the greater the participation of women. other indices for livestock rearing, household activities, and decision-making were calculated similarly. source: authors’ fieldwork in 2016. moreover, women reported that labour-intensive activities such as weeding, farm cleaning, harvesting, and storing are mostly carried out by them; further, several crop-specific tasks are performed exclusively by women. these include extracting groundnut kernels (mainly in gujarat in the groundnut belt of rajkot district); cutting potatoes into pieces for planting (in malda, west bengal); and extracting fibre from jute (in cooch behar, west bengal). in gujarat, women primarily weed and harvest the land. in west bengal, they carry out a much wider array of tasks: transplanting juvenile rice plants, winnowing wheat and pulses, cleaning and arranging ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] farm produce for sale, and drying agricultural products such as tobacco leaves. furthermore, these activities are carried out manually due to a lack of mechanization. it is important to note that while mechanization has existed for a long time in both states, it has not reached the specific activities in which women are involved. the level of mechanization is lower in west bengal, leading to women undertaking various strenuous activities.12 how far the vast range of women’s labour contribution in farms impacts empowerment (measured in terms of decision-making) is discussed below. 3.2 women in decision-making three aspects of decision-making were captured in the survey: (1) decisions related to farming and livestock—which crops to grow, which farm inputs to buy, the amount of farm produce to be sold (food grains), purchase of new immovable assets and large household purchases, and purchase/sale of animals; (2) decisions related to daily household purchases, including which vegetables to buy and what foods to cook, and visits to family or relatives; and (3) decisions related to health and education. we found that women’s participation in farming-related decisions is quite limited (with scores of 2.05 and 2.18 in gujarat and west bengal, respectively; figure 2). compared to farming, however, their role in decision-making in other minor aspects is relatively higher than men in both states. further, women’s increased control over income and decisionmaking has been noted to have a positive impact on the health and nutritional status of the family (meinzen-dick et al. 2010). the present analysis finds that women’s participation in decision-making regarding health and education is greater compared to other sets of decisions in both states. women’s participation in livestock management is higher in gujarat compared to west bengal. the overall analysis shows that women are more involved in both labour and decision-making in west bengal compared to gujarat, which could be partly attributed to the different socio-cultural and political contexts (pattnaik and lahiri-dutt 2020). 12 increasing labour hours or days does not necessarily bring in more income for women; rather, it further deepens the existing gender gap. rural transformation has led to income diversification and facilitates men’s outmigration from their villages in search of better paying jobs, whereas women remain confined to the family farm and as wage labourers in the village. [97] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik figure 2: decision-making on the farm and at home note: as explained in note 2 in figure 1. source: authors’ fieldwork in 2016. 3.3 women and household food security compared to the surveyed households in gujarat, a relatively larger proportion of surveyed households in west bengal are food insecure;13 48.23% of households in gujarat and 59.12% of households in west bengal reported being food insecure. a logit model was constructed to examine the factors affecting household food security, with a focus on the contribution of women’s work.14 we 13 nine indicator questions were employed to capture food insecurity. the questions are related to food adequacy and financial constraints, including whether a condition has occurred during the four months prior to the survey. each occurrence question is coded with a “yes” or “no”. for example: did you or any household member worry about your household not getting enough food? did you or any household member go to sleep at night hungry because there was not enough food? 14 a multivariate binary logistic regression model was used to examine the factors that influence the odds ratio of household food status. the odds ratio is the ratio of the probability that a household would always be food secure ( ) to the probability that the household does not have enough food or is food insecure ( ). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] considered a set of socio-economic and regional variables, along with women’s work and decision-making. earlier studies have identified various determinants of household food security. income, one of the main economic variables, is considered a fundamental factor in determining poverty and food security (sarkar & shekhar 2017). hence, as per-capita income increases, the household’s food security is expected to improve. in rural households, livestock is a supplementary source of income. the higher the number of farm animals, the better the household’s food security as dairy products are a major source of protein consumption (ramachandran 2003). moreover, selling livestock for cash is also used as a coping strategy during times of crisis (mukherjee & nayyar 2011). thus, the number of ruminants owned by the household might influence its food security status. migration, specifically male migration, can have a diverse (positive or negative) impact. while the flow of remittances may positively influence household food security (szabo 2015), it could impact some negatively because most of rural migration is distressed in nature (keshri and bhagat 2012); in the absence of remittances, the left behind women-headed households may be adversely affected (choithani 2019). the demographic characteristics of a household also determine its food security and their impacts vary similarly. on one hand, the bigger the family, the higher the demand for food, leading to a greater risk of malnutrition (gupta and mishra 2014). on the other, a larger family might also have more labour supply, which is a vital factor in agricultural production, especially in poorer regions (zakari, ying, and song 2014). land is an important asset in rural areas, making it another important variable that might influence a household’s food security. lastly, sociocultural indicators such as caste and ethnicity are important factors that define the social position of the family in india (rao 2005). since caste is a major factor, it is hypothesized that lower caste groups are more food insecure than higher ones. besides these economic and socio-cultural factors, a set of independent variables that capture women’s decisionmaking (mainly farm-related) and control or management of household income are considered for the logit model (table 1). for example, income from livestock is important for household cash flow, which is particularly evident in gujarat; hence, women’s control over dairy income is considered an independent variable (however, allied activities—for example, fishing in west bengal—are not included because of their limited contribution to the total household income). the dependent variable is the status of food security. the household’s food security status, the dependent variable, is coded in binary form, that is, food insecure = 0 and food secure = 1. [99] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik the logit model for gujarat is defined as below: (1) the logit model for west bengal is written below: (2) where, y*is the dependent variable,  represents the vector of parameters to be estimated, and e is the error term. table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of the variables used in the model. table 1: descriptive statistics of the variables used in the model sl. no. variable description 1 per capita income (pci) numerical 2 total area under cultivation (tac) numerical 3 share of area under irrigation (irri) ratio 4 total number of livestock (lk) numerical 5 type of family binary 6 number of income sources of the family (nis) numerical 7 migration (mig) binary 8 women as cultivators or working in family farm (wc) binary 9 women as agricultural labour (wa) binary 10 caste: general caste as reference category binary 11 caste: st and sc (stsc) binary 12 caste: schedule tribe (st) binary 13 caste: schedule caste (sc) binary 14 caste: other backward caste (obc) binary 15 women’s control over livestock income (wli) binary 16 women participating in decisions related to what crop to grow (wpc) binary 17 women participating in decisions related to how much crop to keep for home consumption (wph) binary 18 women managing total household income (wmi) binary 19 districts binary ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] to avoid the problem of heteroscedasticity, robust standard error (clustered) was calculated. additionally, the variance inflation factor (vif) was measured to check the problem of multicollinearity. to explain the effects of confounding variables directly, the marginal effects of both continuous and discrete explanatory variables were estimated. table 2: result of the logit model variables marginal effects (standard error) dependent variable: status of food security gujarat (model i) west bengal (model ii) per capita income (in log-term) 0.06** (0.15) 0.20*** (0.25) total area under cultivation 0.001 (0.005) 0.08*** (0.14) share of area irrigated -0.001 (0.003) 0.007 (0.002) total number of livestock 0.02** (0.07) -0.003 (0.0.1) type of family (nuclear family as reference category) 0.18*** (0.22) 0.12** (0.26) number of income sources of the family -0.004 (0.13) -0.02 (0.10) household migration status -0.21*** (0.33) -0.09** (0.24) women as cultivators or working in family farms 0.05 (0.29) 0.04** (0.27) women as agricultural labour -0.18*** (0.30) 0.05 (0.29) caste: general caste as the reference category caste: st and sc -0.12** (0.48) caste: st -0.11 (0.51) caste: sc -0.05 (0.50) caste: obc -0.01 (0.36) -0.07 (0.37) women’s control over livestock income 0.11** (0.25) women participating in decisions related to what crop to grow 0.09** (0.24) women participating in decisions related to how much crop to keep for home consumption 0.07 (0.26) [101] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik variables marginal effects (standard error) women managing total household income 0.14** (0.27) district fixed effect yes yes observations 400 400 pseudo r2 0.11 0.14 log pseudo likelihood -246.1 -236.10 note: 1. numbers in parentheses indicate robust standard error. 2. p<0.01 = *** and p<0.05 = ** 3. in model i – vif ranges from 6.22 (area cultivated) to 1.07 (type of family). average vif = 2.71. 4. in model ii – vif ranges from 4.80 (caste sc) to 1.06 (women as agricultural labour). average vif = 2.36 in gujarat, factors such as income per capita (p < 0.05), ownership of livestock (p < 0.05), women’s decision-making in farm-related activities (p < 0.05), and women’s control of livestock income (p < 0.05) are found to be positively associated with household food security (table 1). during the survey, it was found that farm income is mainly managed and controlled by men, but women retain the income earned from dairy. households in which women are involved in the management of income15 (along with men) are more food secure compared to those where women are less involved. further, joint families are food secure compared to nuclear families (p<0.01). scheduled caste (sc), scheduled tribe (st), and other backward castes (obc) households are found to be more food insecure (p < 0.05) compared to general caste households. however, migration has a negative impact on household food security (p < 0.01). in west bengal, factors such as income per capita (p < 0.01) and total area under cultivation (p<0.01) positively influence the status of food security (table 1). as also found in the case of gujarat, joint families are more food secure than nuclear families (p < 0.05) in west bengal. migration has a negative impact on the status of food security (p < 0.05). it was found that women’s involvement in income management influences household food security positively in west bengal (p < 0.05). 15 during the survey, participants were asked who has more control over income in the family: 1= exclusively male, 2 = mainly male, 3 = male and female both, 4 = mainly female, and 5 = exclusively female. we constructed an index, and when the number is above 3, we report it as “women’s involvement in the management of income.” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] per capita income influences the food security of both states. however, its impact is significantly higher in west bengal compared to gujarat. with a 1% increase in per capita income, the probability of a household being food secure is 6% in gujarat and 20% in west bengal. as west bengal’s agricultural growth rate is lower than that of gujarat, a slight increase in income will greatly influence the status of food security. migration has a negative impact on food security in both states. with a 1% increase in migration, the status of household food security declines by 21% in gujarat and 9% in west bengal. migration (predominantly male, as confirmed in our study), mainly being distressed in nature,16 has not improved the food security of households. this is evident in the larger historical out-migration in gujarat.17 the intensity of the impact of migration (both in and out) on food security needs further analysis. livestock ownership is an important factor that affects household food security in gujarat but not in west bengal. in gujarat, milk animals and milk products have long been a significant supplementary source of income for a large number of rural households, and the sector received significant institutional and state support (shah and pattnaik 2014). against this, the lack of equivalent institutional and state support in west bengal could be seen as the major reason for the limited attractiveness of rearing small/large ruminants. joint families are more food secure compared to the nuclear families in both states. joint families, having undivided land and larger land size (except among the sts, as found in our survey), are more food secure. the link between the social status of households and food security is captured through the caste indicator; caste was found to have a significant impact on food security in gujarat but not in west bengal. in gujarat, scs and sts are more food insecure compared to the general castes, which was also found in past studies (chakravarty and dand 2006). caste inequality has always been higher in central and western india (maharashtra and gujarat) compared to eastern india (west bengal and odisha; borooah, 2005). it is interesting to learn that women’s involvement in family farms is positive and significant in west bengal but not in gujarat. with a 1% increase in female participation in family farming, the family’s security 16 with most of the migration being distressed in nature, the flow of remittance was negligible. 17 a large proportion of landed area in gujarat is dry, and the state is historically known for seasonal migration. [103] amita shah, kuntala lahiri-dutt, itishree pattnaik increases by 4%. the association, while positive, is not as significant in gujarat. this may be because poor quality of land and limited access to water have been major factors resulting in fluctuating agricultural income in gujarat. fluctuating agriculture on one hand and the availability of better work opportunities in the non-farm sector, on the other, make gujarat farmers less dependent on farm income as compared to west bengal. along with women’s labour contribution, their role in decision-making and their control over the household income are also important variables that determine the status of food security. women’s decision-making and control over incomes also influence household food security in both states, highlighting their significant role. in gujarat, a 1% increase in women’s involvement in management of livestock income and participation in farmrelated decision-making leads to an 11% and 9% increase in the status of household food security, respectively. in west bengal, a 1% increase in women’s involvement in managing household income leads to a 14% increase in household food security. overall, the analysis shows that food insecurity is higher in west bengal than in gujarat. this may be due to the types of crops cultivated and the importance of agriculture-allied sectors such as livestock in gujarat having a significant role in shaping overall growth including women’s roles. west bengal, despite having strong land reform and better agro-climatic conditions, has somewhat lagged in its agriculture growth process. however, it is clear from the analysis that women’s work on farms and involvement in the management of income has a positive impact on food security in both states. thus, strengthening women’s role is essential for ushering in the next phase of agriculture. 4. conclusion the analysis emphasizes the extensive role of women in the agriculture sector. while in gujarat, women’s role in agriculture is limited compared to west bengal, their contribution in the allied sector (livestock/dairy) is significant. women in west bengal are engaged in a wider array of tasks in farming. however, women’s involvement in farm-level decision-making is very low in both states. this shows a lack of empowerment among women although they contribute immensely towards shaping agriculture and allied sectors. it must be noted that women’s labour contribution in farming and their involvement in decision-making related to farming influence household food security positively (along with other socio-economic characteristics of the household). thus, improving the overall availability of food via better and women-friendly production technologies must go handecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] in-hand with women’s control over income and decision-making processes. hence, future farming must focus on strengthening women’s involvement in decision-making by developing policies that 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ying, and baohui song. 2014. “factors influencing household food security in west africa: the case of southern niger.” sustainability 6 (3): 1191–1202. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6031191 http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/remittances-significant-predictor-food-security-rural-bangladesh http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove/remittances-significant-predictor-food-security-rural-bangladesh https://doi.org/10.3390/su6031191 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 169–172, january 2019 report a report on the fifteenth conference of international society for ecological economics rajeswari s. raina  the 15th conference of the international society for ecological economics (isee) on “ecological economics and socio-ecological movements: science, policy and challenges to global processes in a troubled world” turned out to be as intellectually engaging and academically challenging as the title promised. following the revision of isee’s mission statement1 in july 2017, this was the first isee conference that formally invited social movements and created a platform for academic and policy actors to dialogue with communities and movements. the interactions conclusively established the role and voice of communities and movements in understanding the interfaces between ‘nature’s household’ (ecosystems) and ‘humanity’s household’ (the economy). they highlighted the plurality of frameworks available to understand nature and society, and the economy as a significant sub-component of society. the success of the conference, despite some inconvenience caused by the multiple venues across the captivating city centre of puebla, was due to the perseverance of the organizers, david barkin and clovis cavalcanti. they had to confront and overcome some serious financial and organizational hurdles in the build-up to the conference. the conference had set out 12 major themes to address the challenges to global processes in our troubled world. most importantly, it made a significant effort for cross-fertilization of ideologies, ideas, methods and  professor, school of humanities and social sciences, shiv nadar university, nh91, tehsil dadri, gautam buddha nagar, greater noida, uttar pradesh 201314; rajeswari.raina@snu.edu.in copyright © raina 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.67 1 http://www.isecoeco.org/about/cross-discipline-approach/ https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.67 http://www.isecoeco.org/about/cross-discipline-approach/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [170] metrics of ecological economics, political ecology, ethnoecology, agroecology and energy systems. some themes, academically more closely linked with ecological economics, like ecosystem services, valuation languages, tools of measurement and policy instruments, legal and social processes, multi-criteria analysis (theme 9), food security/sovereignty, and rural-urban transitions (theme 4), globally diverse inequities, social and environmental conflicts, environmental and climate justice, and ecological debt (theme 6), trans-disciplinary responses to socio-ecological contexts (theme 1), and energy transitions, climate analysis and policies (theme 10) were well represented. but the fate of several other themes central to the conference call for cross-fertilization of ideas and learning from and with communities was not the same. though, the parallel sessions on some of these themes like social metabolism evolving relationships between society and the planet (theme 5), and ecological macroeconomics: prosperity without growth (theme 7) did witness cross-fertilization between the usual silos of academic expertise and field-based community knowledge systems. a key debate in theme 5, was about the real biophysical and economic meanings of work and livelihoods that coevolve with ecosystems. another debate in theme 7 was about the meanings and measures of ‘good life’, the nature of the state and regulatory authorities as well as legal institutions in contexts where economic growth for development is still sacrosanct across diverse political ideologies. for many of us from insee and the global south, the three highlights of the conference were: 1. the first plenary session featuring community voices, indigenous concerns and solutions, which powerfully and convincingly articulated the need for ecological economics to work with and learn from communities; 2. a session of discussion on books, one featuring celebrated ecological economists on “teeb (the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity) for agriculture and food”, and two new books on “postgrowth thinking in india” and “de la protesta a la propuesta”, where it became obvious that ecological economics would be forced to confront some tough choices in the coming decade; 3. the kenneth boulding prize award speech by inge roepke, recalling boulding’s spaceship earth which appeared in the 1960s, and asking the ecological economics community to be more creative, producing more transformative thought pieces (and not incremental square knowledge pegs for diversely shaped holes). [171] rajeswari s. raina tying neatly and firmly into the theme of the conference, these three highlights underscore the demand for ecological economics to work more on ‘how we know’. these highlights also bring us this larger concern about policies and practices within ecological economics. if the discipline is to contribute to sustainability, it needs to create more institutions and experiments designed for empirical adequacy and learning capacities in communities (in the fields, labs and administrative structures), and not just work towards universal generalizations and publications for citations. the agenda to discuss ‘science’ and the scientific basis of many methods and measures, and actors (experts and policymakers), we consider critical for decision-making, was the least manifest in the conference. perhaps this reflects the fate of ecological economics, which unquestioningly accepts scientific facts. at the conference, some questions about the legitimacy of currently institutionalized frameworks of science-policy relationships, and what qualifies in the mainstream as expertise or scientific disciplinary authority with social approval, were left unanswered. this lacuna continues to gnaw at the very core of ecological economics, despite the conference call that had specifically mentioned science as a global process to address our troubled world. the key takeaway of this conference was that ecological economics, an inter-disciplinary knowledge formation integrating ecological sciences with values, behaviours, cultural practices, institutions, and social dynamics, has not, thus far, made attempts to engage with the multiple actors and in diverse forms of knowledge. be it the processes of valuation of ecosystems, pricing mechanisms, or production policies, the ways in which scientific evidence ‘speaks truth to power’, the social construction of technology and science, or the coevolution of community-led local knowledge systems, ecological economics has the mandate to address the contents of and interactions between knowledge forms in ecosystems, societies and economies. today, when the question about ‘how we know what we know,’ is being asked by all nine environmental social sciences (ranging from environmental history and cultural ecology to political ecology), this conference made it obvious that ecological economics has to step up and face this question as a global challenge. that ecological economics and the other environmental social sciences need a different grammar to engage with community-based knowledge was evident in the discussions (in themes 2,7 and 12). there are opportunities offered by many socio-ecological movements like la via campesina or the solidarity economy. the alternative macroeconomics, political and institutional/legal concepts in these movements are forms of knowledge, integrated across knowledge-policy-practice continuums. these, therefore, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [172] make it important for ecological economics to engage with the critical voice of science and its ability to constantly renew itself, enliven disciplines and engage meaningfully with several other knowledge systems. but this, and the capacity of socio-ecological movements and the environmental social sciences to create the opportunity for diverse forms of knowledge to renew themselves, and change meanings and practices in daily life, may have to wait till the next conference of the isee! ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 43–76, january 2019 special section: ecological distribution conflicts in india relocation from protected areas as a violent process in the recent history of biodiversity conservation in india eleonora fanari  abstract: in the last two decades conflicts due to biodiversity conservation projects have been rising all over the world. this is due to the interest at the global level towards environmental protection, which is often implemented at the expense of communities living within and around important biodiversity spots. the study analyses the violent process of relocation and displacement from the protected areas of india with the purpose of documenting the illegal relocation of indigenous communities and forest dwellers from the protected forest areas. it examines the specific laws and regulations that legalize their relocation from their ancestral land in contravention of legal recognition of the community’s forest rights under the forest rights act (fra). the article concludes how these conflicts are the results of no recognition of tenure rights, and mirrors the contradictions embedded in the environmental protection policies not only in india but at the global level as well. keywords: biodiversity conservation conflicts, ecological distribution conflicts, environmental justice movements, forest rights act. 1. introduction conservation of biodiversity is going through a significant challenge as the cost and benefit for the creation of protected areas are not equally shared, bringing the issues of displacement and dispossession at the pick of the problem. although displacement and relocation from protected areas have been undertaken throughout the world1 since the pre-colonial era, in the  ejatlas, instituto de ciencia y tecnologia ambiental (icta), universidad autonoma de barcelona (uab), calle lleida 25, 4-1, 08004, barcelona, spain; e.fanari86@gmail.com copyright © fanari 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.55 1 as of october 2017, there are about 200.000 protected areas around the world as per the world database of protected areas (wdpa). the 11 aichi targets of the convention on https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.55 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] last two decades the increasing number of protected areas around the world and the continuous restrictions put on the local communities have created a situation for which “conservation has become the number one threat to indigenous territories”, as declared by one indigenous delegate at the united nation declaration on the rights of indigenous people (undrip), 2004 (dowie 2009). the creation of protected areas for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem has been valuable for the public who benefits from the common sharing, while the higher cost for its notification is almost entirely paid by the local communities living within those spaces who risk to lose their access to land, forest resources and other development opportunities (krueger 2009, 21). the notion of biodiversity and forest as pristine and wilderness comes from a classical western idea of conservation which sees the tribal people as ‘encroachers’, ‘poachers’ and responsible for the decline of biodiversity conservation and considers relocation and displacement the mainstream solution and the only strategy to save the environment (dowie 2009, xvii). however, as observed by many thinkers and scholars, displacement of people from protected areas become risky both for the people who live out of natural resources and for the biodiversity itself (cernea and schmidtsoltau 2003, 42). in general, the complex literature of displacement due to conservation shows a picture of the loss of livelihood, income, and impoverishment of the affected communities and loss and degradation of the wildlife (brockinton and igoe 2006, 425). besides, the conservation based on exclusion influences the behaviour of conservationist ngos, forest officials and administrative authorities who continue to deny the access to the local communities to their land and forest resources, looking at them as the enemy rather than possible co-operators in the conservation management process. this despite the fact that community conservation management approach and indigenous land rights have been recognized at the policy level, both nationally (vis. forest rights act 2006, india) and internationally (convention of biological diversity, cop7, iucn), ensuring to the indigenous the rights of habitat and use of the forest resources. according to the estimates, worldwide, from the masai and ogiek in kenya, the batswa in uganda, the ashaninka in peru and the adivasis in india, conservation has displaced about 10 to 20 million people (agrawal and redford 2009, 4), who formerly lived, farmed, fished and hunted in the protected areas. biological diversity (cbd) have the objective to cover by 2020 at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas. [45] eleonora fanari 2. methodology this article provides an overview of conservation conflicts in india using legal framework to explore the relocation policy as a mean of environmental protection, and a source of violence. the article is the result of one-year research conducted in india, while working with kalpavriksh,2 a non profit organization working on environmental and social issues. the data on this particular category of ecological distribution conflicts (edcs)3 do mainly come from five sources: (i) english language newspaper report, (ii) reports available in the forest rights act website, (iii) secondary information shared by the community forest rights – learning and advocacy (cfr-la) group, (iv) primary data directly observed and reported from the field, and (v) data shared by activists, reporters, journalists, etc. the primary data have been gathered through interviews, group discussion and documents collected in eight protected areas visited from march to september 2017. the secondary data have been gathered for 30 protected areas through journal articles, reports, and documents collected by civil society organizations working on the ground with local and forest communities, as well as from testimonies of socio-environmental activists and sanghatanas working on advocacy for the just recognition of the forest rights act. the study areas were chosen based on 4 criteria: a) political sensitivity, b) geographical area, c) accessibility and contacts, and d) presence of forest dwellers and indigenous communities. some of the biodiversity conservation conflicts in india are recorded and explained in the ejatlas, a project at the icta uab on which the author is working in 2019. the ejatlas has registered nearly 300 ecological distribution conflicts in india as of december 2018. of these, only about 15 are classified as “biodiversity conservation conflicts”, including some such as save silent valley movement in kerala against building of a dam (ejatlas 2018a) and the bhitarkarnika wildlife sanctuary (ejatlas 2018b) in odisha (preserving a mangrove forest) showing a degree of confluence between outside conservationists and local people. however, many others biodiversity conservation conflicts pitch the conservationists, the forest department and the state of india against the local people. these include conflicts in jaldapara national park in north bengal (ejatlas 2018c) and kaziranga (ejatlas 2017a) and manas national 2 the study was carried out with the support of kalpavriksh in india as a national report on the implementation of forest rights act within protected areas in india, funded by rights and resources initiatives (rri). 3 edcs are defined as conflicts over the distribution of environmental benefits and impacts associated with economic growth (martinez-alier, 2002). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] parks (ejatlas 2018d) in assam. this article focuses on this second type of conflicts. 3. the indian scenario in india, the first relocation drive started in pre-independence time, when two small villages were removed from the kaziranga reserve in assam in 1908. this was followed by relocations in kashmir from shikar reserve, and then the baigas were relocated from the kanha national park in madhya pradesh. soon after gaining independence in 1947, there were some displacement cases in the sariska wildlife sanctuary in rajasthan, in the gir forest in gujarat and others (lasgerscoix and kothari 2009). but the relocation from protected areas (pa) became common during the 1970s, after the enactment of the wildlife protection act (wlpa) in 1972, and the launching of project tiger in 1973; the act prescribed the procedures for setting up and managing the protected areas and regularizing the biodiversity activities (kothari, 2009). the numerous regulations of biodiversity activities under the wlpa had a direct impact on thousands of adivasi and forest dwellers whose traditional practice and lifestyle got directly affected, all this while urban tourism activities and hunting practices of elite sportsmen were indeed sanctioned (dowie, 2009, 123). at that time there were about 67 national parks and 336 sanctuaries, which made up about 2.59 per cent of the entire india land mass, which has today doubled for a total of 4.88 per cent (wildlife institute of india, 2016). as of 2018, the protected areas in india have increased to 771, including 544 sanctuaries, 104 national parks and 200 conservation areas, including 50 tiger reserves, making up to 4.88 per cent of india’s landmass.4 the number of people relocated from protected areas in the entire indian subcontinent—according to a study conducted in the mid-1980s—was estimated to be around 100,000 (langerscoix and kothari 2009). according to the current study, the estimated number of people relocated from protected areas in the last 10/15 years is about 60,000. many of these relocations remain unaccounted for, with millions more slated to have been displaced either forcefully or voluntarily. 3.1. a legal protection only on paper, the forest rights act the important scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (recognition of forest rights) act, 2006 (fra), was enacted to counteract 4 more details can be accessed here http://www.wiienvis.nic.in/database/protected_area_854.aspx. [47] eleonora fanari the historical injustices propagated under forest and conservation laws, policies and practices against the forest communities. this legal instrument recognizes the scheduled tribes and other forest dwelling communities’ rights to inhabit, use and manage their traditional forest. as per fra, these rights have been recognized also within the limits of a sanctuary or a national park. in this regard, the provision establishes the declaration of ‘critical wildlife habitats’ as important wildlife areas that are kept inviolate, i.e. no human activity that is scientifically and objectively may damage wildlife is permissible in these areas (broome and fanari 2017). this means that the fra recognizes the possibility of resettlement of forest communities only from this area, if scientifically recognized that their activity causes damage to wildlife, and based on the free informed consent of the community. the fra was born as a result of the peasant struggle for the recognition of forest land rights, and the attention at the international level to more protection for the indigenous communities. one of such international recognitions in relation to protected areas, is the world parks congress in durban in 2003, which highlighted its commitment to involve local communities, indigenous and nomadic peoples in the creation, proclamation and management of protected areas.5 moreover, the ‘free informed consent’ as a prior requirement for the notification and management plan of the pas has been extensively addressed in treaties such as the convention on biological diversity (cbd), whose article 8(j) and related provisions note that “the establishment, management and monitoring of protected areas should take place with the full and effective participation of, and full respect for the rights of indigenous and local communities consistent with national law and applicable international obligations”. as regards the international treaties, the indian government recognizes through the fra the rights to the forest dwellers living within the pas, stipulating that relocation can only take place if scientifically determined that co-existence is not possible, and only after the free informed consent of the gram sabhas.6 however, the milestone act is continuously challenged and contested not only by mining companies and builders of infrastructures all across india (as shown in the ejatlas), but also by classical conservationists and forest officials who do not 5 the vth iucn world parks congress was held in durban, south africa in 2003. the congress represented the largest and most diverse gathering of protected area experts in history. 6 the term gram sabha is defined in the constitution of india under article 243(b). it is the primary body of the panchayati raj system. it discusses local governance and development, and make need-based plans for the village. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] acknowledge the law within the limit of the protected spaces. indeed, while these policies gave hope to the local communities and strengthened their identity and unity, new conservation ‘necessities’—based on the need for ensuring protection of the wildlife—have developed new paradigms which are often in contrast with the necessities of the communities. these are reflected in strengthening the measures to enhance environmental security through creation of new borders, measures of control such as militarization and biodiversity offsets programs. 3.2. in the name of tiger conservation the global attention to tiger conservation has further added to the number of conservation conflict refugees in india. in this regard, the government of india has strengthened its measure to protect the tigers, and since 2008 the number of such reserves has shot up from 28 to 50 in 2018. new funds have been promised for the relocation of people from the critical tiger habitat, under the section 38v of the wild life (protection) amendment act, 2006 (wlpa), also called tiger amendment, which specifies the possibility of resettlement of communities to make protected areas inviolate. although the wlpa amendment acknowledges the existence of the fra and the recognition of the informed consent of the gram sabhas, the new guidelines for relocation from the cth strengthen the measures adopted for the protection of tigers. one of the issues is that many of these reserves have been notified with little public outreach, with no consultation with the communities living in the area, and no consideration of their livelihood and cultural rights (kothari 2011). consequently, in the last years the situation on the ground has aggravated, and numerous communities living in and around the protected areas continue to remain excluded, and their rights and dignity violated (broome and fanari 2018). moreover, as criticized by many authors, this fortress conservation model based on ‘exclusion’, has failed in positively contributing to the protection of tigers. this has been called by bijoy (2011) as the ‘same old stale wine in a new bottle’. this keeps the forest and its inhabitants in a state of insecurity, which recall the colonial attitude of control and domination upon resources. more than 37 years after the launch of project tiger in 1973 with 1,827 tigers (as per the first tiger census of 1972), the tigers are today down to 1,411 in 28 tiger reserves (bijoy 2011, 37). this shows that the tiger project has only benefitted the tourist industry letting down both the community forest dwellers as well as the wild life. according to current research, the eviction drive from the pas, and especially from the core or critical tiger habitat (cth) of the tiger reserves, is significantly increasing, undermining the law and denying the recognized land rights to the community forest dwellers. [49] eleonora fanari 3.3. relocation as a violation of fra according to the fra and wlpa, relocation can take place only from the cth or cwh, and can happen only when co-existence is absolutely not possible; that too after obtaining the free and informed consent of the gram sabhas in writing and after ensuring that the resettlement package has been prepared and is to the satisfaction of people being relocated. however, in my own research for kalpavriksh, which consisted of fieldwork in 8 protected areas, interviewing various stakeholder in each site, and review of secondary data for a number of other protected areas (for a total of 22 tiger reserves and 8 wildlife sanctuaries), it was observed that many irregularities have marred the process. the un 2016 report of the un special rapporteur (rights of indigenous people) on conservation and indigenous people’s rights said, “displacement from protected areas continues across india through a combination of misinterpretation, coercion, and inducement”.7 as per the un, the forest rights act continues to be almost inexistent within the protected areas, and testimonies of relocation have been observed both from tiger reserve and wildlife sanctuaries, repeatedly violating the national and international provisions. according to the analyses, evidences of relocation being planned were found for 23 pas, either in tiger reserve management plan or in local newspaper reports. of these, in 22 there was evidence of relocation already being carried out for last 10 years. these included 17 trs and 5 wlss (details in the table below). data analysis clearly shows forced, coerced and dissatisfactory relocation in violation of various required steps specified in sec. 4(2) of the fra, and sec. 38(v) of the wildlife protection amendment act (wlpa) 2006, and reveals a large-scale violation of various provisions of the fra in the considered pas. among the numerous violations of the law in each studied site, majorly 4 types of violations were recognized, these were: (i) no prior informed consent of the local community; (ii) misuse of the fra by the forest department; (iii) no scientific studies available for the creation of ‘inviolate area’; (iv) relocation from the buffer area. 3.3.1. prior informed consent one of the major points discussed concerns the bypassing of the ‘prior informed consent’ of the gram sabhas mandated in section 4.1(e) of the fra that represents a precondition for every relocation. this was reported 7 the full report can be accessed here http://unsr.vtaulicorpuz.org/site/index.php/documents/annual-reports/149-report-ga2016 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] from tadoba tr in maharastra, from where 608 families were moved out from their area since 2012; in kanha tr in madhya pradesh, more than 20.000 families were forcefully displaced (refer to table). in many official documents, the relocation is often described as ‘voluntary’. however, the field research revealed that when consent was taken, it was mostly under pressure or threat, or induced in other ways. this included taking signatures of the individuals on blank papers as it happened in simlipal tr (as per fieldwork data). human rights violation, physical threats and the use of force were typically used to effect displacement; denial of access to basic health and education facilities, schemes like mnrega, children immunization programmes like angawadi were some of the ways in which consent for relocation was induced. 3.3.2. misuse of fra the fraudulent use of fra was a significant point in the analyses, which identified not only the forest department’s rejection of the community rights under the act, but also its misuse for the purpose of relocation. for instance, in simlipal tr, where the cfrs were distributed in 2015 to all the 43 villages living within the pa limits, the community leaders said that the distribution of land titles were used to further ‘legalize’ the relocation, which, according to the forest officers, took place in a voluntary manner after the forest rights were settled. indeed, the villages of jamungarh and kabathgai were relocated in 2015 just after receiving the cfrs. the families, which in the core area continue to face coercion, harassment and obstruction of activities (deo 2016). this clearly shows the lack of commitment in implementing the fra in its true spirit, and confirms the priority for relocation in the agenda of the forest department. 3.3.3. no scientific documents available while the communities continue to be discriminated from the conservation management activities, no studies and no expert-committee reports were available with the forest officials. this means that at the time of our field research there were no scientific documents to prove that co-existence cannot be an option or that communities were leading to degradation of the environment. in addition, in november 2007, the national tiger conservation authority (ntca) notified the states with critical tiger habitats to set up the expert committees to ‘finalise and delineate core or critical tiger habitats of tiger reserves, within 10 days of the receipt of the notification’(broome et al, 2014). this showed that the time given for scientific or consultative process prior to cth notification was not sufficient. in general, the lack of scientific research was reported from all [51] eleonora fanari the studied areas. 3.3.4. relocation from tiger reserve buffer areas and wildlife sanctuaries according to the study, relocation is taking place not only from the cth, as it should be per law, after the free and informed consent is obtained by the gram sabha, but also from buffer areas, where co-existence is expected to be prioritised over relocation. relocation from buffer zone was reported from many tr such as simlipal and kaziranga, etc.(refer to table). this showed that no co-existence in buffer areas was practiced in violation of the fra and wlpa. moreover, relocation was also carried out from the wildlife sanctuaries, even in absence of any guidelines. 3.4. the threat of the ntca ntca was created by the moef in 2005 and notified under the 2006 amendment to the wildlife (protection) act 1972 to oversee the tiger reserves. since then, ntca has supervised the entire management of the protected areas, including expansion of the tiger reserves. as described above, the displacement has mostly affected people residing within the trs, which continue to be notified at a high speed by the ntca. indeed, the 25,551 sq km of tiger forests in 2007 (bijoy 2011, 37) were expanded and almost doubled to 40,340 in 2018, and as stated above the notified tiger reserves have jumped from 28 to 50 in past 10 years (as of july 2018, envis). to add to this, in october 2016, at an international conference held in johannesburg, the indian government representative bisha singh bonal announced the decision to further expand the protected areas in the country to create another 10 tiger reserves in the coming years (“india plans to add 10 more tiger reserves: official”, indian express, oct. 5, 2016). on the ground, this has led to more people being pushed away from their ancestral land and more conflicts between the local people and the authorities. in many places, the cth was illegally notified and implemented against the wishes of the community, such as in bilgiri rangaswami temple wildlife sanctuary in karnataka that was converted into a tiger reserve in 2010 against the wishes of the soliga indigenous community inhabiting the area (madegowda 2017). this process was carried out in violation of the sec. 4.1 of the fra, which since january 2008 override the tiger amendment. these high-speed illegal evictions were made possible through ntca funding availability since 2008. the capital has scaled up from rs 30 crore and rs 41 crore during 2007-08 and 200809 to rs 114 crore in 2009-10 (tiger link 2009, 11). as per the information available on the ntca ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] website,8 from 2007/8 to 2011/12 an amount equal to 435.46 crores (usd 66 million) was released. moreover, between 2013/14 another tranche of 4,964 lakh was spent by the ntca for the rehabilitation of other families from tadoba tr in maharashtra, dampa tr in mizoram and ranthambore and sariska tr in rajasthan. the disposal of money instead of supporting people has created a situation in which plans of ‘voluntary relocation’ were prioritized and cautiously planned in every state instead of implementing forest rights act for the benefit of the forest communities. the funding is used to evict forest communities without the consent of gram sabha and without proper scientific studies as discussed above. one jenu kuruba tribal from nagarhole national park said, “the availability of this funding has only increased the violence and the coercion for relocation by the authority, which using the money card has induced numerous families to relocate from their ancestral space”. moreover, the distribution of money without a rehabilitation plan is detrimental for the development of the communities as they get into the consumption of alcohol, leisure activities and other harmful practices and squander away their compensation package in just a few months. this mostly happens because of poor monitoring, lack of effective relocation program, or simply because of their poor understanding of the value of money. besides not facilitating the implementation of the law, ntca has shown an antagonist attitude against its enactment; this was manifested in the illegal administrative order issued on 28 march 2017, stating that ‘no recognition of rights’ should be granted within the limits of the core of tiger reserves (order no 1-7/93.pt). the order had a negative impact on the ground, such as the rejection of claims of 61 families belonging to the nakesia adivasi – an indigenous community inhabiting the core area in the palamau tiger reserve, jharkhand. the order had captured the attention of many civil societies, which had asked for its immediate withdrawal. however, on 29 may, 2017 the ministry of tribal affair merely issued a letter to the ministry of environment, forests, and climate change (moef) stating that it considers the ntca order as a ‘temporary measure’ and requests the minister to initiate the due process of issuing the guidelines for notifying cwh at the earliest (broome and fanari, 2018). this shows a lack of concern for protecting the forest rights of the forest-dwelling communities, and the perpetration of a fortress model of conservation, which continues to be based on the notion of exclusion in opposition to co-existence. 8 more information can be accessed here http://projecttiger.nic.in/content/144_6_villagerelocation11thplan.aspx [53] eleonora fanari 3.4.1. relocation from wildlife sanctuaries as explained above, the relocation guidelines are regulated by the ntca, which has the task to manage the voluntary relocation from the tiger reserves. while in respect to the wildlife sanctuaries, the guidelines for the relocation were not yet approved till march of last year. however, repeated threat of relocation and eviction from wildlife sanctuaries were recounted during the year of research (2017). for instance, eviction was reported from the wildlife sanctuaries of wayanad in kerala, barnawapara and bhoramdeo in chhattisgarh, and chandaka-dompara and debrigarh in odisha, among others. considering that the guidelines for critical wildlife habitat (cwh), has been issued only on february 19, 2018, it is unclear how and why these relocations were being carried out. as per moef website, between 2011/2014 a total of inr 2,838 lakh was released under the ‘integrated development of wildlife habitats’ scheme for the relocation from wayanad and malabar wls in kerala, barnawapara wls in chattisgarh and thoranghtlang wls in mizoram9. it was reported that the forest authorities were using the same ntca package for the relocation of people from these non-tiger reserves. this brings leads to evictions which are coerced and denigrating for the affected people, often evicted without any rights of compensation and rehabilitation. considering the arbitrary decision of every local forest department in the distribution and allocation of money to the affected communities, the local people got less informed about the relocation procedures and excluded from any decision-making. for example, it was observed in the study that in wayanad wls the affected communities were relocated without following the due process. indeed, as per ntca guidelines, the compensation was based on a) monetary 10 lakh rupees per family or b) complete relocation with all basic facilities and land. however, in wayanad the compensation of rupees10 lakh was used to purchase the homestead land for the families evicted, leaving the people without agricultural lands and no money; this option was decided without any consultative process with the communities, who now seek to move back to their ancestral land. on one hand, the funding availability with ntca is pushing up relocation of the forest-dwelling communities, on the other hand, the lack of funding for the relocation from wls and mostly the absence of the guidelines from moef has led to a series of denial of rights to these communities. the use of force and violence has become justified and less criticized as was seen in 9 more details can be found here http://www.moef.nic.in/division/introduction-19 amchang wls in assam, where in november 2016, more than 1000 families living within and outside the wls were evicted without considering their forest rights, and with no plan of either relocation or compensation (refer to table in appendix). 4. why relocation is not desirable? but what happens to the life of people once they get relocated? do they get better facilities, development and education, or better opportunities for their future? that these promises, often used to justify relocation, fail on the ground show a very different picture than the one described in the papers. indeed, the camps (yes, camp is the exact word!) where the affected people live have poor housing and lack of toilets and electricity. this was observed among others in achanakmar tr in chattisgarh where 6 villages relocated in 2009 are still living in pathetic condition with no alternatives in sight (bera 2015). the international and national policies on relocation, which should guarantee an alternative livelihood for the affected people, continue to be inappropriate or unobserved at the local level; the lack of monitoring and the unfair distribution of compensation packages has fated people with enormous risk of impoverishments both economically and socially forcing them in a state of desperation and hopelessness (cernea 2009). although there has been some improvement in their recent relocation assistance, this was still not appropriate to compensate for the loss;also, a series of discrepancies and anomalies are reported in the distribution of compensation packages. rampant corruption and ambiguities were reported in panna tr where a fake package of 1 lakh rupee as per previous agreement was distributed to many, while a few ‘lucky ones’ received crores of rupees (notes from field study). in addition to this, false promises of land were also made to induce people to leave their place, such as in simlipal tr (ejatlas 2018e) in odisha where the promised land was never given; or, in achanakmar tr (ejatlas 2017b) where the distributed land was barren, unfenced, full of stones and unfit for farming. this is not rehabilitation, this is pushing the displaced people into a state of poverty. this was the result of the lack of a monitoring system and a culture of denigrating the socially marginalised. indeed, many studies have found that relocation not only leads to joblessness and poverty, it also increases morbidity and mortality, social disintegration and further marginalization (cernea, 2003; mathur 2013). not just this, relocation also risks the loss of biodiversity. it was found that the main negative conservation impact of the forced removals from the protected areas was the resource degradation from unsustainable consumption from increased demand. (cernea 2003). this means, as argued by cernea, that ‘displacements result in [55] eleonora fanari environmental degradation through increase in permanent settlements and that soil erosion tends to be higher in permanently used agricultural plots than under shifting cultivation regimes’. this brings us to the dual loss of the community and the environment. cernea argues that alienation of forest communities from the forest areas brings them afar from their conservation objectives, causing a set of degrading effect on forest ecosystem, calling them ‘second generation’ degrading effects. this, he argues, is because the presence of residents in parks has, under certain circumstances, some ‘first generation’ effects. 5. conclusion the general conflict in the idea of ‘relocation’ is born from the contested nature of the problems and solutions. indeed, as nandini sundar argues, ‘while the forest department defines the problem in terms of the villagers’ use of forests as the cause of forest degradation, villagers define the forest problem in terms of a lack of their rights’ (sundar 2012). the study reveals the violence of relocation in india as a consequence of a lack of communities’ forest rights and a lack of support from the forest department in recognizing the co-existence between people and wildlife as a positive measure for the protection of the environment. if we analyse this from a policy perspective, this ground scenario contradicts forest rights act (fra) discussed above that acknowledges communities forest rights and cohabitation; this scenario is also in contradiction with several of international measures adopted by un and ilo, which recognize tenure rights and the rights of the indigenous people as essential in the conservation management discourse. however, if we look at the international eco-political context this would not appear so surprising. but in india, the discourse around biodiversity has moved from ‘protection’ to ‘offset’, a compensation measure that portrays nature as something measurable in money value that can be exchanged and replaced (spash 2015). in this way, nature, which has become valuable for the public and not for the local community, can be exchanged as a commodity, leaving the people out of the discourse. this idea of nature as equivalence, based on replacing an anthropogenic landscape with another, does not leave space for traditional human activities, raising the questions of power, territorial rights, violence and inequality. in this perspective, the conflicts at the local level portray the contradictions embedded in the political discourses around nature and its protection. moreover, in a society like india, which is already ruled by a strong hierarchical power, the neoliberal policies have contributed in reaffirming ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] this power of submission by redefining the power of violence, which continues to be based on the government dominance of the natural resources. indeed, the 2006 amendment of the wlpa represents this imposition of power by the government in opposition to the democratic tool represented by the fra. this is the reason why the fra is still struggling to be applied under the legal system, as a hope and a weapon in the hand of the communities. the numerous conflicts emerging in the country need to be read as a transformative process. these conflicts not only represent hope but also strength of the movement which is trying from below to overthrow the political contradiction of environmental protection, asking both for the recognition of their rights (under the fra) and redefinition of nature as a source of livelihood and a living spirit. acknowledgements this article was written with the support of kalpavriksh, pune. the author is grateful for the information and analysis shared by a number of people from different protected areas mentioned in the article and others associated with community forest resource learning and advocacy 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https://thewire.in/environment/to-respect-human-rights-the-government-shouldstrategise-to-coexist-first-not-to-evict spash, l. 2015. bulldozing biodiversity: the economics of offset and trading-in nature. biological conservation 192: 541-551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.07.037 sundar, n. 2012. “violent social conflicts in india’s forests: society, state and the market” deeper roots of historical injustice: trends and challenges in the forests of india, 13-32. washington: rights and resources initiative. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.07.037 appendix table 1: relocations in protected areas no protected area state status of relocation planned relocation other information sources 1. nagarjunsagar srisailam tiger reserve andhra pradesh outlook report (2010) states that 1000 families were already relocated. 200 more families were relocated since 2011 in shanti nagar and gandhi nagar near yerragondapalem plain in prakasam district (local sources). plan to relocate (a) two (vatrapalli and telangana) out of 27 villages located inside the cth (monitoring evaluation and economic report 2014) and (b) from the core area about 1,100 families, respectively from the villages of nekkanti, ishtakameshwari, paalutla, vattivarlapalli, chinnarutla penta, tummalabailu and peddacheruv (ntca report). / 1; 2; 3; 4, 5. 2. kaziranga national park and tiger reserve assam 22 families evicted from bonse sapori in 2012/13; in 2016, 348 families evicted from deuchur chang and banderdubi, in the elephant corridor. in 2016, the guwahati high court, ordered the eviction of 666 families living within the notified limited of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th addition. 2 people were killed in the conflict in 2016. in the last 10 years about 62 local people were killed by forest guards in name of conserving the rhinos; in july 2016, seven-year-old okash orang, was shot in his leg by the fd, now handicapped. 6; 7; 8, 9. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] 3. manas national park and tiger reserve assam 700 villagers evicted from betburi village, kokracachar, in manas np (december 2016 and february 2017). 1000 families living in chirang and kokrachar districts were threatened of eviction by the forest department. / 10; 11. 4. amchang wildlife sanctuary assam 37 villages, with more than 1000 families in total, were evicted on 25 august 2017. the families were evicted without any compensation and in a very brutal manner. 12; 13. 5. achanakmarg tiger reserve chattisgarh 6 villages, 245 families, were relocated in 2009 from the core area. plan to relocate 16 villages from the core. on april 2015, the ntca declared that 5 other villages of the remaining 19 in the core area will be soon relocated from the atr. until now these villages have not been relocated but two villages, tilaidabra and ranjaki have already signed the relocation papers. however, no “prior free informed consent” was taken and no information on the forest rights was given to the forest dwellers. the relocated villages did not receive proper rehabilitation as per fra and wlpa, 2006. 14; 15; 16; 17. 6. barnawapara chattis3 villages are entirely there is a plan to relocate other since november 2017, 18; 19; [61] eleonora fanari wildlife santuary. garh relocated from the wls, rampur, latadadar and nawapara. in 2010, 135 families of rampur were rehabilitated 58 km away, in mahasamund forest division, and settled in a compartment no 500 and 501, vijaymaalin forest compartment. latadar and nawapara (628 people and 139 houses) were resettled in 2014, and shifted respectively in vijaymaal gram panchayat, compartment no. 795 and 796 of sinodha gram panchayat and compartment no. 507 and 509 in mohgaon. 22 villages. six of them in the first phase, namely bafra, gudagarh, mudpaar, bhimauri, dheba and akaltara. the 22 villages living within the limits are protesting against the relocation plan. 20; 21. 7. nagarhole national park and tiger reserve. karnata ka as many as 3400 families were displaced during the ’70s and ’80s. 487 tribal families were moved out of the park and relocated in nagapura and sollepura between 2000 and 2007 for a compensation of inr 1 lakh and 5 acres of land. other 250 people have been families are continuously induced to relocate. the relocation programme was supported by wcs. the people relocated as of 2006 have received only some barren land and no money and are living in a miserable condition. 22; 23; 24; 25; 26. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] relocated since 2006. 8 wayanad wildlife sanctuary kerala 4 entire villages, vis. goloor, ammavayal, arakunchi, and kottangara were relocated with 182 families in 2012. as per the study conducted under s. sankar, scientist, kerala forest research institute, 1,388 people (880 families) in 14 settlements (total 800 families) inside the sanctuary are to be relocated in the first phase at a cost of rs. 88 crore. according to the study, a total of 10,604 people (2,613 families) residing in 110 settlements inside the wayanad wls are to be relocated. from 2011 to 2014, the moef allocated an amount of 18 crore rupees for the relocation project. other funds are awaited. 27; 28; 29; 30; 31. 9. kanha national park and tiger reserve madya pradesh in 1973-74, 24 villages (around 650 families) were displaced outside the boundaries of the tr. threat of eviction started again in 2010 (just after availability of ntca funding for relocation from tr). relocation started in 2013, and about 450 families were evicted in june 2014. according to canal plus, a total number of 22.000 people got evicted. according to a mee report there are only 3 villages that still need to be relocated, vis. linga, jholar and sukudi. in jholar process of relocation has already started. number and data remain uncertain. all the evictions were forced, in complete violation of the fra. as per the report, roughly 7 villages still exist in the core of kanha tr. 4; 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37. 10. panna tiger madhya in 2015, two village vis. according to the mee 2014, 200 gonds from 4; 38; [63] eleonora fanari reserve pradesh umrawan and jardhoba were forcefully evicted. there are only 3 villages and 180 families remaining in the core area of the tr, and they are planned to be relocated. umrawan have been fighting and filed petitions against the eviction, however they got relocated. a clearance of 600 hectares has been proposed inside the ore area for an irrigation project. 39; 40. 11. pench tiger reserve madhya pradesh between 1973 and 1990 more than 10.000 people were evacuated and resettled. recently, in may 2017, it started the relocation of fulzari village. a plan of relocation was presented in 2008, and since then it is being contested by the local people. fishing within the pa is considered illegal by the mla, in contrast with the fra. 41; 42; 43; 44; 12. tadoba national park and tiger reserve maharas tra eviction started in 2007. in first phase about 116 families were relocated 45 landless families from botezari and 49 from kolsa are rehabilitated in compartment number 524 in tolewahi in mul forest range. in 2013, 200 families of navegaon (ramdegi) were moved out, and other 222 families of jamni were moved out in march 2014. a there are remaining in the tr only palasgaon and rantalodi. as per cfr-la 2017 report, other families from kolsa village are given notice to relocate, but they are resisting against it. 45; 46; 47; 48; 49; 50; 51. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] total of 608 families were moved out. 13. dampa tiger reserve mizora m 287 tribal families evicted from dampa in 1989. in 2010, 227 families were to be evicted from dampa.in 2010 12 settlements were relocated, possibly forcibly and with poor rehabilitation, affecting already marginalised ethnic minorities chakma and reang. 61 villages are still located inside the reserve and are threatened with eviction. the 287 tribal families were not provided relief and rehabilitation. 4; 52; 53. 14. melghat national park and tiger reserve maharas tra a total of 1360 families got displaced after 2008. this incuding 141 families from dhargad and 37 families from barukheda; during 2013-14 & 2014-15 relocated families included 158 families from gullarghat village, 176 families from somthana (bk.) and 248 families from somthana (kh.). in june 2017, nearly 600 villagers from rohinkhidki village in akot wildlife division were relocated. as per mee report 2014, about 21 villages remain to be relocated from the core areas. in 2007, many villages were coerced to sign for their relocation. 54; 55; 56; 57. 15. sariska tiger rajastha the first relocation of there are 29 villages inside the in 2005, a report 58; 59; [65] eleonora fanari reserve n villages from sariska dates back to 1966-67 when village slopka and kalighati were relocated. thereafter, relocation of village karna ka bas and kiraska took place in 1976-77. relocation drive started again in 2005, and from 2008 to 2014, three villages, bhagani (2008) umri (2011) and rotkyala (2012) were relocated. according to information shared by the activists, 9 villages were relocated from sariska. cth, and a total of 2,409 families, which are all planned to be relocated. as per first plan 12 villages will be relocated by 2021-22. showed the extinction of the tiger in the area, attributing the loss to the people. a new relocation phase started to take place just after this. 60. 16. ranthambore tiger reserve rajastha n relocation started in 197379, when 11 villages, 681 families, were evicted from the core of the tiger reserve. in 2002, relocation started again from the core area, and among the 5 villages (pathra, mordungri, indala, khatoli, bhir), pathra, with 110 familes was relocated. the other 4 villages, comprising 700 people, were relocated the park was extended, englobing 65 villages. it plans to relocate 53 villages. in 2016, 5 villages, vis. talda khet, kala khora, gadhi, maharo and kiradki, comprising of 260 families, were identified by priority for relocation to secure the ranthambhore-kaila devi corridor. the villages were relocated forcing them to sign the papers. 61; 62; 63; 64; 65. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] from 2007 to 2014. 17. rajaji tiger reserve uttarakh and massive threat of relocation of van gujjars for past 15 years. according to a toi report a total number of 1,393 families have been relocated. of these, 512 families were relocated to pathari in 2000, 721 families to gaindikhatta in 2002-03, 181 to sambalgarh in 2013 while three families were relocated under a high court order. in 2015, 800 people were relocated. in 2017, 200 families were relocated from gohri range. villagers face continued threat of eviction. 66; 67; 68; 69. 18. corbett tiger reserve uttarakh and among the villages residing inside the tiger reserve, 4 have been displaced since 1994 namely laldangh, kothiraw (300 families), jhirna (70 families), and dhara (50 families) as per information collected by p.c. joshi, activist leader, ramnagar, nainital district. in 2014, 157 van gujjar in december 2016, the uttarakhand high court ordered the eviction of the van gujjars settlers in the zone for the firings; the national green tribunal (ngt) ordered the eviction of 800 settlers in the kalagarh area, among which 398 are to be rehabilitated while 566 are to be evicted. on december 19, 2016, uttarakhand high court issued an order prohibiting the constructions of buildings in 10 km range around the park. 70; 71; 72. [67] eleonora fanari families were relocated from sona river wildlife sanctuary, situated in the core area. 19. satkosia tiger reserve odisha on sept 30, 2017, 70 families of raiguda village, with more than 200 acres of land within the tr, were relocated to a new site in saruali in angul district, bantala range about 12 km from their existing village. / 73; 74. 20. simlipal tiger reserve odisha since 2013, 4 villages, vis. bahaghar and uppar barakhamundato (2013) jamunagarh (2015) and kabathgai (2016) have been relocated from the core area. in december 2016 another village from the buffer area of simlipal was relocated without consent. there is a plan to relocate 2 more villages from the buffer area (kejuri and badhakasaira). one village remains in the core area (bakua) and 4 (bohra, jorjori, jamboni, asuracol) are in the fringe area. the villages were illegally relocated after they had received the legal titles under fra. 75; 76; 77; 78. 21. debrigarh wildlife sanctuary odisha 8 families have been relocated in april 2017. / / 79. 22. chandakadompara odisha 85 families from 3 hamlets were relocated in 1995. in / / 79. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] wls 2008, 32 other families were relocated from the village bhuasuni of daruthenga g.p. 1. information shared by t. guruvaiah and t. leeladhar from nallamala chenchu jagruth during a meeting on the status of forest rights in the protected areas of india, november 15, 2017, new delhi. 2. venkateshwarlu k., murali s. 2017. “forced out of the forest”. the hindu. may 6, 2017. https://www.thehindu.com/todayspaper/tp-opinion/forced-out-of-the-forest/article18396401.ece 3. bhargav praveen, dattatri shekar, desai ajay. 2009. nagarjunasagar-srisailam tiger reserve. a rapid appraisal report. november 2009. national tiger conservation authority (ntca) http://www.wildlifefirst.info/pdfs/pa_ifa/3_nstr_final_report.pdf 4. national tiger conservation authority. 2014. monitoring evaluation and economic (mee) report of tiger conservation in india. wildlife institute of india. http://wii.gov.in/images//images/documents/mee_tiger_mgmt_eff_2014.pdf 5. tata, madhavi. 2010. “changing their stripes”. outlook. june 21, 2010. https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/changing-their-stripes/265781. 6. information shared by pranab doley, convener jeepal krishak sramik sangha (jkss), march 6, 2017. 7. rowlatt, justin. 2017. “kaziranga: the park that shoots people to protect rhinos.” bbc news. february 10, 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-38909512 8. ishan kukreti. 2017. “eight-year-old shot by kaziranga forest guard in 2016 shifted to aiims delhi”. down to earth. july 14, 2017. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/forests/eight-year-old-shot-by-kaziranga-forest-guard-in-2016-shifted-to-aiimsdelhi-58273. 9. the hindu. 2016. “two killed in police firing during eviction near kaziranga.” the hindu. sept. 19, 2016. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/two-killed-in-police-firing-during-eviction-nearkaziranga/article14988468.ece. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/forced-out-of-the-forest/article18396401.ece https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/forced-out-of-the-forest/article18396401.ece http://www.wildlifefirst.info/pdfs/pa_ifa/3_nstr_final_report.pdf http://wii.gov.in/images/images/documents/mee_tiger_mgmt_eff_2014.pdf https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/changing-their-stripes/265781 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-38909512 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/forests/eight-year-old-shot-by-kaziranga-forest-guard-in-2016-shifted-to-aiims-delhi-58273 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/forests/eight-year-old-shot-by-kaziranga-forest-guard-in-2016-shifted-to-aiims-delhi-58273 https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/two-killed-in-police-firing-during-eviction-near-kaziranga/article14988468.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/two-killed-in-police-firing-during-eviction-near-kaziranga/article14988468.ece [69] eleonora fanari 10. at kokrajhar bureau. 2017. “eviction at manas national park.” assam time. feb. 12. https://www.assamtimes.org/node/18474 11. eclectic northeast. 2016. “after kaziranga, residents in chirang face eviction heat.” eclectic northeast. sept. 29, 2016. https://eclecticnortheast.in/kaziranga-residents-chirang-face-eviction-heat/ 12. web india news. 2017. “1,000 families evicted, 2,300 hectares forest land cleared in 1 year in assam.” web india news. sept. 7, 2017. https://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/india/20170907/3182323.html. 13. pisharoty sangeeta barooah. 2017. “over 700 families left homeless after assam government's eviction drive at amchang wildlife sanctuary.” the wire. nov 29, 2017. https://thewire.in/environment/700-families-left-homeless-assamgovernments-eviction-drive-amchang-wildlife-sanctuary. 14. deccan herald. 2013. “tribals relocated from tiger reserve face livelihood crisis.” deccan herald, aug. 16, 2013. https://www.deccanherald.com/content/351434/tribals-relocated-tiger-reserve-face.html. 15. chouhan arjun. 2015. “relocation of villages: tiger population up in atr.” the times of india, april 27, 2015. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/relocation-of-villages-tiger-population-up-inatr/articleshow/47069389.cms 16. menon meena. 2012. “relocation plan to nowhere land.” the hindu. august 01, 2012. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/relocation-plan-to-nowhere-land/article12674787.ece. 17. bera sayantan. 2015. “baigas in exile. once called lords of the jungle, the chhattisgarh tribals are being evicted without adequate relief.” down to earth. june 7, 2015. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/baigas-in-exile-38674. 18. information shared by devendra bhagel, convener of dalit adivasi manch, during a consultation meeting on the status of forest rights in the protected areas of india. nov. 15, 2017. new delhi. 19. nandi jayashree. 2017. “chhattisgarh tribals oppose relocation from barnawapara forest.” the times of india. november 2, 2017. https://www.assamtimes.org/node/18474 https://eclecticnortheast.in/kaziranga-residents-chirang-face-eviction-heat/ https://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/india/20170907/3182323.html https://thewire.in/environment/700-families-left-homeless-assam-governments-eviction-drive-amchang-wildlife-sanctuary https://thewire.in/environment/700-families-left-homeless-assam-governments-eviction-drive-amchang-wildlife-sanctuary https://www.deccanherald.com/content/351434/tribals-relocated-tiger-reserve-face.html https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/relocation-of-villages-tiger-population-up-in-atr/articleshow/47069389.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/relocation-of-villages-tiger-population-up-in-atr/articleshow/47069389.cms https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/relocation-plan-to-nowhere-land/article12674787.ece https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/baigas-in-exile-38674 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/61470213.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_ca mpaign=cppst 20. update from chhattisgarh state assembly on issues related to forest rights. budget session from february 18 to march 22, 2013. 21. que 35/330 & 53/331 dated 21st july 2014 raised by dr sanam jangde, and que 50/517 by dr vimal chopra. 22. kumar r. krishna. 2016. “tribal forum seeks rehabilitation measures in karnataka state budget.” the hindu, january 23, 2016. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/tribal-forum-seeks-rehabilitation-measures-in-karnataka-statebudget/article14015789.ece 23. chinnappa, jeevan k. 2013. “tribal relocation proves tricky.” the hindu, january 6, 2013. https://www.thehindu.com/scitech/energy-and-environment/tribal-relocation-proves-tricky/article4277189.ece 24. muzaffar azadi. 2014. “executive summary of the report: on the tribal issue of rajiv gandhi (nagarhole) national park”. report submitted to honourable court committee on the tribal issues of rajiv gandhi national park. july 2014. 25. vikhar ahmed sayeed. 2010. “eviction fear”. frontline, vol. 27, issue 04, feb 13-26, 2010. https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl2704/stories/20100226270409100.htm 26. desai ajay, bhargav praveen. 2010. “report on the progress of village relocation from nagarahole and mudumalai tiger reserves”. national tiger conservation authority. august 2010. 27. information available in the wayanad management conservation plan, consulted in the fieldwork, may 2017. 28. manoj e.m. 2015. “tribal families to leave wildlife sanctuary.” the hindu, august 31, 2015. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/tribal-familiesto-leave-wildlife-sanctuary/article7598516.ece 29. manoj e.m. 2012. “settlers in wayanad wildlife sanctuary to be relocated.” the hindu. april 09, 2012. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/settlers-in-wayanad-wildlife-sanctuary-to-berelocated/article3295442.ece. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/61470213.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/61470213.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/tribal-forum-seeks-rehabilitation-measures-in-karnataka-state-budget/article14015789.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/tribal-forum-seeks-rehabilitation-measures-in-karnataka-state-budget/article14015789.ece https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/tribal-relocation-proves-tricky/article4277189.ece https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/tribal-relocation-proves-tricky/article4277189.ece https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl2704/stories/20100226270409100.htm https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/tribal-familiesto-leave-wildlife-sanctuary/article7598516.ece https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/settlers-in-wayanad-wildlife-sanctuary-to-be-relocated/article3295442.ece https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/settlers-in-wayanad-wildlife-sanctuary-to-be-relocated/article3295442.ece [71] eleonora fanari 30. ayappan r. 2017. “kerala: 20,000 families in forests to be relocated to safety.” deccan chronicle. sept. 20, 2017. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/200917/kerala-20000-families-in-forests-to-be-relocated-tosafety.html. 31. pa updates, february 2011 (no 89) pg. 8 http://www.kalpavriksh.org/images/paupdate/paupdate_89_feb2011.pdf 32. saju, sajin. 2017. “a tribal tragedy: baited by large compensation, baigas of kanha grapple with post-eviction dilemma.” the indian express. may 30, 2017. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/a-tribal-tragedy-baited-by-large-compensation-baigasof-kanha-grapple-with-post-eviction-dilemma-4680814/. 33. venkateshwarlu k. 2015. “mass evictions from tiger reserves: french tv.” the hindu. july 23, 2015. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/hyderabad/mass-evictions-from-tiger-reserves-french-tv/article7454461.ece. 34. redd monitor. 2015. “wwf scandal (part 6): eviction of indigenous people in india for tiger tourism.” redd monitor. july 23, 2015. https://redd-monitor.org/2015/07/23/wwf-scandal-part-6-evictions-of-indigenous-peoples-in-india-for-tigertourism/. 35. ranjan, rakesh. 2016. “we cannot pollute our surroundings': madhya pradesh's deprived baiga tribe is learning to survive outside forests after being evicted from kanha national park.” mail online. june 12, 2016. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3636991/we-pollute-surroundings-madhya-pradesh-s-deprivedbaiga-tribe-learning-survive-outside-forest-evicted-kanha-national-park.html. 36. hazik sabreen. 2015. “stop illegal eviction of tribes from kanha tiger reserve, urge activists.” down to earth. july 04, 2015. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/stop-illegal-eviction-of-tribes-from-kanha-tiger-reserve-urge-activists-48277. 37. business standard. 2016. “with luxury encroaching in forest areas, tribals fear for their existence.” business standard. june 18, 2016. http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/with-luxury-encroaching-in-forest-areas-tribals-fear-fortheir-existence-116061800258_1.html. 38. dutt bahar. 2017. “how to drown a tiger.” the hindu, april 22, 2017. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-andenvironment/how-to-drown-a-tiger/article18183135.ece. 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(no 88), pg. 9. http://www.kalpavriksh.org/images/paupdate/paupdate_88_dec2010.pdf. 53. alliday adam. 2015. “mizoram: decision on dampa tiger reserve by september end.” the indian express. sept. 01, 2015. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/mizoram-decision-on-dampa-tiger-reserve-by-september-end/ 54. govt. of maharastra. 2014. “melghat tiger reserve, amravati. tiger conservation plan: core area.” http://www.melghattiger.gov.in/documents/tcp%20core%20plan%20in%20mtr.pdf . 55. jamwal nidhi. 2015. “tension over relocation at melghat sanctuary.” down to earth. july 4, 2015. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tension-over-relocation-at-melghat-sanctuary-6229. 56. pinjarkar vijay. 2017. “encroachers evicted from melghat tiger reserve.” the times of india. july 5, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/encroachers-evicted-from-melghat-tigerreserve/articleshow/59447859.cms. 57. press trust of india. 2017. “relocation of village in melghat tiger reserve gains momentum.” business standard. june 03. http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/relocation-of-village-in-melghat-tiger-reserve-gains-momentum117060300397_1.html http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/36117455.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/36117455.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/relocation-by-half-measure-3690 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/news/tribals-challenge-forest-department-999 https://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-19-rehabilitated-families-return-to-tadoba-1258711 https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/mizoram-decision-on-dampa-tiger-reserve-by-september-end/ http://www.melghattiger.gov.in/documents/tcp%20core%20plan%20in%20mtr.pdf https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tension-over-relocation-at-melghat-sanctuary-6229 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/encroachers-evicted-from-melghat-tiger-reserve/articleshow/59447859.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/encroachers-evicted-from-melghat-tiger-reserve/articleshow/59447859.cms http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/relocation-of-village-in-melghat-tiger-reserve-gains-momentum-117060300397_1.html http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/relocation-of-village-in-melghat-tiger-reserve-gains-momentum-117060300397_1.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] 58. viren lobo, sunil dubey, aman singh. 2016. “deliberate deprivation of forest resource rights and forced eviction of indigenous communities violation of fra, 2006 in sariska tiger reserve, alwar, rajasthan.” institute for ecology and livelihood action. 59. information shared by abhishankar sharma, krapavis, in the consultation meeting on forest rights act in protected areas, 15 november 2017, delhi.
 60. shekhawat r.s. 2014. “tiger conservation plan: sariska tiger reserve.” government of rajasthan. 61. times of india. 2015. “funds delay hampering village relocation for tiger corridor.” the times of india. june 24, 2015. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47793499.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_ca mpaign=cppst. 62. sunny, sebastian. 2002. “villages to be shifted out of ranthambhore this year.” the hindu. july 7, 2002. https://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/07/stories/2002070703510700.htm. 63. times of india. 2016. “relocating villages: ranthambore struggles to find space for tigers.” the times of india. sept. 25, 2016. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/54504642.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_ca mpaign=cppst 64. down to earth. 2015. “relocation farce. only promises: some villagers want out, others fight it out.” down to earth. june 28, 2015. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/relocation-farce-10511 65. dey, anindo. 2015. “ranthambore national park: turf war.” the times of india. aug. 27, 2015. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6442888.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_cam paign=cppst 66. sharma, seema. 2014. “few van gujjars in uttarakhand have documents to claim job quota.” times of india. feb. 04, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/few-van-gujjars-in-uttarakhand-have-documents-to-claim-jobquota/articleshow/29869537.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47793499.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47793499.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst https://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/07/stories/2002070703510700.htm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/54504642.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/54504642.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/relocation-farce-10511 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6442888.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6442888.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/few-van-gujjars-in-uttarakhand-have-documents-to-claim-job-quota/articleshow/29869537.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/few-van-gujjars-in-uttarakhand-have-documents-to-claim-job-quota/articleshow/29869537.cms [75] eleonora fanari 67. sharma, seema. 2017. “shifting of van gujjar from rajaji reserve begins.” the times of india. nov. 26. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/shifting-of-van-gujjars-from-rajaji-reservebegins/articleshow/61799253.cms 68. rastogi, archi. 2015. “court ruling on forest rights cheers van gujjars.” down to earth. july 05. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/court-ruling-on-forest-rights-cheers-van-gujjars-6462. 69. sharma, seema. 2016. “with no political patronage, exodus of van gujjars finally begins from rajaji tiger reserve.” the times of india. april 20, 2016. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/with-no-political-patronage-exodus-of-vangujjars-finally-begins-from-rajaji-tiger-reserve/articleshow/51915167.cms. 70. sharma, seema. 2017. “kalagarh encroachers will be evicted from corbett after elections.” the times of india. feb. 14, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/kalagarh-encroachers-will-be-evicted-from-corbett-afterelections/articleshow/57150121.cms. 71. economic times. 2016. “ngt seeks moef reply on funds to rehabilitate kalagarh people.” economic times. sept. 8, 2016. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/ngt-seeks-moef-reply-on-funds-to-rehabilitate-kalagarhpeople/articleshow/54196253.cms. 72. mazumdaar, jay. 2017. “corbett, now on sale.” tehelka. sept. 17. https://www.pressreader.com/india/tehelka/20120512/281694021796267. 73. express news service. 2016. “ntca report on satkosia village relocation sought.” the new indian express. nov. 13. http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2016/nov/13/ntca-report-on-satkosia-village-relocation-sought1538024.html 74. pa update, august 2010 (no 86) pg. 12. http://www.kalpavriksh.org/images/paupdate/paupdate86_july2010.pdf 75. tripathi, bhasker. 2017. “pushed out of the woods.” business line. june 23, 2017. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/pushed-out-of-the-woods/article9733528.ece https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/shifting-of-van-gujjars-from-rajaji-reserve-begins/articleshow/61799253.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/shifting-of-van-gujjars-from-rajaji-reserve-begins/articleshow/61799253.cms https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/court-ruling-on-forest-rights-cheers-van-gujjars-6462 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/with-no-political-patronage-exodus-of-van-gujjars-finally-begins-from-rajaji-tiger-reserve/articleshow/51915167.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/with-no-political-patronage-exodus-of-van-gujjars-finally-begins-from-rajaji-tiger-reserve/articleshow/51915167.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/kalagarh-encroachers-will-be-evicted-from-corbett-after-elections/articleshow/57150121.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/kalagarh-encroachers-will-be-evicted-from-corbett-after-elections/articleshow/57150121.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/ngt-seeks-moef-reply-on-funds-to-rehabilitate-kalagarh-people/articleshow/54196253.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/ngt-seeks-moef-reply-on-funds-to-rehabilitate-kalagarh-people/articleshow/54196253.cms https://www.pressreader.com/india/tehelka/20120512/281694021796267 http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2016/nov/13/ntca-report-on-satkosia-village-relocation-sought-1538024.html http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/odisha/2016/nov/13/ntca-report-on-satkosia-village-relocation-sought-1538024.html http://www.kalpavriksh.org/images/paupdate/paupdate86_july2010.pdf https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/pushed-out-of-the-woods/article9733528.ece ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] 76. the hindu. 2017. “tribals against shifting of villages from protected areas.” the hindu. january 7, 2017. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/tribals-against-shifting-of-villages-from-protectedareas/article17002794.ece 77. the ecologist. 2014. “india: tribes face eviction for ‘tiger conservation’.” the ecologist. may 13, 2014. https://theecologist.org/2014/may/13/india-tribes-face-eviction-tiger-conservation 78. vasundhara. 2016. “draft report on the implementation of forest rights in protected areas in odisha.” vasundhara. 79. information shared by satpathy, pushpanjali, vasundhara. may 2017. https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/tribals-against-shifting-of-villages-from-protected-areas/article17002794.ece https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/tribals-against-shifting-of-villages-from-protected-areas/article17002794.ece https://theecologist.org/2014/may/13/india-tribes-face-eviction-tiger-conservation ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 137–139, january 2020 book review riverine ecology of eastern and north-eastern india arupjyoti saikia  madhurilata basu, rajat roy & ranabir samaddar, eds. 2018. political ecology of survival: life and labour in the river islands of east and north-east india, new delhi: orient blackswan, isbn: 978-9352873616, pp. xvii+254 rs. 925 (hardbound). how has humankind benefitted from our relentless pursuits to dominate and control nature? for instance, are there long-term ecological benefits from those massive embankments which now crisscross much of the indian subcontinent’s sprawling flood plains? on the other hand, many argue for more prudent strategies like living with the seasonal flooding that overwhelms much of eastern and north-eastern india. the volume under review, political ecology of survival: life and labour in the river islands of east and north-east india is a much needed effort to understand these questions and the many challenges confronting both the people who inhabit the flood prone  department of humanities and social sciences, indian institute of technology guwahati, guwahati, 781039; arupjyotisaikia@gmail.com copyright © saikia 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.99 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.99 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] plains of the ganga and brahmaputra river systems and the many governmental initiatives that have over the years been singularly aimed at trying to control floods. in the first essay, mithilesh kumar discusses the entwined social and economic conditions that prevail in the floodplains of kosi river, a tributary of the ganga. he focusses on the floods of 2008 to insightfully reveal how caste (especially the mahadalit), land ownership, flood proneness, embankment construction and seasonal migration have shaped political mobilisation in the region. sutirtha bedajna’s essay on the sundarbans ─ the dynamic deltaic edge of the ganga system ─ offers us a detailed discussion on various ecological consequences and social tensions that have emerged from the reclamation efforts to settle in the highly dynamic and erosive riverine environment since the 1770s. attempts to stabilise rice production in the sundarbans through sustained embankment construction, if anything, bedajna argues, has led to increased salinisation, which may force mass distress migration of 4.5 million inhabitants.. in the volume, three essays—on the districts of nadia (milan datta and madhurilata basu), mushidabad (madhurilata basu) and malda (milan datta)—underline and highlight the aspects of uncertainty and tenuous life in the deltaic segments of the ganga.these essays provide us a detailed account of how recurring floods, river bank erosion and state negligence aggravates poverty and exploitation. in particular, the essays offer compelling insights into the fate of the people who inhabit and pursue fragile livelihoods on the charlands — the temporary lands thrown up by the rivers. three essays in the volume explore issues of flooding and river bank erosion in assam valley, through which the brahmaputra and its various tributaries course through. gulshan parveen points out how the recurring displacement of peasants from their lands, because of the tentativeness of the chars as a geological formation, has generated a crisis of citizenship. as the ‘nation-state is inseparably anchored within territory/land’(p.139), the sudden disappearance of land and the inevitable creation of landlessness by the rivers has placed a vast set of challenges before the government, who cannot effectively govern when both the populations and the land are constantly on the move. k.k. chatradhara provides an excellent, albeit synoptic, review of the politics and ecological complications that have followed from the government’s decision to build a large dam on the subansiri river, one of the arms of the brahmaputra river. this is followed by an essay by historian sajal nag, who had earlier published an important work on bamboo famine of mizoram. nag offers a longterm view of the barak by first outlining how the river was sought to be controlled by the british in the nineteenth century in their quest to capture the commerce of [139] arupjyoti saikia bengal, which lay towards the west. the barak, hence, was the fluvial means through which european capital and the british east india company attempted to make deep inroads into a very complex eco-geography. the essay concludes with a compelling discussion on tipamukh dam project that is to be built in manipur. the concluding essay, though not central to the structure of the book, collates some of the key international water treaties which play an important role in indian politics. these policy and legal instruments for the governance of rivers, as the author shuvro sarker avers, suggest the urgency and need for more scholarly attention. in sum, this volume, which brings together micro-studies and detailed research on dynamic deltaic segments of the ganga-brahmaputra-meghna basin, makes for an important and significant addition to the study of india’s volatile eastern rivers. the calcutta research group (crg), which is behind this important work, has in fact for years now been involved in trying to explore and debate the complicated world of migration, refugee flight and environmental degradation. previous publications of the crg have also asked similarly provocative and meaningful questions. this volume is an important outcome of this exercise and informs us on various aspects of eastern rivers. it is very important for those keen to study india’s north east. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 31-62 january 2022 thematic essay dismantling barriers to upscaling agro-ecological farming in india mihir shah* abstract: with growing recognition of the increasingly destructive impacts of the green revolution (gr) the world over, heightened further by covid-19, there is an urgent need to scale up alternative approaches embedded within the paradigm of agro-ecology. even so, actual progress on the ground in this direction has been extremely slow. i argue that this is because the entire policy framework governing agriculture continues to be located within the gr paradigm and acts as a multipronged impediment to upscaling agro-ecological farming. the paper proposes key policy reforms that could help dismantle these barriers and facilitate, support, and accelerate movement towards agro-ecological farming in india. keywords: agro-ecological farming; nature-based solutions; crop diversification; ecosystem services; living soils; wholesome food. 1. crisis of the green revolution with the wheels coming off the green revolution (gr), there is an urgent perceived need all over the globe to design alternatives to chemicalintensive agriculture. the crisis is most powerfully illustrated by the example of india, which was the centrepiece of the gr experiment in the first place. more than 350,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1990, a phenomenon completely unprecedented in indian history. there is growing evidence of a steady decline in water tables and water quality. at least 60% of india’s districts are either facing the problem of over-exploitation or severe contamination of groundwater (vijayshankar, kulkarni, and krishnan 2011). there is evidence of fluoride, arsenic, mercury, and even * distinguished professor, shiv nadar university. chaired the government of india committee to draft the new national water policy during 2019-20. mihirbhai25@gmail.com copyright © shah 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web) doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.618 mailto:mihirbhai25@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.618 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] uranium and manganese in groundwater in some areas. the increasing levels of nitrates and pesticide pollutants in groundwater have serious health implications. the major health issues resulting from the intake of nitrates are methemoglobinemia and cancer (who 2011). the major health hazards of pesticide intake through food and water include cancers, tumours, skin diseases, cellular and dna damage, suppression of the immune system, and other intergenerational effects (margni et al. 2002).1 repetto and baliga (1996) provide experimental and epidemiological evidence that many pesticides widely used around the world are immunesuppressive. nicolopoulou-stamati et al. (2016) provide evidence of pesticide-induced temporary or permanent alterations in the immune system, and corsini et al. (2008) show how such immune alteration could lead to several diseases. agricultural workers spraying pesticides are a particularly vulnerable group, especially in india where they are rarely provided protective gear. a study of farmworkers in punjab found a significantly higher frequency of chromosomal aberrations in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of workers exposed to pesticides compared to those who are not (ahluwalia and kaur 2020). a recent study of 659 pesticides which examined their acute and chronic risks to human health and the environment concludes that evidence demonstrates the negative health and environmental effects of pesticides, and there is widespread understanding that intensive pesticide application can increase the vulnerability of agricultural systems to pest outbreaks and lock in continued reliance on their use (jepson et al. 2020, 2). it is also clear that the yield response to the application of increasingly more expensive chemical inputs is falling. indoria et al. (2018) show that the average crop response to fertilizer use has fallen from around 25 kg grain/kg of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (npk) fertilizer during the 1960s to a mere 6 kg grain/kg npk by 2010 (figure 1). this has meant higher costs of cultivation without a corresponding rise in output, even as this intensified application of inputs compels farmers to draw more and more water from below the ground. 1 even at low concentrations, pesticides exert several adverse effects that may manifest at biochemical, molecular, or behavioural levels. the actual transport, presence, and impact are, of course, influenced by drainage, rainfall, microbial activity, soil temperature, treatment surface, and application rate, as well as the solubility, mobility, and half-life of individual pesticides. [33] mihir shah figure 1: relationship between fertilizer consumption and crop productivity source: indoria et al. (2018, figure 2) after the gr, india has had more and more land under one crop at a time and year-on-year production of the same crop on the same land. the persistence of monoculture makes india even more vulnerable to disruptions from climate change and extreme weather events, for it has by now been conclusively established that: crops grown under ‘modern monoculture systems’ are particularly vulnerable to climate change as well as biotic stresses, a condition that constitutes a major threat to food security . . . what is needed is an agro-ecological transformation of monocultures by favoring field diversity and landscape heterogeneity, to increase the productivity, sustainability, and resilience of agricultural production. . .observations of agricultural performance after extreme climatic events in the last two decades have revealed that resiliency to climate disasters is closely linked to farms with increased levels of biodiversity (altieri et al. 2015, 3). the vast monocultures that dominate 80% of the 1.5 billion hectares of arable land are one of the largest causes of global environmental changes, leading to soil degradation, deforestation, depletion of freshwater resources and chemical contamination (altieri and nicholls 2020, 2). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] moreover, despite overflowing granaries, the global hunger index report (2021) ranked india 101 out of 116 countries. fao et al. (2020) estimate that more than 189 million people remained malnourished in india during 2017–19, which is more than a quarter of the total malnourished people in the world. in 2019, india had 28% (40.3 million) of the world’s stunted children (low height-for-age) and 43% (20.1 million) of the world’s wasted children (low weight-for-height) under five years of age. paradoxically, at the same time, the number of diabetics has increased in every indian state between 1990 and 2016 even among the poor—rising from 26 million in 1990 to 65 million in 2016. this number is projected to double by 2030 (shah 2019). 2. global search for alternatives it has also been shown that plants grown in genetically homogenous monocultures lack the necessary ecological defence mechanisms to withstand the impact of pest outbreaks. francis (1986) summarizes the vast body of literature documenting lower insect pest incidence and the slowing down of the rate of disease development in diverse cropping systems compared to the corresponding monocultures. in his classic work on intercropping, vandermeer (1989) provides multifarious instances of how intercropping enables farmers to minimize risk by raising various crops simultaneously. natarajan and willey (1996) show how polycultures (intercrops of sorghum and peanut, millet and peanut, and sorghum and millet) had greater yield stability and showed lower declines in productivity during a drought than monocultures. most recently, the largest ever attempt in this direction (tamburini et al. 2020) included a review of 98 meta-analyses and a second-order metaanalysis based on 5,160 original studies comprising 41,946 comparisons between diversified and simplified practices. they conclude: enhancing biodiversity in cropping systems is suggested to promote ecosystem services, thereby reducing dependency on agronomic inputs while maintaining high crop yields. overall, diversification enhances biodiversity, pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and water regulation without compromising crop yields (tamburini et al. 2020, 1). [35] mihir shah a report of the fao’s commission on genetic resources for food and agriculture also brings out the key role of biodiversity in sustaining crop production: the world is becoming less biodiverse and there is good evidence that biodiversity losses at genetic, species and ecosystem levels reduce ecosystem functions that directly or indirectly affect food production, through effects such as the lower cycling of biologically essential resources, reductions in compensatory dynamics and lower niche occupation (dawson et al. 2019, 6). moreover, as a study of agro-biodiversity in india argues, “when we lose agricultural biodiversity, we also lose the option to make our diets healthier and our food systems more resilient and sustainable” (thomson jacob et al. 2020, 611).2 it is, therefore, no surprise that a recent overview of global food systems rightly points to the “paradox of productivity”: as the efficiency of production has increased, the efficiency of the food system as a whole – in terms of delivering nutritious food, sustainably and with little waste – has declined. yield growth and falling food prices have been accompanied by increasing food waste, a growing malnutrition burden and unsustainable environmental degradation (benton and bailey 2019, 3). benton and bailey urge policy-makers to move from the traditional preoccupation with total factor productivity (tfp) towards total system productivity (tsp): a food system with high tsp would be sufficiently productive (to meet human nutritional needs) whilst imposing few costs on the environment and society (so being sustainable), and highly efficient at all stages of the food chain so as to minimize waste. it would optimize total resource inputs (direct inputs and indirect inputs from natural capital and healthcare) relative to the outputs (food 2 this understanding is reflected in the national biodiversity mission launched by the prime minister’s science, technology, and innovation advisory council in march 2019, which includes a biodiversity and agriculture program that “will aim to reconcile the traditional tension that exists between increasing food production on one hand and preserving biodiversity on the other. by launching a first-ever quantitative inventory of the contribution of biodiversity in forests, rivers, estuaries, and agro-ecosystems to india’s food and nutritional security, citizens will be empowered with credible information on the judicious use of bioresources” (bawa et al. 2020, 3). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] utilization). maximizing tsp would maximize the number of people fed healthily and sustainably per unit input (direct and indirect). in other words, it would increase overall systemic efficiency (benton and bailey 2019, 7) in light of this understanding, attempts are being made all over the world to foster an ecosystem approach that ensured higher sustainability and resilience, lower costs of production, and economic water use along with higher moisture retention by soil. broadly, these alternatives to the gr paradigm come under the rubric of “agro-ecology”. in the latest quadrennial review of its strategic framework and preparation of the organization’s medium-term plan, 2018–21, the fao states: high-input, resource-intensive farming systems, which have caused massive deforestation, water scarcities, soil depletion and high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, cannot deliver sustainable food and agricultural production. needed are innovative systems that protect and enhance the natural resource base, while increasing productivity. needed is a transformative process towards ‘holistic’ approaches, such as agro-ecology and conservation agriculture, which also build upon indigenous and traditional knowledge (dawson et al. 2019, 17). hecht (1995) provides an excellent summary of the philosophy underlying agro-ecology: at the heart of agro-ecology is the idea that a crop field is an ecosystem in which ecological processes found in other vegetation formations such as nutrient cycling, predator/prey interactions, competition, commensalism, and successional changes also occur. agro-ecology focuses on ecological relations in the field, and its purpose is to illuminate the form, dynamics, and function of these relations (so that) . . . agro-eco-systems can be manipulated to produce better, with fewer negative environmental or social impacts, more sustainably, and with fewer external inputs (hecht 1995, 4). a recent overview sums up the key features of this approach: over the past five years, the theory and practice of agroecology have crystalized as an alternative paradigm and vision for food systems. agroecology is an approach to agriculture and food systems that mimics nature, stresses the importance of local knowledge and participatory processes and prioritizes the agency [37] mihir shah and voice of food producers. as a traditional practice, its history stretches back millennia, whereas a more contemporary agroecology has been developed and articulated in scientific and social movement circles over the last century. most recently, agroecology—practised by hundreds of millions of farmers around the globe—has become increasingly viewed as viable, necessary and possible as the limitations and destructiveness of ‘business as usual’ in agriculture have been laid bare (anderson et al. 2021, 2). in india, many such alternatives to the gr paradigm have emerged over the past two decades. the biggest example is the community-based natural farming programme of the government of andhra pradesh (goap), which started in 2016. 3 support has also been forthcoming from the government of india.4 we must also recognize that in the context of climate change, naturepositive farming can make a huge contribution to climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, with agriculture accounting for 15% of india’s greenhouse gas emissions. according to the world economic forum, nature-based solutions have the potential to create $3,565 billion in annual business opportunities and 191 million jobs by 2030. 3. barriers facing agro-ecological farming and policy reforms to dismantle them agro-ecological farming can, therefore, be said to comprise the following key, deeply inter-related defining elements: a. progressive elimination of chemical inputs at the appropriate pace; b. regenerating natural cycles for sustained yields and pest management; c. promoting crop diversification and a decisive movement away from the monocultures of the gr to boost resilience; d. focus on the productivity of the whole farm system (tsp), moving away from the commodity-centric approach of the gr; 3 initially called zero budget natural farming, this label, suggestive of a certain kind of fundamentalism and exaggeration, has now been dropped. 4 at an event organised by the niti aayog on 29 may 2020, the union minister for agriculture stated: “natural farming is our indigenous system based on cow dung and urine, biomass, mulch and soil aeration [. . .]. in the next five years, we intend to reach 20 lakh hectares in any form of organic farming, including natural farming, of which 12 lakh hectares are under bharatiya prakritik krishi paddhati programme” (niti aayog 2020). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] e. focus on soil health as a key determinant of the vigour of a farm system; f. reducing the demand for water for irrigation, which sky-rocketed after the gr and led to a major crisis. despite the strong case for agro-ecology and all the government pronouncements and initiatives, we have yet to see these elements of agroecology gain significant mileage on-ground in india. while robust data is hard to come by, it can be said with some confidence that farming under the broad rubric of agro-ecology (by default or deliberately) occupies only a minuscule portion of the total cultivated area. there are multiple barriers to the large-scale adoption of agro-ecological farming, and specific policy reforms are required to dismantle them and facilitate, support, and accelerate movement towards agro-ecological farming in india. there are at least 11 key barriers which, taken together, make it very hard for agro-ecological farming to grow in india. without dismantling these barriers and putting in place an enabling policy framework with matching investments and action on the ground by state and civil society, the six key features of the agro-ecological approach listed prior will remain a distant dream. these barriers include: barrier #1: incentivizing monoculture barrier #2: uneven regional distribution of investments (“betting on the strong”) barrier #3: commodity-centric r&d and investments with a narrow vision barrier #4: pattern of subsidies favouring chemical inputs barrier #5: soil testing rooted in gr philosophy barrier #6: weak legal and regulatory frameworks governing chemical inputs barrier #7: collapse of farm extension and lack of understanding of agro-ecology barrier #8: post-harvest infrastructure challenges which militate against safe and nutritious food barrier #9: outmoded architecture of water governance barrier #10: absence of documentation, monitoring, and research making proof-of-concept harder to establish barrier #11: agriculture education mired in gr paradigm [39] mihir shah table 1: share of crops in public procurement, 2007–2019 (%) year rice wheat rice+wheat nutricereals pulses total 2007–08 70 29 99 1 0 100 2008–09 58 40 98 2 0 100 2009–10 52 41 93 7 0 100 2010–11 53 45 98 2 0 100 2011–12 55 44 99 1 0 100 2012–13 47 52 99 1 0 100 2013–14 55 43 98 2 0 100 2014–15 53 46 99 1 1 100 2015–16 55 45 100 0 0 100 2016–17 61 36 97 0 3 100 2017–18 54 44 98 0 2 100 2018–19 37 58 95 0 5 100 source: dac 2020 dismantling barrier #1: incentivizing monoculture5 ever since the gr, the structure of market incentives has moved farmers towards monocropping with water-intensive crops. crop diversification, a key element of agro-ecology, has taken a backseat. it is now widely recognized that the gr was simply a wheat–rice revolution.6 over the past 50 years, the share of nutri-cereals 7 in cropped areas has gone down dramatically in all parts of india. even in absolute terms, the acreage under 5 for the complete datasets of this section, please see tables 5 and 6 in shah et al. (2021a). 6 even globally, around 60% of all plant calories and proteins come from just three grass crops—rice, maize, wheat—even though the fao claims that at least 30,000 of the 350,000 known plant species on our planet are edible (miller 2021). 7 the government of india took the historic decision in 2018 of renaming traditional cereals as “nutri-cereals”, dispensing with the long-standing nomenclature, which described them as “coarse cereals”, with an implicit inferior status. in a notification, the agriculture ministry said, “the central government hereby declares millets comprising sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi/mandua), minor millets – foxtail millet (kangani/kakun), proso millet (cheena), kodo millet (kodo), barnyard millet (sawa/sanwa/ jhangora), little millet (kutki) and two pseudo millets (black-wheat (kuttu) and ameranthus (chaulai) which have high nutritive value as ‘nutri cereals’” (fe bureau, 2018). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] these cereals has been almost halved between 1962–65 and 2012–14. the share of pulses has also drastically come down in the states of assam, bihar, haryana, himachal pradesh, erstwhile jammu and kashmir, jharkhand, odisha, uttar pradesh, uttarakhand, and west bengal. the share of oilseeds has risen, but that is mainly on account of the rise in acreage under soya. the share of soybean in oilseed acreage rose from less than 1% in the early 1970s to over 40% in 2016–17, even as the share of the other eight oilseeds has stagnated. other than soybean, the only other crops showing a rise in acreage during the period of the gr are wheat, rice, and sugarcane. the rise in the acreage of wheat and rice is a direct consequence of the procurement and price support offered by the state. in the case of sugarcane and soybean, the rise in acreage is due to purchases by sugar mills and soya factories. however, the main story of the gr is that of rice and wheat, which remain the overwhelming majority of crops procured by the government, even after a few states have taken tentative steps towards diversifying their procurement baskets to include nutri-cereals and pulses. even worse, public procurement still covers only a very low proportion of india’s regions and farmers (khera et al. 2020). apparently, the primary target of procurement is the consumer, not the farmer. thus, procurement gets limited to what is needed to meet the needs of consumers. an example is the way imports of pulses were ramped up during 2016–18 rather than continuing to expand procurement as per the original plan. farmers who had shifted to pulses based on that expectation suffered as a result. this quick resort to imports rather than procurement becomes a continual disincentive for crop diversification. india’s cropping pattern before the gr included a much higher share of nutri-cereals, pulses, and oilseeds. these agro-ecologically appropriate crops must urgently find a place in public procurement operations. as this picks up pace, farmers will also gradually diversify their cropping patterns in alignment with this new structure of incentives. the largest outlet for the nutri-cereals, oilseeds, and pulses procured in this manner—in line with poshan abhiyaan8 launched by the government of india in 2017—would be the supplementary nutrition and meals provided under the integrated child development services (icds) and the pradhan mantri poshan shakti nirman yojana (pm poshan)9 and the grains provided through the pds.10 8 poshan (pm’s overarching scheme for holistic nourishment) abhiyaan is the government of india’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes among children and women. 9 pradhan mantri poshan shakti nirman yojana (pm’s nutritional capacity building scheme) is the expanded version and new name of the earlier mid day meal scheme. [41] mihir shah a few state governments are slowly moving forward in this direction. the odisha millets mission (omm), initiated in 2017–18, works on four verticals—production, processing, marketing, and consumption—through a unique institutional architecture of partnerships with academia and civil society. as of 2020–21, the programme, aimed at encouraging 100,000 farmers to cultivate millets, had spread across 76 blocks in 14 districts (jena and mishra 2021). a similar noteworthy example is that of the tribaldominated dindori district in madhya pradesh, a malnutrition hotspot in recent decades. here, a state government–civil society partnership has led to a revival in the cultivation of kodo (dutch millet) and kutki (little millet), which are renowned for their anti-diabetic and nutritional properties. the government of madhya pradesh’s tejaswini rural women's empowerment programme supports women self-help group (shg) federations in developing a business plan for establishing a supply-chain for kodo bars and barfis (fudge), which were included in the icds supplementary nutrition programme (mathur and ranjan 2021). these are the kinds of reforms and outreach all states need to pursue, with support from the centre. thus, the first element of agro-ecology reform becomes very clear: we need to greatly expand the basket of public procurement to include more crops, more regions, and more farmers aligned with the agro-ecology of each region. at scale, this would enable a steady demand for these nutritious crops and help sustain a shift in cropping patterns, which would provide a corrective to the current highly skewed distribution of irrigation to only a few crops and farmers. it would also be a significant contribution to improved nutrition, especially for children, and a powerful weapon in the battle against the twin curses of malnutrition and diabetes. it is quite evident that a major contributor to this “syndemic” is the displacement of whole foods in the average indian diet by energy-dense and nutrient-poor, ultra-processed food products.11 recent medical research has found that some millets contain significant antidiabetic properties. according to the indian council of medical research, foxtail millet has 81% more protein than rice. millets have higher fibre and 10 the recent (october 28, 2021) joint letter from the secretary, department of agriculture and farmers welfare, government of india, and secretary, department of school education & literacy, government of india (d.no. 4-612018-mdm-1-1 ee.5), to the chief secretaries of all states, requesting them to explore the possibility of introducing millets under pm poshan, in the context of the un general assembly recently adopting a resolution, sponsored by india and supported by more than 70 countries, declaring 2023 as the "international year of millets", is an extremely welcome step. 11 a 2019 report by the lancet commission, the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change, draws attention to this phenomenon (swinburn 2019). see also gulati and misra (2014). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] iron content, and a low glycaemic index. millets also are climate-resilient crops suited for the drylands of india. if children were to eat these nutricereals—which provide a higher content of dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein and antioxidants, and a significantly lower glycaemic index—india would be better positioned to solve the problems of malnutrition and obesity. to clarify, this is not a proposal for open-ended public procurement, or worse, the nationalization of farm trade. that would be neither feasible nor desirable. the argument is for diversification of the procurement basket to include crops suited to local agro-ecologies. perhaps the best way would be to do what was proposed under the 2018 pm-aasha scheme,12 wherein 25% of the actual production of the commodity for that particular year/season (to be expanded up to 40% if the commodity is part of the pds) would be procured by the government. without such an initiative, the announcement of msps for 23 crops every year is reduced to a token ritual, with little benefit to most farmers. dismantling barrier #2: uneven regional distribution of investments (“betting on the strong”) the overarching strategy of the gr was one of “betting on the strong”, which meant focusing investment and support on farmers, regions, and crops that were seen as most likely to lead to an increase in output (tomlinson 2013). this entailed a focus on already well-endowed regions and farmers to create a large buffer stock of grain that could feed the whole country. after a point, the same gr strategy was applied uncritically through large swathes of the indian countryside, irrespective of the diverse agro-ecological conditions prevailing in different parts of the country. this policy frame had countless untold consequences for the farms and farmers of india. one of the most deleterious outcomes of this strategy has been the terrible neglect of india’s rainfed areas, which currently account for 54% of the sown area and provide 89% of the national millet production, 88% of pulses, 73% of cotton, 69% of oilseeds, and even 40% of the rice production. it has been shown that there is a strong overlap between the incidence of poverty and rainfed regions. thus, an inadequate emphasis on these regions is responsible for enduring poverty and inequality as well as the crises of water and nutrition security in india. ever since the green revolution, r&d and investments reflect an aggravated neglect of rainfed regions, including the rich agro-biodiversity of 12 pradhan mantri annadata aay sanrakshan abhiyan (pm-aasha) is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to farmers for their produce. [43] mihir shah these areas. strategies for the water sector also show this bias, with an overwhelming focus on the construction of mega-reservoirs and flood irrigation, to the complete neglect of the specific needs and potential of rainfed regions. the key to improved productivity of rainfed farming is a focus on soil moisture and protective irrigation. protective irrigation seeks to meet moisture deficits in the root zone, which are a result of long dry spells. rainfed crops can be insulated to a great extent from climate variabilities through two or three critical irrigations, complemented in each case by appropriate crop systems and in situ water conservation. in such a scenario, provision needs to be made for just about 100–150 mm of additional water, rather than large quantities as in conventional irrigation. lal (2012) provides a comprehensive list of options for increasing resilience in rainfed areas: (i) increase water infiltration; (ii) store any runoff for recycling; (iii) decrease losses by evaporation and uptake by weeds; (iv) increase root penetration in the subsoil; (v) create a favourable balance of essential plant nutrients; (vi) grow drought avoidance/adaptable species and varieties; (vii) adopt cropping/farming systems that produce a minimum assured agronomic yield in a bad season, rather than those that produce the maximum yield in a good season; (viii) invest in soil/land restoration measures (i.e., terraces and shelterbelts); (ix) develop and use weather forecasting technology to facilitate the planning of farm operations; and (x) use precision or soilspecific farming technology using legume-based cropping systems to reduce losses of carbon and nitrogen and to improve soil fertility. similarly, growing crops and varieties with better root systems is a useful strategy to reduce the risks in a harsh environment. the root system is important to drought resistance (lal 2021, 52). despite some advances in the watershed programme over the years and the creation of the national rainfed areas authority in 2006, rainfed areas suffer prolonged neglect as india’s policy regime continues to be dominated by a gr paradigm in both water and agriculture. continued adherence to a one-size-fits-all approach will not allow the expansion of an agro-ecological approach to farming to materialize. shah et al. (1998) and expert committee (2019) provide a comprehensive account of the enormous potential of the drylands of india for livelihood generation and water and food security for some of india’s poorest people once we adopt a naturepositive paradigm of development. following these policy prescriptions would correct the historic injustice done to rainfed areas and make a huge contribution to national food and nutritional security, while also enhancing farmers’ welfare in a much more inclusive and sustainable manner. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] dismantling barrier #3: commodity-centric r&d and investments with a narrow vision strongly linked to barriers #1&2, is barrier #3. “betting on the strong” has meant that agricultural r&d and investments have remained centred on a narrow vision of productivity/acre and only on a few favoured gr crops. other initiatives driven by more agro-ecological considerations have not received the requisite support. through careful micro-level trials and experimentation at their field centres, the indian agricultural research institute (iari) and state agricultural universities have developed several crop varieties based on local germplasm that are more resilient than conventional gr seeds. for example, the wheat varieties amar (hw 2004), amrita (hi 1500), harshita (hi 15231), malav kirti (hi8627), and malav ratna (hd 4672), developed at the iari wheat centre in indore, give fairly good yields at a much lower level of water consumption (gupta et al. 2018). such varieties are also prescribed by the icar–nicra (indian council for agricultural research–national innovations on climate resilient agriculture) project, through their district-level drought adaptation plans (nicra, 2020) . these efforts need to receive a much greater emphasis in the overall policy scheme. adoption of these varieties by farmers would require training and facilitation by krishi vigyan kendras (kvks) so that they are able to learn the new agronomic practices that these varieties involve. their large-scale adoption could go a long way in reducing the water footprint of even water-intensive crops. three thousand varieties of rice were being cultivated in eastern india before the gr (shiva and prasad 1993). if revived, they could play a big role in promoting naturepositive farming, improving resilience to climate risk, and reducing water demand. urgent steps are also needed to break the stranglehold of the commercial seed industry on the supply of seeds. in the case of a crop like cotton, it has been well documented how cultivation of long season hybrid and gmo bt-hybrid cotton is unique to india. the hybrid technology prevents seed saving, requires annual purchases of high cost seed that leads to sub optimal planting densities. these factors contribute to stagnant low yields and to increases in insecticide use that induce new pests that are increasingly resistant to insecticide and bt toxins. subsistence farmers growing rainfed bt cotton in south and central india have been particularly affected by this hybrid technology (gutierrez 2018). [45] mihir shah gutierrez argues for “pure line high-density short-season (hd-ss) rainfed cotton varieties, which would greatly increase yields, reduce yield variability, decrease costs of seed and insecticides and increase profits” (gutierrez 2018, 2206). it is to be hoped that the seeds bill 2021, currently under discussion, would be enacted soon and replace the gr-centred seeds act of 1966. a powerful alternative would be a massive upscaling of community seed banks. community seed banks are unique efforts for collective conservation, production, and distribution of seeds of selected crop varieties. these banks provide seeds to farmers who return a certain quantity of seeds to the bank after harvest. these community seed banks not only help in conserving and reviving traditional crop species and tackling malnutrition at the community level, but they also reduce the dependence of farmers on companies for seeds. nutrition gardens or backyard kitchen gardens would also help preserve seeds of traditional and nutrition-rich vegetable, fruit, and herb varieties. at the same time, we need to move away from the commodity-centric gr approach towards diverse biomass production systems comprising trees, shrubs, creepers, and fibre-producing plants with multi-year life cycles and multi-tiered root systems and canopies—which reduce water-use and increase resilience, being less sensitive to variations in rainfall. far greater investments are required in this direction for agro-ecological farming to take firm root in india. dismantling barrier #4: pattern of subsidies favouring chemical inputs the present farm input subsidy regime, which incentivizes production with a high intensity of chemical inputs, must shift to one that supports the production of organic inputs and provides payments for farm ecosystem services such as sustainable agriculture practices, improving soil health, etc. the budgetary and other support for agro-ecology pales in comparison to that provided to chemical inputs. as proponents of agro-ecology argue, if even 50% of the subsidy for chemical inputs was to be provided to support agro-ecological farming, the latter could attain critical mass, which would enable its subsequent growth to be fairly self-sustaining. this support to agro-ecology would, after all, become a way to generate rural livelihoods, especially if the production of organic bio-inputs could be taken up at a large scale by federations of women shgs and farmer producer organizations (fpos). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] an interesting beginning in this direction has been made by the national coalition for natural farming (ncnf), some of whose partners are setting up bio-input resource centres (brcs). even though farmers are aware of the perils of chemical inputs and the benefits of alternative bio-inputs, they often find it easier to buy chemical inputs from the market rather than invest time and energy in preparing bio-inputs. ncnf is facilitating the setting-up of brcs to overcome the challenge of non-availability of bioinputs in the required quantities as well as the drudgery involved in making these bio-inputs—the burden of which largely falls on women. there are different models of brcs run in an entrepreneurial fashion either by collectives of farmers or by individual farmers with the required skills and resources. brcs undertake bulk production of bio-inputs such as vermicompost, pest repellents, growth boosters, etc., which are made available to farmers within the region. governments at both the centre and the state level must promote the development of brcs at a massive scale, without which the non-availability of bio-inputs will become a serious barrier as nature-positive farming is scaled up in india.13 dismantling barrier #5: soil testing rooted in gr philosophy the gr paradigm focuses exclusively on the productivity (output/area) of a given crop by specifically targeting soil nutrients or pest outbreaks (hecht 1995). such a view is atomistic and assumes that “parts can be understood apart from the systems in which they are embedded and that systems are simply the sum of their parts” (norgaard and sikor 1995, 22). it is also mechanistic, in that relationships among parts are seen as fixed, changes as reversible, and systems are presumed to move smoothly from one equilibrium to another. such a view ignores the fact that often parts cannot be understood separately from their wholes and that the whole is different (greater or lesser) than the sum of its parts. it also overlooks the possibility that parts could evolve new characteristics or that completely new parts could arise (what is termed as “emergence” in soil science literature) (addiscott 2010; baveye et al. 2018; falconer et al. 2012). as lent (2017, 370) argues: because of the way a living system continually regenerates itself, the parts that constitute it are in fact perpetually being changed. it is the organism’s dynamic patterns that maintain its coherence. . 13 it is to be hoped that the niti aayog task force on production and promotion of organic fertilizers and biofertilizers will show the way forward here. [47] mihir shah .this new understanding of nature as a self-organized, selfregenerating system extends, like a fractal, from a single cell to the global system of life on earth (lent 2017, 370). in the gr vision, soil was seen essentially as a stockpile of minerals and salts, and crop production was constrained as per liebig’s law of the minimum—by the nutrient least present in the soil. the solution was to enrich the soil with chemical fertilizers, where the soil was just a base with the physical attributes necessary to hold roots: “crops and soil were brute physical matter, collections of molecules to be optimized by chemical recipes, rather than flowing, energy-charged wholes” (mann 2018, 2578). thus, the essential questions to be posed to a continued adherence to the gr approach, in the face of india’s growing farm and water crises, are: 1. is the soil an input–output machine, a passive reservoir of chemical nutrients to be endlessly flogged to deliver even as it shows clear signs of fatigue? 2. or is it a complex, interacting, living ecosystem to be cherished and maintained so that it can become a vibrant, circulatory network that nourishes the plants and animals that feed it? 3. will a toxic, enervated ecosystem with very poor soil quality and structure and gravely fallen water tables be able to continue to support the agricultural production system? in the words of rattan lal: soil is a living entity. it is full of life. the weight of living organisms in a healthy soil is about 5 ton per hectare. the activity and species diversity of soil biota are responsible for numerous essential ecosystem services. soil organic matter content is an indicator of soil health, and should be about 2.5% to 3.0% by weight in the root zone (top 20 cm). but soil in punjab, haryana, rajasthan, delhi, central india and southern parts contains maybe 0.5% or maybe 0.2%. (cited in sharma 2020). according to fao, generating 3 cm of topsoil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue, all of the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years (arsenault 2014). lal favours compensating farmers through payments (around ₹1,200 per acre per year) for soil protection, which he regards as a vital ecosystem service. it is important to understand the key relationship between soil quality and water productivity and recognize that every land-use decision is also a ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] water-use decision (bossio et al. 2008). rattan lal (2012) explains how soil organic matter (som) affects the physical, chemical, biological, and ecological qualities of the soil. in physical terms, higher som improves the water infiltration rate and the soil’s available water-holding capacity. chemically, it has a bearing on the soil’s capacity to buffer against ph, as also its ion-exchange and cation-exchange capacities, nutrient storage and availability, and nutrient-use efficiency. biologically, som is a habitat and reservoir for the gene pool, for gaseous exchange between the soil and the atmosphere, and carbon sequestration. ecologically, som is important in terms of elemental cycling, ecosystem carbon budget, filtering of pollutants, and ecosystem productivity.14 this vision of soils implies that the soil-testing capacities of the entire country need to be urgently and comprehensively ramped up. this means not only establishing more soil-testing laboratories but also testing on a much wider range of parameters beyond the gr preoccupation with npk. the new vision must be based on the “living soils” concept, where testing is extended to the 3ms (moisture, organic matter, and microbes). this will also make possible a comparative assessment over time of the gr approach and its alternatives, so that the competing claims of different farming approaches can be validated as being truly “regenerative” and for arriving at the kinds of interventions that may or may not be required in each specific context. dismantling barrier #6: weak legal and regulatory frameworks governing chemical inputs even as it is clearer by the day that agrichemical inputs have disastrous implications for the farm system (as summarized above), the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we—especially farmworkers—breathe, the legal and regulatory framework governing the use of these inputs remains weak, toothless, and ineffective. without a greater understanding of the need to strengthen this framework, a move towards agro-ecological farming will remain stymied. it has been persuasively argued that even the data collection process for accidental pesticide poisoning remains undefined and under-focused, even though india is the fourth-largest global producer of pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, weedicides, and plant growth regulators) after the united states, japan, and china. there is no comprehensive assessment of the public health risks of pesticide use in 14 several studies have documented the depletion of soil organic matter and organic carbon in the soils of northwest india after the adoption of the green revolution (chouhan, et al. 2012; ghosh et al. 2017; pal et al. 2009). [49] mihir shah india. apart from farm-related risks, we have absolutely no idea about the exposure of children to hazardous pesticides in their homes, play areas, and schools. “legal and regulatory frameworks are vague in terms of apportioning responsibilities between state and central governments on the one hand and between departments, such as public health, agriculture, police, and pollution control on the other” (donthi 2021, 3). without robust databases, we will not get the complete picture of the damage caused by agrochemical poisoning; and without strong regulation, corrective measures will not be taken. without these being instituted, the need to go beyond the gr paradigm will remain incompletely understood.15 dismantling barrier #7: collapse of farm extension and lack of understanding of agro-ecology it is not often adequately recognized that since the gr meant a completely new way of farming, the state-supported agricultural extension system played a critical role in making this happen at scale on the ground. today, it may be quite difficult to imagine what a colossal task this was, covering hundreds of thousands of farmers across the length and breadth of india. of course, over the years, this system has fallen into serious decay16 and is often replaced by commercial suppliers peddling inputs that farmers may not be in need of and, at times, may be way beyond their expiry date. in a fascinating ethnography of field marketing agents for companies like monsanto in western maharashtra, aga (2019, 22) describes what he calls “advertising dressed up as extension,” how “agribusinesses create the demand for synthetic chemicals among farmers”, and how “marketing as extension lubricates industrial capital’s dominance over agricultural production.” these kinds of self-serving corporate marketing drives are what tragically pose today as farm extension and “knowledge creation” in many parts of india. if agro-ecology is to attain scale, we need a completely new vision for farm extension in india, different from both what it was in the heyday of the gr and from what it has unrecognizably degenerated into today. the paradigm of agricultural extension during the gr may be described as top-down, persuasive, and paternalistic technology transfer. if an alternative is to be found, great effort will be needed to re-energize and totally reorient this public extension system. we need to move towards a much more farmerto-farmer participatory extension system. special focus must be placed on 15 pesticide regulation in india is currently under the insecticides act 1968. it is to be hoped that the new pesticide management bill 2020 will be a robust replacement for this outmoded and toothless legislation. 16 see, for example, this recent ethnography of agriculture extension in punjab (chaba 2021). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] building a whole army of community resource persons (crps)—farmers trained in all aspects of agro-ecology, who would be the best ambassadors of this fresh perspective and understanding. these crps need to be empowered to respond to the multiple challenges farmers face in the transition to agro-ecology. they also must work in a truly “rhizomatic” manner, allowing for multiple, non-hierarchical points of knowledge representation, interpretation, and sharing. as deleuze and guattari (1987) point out, a “rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.”17 dismantling barrier #8: post-harvest infrastructure challenges that militate against safe and nutritious food a major unaddressed constraint to the expansion of agro-ecological farming in india is the lack of widespread and affordable facilities for testing the maximum residue level of chemicals, toxins, and contaminants (such as lead, copper, arsenic, tin, cadmium, mercury, chromium, nickel, etc.) in farm produce, in line with the regulations of the food safety and standards authority of india (fssai). without this, there is no guarantee that the produce meets required health and safety standards. today, the burden of proof of safety is squarely placed on those who claim to be engaged in some way or the other in non-chemical farming. this is an extremely uneven and unfair playing field. only when widespread testing takes place will consumers be aware of whether or not they are consuming poisons, and, if so, exactly which ones. in the absence of the required testing infrastructure, this is not happening. consumers have no idea about the kind of food they are eating in most cases. at the same time, studies have shown that the products of seven leading organic food brands in india had traces of heavy metals in them and some had pesticide residues as well (cerc 2017). this generates a crisis of credibility about those professing to practice alternative forms of farming. the only way out is massive public investments in product testing facilities, where contaminants, toxins, and chemical residues are all tested for. currently, toxins and contaminants are rarely tested for, and even chemical residue testing remains fragmentary. 18 what is worse, when private 17 the agriculture programme of samaj pragati sahayog and the farmer-to-farmer video extension programme of its community media unit is a great example of a women-led, technology-based agricultural extension system (see samajpragatisahayog.org for full details). 18 this is despite the fact that the fssai clearly states that organic food shall also comply with relevant provisions, as applicable under the food safety and standards (contaminants, toxins and residues) regulations, 2011 except for residues of [51] mihir shah commercial entities do the testing, they have a great vested interest in providing favourable reports, because, otherwise, they risk losing even the few farmers who come to them for testing. the high cost of testing a food sample for residues of chemical pesticides, heavy metals, and aflatoxins makes it difficult to test a sufficient number of samples to thoroughly screen batches of agricultural produce at different stages in the value chain. as a result, the process of certification becomes extremely cumbersome and expensive, beyond the reach of the vast majority of small and marginal farmers. this high cost is another potential impediment to farmers being able to adopt agro-ecological farming at scale. it is clear that individual farmers will never be able to afford the costs involved in the process. this is another area where fpos and other collectives of small and marginal farmers become critical. we must also note that while these “demerit” goods are at least under discussion, there is virtually no recognition of the need to identify the positive nutritional value of food. the nature-positive farming and wholesome foods foundation (n+3f), set up in 2021, is pioneering work in this direction by evolving appropriate protocols to ensure food safety and traceability at each stage of the farm-to-plate value chain. it is also supporting farmer collectives in adopting these protocols and moving up the value chain. the state also needs to intervene so that neither the farmer nor the consumer ends up bearing the entire cost of testing. of course, state labs need to function at the highest standards of excellence. the recent imbroglio involving the agricultural and processed food products export development authority (apeda) is a sobering case in point (mancombu 2021). in july 2021, the united states department of agriculture (usda) ended its 15-year agreement with the apeda, which allowed apeda to accredit agencies certifying organic exports to the us. in november 2021, four european union (eu) organizations dealing with organic products asked the eu committee on organic production to stop apeda from accrediting agencies certifying organic products in india. they also asked the eu to delist india from the list of countries recognized for organic product exports to the eu and directly supervise shipments from the subcontinent, just like the us is doing now.19 insecticides for which the maximum limits shall be 5% of the maximum limits prescribed or level of quantification (loq) whichever is higher (fssai 2017). 19 the participatory guarantee system (pgs) also suffers from numerous operational and efficiency bottlenecks, which prevent it from being a model for scaling agro-ecological farming in a way that enables traceability. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] other areas for public investment are large-scale and separate processing storage (like hermetic technology),20 transport facilities for the produce of nature-positive farmers so that it does not get contaminated by the produce of conventional chemical farmers, and support for the adoption of nonchemical pest management in post-harvest value chain stages. if we really want to promote crop diversification, we need improved moistureand temperature-sensitive storage. dry and cool produce can be stored for longer periods. this demands major investments in new technologies that are now easily available. for nutri-cereals, processing remains an unaddressed challenge; and they also require special storage and transport facilities given their shelf-life issues. public investment is also needed for user-focused research for developing appropriate solutions to address all of these challenges. for any transition towards sustainable solutions, we need to address the regime of heavily subsidised fossil fuel–based mainstream agriculture, which will be able to easily out-compete any alternative. if the real economic, as well as the ecological, costs of gr farming were to be factored into the calculation, along with its multiple negative externalities, the agro-ecological paradigm would win hands-down in comparison. since this is an extremely daunting challenge, much more careful thought needs to be given to outlining the exact roadmap by which india will transition to a safe and nutritious food regime. the fssai has based its standards on the best european practices, but we need to carefully study the process through which our farmers can get there. this needs urgent attention and change. it is time now, therefore, for the niti aayog to set up a high-level working group to examine the entire issue of post-harvest infrastructural support more deeply, including product testing. this is necessary to ensure that the high cost of testing does not lead to a situation where the fpos of small and marginal farmers get elbowed out by large corporations as the process of testing goes beyond the reach of these fpos. the terms of reference of the niti aayog working group should include estimating the nature and volume of the public and private investment required while spelling out the roadmap by which india can transition to a consumerand farmer-friendly regime of safe and nutritious food. dismantling barrier #9: outmoded architecture of water governance 20 hermetic technology uses gas-tight and moisture-tight materials to seal or store commodities that are prone to deterioration when exposed to air, moisture, or foreign objects. [53] mihir shah for agro-ecology to be established, and for the water crisis to be addressed, there must be a paradigm shift in water away from the constructionand extraction-centric, the command-and-control system of water governance towards a participatory system that incorporates the common pool resource (cpr) nature of water. we also need to bridge the three silos into which we have divided water, viz, those between: • surface and groundwater; • drinking water and irrigation; • water and wastewater. moreover, since systems such as water are greater than the sum of their constituent parts, solving water problems requires understanding whole systems and deploying multi-disciplinary teams and a trans-disciplinary approach, as is the case of the best water resource departments across the globe. since we have written extensively elsewhere on this issue, we will not get into complete detail here, for which shah et al. (2021) would be the best reference. without these urgent water reforms being put into place, farming in india will continue to be dominated by unsuitable water-intensive crops, overexploitation of groundwater, and vanishing rivers—all of which are ultimately combining to make farming an unviable occupation in india today. dismantling barrier #10: absence of documentation, monitoring, and research making proof-of-concept harder to establish whenever an argument is made in favour of seeking alternatives to gr farming, questions are always raised about the evidence in favour of these alternatives. even though such demands are often made by vested interests who benefit from the current high-cost, external input–intensive, and energy-intensity farm systems, all votaries of agro-ecological farming must proactively demand that systems of documentation, monitoring, and research are urgently put in place at the requisite scale.21 we clearly do not want a new kind of mindless fundamentalism replacing the orthodoxy of the gr. furthermore, the case for alternatives only gets stronger with such a system in place as robust proof-of-concept becomes demonstrably visible on the ground. it also allows proponents of alternatives to fine-tune their 21 a very promising attempt at developing such a framework is to be found in muthuprakash and damani (2018). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] solutions in line with the diverse agro-ecology of india, which is precisely the whole point against the one-size-fits-all fundamentalism of the gr.22 dismantling barrier #11: agriculture education mired in the gr paradigm all the reforms that we have listed above require a total re-orientation of the paradigm within which agricultural education is located in india today. our agriculture scientists are still being trained in the mid-20th century gr paradigm, taking a narrow commodity-centric view focused on the limited question of raising crop yields per acre. without a whole systems view of farming, which considers all aspects of the farm as an ecosystem with each and every one of its interconnected parts taken into account combined with an understanding of the soil as a living ecosystem, the new paradigm of agro-ecology cannot be instituted. thus, both agriculture r&d and farm extension will need to be re-oriented on the basis of a revamped curricula for agricultural science education in india to align it with 21st-century perspectives. the new national agricultural education policy provides a great opportunity for this radical change to be brought into effect, but even this proposed policy would require a complete overhauling of the paradigm within which agricultural education remains mired. 4. conclusion the unprecedented covid-19 pandemic is an overdue wake-up call to humanity that business-as-usual is no longer an option. we cannot continue with development paradigms that attempt a command-and-control relationship with nature. covid-19 has reminded everyone, like never before, how circumscribed the economy necessarily is by the nature of the larger ecosystem governing it. as the imprint of humans on the planet grows larger than ever in the epoch of the anthropocene, a decisive shift in our relationship with nature becomes imperative. it is not merely a matter of realizing the constraints within which we operate but of re-envisioning the response: moving from a paradigm of linear mechanics that guided the gr to thinking in terms of complex dynamics that underlie agroecology. we increasingly need to learn to deal with the unforeseen and the inherently unpredictable. the pandemic forces 22 the setting up of the indo-german global centre for agro-ecology research and learning in andhra pradesh in 2021 is a very welcome step in this direction. [55] mihir shah everyone to acknowledge that this is now imperative, not just for greater prosperity but for the very survival of human life on earth. agriculture, the most important occupation of people in india, is the sector closest to nature. sadly, however, even in farming, we have attempted to gain complete control over nature rather than seeking to align with it, even while harnessing its power. the dominance of chemical farming has had very serious, but not fully understood, consequences. according to kate brown, mit professor of science, technology and society: within the uniform predictability of modern agriculture, the unpredictable emerges. . two-thirds of cancers have their origins in environmental toxins, accounting for millions of annual fatalities . . . we inhabit not the earth but the atmosphere, a sea of life; as swimmers in this sea, we cannot be biologically isolated . . . biologists have begun questioning the idea that each tree is an “individual”—it might be more accurately understood as a node in a network of underworld exchanges between fungi, roots, bacteria, lichen, insects, and other plants. the network is so intricate that it’s difficult to say where one organism ends and the other begins (brown 2020, 7). more specifically, it is clear that: there is a large list of deadly pathogens that emerged due to the ways in which we practice agriculture, among which are: h5n1asian avian influenza, h5n2, multiple swine flu variants (h1n1, h1n2), ebola, campylobacter, nipah virus, q fever, hepatitis e, salmonella enteritidis, foot-and-mouth disease, and a variety of influenzas” (altieri and nicholls 2020, 2).23 this necessitates a paradigm shift in our structures of thought and action to grasp complex adaptive systems (where the complexity of the behaviour of the whole system cannot be completely seen solely through an understanding of its individual parts), of which farming is a very important example (holland 1998; gal 2012). it is clear that india needs to make a strong move forward towards the agro-ecological paradigm of farming. the challenges are many, but the solutions and the impact pathways within which they need to be embedded 23 the pandemic has also thrown sharp light on the perils of the current paradigm of industrial livestock production, something that is beyond the scope of the present paper but merits equal if not even greater attention (wallace 2016). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] are clear and have been amply demonstrated on the ground. india has seen strong farmers’ agitations over the past few years. perhaps the key determinant of whether or not policy will move in the direction advocated in this paper is the adoption and strong advocacy by these farmers’ movements of the agenda outlined here. another crucial factor will be the work of civil society organizations in close partnerships with state governments to create a robust proof-of-concept on the ground at scale so that this evidence 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transition in india rakesh kacker and nidhi srivastava** abstract: the prime minister of india laid down a target for india at cop 26—to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. realizing this target depends upon a transition away from fossil fuels towards non-fossil-fuel alternatives. this commentary highlights the main constraints in this attempt at transitioning to an energy mix that has a greater share of renewables. it is noted that while the share of solar and wind in installed capacity has increased significantly, there has been no corresponding decrease in the share of coal. in absolute terms, coal-based capacity has also shown significant increase. the nationally determined contribution (ndc) of india as communicated to the unfcc was revised in august 2022 in view of the progress made and now includes a target of increasing the share of non-fossil-fuel sources to 50% of installed capacity. in addition, in the recently released draft national electricity plan (dnep), a target of 413 gw of new installed capacity has been set for the decade 2022–32. this is against the 54 gw achieved in 2017–22. the major concern is that this sharp increase in renewable energy capacity is not supported by any corresponding policy measures. if these targets are not met, fossil fuel capacity will increase more than anticipatedas per the dnep, coal-based capacity could increase by about 50 gw in the next decade. another concern pertains to the problems associated with energy storage systems, which are necessary with high level of penetration of renewable energy. finally, the other concerns are the issues connected with a just transition—ensuring support to those whose livelihoods could be lost in this transition of the energy system to one where fossil fuels, mainly coal in india, could see a decline. keywords: emissions, fossil fuels, renewable energy, climate change, electricity * retired secretary to government of india, rakesh.kacker@gmail.com ** phd scholar, energy studies programme, school of international studies, jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi, india, nidhisrivastava.work@gmail.com copyright © kacker and srivastava 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.893 mailto:rakesh.kacker@gmail.com mailto:nidhisrivastava.work@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.893 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] at the 26th conference of parties (cop) to the united nations framework convention on climate change (unfccc) held in 2021, the prime minister of india announced that the country will achieve net zero emissions by 2070. the journey to net zero emissions builds on near-term energy transition goals that are dominated by the decarbonization of the electricity sector. targets to move from a fossil-dependent energy system to a non-fossil-based energy system have been announced and periodically revised. this commentary reviews india’s energy transition trajectory and highlights the main constraints that the country faces in the realization of its renewable energy (re) goals. it argues that the energy transition goals set forth by india are ambitious and the progress made in integrating re has been admirable. however, a detailed analysis of india’s targets and achievements reveals that the transition to low carbon energy will face many hurdles, which can be overcome through concerted planning and action at multiple levels. 1. state of energy transition in india india has made considerable progress in setting goals and achieving targets to realize its energy transition in the recent past. as on 31 july 2022, india has a total installed power generation capacity of 404,132.95 mw, of which 58% was from fossil and 42% from non-fossil sources (cea 2022b). as shown in figure 1, the highest share of installed capacity is contributed by coal (50%), followed by solar (14%), hydro (12%), and wind (10%) power. the grid-connected re capacity, especially from solar, wind, and other re sources, has increased manifold in the past decade, from 5% of the total installed capacity in 2006 to 28% in 2022,1 demonstrating that there has been an energy transition in the country. however, although the share of solar and wind power has increased, the share of coal has not decreased correspondingly. in fact, the share of coal in the installed capacity for the above-mentioned period has remained nearly the same. in absolute terms, the installed capacity of coal-based power plants has tripled since 2006. 1 authors’ estimate based on various sources (central electricity authority 2020a; 2020b; 2022a). [7] kacker and srivastava figure 1: installed capacity on 31 july 2022 (in mw) source: cea (2022b) figure 2 illustrates how coal-based capacity and re capacity have grown almost in tandem. there has been a consistent increase in both fossilas well as non-fossil-based installed capacity. although the re share has increased at a higher rate in recent years, coal-based installed capacity has also increased, and coal continues to constitute the largest share. nevertheless, renewables will play an increasingly important role in india’s energy mix. according to central electricity authority (cea) estimates, the demand for electricity in 2029–2030 is expected to reach 2,518 billion units (bu), of which 1,393 bu will be met by coal, lignite, and gas and 914 bu by non-fossil sources (cea 2020b). more recent estimates by the cea, included in the draft national electricity plan, suggest that the total installed capacity in the country is likely to be 622 gw by financial year (fy) 2026–2027 and 865 gw by fy 2031–2032 (cea 2022a). much of this capacity addition would be from re sources, as suggested by various climate and energy targets and projections. the percentage of installed capacity of electricity generation from non-fossil sources already crossed 40% on 31 march 2022. in view of this progress, the nationally determined contribution (ndc) had to be updated this year, as explained in the next section. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] figure 2: growth of installed capacity for different sources in india source: authors’ estimate based on various sources (central electricity authority 2020a; 2020b; 2022a) 2. synergizing energy and climate goals india ratified the paris agreement on 2 october 2016 and has communicated its ndc to the unfccc for the 2021–2030 period. the ndc lists eight goals, of which an important one is to increase the installed capacity for energy resources from non–fossil fuels by 2030 (government of india 2015). the quantifiable targets with respect to the energy transition in the ndc, as revised and approved by the union cabinet, include (i) 50% of cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil sources and (ii) a 45% reduction of the emissions intensity of the gdp in comparison to 2005 levels (government of india 2022; press information bureau 2022). besides the ndc, india has been setting ambitious re generation targets over the years. india had initially set a goal of achieving an installed capacity of 175 gw from renewable power by 2022, which has not been achieved yet. in 2021, at glasgow, the prime minister announced a revised target of 500 gw to be achieved by 2030. these targets are ambitious but necessary for india’s transition to a low carbon pathway. however, realization of these goals is fraught with challenges and calls for a holistic approach to addressing the three dimensions of the energy trilemma—energy security, [9] kacker and srivastava energy equity, and environmental sustainability (world energy council 2019). 3. challenges in transitioning to a low carbon pathway remarkable progress has been made in re integration in the past decade, but the position of coal in the overall energy mix has not reduced: it is at 51% for installed capacity and at an even higher 69% for total generation. the shift towards renewables, although urgently needed, will be gradual. even as re integration into the grid increases, coal-based power will continue to be added to the grid as multiple sources are needed to meet the rapidly growing energy demand. re-based installed capacity addition would only help address part of this demand. coal-based plants will continue to produce electricity, and newer plants will also come up, albeit on a smaller scale as compared to re, to meet energy demands in the near future. the draft national electricity plan (dnep) has highlighted the need for additional coal-based capacity of at least 17 gw, which would rise to 28 gw by 2031–2032. this would be in addition to the capacity of 25 gw already under construction. therefore, around 50 gw of coal-based capacity is planned within the next decade for energy security. considering that coal-based power will continue to be used, it is imperative to lay emphasis on, firstly, reducing supply disruptions, and, secondly, enhancing efficiency and performance with respect to environmental parameters. although the re goals are clear, ambitious, and laudable, there is little discussion on how these targets will be achieved. the target capacity addition from re sources, according to the dnep, is about 188 gw in 2022–2027 and about 225 gw in 2027–2032. this compares with about 54 gw achieved in 2017–2022. these high targets are not matched by any corresponding policy measures to lift the re capacity addition to the desired levels. an enabling ecosystem for the energy transition would be based on technology, finance, and government support. although the overall goals have been consistent and clear in terms of direction, the specific policy support has been inadequate. a recent study mapping government support for re technologies in india found that government subsidies for renewables reduced by 59% between 2017 and 2021 (aggarwal et al. 2022). in the absence of adequate regulatory and policy support at both the national and state levels, along with prescriptions for how the aforementioned targets will be met in a time-bound manner, the high re ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] targets may not be achieved. if the share of renewables, especially solar power, is lower than envisaged, the gap would have to be filled by other sources, most likely fossils and mainly coal, either domestic or imported. this raises concerns about preparedness in the event of a deviation from the planned transition towards environmentally sustainable energy systems. one of the common challenges in using variable re for power generation is that it may not coincide with peak demand. energy storage systems are of vital importance in overcoming problems of demand–supply mismatch, grid balancing, and ensuring the success of re installations. the electricity demand projections and installed capacity targets require 6.81 gw of pump storage by 2026–2027 and 18.82 gw by 2031–2032. this would be supplemented by 51.56 gw of a battery energy storage system (bess; cea 2022a). pump storage, a form of hydroelectric storage, is the most common mode of energy storage worldwide (ren21 2022). however, its use in india has been limited due to challenges such as high upfront costs and longer gestation periods (ernst & young and ficci 2022). the use of besss, which are mostly dominated by lithium-ion batteries, has grown in recent years and will continue to grow. as the demand for besss grows, challenges related to upfront costs, raw material availability, safety and liability, waste disposal, and so on will multiply. governments at all levels must provide the necessary support for utility-scale energy storage systems to reduce dependence on coal and meet india’s energy transition goals. finally, a smooth energy transition has to be sustainable as well as equitable. one of the frameworks to take equity into account is that of “just transition”, which includes principles and policies that make all stakeholders beneficiaries of the transition to a low carbon economy (ipcc 2022). a just transition towards a low carbon economy contributes to the “goals of decent work for all, social inclusion and the eradication of poverty” (ilo 2015). as india reduces the output from coal-based power plants and moves towards closing coal mines, a large number of formal workers as well as informal workers, such as those engaged in coal washeries, loading/unloading, and transportation (bhushan, banerjee, and agarwal 2021), will lose their livelihoods. concerted efforts need to be taken to minimize the negative impact on those people dependent on coal-related activities. decarbonization of the energy sector should be treated as an opportunity to distribute the benefits of a sustainable economy equitably. references aggarwal, prateek, siddharth goel, tara laan, tarun mehta, aditya pant, swasti [11] kacker and srivastava raizada, balasubramanian viswanathan, anjali viswamohanan, christopher beaton, and karthik ganesan. 2022. mapping india’s energy policy 2022. winipeg, canada: international institute for sustainable development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/mapping-india-energy-policy2022.pdf. bhushan, chandra, srestha banerjee, and shruti agarwal. 2021. just transition in india. delhi: international forum for environment, sustainability & technology. https://iforest.global/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/iforest_just_transition_i n_india.pdf. cea. 2020a. growth of electricity sector in india from 1947 2020. new delhi: central electricity authority. https://cea.nic.in/wpcontent/uploads/pdm/2020/12/growth_2020.pdf. cea. 2020b. report on optimal generation capacity mix for 2029–30. new delhi: central electricity authority. https://cea.nic.in/old/reports/others/planning/irp/optimal_mix_report_202930_final.pdf. ———. 2022a. draft national electricity plan. new delhi: central electricity authority. https://cea.nic.in/wpcontent/uploads/irp/2022/09/draft_national_ele ctricity_plan_9_sep_2022_2-1.pdf. ———. 2022b. installed capacity report july 2022. new delhi: central electricity authority. https://cea.nic.in/installed-capacity-report/?lang=en. ernst & young and ficci. 2022. accelerating india’s clean energy transition. https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_in/news/2022/06/eyaccelerating-indias-clean-energy.pdf?download. goi. 2015. india’s intended nationally determined contribution. new delhi: government of india. https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/submissions/indc/published%20documents/in dia/1/india%20indc%20to%20unfccc.pdf. ———. 2022. india’s updated first nationally determined contribution under paris agreement (2021–2030). new delhi: government of india. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/ndc/2022-08/india updated first nationally determined contrib.pdf. ilo. 2015. guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all. geneva: international labour organization. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@emp_ent/documents/ publication/wcms_432859.pdf. ipcc. 2022. working group iii contribution to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. geneva: intergovernmental panel on climate change. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/ipcc_ar6_wgiii_ful lreport.pdf. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/mapping-india-energy-policy-2022.pdf https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2022-05/mapping-india-energy-policy-2022.pdf https://iforest.global/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/iforest_just_transition_in_india.pdf https://iforest.global/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/iforest_just_transition_in_india.pdf 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https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@emp_ent/documents/publication/wcms_432859.pdf https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@emp_ent/documents/publication/wcms_432859.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/ipcc_ar6_wgiii_fullreport.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/ipcc_ar6_wgiii_fullreport.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] press information bureau. 2022. “cabinet approves india’s updated nationally determined contribution to be communicated to the united nations framework convention on climate change.” https://pib.gov.in/pressreleaseiframepage.aspx?prid=1847812#:~:text=the%2 0union%20cabinet%20chaired%20by,on%20climate%20change%20(unfccc). ren21 (renewables now). 2022. renewables 2022 global status report. https://www.ren21.net/wpcontent/uploads/2019/05/gsr2022_full_report.pdf. world energy council. 2019. “world energy trilemma index.” https://www.worldenergy.org/publications/entry/world-energy-trilemma-index2019. https://pib.gov.in/pressreleaseiframepage.aspx?prid=1847812#:~:text=the%20union%20cabinet%20chaired%20by,on%20climate%20change%20(unfccc) https://pib.gov.in/pressreleaseiframepage.aspx?prid=1847812#:~:text=the%20union%20cabinet%20chaired%20by,on%20climate%20change%20(unfccc) https://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/gsr2022_full_report.pdf https://www.ren21.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/gsr2022_full_report.pdf https://www.worldenergy.org/publications/entry/world-energy-trilemma-index-2019 https://www.worldenergy.org/publications/entry/world-energy-trilemma-index-2019 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 17–31, april 2018 thematic essay on the normalization of dimensioned variables in ecological economics deepak malghan  1. introduction the fundamental concern of ecological economics is to accurately model all aspects of the economy–ecosystem interaction problem — the myriad ways in which the economic and ecological systems are connected to each other. almost all the monetary and physical variables used to describe economy– ecosystem interactions are dimensional in nature. the exact cardinal value taken by dimensioned variables is contingent on the particular measurement unit used. while several papers on the subject have pointed to the care required in using dimensioned variables in ecological economics, there is little consensus on how dimensional variables must be incorporated in economy–ecosystem interaction models (mayumi and giampietro 2010; malghan 2011; chilarescu and viasu 2012; baiocchi 2012; mayumi and giampietro 2012). mayumi and giampietro (2010) inaugurated the debate by making the provocative claim that many models in economics and ecological economics that make use of transcendental functions like the logarithm are fundamentally flawed when these functions use what are apparently dimensioned variables. malghan (2011) claimed that several popular biophysical sustainability indicators are dimensionally inconsistent because they neglect the ‗qualitative residual‘ that is the defining characteristic of any social–ecological system (georgescu-roegen 1971). in a brief comment, chilarescu and viasu (2012) showed that the critique that a neoclassical production function (arrow et al. 1961) is dimensionally inconsistent does not consider that the parameters of a production function  indian institute of management bangalore, bannerghatta road, bengaluru 560076, india and ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment, srirampura, bengaluru 560064, india; dmalghan@iimb.ac.in, dmalghan@atree.org copyright © malghan 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.7 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.7 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] are dimensioned variables, too. thus, in the familiar cobb-douglas production function, of the form  laklkfy  ),( , the parameter a has appropriate dimensions (contingent on  and  ) such that the function itself has the exact same dimension as y (chilarescu and viasu 2012). in an earlier debate on a similar subject, folsom and gonzalez (2005) had shown, in response to the dimensional inconsistency claim made by barnett-ii (2003), how the parameters of the cobb-douglas production function are assumed to have implicit dimensions required by dimensional consistency. to critique the claim in mayumi and giampietro (2010), baiocchi (2012) used examples from a variety of disciplines, including the ipat identity and environmental kuznets curve, and also offered a critical historical literature review of dimensional analysis. unfortunately, this debate on dimensional consistency in ecological economics has only helped to muddy the waters rather than provide a consistent framework for achieving dimensional consistency while studying the economy-ecosystem interaction problem. it is trivial to demonstrate that a logarithmic function cannot have dimensioned variables as its argument. the more pertinent question is whether it might be possible to non-dimensionalize basic models of economy-ecosystem interaction that are of interest to ecological economists. we illustrate the problem with the transcendental logarithm function that has been at the centre of the recent debate. in their rejoinder to chilarescu and viasu (2012), mayumi and giampietro use the familiar maclaurian expansion of )1ln( z and )1ln( z to obtain a polynomial expansion for the natural logarithm of any positive real number,  z (mayumi and giampietro 2012, equation 5):                          .... 1 1 3 1 1 1 2)ln( 3 z z z z z (1) it is straightforward to see that equation 1 cannot take a dimensioned z . thus, mayumi and giampietro (2012) argue that a regression model that includes a term like )ln( lv used by arrow et al. (1961) in their labour–capital substitution model is problematic because the logarithm takes on a dimensioned quantity (measured in us dollars per person–year of labour unit, for example). even in the 1960s, the classic paper by arrow et al. (1961) had been critiqued for not considering the dimensional consistency of production function specifications (de jong 1967; de jong and kumar 1972; cantore and levine 2012). however, mayumi and giampietro (2010, 2012) ignore the fact that it is possible in theory to obtain non-dimensional versions of v and l through the well-established process of normalization. in principle, there should be no objection to using an expression like )ln( l v [19] deepak malghan if value added ( v ) and quantity of labour ( l ) are expressed as nondimensional variables. while mayumi and giampietro (2012) cite several examples from prominent economists committing the apparent error of using dimensioned quantities in the logarithmic functions, we demonstrate in section 2 that normalization or non-dimensionalization can in principle address this problem. we argue that this is a relatively minor technical point, and that the more fundamental problem is that of representing the economy– ecosystem interaction problem in a dimensionally consistent fashion. the remainder of this paper is organized as follows: the next section will review normalization and non-dimensionalization using canonical examples from economics and ecology. it is not merely sufficient for an ecological economics model to be dimensionally consistent. the key question is ‘whether or not the selected dimensional choice for a given expression has an operational meaning or relevance for the purpose [of] analysis’ (mayumi and giampietro 2012; emphasis in original). while this was the true import of mayumi and giampietro (2010), the subsequent papers in the debate have missed the forest for the trees by focussing exclusively on narrow technical dimensional consistency. in section 3, we discuss the limitations of normalization and non-dimensionalization procedures. in particular, we show that it is nontrivial to normalize dimensioned variables in analytically accurate models of economy-ecosystem interaction. 2. normalization and non-dimensionalization using several canonical (and elementary) examples from ecology and economics, we demonstrate in this section that normalization and nondimensionalization can address dimensional consistency issues in ecological economics. we examine the production function and the consumer‘s utility maximization problem from elementary microeconomics; the logistic population growth model from ecology; and the normalisation of the gaussian distribution in statistics. 2.1. normalization of the canonical cobb-douglas production function the standard cobb-douglas production function for two inputs k and l can be represented as:  laky  (2) now consider a simple constant-returns version of equation 2 such that (  1 ) and ( 0,;10  lk ):  laky   1 (3) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] the central dimensional concern with the cobb-douglas function in equation 3 is that capital ( k ), and labor ( l ) are measured in units that are different from each other, and from the output ( y ). the constant a has a dimension that is contingent on the factor-share parameter  , such that equation 3 is dimensionally consistent. to make this point of a being dimensional even more explicit, equation-3 can be rewritten as:  lakay lk   1 (4a) lk aaa  (4b) where the dimensional constants k a and la are the so-called efficiency parameters. the presence of these two dimensioned quantities makes analytical work and interpretation difficult. however, as shown by de jong (1967) and cantore and levine (2012), equation 4 is most easily normalised and rendered into a non-dimensional form. consider a normalization-point 0 y such that: ))(( 0 1 00  lakay lk   (5) now dividing equation 4 by equation 5 we readily obtain the nondimensional version of the constant-returns cobb-douglas function:  lky   1 (6a) 000 ;; l l l k k k y y y  (6b) any econometric model involving logarithms of the non-dimensional variables ( lky ,, ) will pose no dimensional issues — for example, a log-log model to estimate factor share,  . while equation 6 eliminates the dimensional constants, it offers no clarity on how to pick the normalization point ( 0 y ). in the context of a neoclassical economic growth model, it would be most intuitive to use the steady state value as the normalization point. while the choice of normalization point is easily determined for the present problem, we show below how this can be non-trivial when studying the economy-ecosystem interaction problem. indeed, as we discuss below in section 3 below, in ecological economics mass balance problems (say when studying stock of timber in a forest), the choice of normalization point is critical for model specification. further, we show why the selection of the appropriate normalization point is fundamentally a non-technical choice that is value laden. before we take up another canonical example — the logistic growth equation from ecology to illustrate the process of non-dimensionalization (a homologue of the normalization process discussed here) — it is important to note that more general production functions (ces, for example) can be [21] deepak malghan normalized in the same manner as the pedagogically simple case of cobbdouglas discussed here (klump and la grandville 2000; klump and saam 2008; cantore and levine 2012; temple 2012). 2.2. the logistic equation consider the logistic equation that has been the pedagogical model of choice for students of ecology from the time alfred lotka formalised the original verhulst formulation in the context of population growth of parasite colonies (lotka 1925). the simple population growth logistic equation with a fixed carrying capacity, k and population growth rate, r can be written as: 0 )0(;1 pp k p rp dt dp        (7) where p is the population at any time t ; and the initial population is known such that 0 )0( pp  . in the above equation, all the four variables are dimensional — p and k have the dimension of [n] (number of individual plasmodium parasites in a colony for example); t has the [t] dimension (time, measured in hours or minutes); and r has the dimension of [t−1] (inverse time dimension, measured in per-hour or per-minute, persevering with the plasmodium colony growth example). the units in which population and time are measured are arbitrary and the parameter values in equation 7 will change if we went from measuring time in hours to say, in minutes or years. it is straightforward to non-dimensionalize equation 7 so that it is invariant to particular choices of units for population and time. this is achieved by scaling or normalizing the time and population variables as:        r t 1  (8a) k p x  (8b)  d dx rk rd kxd dt dp  )/( )( (8c) k p x 0 0  (8d) the new variables x and  defined in equation 8 are non-dimensional. substituting equation 8 in equation 7 we obtain the non-dimensionalized form of the logistic equation: ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] 0 )0();1( xxxx d dx   (9) unlike the original dimensioned variables, p , k , t and r , the scaled nondimensional variables x and  can be used in any transcendental functions like the natural logarithm or the exponential function. like any nondimensionalization process, the scaled variables x and  are related to the intrinsic property of the physical phenomenon being studied. the scaled population, x represents the population relative to the carrying capacity, k and is the intrinsic unit for measuring population in a simple logistic model. 1 by measuring population using non-dimensional x , we have scaled the problem so that equation 9 applies to a wide variety of phenomena following the logistic growth pattern. similarly r 1 that we used to scale time, t to obtain the non-dimensional  is the intrinsic unit for measuring time in the context of population growth models. in an exponential growth model (the initial part of the logistic growth curve when kp  , the population grows by a factor of e in the time interval r 1 – an intrinsic unit for measuring time in any exponential growth problems. besides being an intrinsic representation, the scaled non-dimensional form of the logistic equation is also the most parsimonious representation of the problem of carrying capacity constrained growth. 2.3. the standard normal, and the box-cox transform consider a random variable x that is distributed with mean  and variance ),(~( 22  nx . the gaussian distribution for )(, xfx is given by: 2 2 1 2 1 )(            x exf (10) any normally distributed variable can be expresses in terms of the standard normal, z (where )1,0(~ nz ). 2 2 1 2 1 )( z ezf    (11) as every beginning student of statistics is taught, for any random variable      x znx ),,(~ 2 is a standard normal, or )1,0(~ n x   . besides helping with statistical inference, this normalization process is of 1 one could have also carried out the non-dimensionalization of equation-7 by setting x = p/p0. a non-dimensional x that is a scaled by the initial population is however not intrinsic to the system as the carrying capacity (for a system with time invariant k). [23] deepak malghan significance for our discussion about dimensioned variables. x is a dimensioned variable (has the dimensions of [t] for example if x was measuring some temporal phenomenon). however, the normalized variable z is dimensionless as  and  have the same dimensions as x – [t] in the present example. thus, while x cannot be used as an argument in transcendental functions, an expression of the form )ln(zy  can be evaluated using equation 1. this normalization process is even more significant if one considers the fact that the sum of a sufficiently large set of independent random variables (with finite variance) will converge to a normal distribution (the central limit theorem). statisticians have long recognized the centrality of transformations in studying dimensioned variables. while the pedagogical example presented here is familiar even to a beginning student, there is a well-developed literature on generalizing transformations starting with the seminal contribution of john tukey (1957), and the celebrated paper of box and cox (1964). the box-cox transformation ( x ) of variable x is simply:    1  x x (12) it is straightforward to show that the ces production function (of which the cobb douglas corresponds to a specific parametric value) is a special case of the box-cox transformation. 2 further, as 0 , the box-cox transform is the log transform ( )log( xx  ). it is for this reason that a box-cox transform with 0 finds numerous applications in applied economics. 2.4. the numéraire good and consumer’s utility maximization problem the most widely used example of normalization in economics – by a wide margin – is the numéraire good. all prices in the pure theory of exchange are relative prices — prices that have been normalised by an appropriate numéraire. money (dollars for example) is simply the most common choice for the numéraire. in principle, any other commodity can be used as a numéraire. consider an individual‘s utility function defined by a cobb-douglas function (in a simple two-good case) as follows:  yxu   1 (13) 2 i thank an anonymous referee for this pedagogical suggestion. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] following our discussion in equation 5, we can write out a corresponding utility normalization point as: 0,; 000 1 00   yxyxu  (14) dividing equation 13 by equation 14 we obtain a non-dimensional analogue of equation-6:  yxu   1 (15a) 000 ;; y y y x x x u u u  (15b) all three variables (utility, and the quantity of two goods that are consumed) in equation 15 are non-dimensional. while )ln(u is not defined, equation 1 can be used to evaluate )ln(u . before we consider the consumer‘s utility maximization problem, we write out the budget constraint faced by the consumer: mypxp yx  (16) in equation 16, m is the disposable income available to the consumer; and x p and y p are respectively prices (say in dollars per unit) of goods x and y respectively. the budget constraint when expressed using dimensionless x and y (instead of dimensioned quantities x and y ) can be written out as: mypxp yx  ~~ (17a) xx pxp 0 ~  (17b) yy pyp 0 ~  (17c) in equation 17 xp ~ and 0 ~ y are simply prices corresponding to normalised (and dimensionless) quantities of x and y . money, measured in dollars ($) is the numéraire in both equations (16) and (17). while x p and y p have the dimensions of xp quantity dollar ~ , and ~ y p have dimensions of dollars. one of the fundamental insights from consumer‘s problem is that the neither the budget set nor the budget constraint is affected by our choice of numéraire. now, if we normalize equation 17 using x as the numéraire good, we can rewrite the budget constraint as: __ mypx y  (18a) ~ ~ _ x y y p p p  (18b) [25] deepak malghan ~ _ x p m m  (18c) every term in the budget constraint represented by equation 18 is dimensionless. as the relative price _ y p and _ m are dimensionless they can be used as arguments in a transcendental function. thus a regression equation that uses )ln( _ im poses no dimensional problems (where _ i m the disposable income of household i). we can now write out the consumer‘s utility maximization problem using equations (15) and (18). the dimensionless lagrangian is simply: __ 1 )()( mypxyxl y     (19) by setting 0,0       y l x l and eliminating  we obtain the dimensionless first order condition for the consumer‘s utility maximization problem:                  _ 11 y p x y   (20) every single variable in equation 20 is dimensionless. 3. object lessons for biophysical and ecological economics we have demonstrated using canonical examples from economics, ecology, and statistics that normalization and non-dimensionalization can transform dimensional forms into their dimensionless counterparts. the examples presented in the previous section show that in theory, normalization can circumvent the objections raised by mayumi and giampietro (2010) in the recent debate over dimensions. however, as pointed out by mayumi and giampietro (2012) in their rejoinder, the more relevant question is one of delineating the physical basis for normalization. in the examples that we have considered, the non-dimensionalization procedure for the logistic equation or the construction of the standard normal statistic is wellgrounded. from the two economics‘ examples we have considered, normalization using an arbitrary choice of the numéraire good in the consumer problem is well-established. a production function on the other hand must not only be dimensionally consistent but also reflect the physical basis for production. normalization only solves the technical problem of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] dimensional consistency but the normalized representation of the production process is only as good as the original dimensioned representation. an accurate physical representation of the production process has been one of the founding tenets of ecological economics (georgescu-roegen 1971; kraev 2002; røpke 2004). as an illustration of the difficulties involved in selecting a normalization point in realistic models of economy-ecosystem interaction, consider any model that includes a throughput variable ( . x ), say measured in kilograms per year so that . x has the dimensions of [mt−1]. the throughput . x cannot be an argument in any transcendental function. it is trivial to normalize the throughput with some reference throughput, . x to obtain a nondimensional version  x xx . . such that the normalized throughput, . x has no physical dimensions and can be used as arguments in transcendental functions. indeed, such a measure is homologous to the rapidity measure used in physics to characterize speed relative to the speed of light.3 unlike relativity-physics however, the choice of reference throughput,  x is not universal but highly context dependent. a possible candidate for reference throughput is the maximum sustainable throughput — the throughput above which the integrity of the underlying biophysical system in jeopardy. consider an illustrative example — throughput of timber from a forest. the maximum sustainable throughput is a function of the health of the underlying forest ecosystem and will vary across both space and time. a tropical forest will necessarily have a different maximum sustainable throughput from a temperate forest. even in a single location, maximum sustainable throughput will vary with time. the determination of maximum sustainable throughput is a function of ecosystems as funds rather than stocks (malghan 2011). the fundamental economy-ecosystem interaction problem, or the biophysical connections between the economy and the ecosystem is not reducible to cardinal arithmetic that governs stocks and flows.4 instead, any reasonably complete account of the economy–ecosystem interaction problem must also account for funds and fluxes that cannot be described in a cardinal space (georgescu-roegen 1971; malghan 2011). a fund is a 'special configuration of a given stock of materials(s)' (malghan 2011). consider, for example, an automobile. it is a stock of various material 3 in physics, rapidity, φ is defined as )(tanh 1 c v  where c is the speed of light. 4 this part of the essay is abstracted from the presentation in malghan (2011). [27] deepak malghan stocks – steel, aluminium, plastic, etc. however, these stocks have to come together in a specific configuration to constitute a fund of useful transportation services. an automobile that has been ‗totalled‘ in an accident still retains all the original stock but is no longer a fund of transportation services. thus, while simple mass conservation laws can account for stocks, funds are best described by laws that 'follow the spirit of entropy law in thermodynamics' (malghan 2011). more formally, equation21 below fully describes the evolution of stock over time, funds are not reducible to the cardinal space. dtxxxtx out t in )()0()( . 0 .   (21) where )(tx is the quantity of stock at any time t ; )0(x is the initial stock at 0t ; and inx . and o u tx . are inflows and outflows respectively. the stock x is in steady state if ttxtx outin  )()( .. . no such simple steady state condition can written out for a fund, as illustrated in the totalled automobile example above where all the stocks in the car in an approximate steady state. in addition to providing the original exposition of the concept of ‗fund‘, georgescu-roegen (1971) also speculated on an entropy law modelled on the second law of thermodynamics for matter. this so-called ‗fourth law‘ has been hotly contested (cleveland and ruth 1997; ayres 1998, 1999; hammond and winnett 2009). for our purposes here, it is sufficient to note that conservations laws (like the first law of thermodynamics) alone cannot completely describe a fund, and we need to invoke some mechanism like the second law that allows for qualitative degradation of energy and matter (malghan 2011). the distinction between stocks and funds introduced here, using the automobile as a pedagogical example, has direct implications for dimensional consistency in even the most elementary models of the economy–ecosystem interaction in biophysical economics or ecological economics. continuing with the sustainable throughput example discussed above, consider a very simple measure of the scale of a forestry industry:   y x s . (22) where ^ y is the rate at which timber regenerates in the forest, and . x is the throughput. now suppose we have s measured for two different places: 1 s = 0.8 in a tropical forest; and 2s = 0.7 in a temperate forest. can we automatically conclude that the forestry industry in the temperate forest is ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [28] more sustainable than the one in the tropics because 2 s < 1 s ? we cannot because equation 22 does not contain any information about the underlying fund. s is dimensionless only in the stock-flow space in the sense that both . x and ^ y have the same dimensions – say, tons/year. in order to be able to make comparisons across space and time, we will need metrics that are appropriately normalized to render them dimensionless in both the stockflow space and the fund–flux space. in particular, it is important to note that s ≤ 1 does not automatically imply sustainable throughput. during regeneration of a degraded forest, a sustainable throughput might as well be s = 0 (malghan 2011). several extant aggregate biophysical metrics are not dimensionless in the fund–flux space (malghan 2011). examples of such metrics include the ecological footprint (rees 1992; wackernagel and rees 1996; wackernagel et al. 2004); human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis (vitousek et al. 1986; rojstaczer et al. 2001); and aggregate material throughput metrics (national-research-council, 2004; adriaanse et al. 1997; matthews et al. 2000; klee and graedel 2004; gordon et al. 2006; wernick and ausubel 1995). these aggregate metrics are all appropriately normalized in the stock-flow space but not in the fund-flux space. for example aggregating multiple flows (as is done in the material throughput) is simple enough in the stock-flow space but fraught with problems in the fund-flux space. consider a simple material flow metric:     ni i i xx 1 .. (23) the sum in equation 23 is dimensionally valid only in the stock flow space, but not in the fund–flux space. if the n elementary flows are summed into the aggregate throughput, . x , the sum is defined as long as all the n flows are measured in a common unit – say tons/year. however, in the fund flux space, it makes little sense to sum up tons/year of some metal and tons/year of water. for the sum to be defined in the fund-flux space, the individual flows have to be appropriately normalized so that they are 'strictly dimensionless' in the fund-flux space (malghan 2011). the difficulty with determining an appropriate normalization point in the throughput example above is related to a more general problem of mapping ordinal and cardinal variables in a dimensionally consistent fashion. an accurate representation of the economy-ecosystem interaction problem requires accounting for ecosystem as a fund in addition to ecosystem as simply a collection of stocks. unlike stocks and flows, funds and fluxes are ordinal and subject to additional dimensional consistency constraints. the [29] deepak malghan mapping between an ordinal fund-flux space and the cardinal stock-flow space is at the heart of economics of ecosystem services (farley 2012; malghan 2011). in the current debate of dimensioned variables in ecological economics, the true import of the first salvo fired by mayumi and giampietro (2010) was the fact that several empirical models are not careful about making the distinction between fund and stock functions of ecosystem. we would be missing the forest for the trees if we focused the dimensions debate exclusively on technical aspects of normalization. normalization procedure, as demonstrated using elementary examples is well-established for cardinal variables but the cardinal stock-flow space alone is inadequate for accurately modelling the economy-ecosystem interaction problem. there is a need for ecological economics to develop models of economy-ecosystem 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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.12.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.03.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.01.018 https://doi.org/10.1177/095624789200400212 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1064375 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.02.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmacro.2011.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1214/aoms/1177706875 https://doi.org/10.2307/1310258 https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4207(96)89789-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-4207(96)89789-3 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 117–120, july 2019 book review growth and identity: a deadlock? saroj giri  patrik oskarsson. 2018. landlock: paralysing dispute over minerals on adivasi land in india. canberra: australian national university press, isbn (print): 9781760462505; pp. 226 + xiv, usd 50 (print), open access (online) ‗grassroots‘ is mostly used in a positive sense, like when we talk about deepening democracy and community participation. but isn‘t a top-down apparatus of control and exploitation, such as that by, capital, also a variant of the notion of the ‗grassroots‘? when mining corporations destroy tribal rights and adivasi culture, is there not precisely this grassroots capital at work in the form of ‗local elites‘ (as mining contractors) who are busy minting money? here, i take a name: the karnataka based ‗bellary brothers‘ who, however, were very ‗global‘ given that they exported iron ore to china, brazil and other countries. some argue that it is easier to fight ‗global companies‘ like vedanta or global institutions like world bank than to fight  department of political science, faculty of social sciences, second floor, university of delhi, delhi – 110007; saroj_giri@yahoo.com copyright © giri 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.81 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.81 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [118] ‗your very own‘, home-grown variety — who is now perhaps the ‗new global‘ or glocal. the possibility of mapping out the contours of such struggles against ‗grassroots‘ capitalist elites is present all along in patrik oskarsson‘s landlock (2018). the monograph focuses on bauxite mining in andhra pradesh and explores the role of private company jindal steel works which is, it is pointed out, in active collusion with public sector companies and politicians. the author‘s intention through this detailed effort is to show that a ‗deadlock‘ can result between ‗growth‘ and ‗identity‘. the ‗identity‘ here is contiguous with tribal/adivasi culture and the notion of livelihood dependent on the land and forests. this deadlock, according to the author, however, does not do anyone any good. the deadlock takes hold because paraphernalia of ‗pro-people‘ legislation has in recent decades emboldened tribal claims to their traditional land and has also enabled them to cross swords with the mining mafia, who are backed by big companies and powerful politicians. the 1997 samatha judgement of the supreme court used by activists to block mining is a case in point. in the deadlock, civil society opposition to ‗growth‘ flourishes. this opposition, or even the movement as a whole, is not some idealised tribal or adivasi ‗resistance‘, but is caught up in the deadlock. for example, according to oskarsson, civil society opposition does not have any alternative plan for the good of the tribals. the companies at least appear to have a plan for the community, however flawed it may be. the central problem in such a scenario, he says, is the lack of free flow of information, which he calls as a ‗habermasian nightmare‘. in effect, landlock attempts to resolve the problem of strong entrenched interests of big capital, state players and glocal contractors as well as civil society opposition in a deadlock scenario, at the level of a formalistic model of ‗free flow‘ of information and knowledge. the problem of ‗power‘ seems to be displaced to that of ‗knowledge‘. i would not agree with this ‗framework‘. however, the book provides us with a lot of detail, close-up view of the ‗deadlock‘ and compelling description of the intentions and actions of the different players. the fact that the project could be stalled or delayed for so long by those opposing it also casts some doubt on the real power of the pro-project entrenched forces. the myriad court cases, litigation and the see-saw around the project implementation does nonetheless urge us towards considering the centrality of information; notably, how specific clauses of [119] saroj giri court cases shape what increasingly looks like a knowledge-based discursive and legalistic contest. that is why, i think, to give a long rope to the author, one tends to gravitate towards a habermasian framework. it is clear that this study suffers from the paucity of critical-political categories related to the new global. and here i suggest that the author reconsider the notion and probable roles of glocal elites, particularly keeping in mind the rise of china, india, brazil and in contexts where western capital is increasingly becoming marginal or at least getting majorly reconstituted with the rise of white ethno-nationalism and the decline of libertarian imperialist ideology.1 in india itself, the glocal elites are in sync with the rise of strongman-led authoritarian regimes. examples are of course jsw but also the ‗reddy brothers‘ or for that matter the saharanpurbased ‗gupta brothers‘ (also into mining) controlling the south african economy, and so on. an understanding of this new political economy needs many more concrete case studies on aspects such as mining in order to take political stock of the ‗new global‘ scenario. it is in keeping with this need that oskarsson‘s landlock should be recommended as it offers us straightforward and clear documentation of how such realities unfold on the ground. at one point in the book, we get a sense that the deadlock between growth and identity is mediated through money in which both ‗sides‘ are immersed. in a meeting with officials, the chief minister opines that tribals opposing the project just want money (pp. 58-59). the local officer-in-charge, however, points out that all that money being poured in the area does not reach the poor tribals but instead lines the pockets of the local contractors and a range of intermediaries. here we find that, rather than land or forest, money is the key. if i may say so, tribals have every ‗right‘ to want to have more things, more money. it appears adivasi marginalisation can be addressed if only they acquire more money! it is good to get rich, right? the problem gets displaced: the relationship between humans (the exploitative relationships of the mining companies towards the adivasi communities) now appears as the relationship between things (‗they have less money‘, or even, ‗they do not have schools‘). this displacement from relationships to things is what marx points out in his notion of ‗commodity fetishism‘ in capital, volume 1 (marx 1887/1954). the fetish powers of money and the fetishism of identity (its affective power) therefore appear to converge. 1 for more on this decline, see giri (2017). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [120] glocal elites would, of course, fete about their newly minted money, flashy cars or big fat weddings as part of their legitimate entitlement, and selfrespect and ‗dignity‘ for the community and tribal culture. the rise of mining contractors from within the local community would appear to converge ‗growth‘ and ‗identity‘. the fact that that mining project in question did not achieve official completion cannot be harped upon beyond a point. the ‗deadlock‘ would have already spawned so much of its own political economy, a good harvest, a good redistribution of the spoils! the deadlock is not between equality and inequality, but between different forms of inequality, where both identity and growth are enmeshed in the web of asymmetrical relations or, as the author prefers, the ‗habermasian nightmare‘. the book seems to want to provoke activists to rethink the vantage point from which they oppose projects such as the one considered here. references giri, saroj. 2017. ―parasitic anti-colonialism.‖ in the final countdown: europe, refugees and the left edited by jela krecic and slavoj zizek, 79-102. vienna: wiener festwochen. marx, karl. 1887/1954. capital: a critique of political economy. volume 1. moscow: progress publishers. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 33–41, april 2018 thematic essay democracy and the environment: an ecological economics research agenda prakash kashwan  1. introduction this essay offers a brief overview of some of the key arguments about the relationship between democracy and the environment. each of these arguments centres on the different dimensions of the relationship between democracy and the environment. the goal is to inform new research in ecological economics, so that it may engage more centrally with social science research—especially in the area of the political economy of institutions, which is my area of expertise. to this end, i begin with an overview of the assumptions that inform competing perspectives on the role of the state, markets, and citizens in environmental policymaking and enforcement.1 2. states and markets: two dominant pillars of environmental governance one dominant way of thinking about environmental governance considers environmental protection an uncontroversial and politically neutral policy agenda that the state is duty-bound to pursue. it holds that inadequate state capacity, especially in developing countries, is the main barrier to the success of environmental governance. this core assumption explains why  teaches comparative and international environmental policy and politics at the university of connecticut, storrs, ct 06269, usa; prakash.kashwan@uconn.edu copyright © kashwan 2018. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.8 1 scrutinizing the assumptions that inform a theory or model is at the core of positive theory building, and is not the same as engaging in interpretive analysis. a detailed discussion of these differences is beyond the scope of this essay. for an excellent scrutiny of some of the foundational concepts in environmental policy, see bromley (2004). https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.8 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] international agencies often emphasize the need to invest in a state‘s organizational capacity, and in its legal infrastructure, which is needed to support the effective enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. the role of democracy is circumscribed by the assumptions about the liberal state‘s core functions—for example, protecting the freedom of information and of the press, and the independence of the judiciary, which ensures that the state enforces its environmental laws within a rule-of-law framework. the institutions of democracy also have a representative function—that is, they are supposed to represent the interests of the majority. however, such interests are often precluded from national environmental governance, especially in developing countries, because of the underlying assumption that most citizens are too poor to care about the environment and are stuck in a poverty-environment trap. this assumption is the basis of ecological modernization, a thesis which remains popular in the field of environmental economics. a recent review of the scholarship on poverty traps shows that scholars of ecological economics are expanding their scope of analysis to include socio-ecological systems. even so, they do not pay adequate attention to the ‗interdependencies between ecological and social processes that affect the provision and use of natural capital and thus the persistence of poverty‘ (haider et al. 2018). market-based governance of the environment—using tools such as cap and trade, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (redd+), and payment for environmental services— has gained popularity in recent times. noticeably, it is informed by the core tenets of the liberal democratic framework, albeit with a significantly attenuated role for the state (sampford 2002). in this perspective, properly regulated markets, functioning under the strict oversight of regulators held accountable by public watchdogs, will respond to incentives for efficient and eco-friendly production processes. while state institutions and regulatory functions are critical to the effective functioning of markets in any context, the ideology of untethered free markets has infiltrated the arguments for market-based environmental governance (mccarthy 2012), which is increasingly being reduced to purely voluntarist actions on the part of market actors. however, peter dauvergne (2015) shows that relying on corporations to voluntarily make production and consumption processes more efficient encourages the ‗business of more‘—more revenues, more stores, more profits—as corporations invest the gains from efficient production in expanding their supply chain and finding new consumers. market-based environmentalism, as practised in most cases, is undermining efforts to promote social justice, economic inequality, and ecological integrity; yet, from an institutionalist perspective, markets can be governed [35] prakash kashwan in a variety of ways, and thereby lead to varying effects on the goals of ecological conservation and social justice (dauvergne 2015; corbera et al. 2007; lele et al. 2010; kashwan 2017). in markets, state intervention—such as through taxes, subsidies, or other kinds of incentives and disincentives—could play an important role in ecological protection (bagstad et al. 2007). yet, the success of such instruments depends critically on a well-functioning state machinery that— even without heavy-handed interventions—prompts non-state actors to comply. in societies with effective states, such regulatory success may create an impression that the state has very little role to play in environmental governance, and lead some—in countries without an effective state machinery—to overestimate the potential contribution of transparency and disclosure in ensuring market-based environmental governance (for a critical review of this, see haufler 2010). 3. varieties of environmentalism: implications for ecological economics earlier, i described the two dominant approaches to environmental governance. each assumes a monolithic and apolitical understanding of the environment. however, these assumptions are challenged by the scholarship on varieties of environmentalism, which posits at least two competing types: environmentalism of the rich, which goes beyond marketbased environmentalism to also include state-dominated approaches; and environmentalism of the poor, which puts poor people at the centre of environmental governance. the main feature of the environmentalism of the rich is that it values the environment for its aesthetic value and brackets it away from society, which it supposes is dominated by values of consumption. such assumptions— clearly a legacy of the compartmentalization of nature and society in postindustrial societies—prompt the likes of harvard evolutionary biologist e.o. wilson (2016) to advocate setting aside half the earth exclusively for the goals of nature conservation. we have extensive evidence to show that such enclosures trigger land conflicts, social injustices, and human rights violations (kashwan 2013; duffy 2016). however, what is less often discussed is that the enclosure-based model of protected areas has not been an outstanding conservation success either. a fine-grained analysis of british plants and animals showed that two of the main premises for setting up protected areas do not hold up to empirical evidence (prendergast et al. 1993): (1) species-rich areas (‗hotspots‘) frequently do not coincide for different taxa; and (2) many rare species do not occur in the most speciesecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] rich squares. recent research shows that little has changed in nearly a quarter century since. conservation biologists show that even if one were to assume that every species present in a legally designated area is effectively protected, 20 per cent of threatened species remain beyond the purview of protected areas, while the biodiversity in many protected areas is not critically endangered (rodrigues et al. 2004; naughton-treves et al. 2005). these findings reinforce the argument that the rapid growth in protected areas witnessed since the 1970s has been driven by political-economic interests—as opposed to a sincere effort to protect ecosystems (kashwan 2017a). therefore, contentions over protected areas are about whose vision of—and interests in—the natural environment this model of conservation promotes, and not about trade-offs between the environment and development. environmentalism of the poor presents an alternative lens for thinking about these debates. in this perspective, environmentalism is a product of ‗actions and concerns in situations where the environment is a source of livelihood‘ (martinez-alier 2014, 240). in the face of threats to their livelihood, those affected are likely to act, especially under the conditions of successful institutions of democracy. former minister of environment and forests (india) jairam ramesh refers to this as ‗livelihood environmentalism‘ (ramesh 2010). a focus on livelihood dependence, as opposed to a focus on the poor, reduces the risk that poor people‘s interests in and views about the environment are ‗essentialized.‘ to meet livelihood goals, productive use of environmental resources is required. to develop models of environmental governance that promote such productive use, interdisciplinary research is needed into the links between social justice and concerns of land productivity; protection of water bodies and of grazing lands and forests; and preservation of sacred places (ramesh 2015). this points to a productive agenda for ecological economics research that links wildlife and biodiversity conservation to productive, healthy, and socially just landscapes. agricultural practices developed by indigenous and other rural groups often existed in tandem with the non-domesticated parts of natural landscapes. such practices are captured in the phrase ‗agrarian environments‘ (agrawal and sivaramakrishnan 2000), and in recent arguments about reconsidering the binary of land and water within the rubric of ‗hybrid environments‘ (lahiri-dutt 2014). research by ecologists in tropical landscapes shows that the best conservation outcomes occur when fragmented biodiverse landscapes are surrounded by high-quality agriculture matrices. ecologists argue that small-scale farming coupled with alternative agro-ecological techniques—as opposed to industrial monocultural agriculture—lead to such outcomes (perfecto and vandermeer 2010). these arguments about [37] prakash kashwan the intricate links between nature and society question the applicability of popular models of land-sparing and forest transition to most parts of the world (for an excellent argument, see, tscharntke et al. 2012). the brief discussion above suggests that there are diverse ways of conceptualizing the nature-society relationship, each with significantly different implications about the links between the environment, development, and social justice. some authors have used these insights to do critical scholarship that deploys an interpretive methodology. the fundamental insight from this literature is that different conceptualizations of the environment inform competing perspectives about environmental governance. by bringing concrete interdisciplinary insights to these debates, and thereby illuminating them, ecological economists can help policymakers determine how the different configurations of nature-society relations would affect the goals of social justice and ecological restoration. making such research findings available is an extremely valuable activity in a society, even though political and policy processes heavily influence how policy problems are framed, policies designed, and programmes implemented (kashwan 2017). this brings us back to the role that institutions of democracy have to play in environmental conservation, and the implications for ecological economics research, which are the topics of the concluding section below. 4. institutions of democracy and environmental protection the highly schematized arguments presented above suggest that effective environmental governance rarely results from thinking about nature and society in isolation or antagonism and relying on the fiat of the state, or the invisible hand of markets, which are the dominant ways of thinking about ecological conservation. conventional approaches to forest and wildlife conservation that rely on enclosures and exclusions do not yield superior conservation outcomes but impose significant social costs. the existence and well-being of nature and society are closely intertwined, and can be managed only by cultivating a set of social, cultural, and economic relations. in the complex societies of developing countries, however, social, cultural, and economic relations contribute to ecological stewardship only if such relations are institutionalized appropriately—in this context, institutionalization means a society-wide acceptance of the rules, norms, and conventions meant to steer nature-society interactions. as discussed above, one of the core functions of democracy is the representation of social interests within the political and policy arenas. even ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] though democracies with majoritarian voting systems are meant to represent the interests of the majority, they often fail at it, and end up with systems that are dominated by powerful interests. worldwide, new empirical research shows, economic inequality—coupled with poor democratic institutions—contributes to the designation of a larger proportion of national territories as protected areas; yet, in well-established democracies, inequality acts as a barrier against designation of protected areas (kashwan 2017a). inequality presents a significant barrier to both democracy and environmental governance. when seen in conjunction with the findings reported above—high-quality agriculture matrices are important for successful conservation outcomes—these findings present a unique research opportunity for ecological economists. the discussion above brings up a research question worth pursuing: in the presence of appropriate social relations and institutions, does the diversity of human interests (political and economic pluralism) support biological diversity? future research could test this hypothesis by combining ecological and social science research. students of ecology could examine the scale at which the diversity of human interests may not only coexist with biological diversity but promote it. imagine two cross-cutting matrices: the diversity of human interests intersecting with biodiversity (technically speaking, gamma diversity defined as a function of the within-habitat diversity, that is, alpha diversity, and the cross-habitat diversity, that is, beta diversity) (swift et al. 2004). these relationships can be tested through a combination of ecological and social science research within settings that offer opportunities to study the effects of different types of institutional arrangements. the following concrete examples illustrate how such a research programme might be operationalized in rural and urban settings. the first illustration, of the institutionalization of innovative rules of social and environmental engagement, relates to the provisions of critical wildlife habitats (cwh) in india‘s forest rights act (fra). if a committee of biological and social scientists, elected representatives, and social activists set up specifically for the purpose concludes after investigation that the exercise of forest rights in a forestland may cause ‗irreversible damage‘ to critically endangered biodiversity or wildlife, that area may be declared a cwh. in such cases, people living in a cwh may be relocated, but only after their forest and land rights have been recorded and the state guarantees livelihood security for the affected families. the fra‘s cwh provisions can greatly enhance the legitimacy of conservation institutions and create many opportunities for policy-relevant research on the relationship between social organization and biodiversity conservation. however, such opportunities are being frittered away at the behest of a state machinery that has gotten used to a territorial—as opposed to an [39] prakash kashwan institutional—approach to biodiversity and wildlife conservation (see kashwan 2016). the evolution of ‗eco-political‘ change in denmark presents another interesting illustration of the research programme proposed above. læssøe (2007, 231–232) argues that denmark‘s environmental governance has evolved from a grassroots movement—characterized by contestation of values and political ideology—to professionally and commercially mediated consensus in favour of laissez faire. at the same time, as evident in the debates over ecological tax reform (etr), denmark continues to work to secure the widest possible social acceptability. klok et al. (2006) attribute the limited acceptance of etr to their observation that etr proponents oversold the environmental benefits while not investing enough to popularize its social and economic benefits. these findings challenge many of the popular beliefs about scandinavian ecosocialism. a consideration of values, social relations, ideology, and politics is central to reimagining the relationship between ecology and economy (söderbaum 1999). even so, it is important to mention that none of these factors operate in isolation from other socio-economic factors or biophysical processes. addressing the effects of these various intersectionsrequires innovative research methodologies that cut across the divides of natural and social sciences (see, for instance, swyngedouw 2004). a consideration of the relationship between the political economy of institutions and environmental change opens up productive opportunities for research and scholarship, including for those interested in the emerging agenda of urban sustainability (elmqvist et al. 2013). ecological economists are best placed to examine how socio-economic and political factors mediate the framing, design, and implementation of policies and institutions meant to foster socially just environmental protection efforts. acknowledgements the author gratefully acknowledges the comments on an initial draft by two anonymous reviewers. references agrawal, arun and k. sivaramakrishnan. 2000. agrarian environments: resources, representations, and rule in india. durham: duke univ. press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822396062 bagstad, kenneth j., kevin stapleton and john r d‘agostino. 2007. ―taxes, subsidies, and insurance as drivers of united states coastal development.‖ ecological economics 63: 285-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.09.019 https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822396062 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.09.019 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] corbera, e., brown, k. and w.n. adger. 2007. 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study vinay sankar abstract: inequities in access to water across economic classes and social groups have been aggravated by the commodification of ecosystems. institutional governance of small freshwater bodies, like ponds, is under tremendous stress and often cannot cope with increasing pressures from market forces and state interventions. recently conceptualized as a “composite resource”, ponds are vital entities in the ecological, economic, and socio-political landscape. the central objective of this study is to understand the access and utilization patterns of rural community ponds in kerala, india, by employing a survey method. i attempt to integrate the literature on commons and political ecology, review the institutional arrangements governing rural public ponds, assess their ecological health, and situate the empirical evidence in a theoretical framework of the commons. i find universal access to these water bodies, which cuts across social and economic groups, for domestic uses such as drinking, bathing, washing, and cleaning; this utilization has a class and gender dimension. a majority of the surveyed ponds showed signs of robust ecological health in terms of total dissolved solids and ph values, functional embankments, and the absence of any polluting economic activity in their vicinity. i also find that factors such as institutional arrangements, the ecological integrity of community ponds, and the extent of diversification of water sources determine how the pond is utilized for various domestic purposes. keywords: political ecology; commons; rural ponds; countermovement; panchayats; kerala  department of humanities and social sciences, birla institute of technology and science (bits), pilani, hyderabad campus. jawahar nagar, kapra mandal, medchal district 500078, telangana, india. vinay.sankar@gmail.com copyright © sankar 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:vinay.sankar@gmail.com ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] 1. introduction small freshwater bodies like ponds play a vital role in water provisioning, especially for the poor (cornea, zimmer, and véron 2016). in the urban context, ponds have been recently conceptualized as a “composite resource” made of water (for various domestic purposes like bathing, washing, and cleaning, as well as for livelihoods like fish rearing); land (for reclamation later); and common space (for recreation and social gathering) (zimmer, véron and cornea 2020). at this scale, ponds follow the characteristics of commons with their associated properties of rivalry and excludability. traditional commons, such as forests, water bodies, pasture lands, and fisheries, are critical resources or infrastructure sustaining millions of lives and livelihoods worldwide, especially for the income poor (jodha 1986). commons or common pool resources (cprs) are defined as a “natural or man-made resource system that is sufficiently large to make it costly to exclude potential beneficiaries from obtaining benefits from its use” (ostrom 1990, 30). cprs are broadly considered resources accessible to the whole community over which no individual has exclusive property rights (jodha 1986). thus, small freshwater bodies, such as lakes and ponds, are vital entities in the ecological, economic, and sociopolitical landscape. despite their vital importance, ponds and lakes continue to be vulnerable to destruction and degradation. zimmer, véron, and cornea (2020) state that the destruction, degradation, and restoration of ponds are not merely biophysical processes but ones that signify sociopolitical and institutional changes. institutions are conceived as the “rules of the game” (north 1990) or as “prescriptions for organising structured interactions” (ostrom 2005) while being essentially “distributional mechanisms that are power-laden” (mahoney and thelen 2010). the problem is that the institutional governance of small freshwater bodies is under tremendous stress and often fails to cope with increasing pressures from market forces and state interventions (nayak and berkes 2011; unnikrishnan, manjunatha, and nagendra 2016; nayak, oliveira, and berkes 2014; bharucha 2018). studies on india’s lakes and ponds have so far been confined to either large cities like bengaluru (unnikrishnan, manjunatha, and nagendra 2016; d'souza and nagendra 2011), hyderabad (mariganti 2011), and kolkata (bose 2015), or to small towns like bardhaman in west bengal (cornea, zimmer, and véron 2016) and navsari in gujarat (zimmer, véron, and cornea 2020). the status of india’s village ponds is largely understudied. therefore, in this study, i aim to identify the patterns of relationships between rural ponds held in common and proximate communities. i [69] vinay sankar attempt to understand how the politics of water in terms of access and utilization patterns impact social equity and ecological integrity. in this regard, i address the following questions: 1. what is the relationship between rural community ponds and proximate communities—who has access and for what purposes? 2. what is the ecological health status of rural ponds in the study area? 3. what is the institutional arrangement governing them? 4. how can we theoretically situate these small freshwater bodies from a commons perspective? we also seek to find the conditions under which various social groups and communities have the “ability” to access and utilize the rural pond waters. access has been defined as the “ability to benefit” without solely focusing on property rights (ribot and peluso 2003). schlager and ostrom (1992) define access as the right to enter a specified physical property. utilization or withdrawal is the right to obtain products such as water, fodder, and fish. they consider rights to be actions that are authorized and rules as prescriptions creating that authorization. ostrom (2005) theorized that for collective action and community governance of natural resources, the collective benefits should be higher than the collective costs. however, as i argue in this study, the critical question is whose costs and benefits matter in the institutionalized collective action. nonetheless, ostrom’s empirical work disproved a widespread belief that commons invariably led to destruction. she demonstrates that common property management by the users themselves could lead to democratic and ecological governance beyond markets and states (ostrom 2010). nevertheless, the question here is: why go beyond the state? why can the state not be a part of the commons arrangement? as peter (2021) argues, access to vital goods and resources should be provided by the state, and that state should support commons and commoning. he maintains that while “commons is an alternative to democratic capitalism, this alternative does not exist beyond markets and states and instead lies in transforming these institutions through commons and commoning” (peter 2021, 30). in the case of rural ponds in the study site in kerala, the state plays a pivotal role in the institutionalization of community resource governance. the literature is divided on the role of the state in the process of “sociophysical constructions of hydraulic environments” (swyngedouw 2009). birkenholtz (2016) and snorek, moser, and renaud (2017) argue that the state often abdicates its solemn responsibility to uphold traditional rights ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] and sometimes intervenes to the detriment of collective rights. however, mansbridge (2014) and ramachandraiah (2001) posit that the state has a role in governing the commons. mansbridge (2014) argues that there is a vital need to build an institutional structure incorporating the role of the state along with grounded local knowledge. ramachandraiah (2001) contends that judicial interventions at the highest level, which safeguard fundamental rights related to safe drinking water, would improve the general confidence in institutions. though the institutional approach to analysing common property management is useful in tracing out the rules and norms involved, it has been critiqued for not considering aspects of power and political economy (agrawal 2007). vos et al. (2020) state that the ostromian conceptual frameworks, like institutional analysis and design and social and ecological systems, fail to highlight the political dimensions of common pool resources and underlying social movements. however, political ecology perspectives provide a powerful lens to analyse the role of the state and markets in community natural resource governance (osborne 2015). following agrawal (2007), i attempt to integrate the literature on commons and political ecology. political ecology helps us to examine the relationship between economics, politics, and nature by critically situating issues in a historical and contextual setting (robbins 2012). it interrogates how political, social, and economic factors impact nature or the environment at different scales—like local, regional, and global—by examining environmental problems, concepts, and actors (bryant and bailey 2005). for example, a political-ecological view of water considers a “close correlation” between hydrological cycle changes at the local, regional, and global scales and political, social, and economic power relations (swyngedouw 2009). swyngedouw asserts that “hydraulic environments are socio-physical constructions that are actively and historically produced” (swyngedouw 2009, 56). a political ecology perspective of water uses the lens of power to analyse the intersection of water, infrastructure, and political rule to identify whose decision-making shapes water systems with due consideration to the history, culture, and socioeconomic practices of the context under study (boelens 2014). it engages with the literature on the commodification and neoliberalization of nature by attending to the biophysical nature of resources and power relations (osborne 2015). polanyi (2001), elaborating on the commodification of nature, terms nature as a fictitious commodity to underscore the fact that nature is not a commodity produced for markets. to polanyi, production is the “interaction of man and nature”, and binding them to the vagaries of supply [71] vinay sankar and demand is akin to commodification. “countermovement” is essentially a movement towards decommodification (kentikelenis 2017). the commodification of ecosystems such as forests and water, using various “valuation” techniques, has not led to better, more equitable governance systems (heynen and robbins 2005). kentikelenis (2017) finds that countermovements are usually manifestations at the macro or national level to achieve the end goal of decommodification. however, he argues that local-level countermovements attempting to protect livelihoods from the assault of state and market forces demand attention. micro foundations based on the community’s material, political, and sociocultural factors are significant in forming a countermovement (kentikelenis 2017). attempts to commodify nature would often create a countermovement to protect the commons from getting trapped in the logic of the market (kallis, gómez-baggethun, and zografos 2013). especially in the case of elements, like water, with its nature of “fluidity, continuity and temporal variability”, commodification is harder (bakker 2005). nayak and berkes (2011), unnikrishnan, manjunatha, and nagendra (2016), nayak, oliveira, and berkes (2014), bharucha (2018), and others who studied commons such as lakes and small-scale fisheries have found the lack of recognition of traditional community rights to be a significant issue. it has led to exclusion, conflict, degradation, and even the disappearance of such systems, and marginalization and poverty among dependent communities. they are emphatic about situating a case in its historical context to understand the contemporary picture of the commons ecosystem. agrawal (2014) also maintains that future research strands on the commons need a more historical, reflective, and critical look. this study is an attempt in this direction. building on the theoretical framework of the commons (ostrom 2009) and the conceptual framework of the countermovement (polanyi 2001), i attempt to identify the patterns of relationship between small freshwater bodies, such as rural community ponds, and proximate communities. the study draws inspiration from a series of path-breaking and seminal works, from jodha (1989)—who used marginal analysis (bi-variate tables and the linear regression technique) to verify the broad trends associated with the access and utilization patterns of cprs in india—to agarwal (2010), who analysed the political economy of women’s presence in community forestry using linear and logistic regression tools. similarly, in this study, i employ quantitative analysis as a tool to identify the patterns of relationship between the pond commons and its users. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] moreover, i attempt to contribute to recent trends in the literature (kashwan 2016; bennett et al. 2018), which bring together two diverse conceptualizations of power and institutions to understand how they shape each other. i aim to build on the institutional analysis by ostrom and others by contextualizing institutions in the micro-level power structures of caste, class, and gender. 2. research context i conducted the research in kerala, as it is well known for undertaking reforms in water, land, and local democracy. as krishnan and george (2009) note in their study on irrigation tanks in kerala’s palakkad district, small freshwater bodies like ponds and larger structures like tanks were impacted by reforms in land and local self-governments (panchayats). the rural public ponds in kerala are the creation of a set of reforms, starting from the land reforms of the 1950s and 1960s to the reforms in decentralized democracy, which began in the 1990s. many private ponds became public ponds through the land reforms, as land ceiling restrictions forced the landed gentry to let go of these water bodies and place them under state control. various water policies at the national and provincial levels have had implications for how communities treat water. the kerala state water policy (2008) states, “water is not a commodity and it is part of an ecosystem for the benefit of all”. similarly, the devolution of powers to the local self-government is understood to have a substantial impact on local water commons. the political and historical context of kerala, which has shaped the governance of rural ponds, makes it a relevant and important field site. in the context of southern india, commons are known as poramboke—a term for lands reserved for public purposes or communal use in villages, as per section 4, the kerala land conservancy act, 1957 (department of revenue 1957). in the official land revenue records, such common lands are classified as “wastelands” (jodha 2000). an elementary examination of the revenue classification of “common land” in kerala reveals that entities such as “thodu (irrigation channels), kulam (pond), river, bund, kayal (backwaters), sea, road, kavu (sacred grove), or accreted/unsurveyed land is considered porumboke” (foundation for ecological security 2014, 16). in the case of kerala, the kerala panchayat raj act, 1994, ensured that local selfgovernments are vested with considerable powers concerning the governance of water resources. i conducted this study in the district of palakkad in central kerala, as when it comes to the total number of public ponds or reservoirs, palakkad has the [73] vinay sankar highest number—close to a one-third share in the state (government of kerala 2019). as per the panchayat level statistics, prepared by the department of economics and statistics, government of kerala, there are 854 panchayat ponds and 88 gram panchayats (gps) in palakkad district (government of kerala 2019). i identified 30 panchayat ponds using a multi-stage sampling method (figure 1) (table 10). figure 1: the location of surveyed panchayat ponds in palakkad, kerala, india source: c s saneesh, helmholtz centre for environmental research – ufz apart from identifying the access and utilization patterns of rural ponds, i intend to identify the institutional arrangement over these ponds: the rules of use and the process of framing them, the social and economic background of the proximate households, and the ecological health indicators of the ponds. 3. materials and methods 3.1 data collection i formulated a multi-stage sampling procedure to identify the final set of panchayat ponds to be surveyed. out of the 14 districts in kerala, i deliberately selected palakkad district at first, as it has the highest number of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] public ponds in kerala (government of kerala 2019). secondly, from each of the panchayat blocks (except attappady, a high-altitude block having an insignificant number of panchayat ponds), i chose the panchayats with the highest number of ponds. a few panchayats i chose in the original sample had been transformed into municipal areas. in such cases, i selected the nearest gram panchayat to ensure sample spread. finally, from each of those panchayats, i selected one survey pond randomly. i generated a list of common ponds in each of the chosen panchayats using a participatory appraisal method. the data available on community ponds at the district and panchayat levels had discrepancies in numbers, names, and location. finding the exact location of the community pond was possible only through a participatory appraisal with the user community. using a lottery method, i selected a pond randomly from the list generated after the participatory appraisal. i chose households for the survey randomly within the panchayat ward of the pond. from the pilot study, it was evident that a majority of the users of the pond lived in the same ward as the pond. the survey instruments used for this study are a household-level survey questionnaire and an observation schedule at the pondscape level. i administered a structured, coded questionnaire to a self-identified decisionmaker of the household. the questions were focused on the social and demographic characteristics of the decision-maker, the access and utilization patterns of panchayat ponds, and institutional governance over such common ponds. before the actual survey, the questionnaire was translated into the local language of malayalam. it was then tested for its relevance and clarity in the district of thrissur, adjacent to the district of palakkad. i surveyed 121 households living in the proximity of 30 panchayat ponds across the district of palakkad. 3.2 demographic characteristics out of the 121 survey respondents, 63 were female, and 58 were male, a near equal distribution, which enabled a gendered analysis of access and utilization patterns (table 11). the sample population i studied shows a distribution of 84%, 12%, and 4% for hindus, muslims, and christians. according to the directorate of census operations, government of kerala (2014), hindus constitute 67% of the population in palakkad district, followed by 29% muslims and 4% christians. according to the 2011 census of india, the state’s population comprises 54.73% hindus, 26.56% muslims, and 18.38% christians. since my fieldwork from december 2019 to february 2020 coincided with a major resistance movement against a discriminatory citizenship law—the citizenship amendment act, 2019— brought in by the government of india, quite a few minority households were reluctant to participate in the survey. [75] vinay sankar caste-wise, more than half of the respondents (53%) belonged to the other backward classes (obc) category. obcs form the majority of india’s marginalized population. close to 50% of the respondents had daily wages as their primary source of income. approximately 60% of the respondents belonged to the priority and high-priority section in the public distribution system (pds) of the government of kerala. the economic category that the respondent’s pds card indicates is a robust representation of the economic class of the respondent households. i found that 78% of the priority pds cardholders were landless, and as much as 69% of them were daily wage earners; 64% of the total number of households were landless as well. 3.3 indicators of institutional and ecosystem health in their study to understand the link between collective action and forest management efforts, chakrabarti et al. (2001) developed an index using a set of 18 forest management activities, such as planting, harvesting, and marketing. a group earns 0.5 points for the adoption of each management activity, and the actual implementation of collective rules earns one point per activity. on similar lines, i attempted to construct composite scores related to the ecological health of the pond and the collective action around it. based on field observation, i factored seven social and ecological health indicators to create a composite ecological score (ces) for each of the 30 surveyed ponds. they are the presence of aquatic weeds (mostly salvinia molesta in the present case); evidence of minor erosion; recreational usage; evidence of open defecation; the presence of polluting economic activity near the surveyed pond; and the total dissolved solids (tds) levels and ph levels of the pond waters (kumar and padhy 2015). i conducted a chemical analysis recording the ph and tds levels of each of the community ponds using portable, digital ph and tds meters in january and february 2020. the ponds were awarded one point each for the absence of aquatic weeds, absence of erosion (indicating a functional embankment protecting the pond), usage for recreational purposes, lack of signs of open defecation, and absence of polluting economic activity (such as brick kilns) in the pond vicinity. i assigned ponds zero points for the presence of contaminating agents and lack of recreational usage. apart from these five indicators, i ranked the panchayat ponds based on the tds and ph levels, which show the chemical composition of the pond waters. clean, potable water would have a tds value of less than 300 ppm (world health organization 2003, 1) and a ph of 7. having clean water improves the chances of the utilization of the pond for a variety of purposes. as the mean tds level for the 30 ponds was 103 (table 1), i gave all ponds that scored less than 103 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] one point, and the others scored zero. similarly, ponds having ph levels ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 (7 being the ideal ph level and 0.5 the sample variance) were assigned one point and the others, zero. table 1: select determinants of ecological health of the ponds s.no indicators of the ecological health of ponds number of ponds percentage of ponds 1 absence of erosion of the pond bank/presence of embankments 20 67 2 absence of aquatic weeds in the pond 11 37 3 absence of open defecation in the vicinity of the pond 28 93 4 absence of polluting economic activity in the vicinity of the pond 22 73 5 use for recreational purposes such as swimming 23 77 6 tds levels less than 103 ppm (mean level among 30 ponds) 22 73 7 ph levels between 6.5 and 7.5 14 47 note: percentages are based on the denominator of n = 30 source: field observation by the author; tds and ph levels measured using electronic meters. i gave panchayat ponds scoring a maximum of seven points a composite score of 100. two surveyed ponds, one in koppam and another in karimpuzha, scored a cent percentile. ponds scoring a six out of seven scored a total of 86. seven ponds scored an 86. six ponds held the thirdhighest score, 71, for having scored five points out of a possible seven. the mean score of the 30 ponds was 65.19, and only three ponds scored less than 30. the next step was to compute a composite institutional score (cis) to capture the importance of the organizational aspects of pond systems. the primary focus of this study was public ponds under the custodianship of local panchayats. local panchayats in kerala have a high level of discretionary power and accountability toward citizens (venugopal and yilmaz 2009). the panchayats in kerala were entrusted with the power to manage water bodies within their jurisdiction under the kerala panchayati raj act, 1994. i tried to quantify the aspect of collective action in and [77] vinay sankar around the surveyed panchayat ponds. the institutional score was primarily based on ostromian design principles (ostrom 1990). i asked the respondents if there are specific rules for the access and extraction of water and what the role of the gram panchayat is in formulating access and utilization rules, monitoring, sanctioning and conflict resolution, and participation in deliberations on panchayat ponds. table 2: select determinants of collective action s.no factors of institutional strength number of respondents that answered in the affirmative 1 existence of rules for extraction of pond waters 115 (95%) 2 gp has a role in framing access rules 117 (97%) 3 gp has a role in framing usage rules 116 (96%) 4 gp ensures non-violation of the above rules 117 (97%) 5 gp able to punish rule violation 121 (100%) 6 gp has a role in conflict resolution 115 (95%) 7 gp is the significant place of discussion on ponds 114 (94%) 8 respondent attends discussions on ponds in gp 100 (83%) 9 respondent speaks in such discussions in gp 90 (74%) 10 user communities are the major beneficiaries of pond 117 (97%) note: percentages in parenthesis have a common denominator of n = 121 source: field survey by the author i assigned the 11 gram panchayats who scored a perfect 10 a composite score of 100. thirteen panchayats scored 90 or above, and the mean score of all panchayats was close to 93. to capture elements of a potential countermovement (polanyi 2001), i also asked specific questions related to resistance to unsustainable or unjust usage of the pond (such as commercial-scale fish rearing in public ponds, diversion of pond waters for major irrigation, and dumping of waste) through deliberations in the panchayat. while in 24 panchayats out of the 30 surveyed, respondents did not recall any incidents of resistance to an adverse rule change in the recent past, 14 respondents belonging to six panchayats mentioned how they had pushed back unsustainable or inequitable usage of ponds through formal ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] protests in the panchayat. except for one, these 14 respondents were dalit bahujans from the sc or obc categories. finally, i calculated a diversification score called the composite diversification score (cds), which indicates the extent to which households were diversified with respect to access to various water sources for domestic purposes (table 3). while developing an urban water security indicator, jensen and huijuan (2018) included a diversity indicator based on the contribution of alternative sources along with the major source of water supply. i developed the cds along those lines. if a respondent has multiple sources for any usage or purpose, i assign them one point, and if they have only one, i give them zero. the aggregate diversification score is computed by adding the individual scores for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing, and cleaning. therefore, if a respondent has diversified sources (two or more) for all the purposes, they score a cent percentile. nine such respondents (7%) had total and complete diversification. thirty respondents (25%) had zero diversification, as they only had a single source for each of the usages. they are mostly landless daily wage earners, owning just their homestead plots. a low overall cds (the mean cds is 37.52) shows the relative scarcity of water in the region (table 3). cds could also be considered an intervening variable between cis and ces in the present context. table 3: number of households having diversified water sources for various usages drinking diversificatio n cooking diversificatio n bathing diversificatio n washing diversificatio n cleaning diversificatio n 44 (36%) 37 (31%) 52 (43%) 47 (39%) 47 (39%) notes: percentages in parenthesis have a common denominator of n = 121 source: field survey by the author i analyse the patterns of relationships among the demographic, institutional, and ecosystem variables in the following sections. 3.4 data analysis following srinivasan and nuthalapati (2019), i considered the determinants of water usage to be the social and economic features of the respondent households and other factors that may influence the access and utilization of panchayat ponds (table 11). the number of household members, [79] vinay sankar including children, pond-dependent households, and the possession of livestock indicate the “load” factor on the pond in terms of the number of users. various studies using the perspective of the commons highlight that community members without traditional user rights over the resources tend to be excluded from potential benefits. therefore, the first principle in the ostromian design framework is defining user and resource boundaries. i included factors such as house ownership and duration of residence in the current location to test the relationship. access and utilization are influenced by the distance from the pond to the nearest motorable road. the surveyed ponds that existed in the middle of paddy fields, far away from the road, seemed to have non-optimal biophysical conditions and limited utilization. logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the impact of ecosystem variables and indicators of institutional strength and relative scarcity on utilization patterns of panchayat ponds in palakkad. the motivation of this study was to identify the statistical patterns of the relationship between the rural community ponds and their users in india. when it comes to vital ecological assets like rural ponds, questions like who has access and for what purpose are hardly discussed in academic literature. the regression analysis was necessary to verify and quantify the utilization patterns of these ponds. understanding how access and utilization patterns differ along the axes of caste, class, and gender could be useful for scaling up resource governance models. the statistical significance of variables could have policy as well as future research relevance. in general, studies positioned in a political ecological framework have been criticized for offering critique than “generating or contributing to more concrete policy and governance solutions” (bennett et al. 2018, 332). this study is an attempt to bring into conversation the theoretical strands of commons/cpr and political ecology to offer policy-relevant research. 3.4.1 model following gujarati and porter (1999), i fitted binary logistic regression models to identify the predictors of utilization of panchayat ponds involving dummy dependent variables, with continuous categories. specification of the bivariate logistic regression function for panchayat pond utilization is as follows:  the number of pond-dependent households is only an approximate figure based on household interviews. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] logit(p) = log (p/1-p) (1) let pi = pr (y = 1/x = xi) (2) pr (y = 1/x) = expx’b / 1 + ex’b = log (pi/1-pi) = logit (pi) = β0 + β1xi (3) where pi is the probability of utilizing the pond (dependent variable), xis are independent or predictor variables, β0 is the intercept, and β1 is the regression coefficient. the predictors included indicators of ecosystem health, institutional strength, and level of diversification of water sources. in this model, the dependent-variable utilization of panchayat ponds is a binary categorical variable, and the independent/predictor variables include indicators of the ecological health of the ponds, institutional strength of the panchayats, and the extent of diversification of water sources. i ran separate regressions for each of the major usages of the panchayat pond. in the regression models, i employed three variables as independent variables following stoltzfus (2011). a rule of 10 states, “for every independent variable, there should be no fewer than 10 outcomes for each binary category (e.g., alive/deceased), with the least common outcome determining the maximum number of independent variables” (stoltzfus 2011, 1101). accordingly, for each binary category (in this case, usage/nonusage for a particular category), the smallest outcome is 31. this figure is taken from the primary data that indicated that 90 members used the pond for cleaning and 31 did not. for each, bathing and washing, 89 respondents used the community pond. therefore, the logistic regression model could reasonably have three independent variables for a sample size of 121. 3.4.2 hypotheses as far as the overall position of the existing literature reviewed in the introduction is concerned, we might expect that the access and utilization of common water sources are mediated by social and economic variables, such as the caste, class, religion, and gender of the dependent population. the utilization could also be influenced by the relative scarcity and the availability of alternative water sources for various usages. the higher the level of diversification of water sources, the lower the utilization of ponds for various purposes. we can expect the level of dependency—in terms of the number of users—to impact the utilization frequency and ecosystem sustainability, given that the pond ecosystems under review are small in size, ranging from a few cents to less than two acres. the larger the dependency, the lower the ecological health parameters of the pond. regarding the [81] vinay sankar ecosystem health of the panchayat ponds, we can expect differences across the various locations of the district. i tested the hypothesized predictor variables for statistical issues like multicollinearity. however, none of the model equations showed multicollinearity among the predictor variables when tested using the variance inflation factor (vif). 4. results 4.1 access and utilization patterns there was universal access to the panchayat pond in the surveyed panchayats, cutting across religion, caste, gender, and class, for the domestic purposes of drinking, cooking, bathing, washing, and cleaning.2 however, there was a universal ban on utilizing the pond for commercial purposes. the overall utilization patterns show that domestic purposes such as bathing, washing and cleaning are prioritized over irrigation and commercial purposes.3 out of the 121 respondents, 89 (73.6%) used the community pond for bathing and washing, while 90 (74.4%) members used it for cleaning purposes. except in a couple of extreme cases, the dependent households did not utilize the ponds for drinking and cooking. the average number of households dependent on a pond is close to 60. studies such as krishnan and george (2009) have found that nonrecognition of ecological connections between land and water and “enclosures” of water within private land parcels has contributed to water scarcity in palakkad and elsewhere in kerala. the primary survey data too shows that more than 22% of the respondents have an insufficient amount of drinking water. in addition, 22% of the respondents receive drinking water only seasonally. to overcome this scarcity caused by socioecological factors, the community depends on the panchayat ponds for their domestic needs. for drinking and cooking, own open well and panchayat pipe connections were the primary sources for respondent households. while 53% of households depended on their open wells, close to 45% relied on the panchayat pipe connection. 2 utilization is recorded if any of the household members use the pond for a specific purpose. “washing” primarily indicates washing of clothes, while “cleaning” indicates using the pond water for washing dishes, cleaning automobiles, etc. 3 frequencies are based on the recall for the previous week. afterwards, i extrapolate these to the number of times in a year, factoring in the number of months of non-usage and nonavailability of water in the pond, if applicable. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] almost three-fourths of the respondents utilized the panchayat pond— along with other sources such as wells and pipes—for bathing, washing, and cleaning. for irrigation, most of the cultivating households relied on canal irrigation. 4.2 association between pond utilization and demography: correlations and cross-tabulations significantly, ecological and institutional scores are positively and considerably correlated. in the case of the domestic purposes of bathing, washing, and cleaning, the composite ecological score is significantly and negatively correlated, though the coefficient is negligible (table 4). this result could be interpreted thus: the higher the frequency of domestic usage, the lower the composite ecological score. on the other hand, the institutional score is directly and significantly associated with domestic usage frequencies but not with irrigation frequency. the domestic usage frequencies and institutional strength are positively and considerably associated. nonetheless, no such association exists between domestic or irrigation frequencies and cds. domestic utilization is not related to the distance of the pond to the road, the educational attainment of the respondents, or their household size. another interesting association is between the number of household members and the extent of diversification of water sources. it shows that the number of members in the household and cds are positively correlated. the household size is not associated with the frequency of utilization, indicating that the number of householders does not matter when utilizing the pond. at the same time, the number of dependent households is positively and significantly correlated to washing frequencies. the findings do not provide evidence that religion and caste matter in bathing, washing, cleaning, and irrigation purposes (table 5). gender matters only in the case of usage for washing. economic class, indicated by the main occupation, is pertinent in all domestic and irrigation purposes. accordingly, the hypothesis that there is no relationship between class status and pond utilization stands rejected. apart from class, respondent perceptions of the cleanliness of the panchayat ponds show a significant relationship with domestic purposes, while this is immaterial with respect to irrigation usage. class alone matters in the case of pond utilization for irrigation. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 67-102, july 2022 table 4: correlation matrix s . n o v a ri a b le s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 b at h in g u ti li ty fr eq u en cy — .9 6 3 * * .9 4 6 * * 0 .0 7 6 .2 1 7 * 0 .0 5 1 -0 .0 2 4 0 .1 2 2 -0 .1 7 1 .2 3 1 * -. 2 7 9 * * -0 .0 9 8 2 w as h in g u ti li ty fr eq u en cy .9 6 3 * * — .9 8 0 * * 0 .0 5 1 .2 6 5 * * 0 .0 0 7 -0 .0 4 2 0 .1 4 1 -. 2 0 6 * .2 0 9 * -. 2 7 0 * * -0 .1 2 5 3 c le an in g u ti li ty fr eq u en cy .9 4 6 * * .9 8 0 * * — 0 .0 4 6 .2 2 3 * 0 .0 1 4 -0 .0 3 2 0 .1 1 9 -. 1 9 4 * .2 2 0 * -. 2 9 3 * * -0 .1 6 2 4 ir ri g at io n u ti li ty fr eq u en cy 0 .0 7 6 0 .0 5 1 0 .0 4 6 — -0 .1 7 1 .2 9 6 * * .2 3 6 * * 0 .0 3 3 0 .0 4 9 0 .1 5 1 -0 .0 7 9 0 .0 0 3 5 p o n d d ep en d en t h o u se h o ld s .2 1 7 * .2 6 5 * * .2 2 3 * -0 .1 7 1 — -. 5 0 1 * * -0 .0 6 2 n a n a 0 .0 6 4 -0 .0 0 8 0 .0 7 2 6 d is ta n ce fr o m th e n ea re st m o to ra b le ro ad i n m et re s 0 .0 5 1 0 .0 0 7 0 .0 1 4 .2 9 6 * * -. 5 0 1 * * — n a n a n a n a n a -0 .1 5 9 7 e d u ca ti o n al at ta in m en t -0 .0 2 4 -0 .0 4 2 -0 .0 3 2 .2 3 6 * * -0 .0 6 2 n a — -0 .0 3 9 n a n a n a 0 .0 8 4 8 t o ta l n u m b er o f m em b er s in th e h o u se h o ld 0 .1 2 2 0 .1 4 1 0 .1 1 9 0 .0 3 3 n a n a -0 .0 3 9 — n a n a n a .2 5 7 * * 9 n u m b er o f ye ar s sp en t in th e cu rr en t lo ca ti o n -0 .1 7 1 -. 2 0 6 * -. 1 9 4 * 0 .0 4 9 n a n a n a n a — -0 .0 7 2 0 .1 4 3 -0 .1 2 4 10 c o m p o si te in st it u ti o n al s co re ( c is ) .2 1 3 * .2 0 9 * .2 2 0 * 0 .1 5 1 0 .0 6 4 n a n a n a -0 .0 7 2 — .2 6 8 * * -0 .0 1 6 11 c o m p o si te e co lo g ic al s co re ( c e s ) -. 2 7 9 * * -. 2 7 0 * * -. 2 9 3 * * -0 .0 7 9 -0 .0 0 8 n a n a n a 0 .1 4 3 .2 6 8 * * — 0 .0 4 4 12 c o m p o si te d iv er si fi ca ti o n s co re ( c d s ) -0 .0 9 8 -0 .1 2 5 -0 .1 6 2 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 7 2 -0 .1 5 9 0 .0 8 4 .2 5 7 * * -0 .1 2 4 -0 .0 1 6 0 .0 4 4 — ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (2): 67-102, july 2022 *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). na: not applicable spearman’s rho used for correlation source: primary survey data analysis table 5: users of panchayat ponds and their social and economic background: chi-square cross-tabulations social and economic background of the respondent utilizers of the pond bathing washing cleaning irrigation religion of the respondent hindu 73 (82) 73 (82) 74 (82) 10 (100) non-hindu 16 (18) 16 (18) 16 (18) 0 caste of the respondent obc 47 (53) 47 (53) 49 (54) 4 (40) non-obc 42 (47) 42 (47) 41 (46) 6 (60) gender of the respondent female 51 (57) 52 (58)* 51 (57) 4 (40) male 38 (43) 37 (42)* 39 (43) 6 (60) major source of income of the respondent daily wage labour 49 (55)* 50 (56)* 51 (57)** 0* others 40 (45)* 39 (44)* 39 (43)** 10 (100)* economic category of the respondent priority 57 (64)** 58 (65)** 59 (66)** 5 (50) nonpriority 32 (36)** 31 (35)** 31 (34)** 5 (50) perception of cleanliness of panchayat pond clean 79 (89)** 80 (90)** 79 (88)** 8 (80) unclean 10 (11)** 9 (10)** 11 (12)** 2 (20) possessing farmland yes 29 (33) 28 (31) 28 (31)* 10 (100)* no 60 (67) 61 (69) 62 (69)* 0 possessing livestock yes 19 (21) 20 (22) 22 (24) 5 (50) no 70 (79) 69 (78) 68 (76) 5 (50) notes: percentage in parenthesis *indicates significance level at p < 0.05 **indicates significance level at p < 0.01 [85] vinay sankar source: primary survey data analysis most importantly, respondents’ perception of the cleanliness of the panchayat pond is directly and moderately correlated with each of the domestic usage frequencies (table 6). it is considerably and positively associated with the ecological health indicator, ces. since the overall average score of institutional strength is high (the mean cis is 92.73), the lack of association between the perception of cleanliness and institutional strength need not be a matter of concern, given that there is no expectation of a direct correlation. this is also true of the perception of cleanliness and the diversification score. table 5: correlation of cleanliness perception with utilization frequency and composite scores spearman’s rho perception of cleanliness of panchayat pond frequency of bathing .454** frequency of washing .481** frequency of cleaning .435** composite institutional score 0.139 composite ecological score .519** composite diversification score 0.078 notes: ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) source: primary survey data analysis 4.3 regression results 4.3.1 factors determining the utilization of the pond for bathing i present the logit estimations for composite scores on institutional strength, the ecological integrity of the pond, and the extent of diversification of water in tables 7, 8 and 9. i describe the marginal effects of each estimation, standard errors, and p-values in the tables. variables on the ecological score and diversification are statistically significant as factors influencing the usage of the ponds for bathing (table 7). the positive sign of the ecological score indicates that for every one unit increase in the ecological score, the probability of an improvement in bathing usage increases by 0.0088%. interestingly, the model shows that even as the diversification of water sources improves, there is a slight increase in the likelihood of usage of ponds for bathing. this result further highlights the importance of ponds in the lives of rural households in the study area. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] table 6: determinants of pond utilization for bathing independent variables dy/dx std. err p>|z| composite institutional score 0.0028 0.0027 0.299 composite ecological score 0.00889*** 0.0024 0.000 composite diversification score 0.0024** 0.0011 0.035 notes: n = 121; lr chi2(3) = 25.38; prob > chi2 = 0.0000; pseudo r2 = 0.1815 log likelihood = -57.210004 ***, ** and * are significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively source: primary survey data analysis 4.3.2 factors determining the utilization of the pond for washing once again, the ecological score turned positively significant with respect to the use of the pond for washing. as with the bathing usage, a unit increase in the ecological score leads to an increase in the probability of washing usage by 0.0091%. table 7: determinants of pond utilization for washing independent variables dy/dx std. err p>|z| composite institutional score 0.0045448 0.0027819 0.102 composite ecological score 0.0091526*** 0.0023605 0.000 composite diversification score 0.0016185 0.0010906 0.138 notes: n = 121; lr chi2(3) = 26.26; prob > chi2 = 0.0000; pseudo r2 = 0.1878 log likelihood = -56.768265 ***, ** and * are significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively source: primary survey data analysis table 8: determinants of pond utilization for cleaning independent variables dy/dx std. err p>|z| composite institutional score 0.0049421* 0.0027351 0.071 composite ecological score 0.0083938*** 0.0022616 0.000 composite diversification score 0.0012287 0.0010629 0.247 notes: n = 121; lr chi2(3) = 23.78; prob > chi2 = 0.0000; pseudo r2 = 0.1727 log likelihood = -56.963276 ***, ** and * are significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively source: primary survey data analysis [87] vinay sankar 4.3.3 factors determining the utilization of the pond for cleaning when it came to the usage of the pond for cleaning, the institutional strength variable turned out to be positively significant, along with the ecological score (table 9). a unit improvement in the institutional score leads to an increase in the probability of cleaning usage by 0.0049%. in this model too, the ecological score became a central determinant of pond usage. 5. discussion the purpose of this research was to trace the access and utilization patterns of rural ponds in kerala, identify the governance arrangement over these ponds, and assess their ecological health. considering the above evidence, i attempt to situate these small freshwater bodies in a commons perspective. providing an overview of water-related works, swyngedouw (2009) concludes that water research either focused on the physical aspects or the managerial issues of the problem, rather than on the difficult question of the political-economic relations binding the physical and managerial factors in socially differentiated ways. i find that unequal access to or control over waters results from a combination of factors, such as the particular geographical situation, techno-managerial choices, political and legal arrangements over the resources, and water inequalities. there is universal access in the study scenario for the domestic usages of bathing, washing, and cleaning. users have the right to access ponds for non-subtractable usages like bathing and washing, but—in most cases—not for rivalrous usages like irrigation. the local communities have prioritized domestic purposes over irrigation and commercial interests. although there is some leeway for minor irrigation, no usage is permitted for commercial objectives. the result disproves the earlier hypothesis that access is mediated by caste, class, religion, and gender variables in the current context of kerala. however, utilization patterns show class and gender differentiation, given that daily-wage earners and women, in general, tend to be more dependent on rural ponds (see table 5). also, in locations like kizhakkencherry panchayat, dalit artisan communities living in poramboke (or revenue “wastelands”) soak their bamboo in the nearby public pond (called cheerakuzhi kulam) before making various products. for the marginalized communities, the public ponds support livelihoods (a washer community called vannan uses perumkulam pond in nallepully gp, for instance) and are often their sole source of fulfilling domestic needs such as washing and bathing. ghate, ghate, and ostrom (2013), in their study of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] harvesting patterns and the impact of communication in indigenous societies in vidarbha, india, found that communities still tend to be nonexploitative, non-commercial, and cooperative even under the onslaught of marketization. in this study, i confirm this finding in the context of rural ponds in kerala and underline the importance of these small freshwater bodies to the marginalized and dispossessed sections of the population. the local panchayats are the custodians of the rural public ponds in kerala. as these are vital ecosystems with contested uses and users, a clear and effective institutional arrangement is imperative to avoid the tragedy of open access. as the earlier discussion shows, the cis—which signifies the aspect of collective action—is on the higher side with an overall mean score of 93 (see table 2). at the panchayat, uses of pond waters are prioritized, rules are enforced, issues are deliberated, funds for maintenance are allocated, and actions are monitored, effectively creating a “new commons”. i use the term “new commons”, as most of these rural public ponds were privately held irrigation ponds before the land reforms in kerala (field survey, 28 december 2019). it is similar to bakker’s study of public water supply in england and wales; she notes that social struggles in the form of a countermovement led to institutional changes and reregulation and created a “new commons” like municipal water cooperatives, replacing water privatization. even as communities resist enclosures through collective action and “polycentric governance” (ostrom 1990), the ecological health of the ecosystem under consideration does not necessarily improve (nagendra and ostrom 2014). however, in the present case, the parameters of local selfgovernance of rural ponds moved in coordination with the ecological health indicators. the cis and the ces showed a significant positive correlation (see table 4). my field survey showed that the panchayats, leveraging the national rural employment scheme (nregs) funds and spending their own funds, ensure regular upkeep of these rural ponds. respondents across locations mentioned the role of women employed under nregs in removing sludge and weeds from the ponds and desilting them at regular intervals. in order to situate the rural ponds in a commons framework, let us review the role of contextual variables in the ostromian framework and compare it with this study. ostrom found that several contextual variables impact the level of cooperation, such as the size of the group involved, group heterogeneity, the relative scarcity of the good, marginal contribution to the collective good, the ability to make rules, the role of leadership and freeriding chances (ostrom 2000). ostrom and varughese found that heterogeneity was not a significant predictor of the degree of collective [89] vinay sankar action, as strong institutions could overcome that challenge (varughese and ostrom 2001). my study confirms the finding that heterogeneity is insignificant if institutions are in place to ensure equity in access. various groups that are heterogeneous in terms of religion, caste, gender, occupation, education, wealth, household size, and duration of residence use the panchayat ponds in palakkad. the number of dependent households was an insignificant predictor in the regression models, indicating that more than the size of the group, it is the nature of usage that matters. modest levels of scarcity were a prerequisite for a community to selforganize (varughese and ostrom 2001). the low overall cds mean (38 out of 100) in the present case could indicate the relative scarcity of water for various usages. in their study to understand the predictors of groundwater access in the godavari basin in south india, srinivasan and nuthalapati (2019) also found that farmers started to economize water use when faced with actual scarcity. relative scarcity and associated dependency over water commons seem to have some importance in my study, as the cds turned significant in the logistic regression model predicting the usage for bathing—but not for washing and cleaning (table 7). the marginal contribution to the collective good as a determinant of collective action requires some reconsideration in light of the evidence from my study. ostrom’s design principles assemble “lessons learnt” from successful and not-so-successful self-governance systems (ostrom 2010). while the design principles mention the social and economic ability of local communities to self-organize, we could add to them another layer considering the political ability of the same communities to pull resources from larger systems to support the local institutions. ostrom (2005) mentions a “need to assess the costs of operating a system on users”. in the case of panchayat ponds in kerala, while the benefits are appropriated by the local communities, the provisioning costs are provided by the panchayats, which re-routes funds from the state and central governments. the local communities do not pay to utilize the pond—at least not directly; indirectly, though, panchayats have local tax revenues. this arrangement might appear, prima facie, unfair or even unsustainable to the institutional theory based on the “congruence between costs and benefits” borne by local users, and yet, is valid and significant as an inequality-reduction exercise. as swyngedouw (2009) argues, the provision of water to big cities implies mobilizing water over great distances from different regions. even if hugely disproportionate, the external fund flow to the decentralized rural entities could be viewed as reparations for the virtual water flows to the cities. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] while acknowledging that searching for panaceas in resource governance is problematic in itself, ostrom (2007) outlines that “some form of government ownership, privatisation, decentralisation, land reform or community control of resources is an appropriate solution to a particular social-ecological problem”. though useful in arraying the best practices of natural resource governance by local communities, ostrom’s theoretical frameworks are generally ahistorical and apolitical and tend to assume that users would equitably and sustainably manage the very resources they intend to govern. her ambitious attempts to categorize “configurations of causal conditions affecting incentives, behaviors, and outcomes” might not capture the role of land reforms, decentralization, and government ownership in setting up community-controlled institutions and maintaining ecosystems. in the case of panchayat ponds in kerala, a combination of factors and institutions—like the land reforms of the 1960s and 70s, government ownership at the local panchayat level (through kerala panchayat raj act 1994), the decentralization of power after the campaign in late 1990s, the policy treating water as “commons” (through the kerala state water policy 2008), and community control—all together brought equity and sustainability as outcomes. as regards community control, various pond-dependent groups—such as women and dalits—actively resisted and, many times, even reversed unsustainable and unjust interventions, such as commercial fish-rearing, waste-dumping, and diverting pond waters for the irrigation of commercial and water-guzzling crops like banana (see section 3.3). even when the fishing lease is operational, it is seldom on a commercial scale. nonetheless, when the leasing of ponds for pisciculture clashed with the domestic uses of bathing and washing, the users mounted resistance in the panchayat meetings; this led to the cancellation of such leases in several instances—as in puthukulam in vadakkencherry gp. in this case, the lease was owned by the then panchayat president himself. other respondents mentioned that whenever fishing leasers tried to reduce water levels during harvesting—as in ullanoor kulam in nagalasseri gp—local users had successfully resisted such attempts. similarly, there are directives in many gps that prohibit the usage of the pond for irrigation, especially during lean seasons like summer—for example, in perumkulam in chalavara gp. in the case of angadikulam in ongallur gp, women users resisted attempts to extract water for road construction. waste dumping in and around public ponds was countered in panchayats like eruthempathy, vadakkencherry, and puthupariaram. in all these instances, the local panchayat meetings were used to register the protests and undertake negotiations. these were essentially a political [91] vinay sankar mobilization at the grassroots—an institutionalized “countermovement” that has led to sustainable and just outcomes. as boelens (2014) mentions, “water is the source of collaboration and conflict, a basic means of mobilising people and a driving force behind local common property institutions”. the political mobilization driving these countermovements is essentially a movement towards decommodification (kentikelenis 2017). smessaert, missemer, and levrel (2020), in their synthesis of the present state of knowledge on the process of commodification, note that there is scope to understand “specific counter-forces” that result in the process of decommodification. igoe and brockington (2007) contend that neoliberalization involves reorganizing nature through forms of commodification. they note that the state stepping back through deregulation is a pervasive process of neoliberalization. we see reregulation—as opposed to deregulation—by the state in the case of rural ponds in kerala. the land reforms undertaken by the state governments in the 1960s and 1970s have led to the commonization (nayak and berkes 2011) of these surveyed ponds in several locations, such as chittur, pattambi, kuzhalmannam, and kollemkode, among others. they are called michabhumikulam—ponds that the state took over through land reforms. before the reforms, they were privately held and mostly used for irrigation. later on, the local governance systems of panchayats often prioritized domestic utilization over irrigation and commercial usages. grafton (2000) argued in favour of the state involving itself in resource governance, backing those engaged in collective action (ostrom 2009). this argument sums up the politics of rural ponds in kerala. there remain several limitations to this study. many puzzles are unsolved— like why, in some cases, indicators of institutional strength did not translate to the ecological health of the ponds, or why households that have lived in a locality longer tend to use the ponds less frequently. moreover, i sought to identify only the patterns of relationships between ponds and their proximate populations. another qualitative study is needed to flesh out the nature of their dependency. a limitation of this study is that i only attempted to study the utilization patterns of the respondents living near the ponds, and not all possible dependents—some of whom might live far away from the pond. in the future, researchers could conduct studies in multiple districts using a comparative framework. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] 6. conclusion the primary objective of my study is to understand how the politics of water access and utilization patterns impact the social justice and ecological integrity of rural ponds. small freshwater bodies like ponds are vital ecosystems in the ecological, economic, and sociopolitical landscape. with its associated properties of excludability and subtractability, rural ponds can be classified as commons. learning about various models of local-level, community-led water governance—like the case in kerala—can help craft better institutions that can govern natural resources equitably and sustainably. when it comes to successful cases of community action at the local and regional level, the evidence marshalled tirelessly by ostrom and others provides a counter for institutional sceptics bogged down by mounting evidence of the “tragedy of commons” all around the world. however, her attempts were aligned towards building a “universal model” by identifying a set of “contextual” variables favourable for collective action, not necessarily rooted in a historical and critical context. the institutional theory assumes that community control itself could translate into equity and sustainability outcomes. however, as this study of rural ponds in kerala shows, the role of the state in negotiating outcomes that are just and sustainable is central, and institutionalizing the relationship between the state and communities is crucial to decommodify ecosystems. through this paper, i argue that equitable and sustainable ecological governance entails broadening the institutional edifice built by ostrom and others by incorporating the process of commodification and decommodification. the multiplicity of uses and users makes water bodies a contested space. in this study, i reiterate that integrating commons theory with a political ecology framework could highlight the political nature of resource governance. the local self-governments in kerala have succeeded in ensuring universal access to rural ponds and often facilitate fair utilization, protecting the interests of the marginalized sections of the dependent population. landless, marginalized communities, daily wage earners, and women are major users of these rural ponds, and they often resist and reverse unsustainable and unjust interventions in the pond. further research is imperative to understand the underlying processes of these countermovements. acknowledgments i express my heartfelt gratitude to the participants of the primary survey for their time and consideration. without their cooperation, the survey would not have been possible. to my doctoral advisor, dr lavanya suresh, i [93] vinay sankar reserve my gratitude for her constant encouragement. i thank my doctoral advisory committee members, dr aswathy raveendran and dr rishi kumar, for their critical comments on an earlier draft. i am much obliged to mr saneesh c s for digitally mapping the survey locations and for his valuable suggestions on the ecological aspects of the study. i also thank the department of humanities and social sciences, bits pilani, hyderabad campus, for their support. suggestions and comments from the three reviewers and the editors have immensely improved the quality of the manuscript, along with copyedits by chitralekha manohar. i gratefully acknowledge and thank them for their painstaking efforts. references agrawal, arun. 2007. “forests, governance, and sustainability: common property theory and 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vinay sankar appendix table 9: list of panchayat ponds surveyed in palakkad, kerala s. no. name of the gram panchayat name of the selected pond s. no. name of the gram panchayat name of the selected pond 1 chalavara perumkulam 16 puthunagaram padikkalpadom kulam 2 thirumitta kode panamkulam 17 anangandi aathamkott kulam 3 parathur nellikulam 18 kizhakanchery cheerakuzhi kulam 4 nagalasseri ullanoor 19 alathur (kavasseri) kavalappara kulam 5 mathur chathan kulam 20 pattambi (ongallur) angadi kulam 6 nallepully perumkulam 21 marutharod panchirikkad kulam 7 eruthempa thy thalippara kulam 22 puthupariaram kulathinpalla kulam 8 mannarkad (karimba) panayampado m kulam 23 karimpuzha kattapara kulam 9 kanjirapuz ha kallemkulam 24 sreekrishnapur am kunnamkot kulam 10 pattithara venkara kulam 25 mankara maramparambu kulam 11 koppam veluthedath kulam 26 vandazhy kunnamkotkula m 12 vadakkenc hery puthukulam 27 ayilur thamarakulam 13 kannadi chedayan kulam 28 alanallur pakkath kulam 14 ambalapar a mulayam kulam 29 kumaramputh ur kattukulam 15 mundur arakulam 30 pattancherry chathan kulam source: field survey ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] table 10: description of variables used in the study s. no variable definition and categorical coding mean standard deviation minimum maximum 1 religion religion of the respondent; 1 if hindu, else 0 0.84 0.365 0 1 2 caste caste of the respondent; 1 if belonging to obc, else 0 0.53 0.501 0 1 3 gender gender of the respondent; 0 if male, else 1 0.48 0.502 0 1 4 occupation main occupation of the respondent; 1 if daily wage earner, else 0 0.48 0.502 0 1 5 pds economic category of the respondent; 1 if belonging to priority category, else 0 0.55 0.499 0 1 6 home 1 if the respondent has own home, else 0 0.92 0.276 0 1 7 agriculture land 1 if the respondent is landless, else 0 0.64 0.483 0 1 8 livestock ownership 1 if the respondent owns livestock, else 0 0.25 0.434 0 1 9 land size size of the agricultural land owned by the respondent in cents 51.79 178.929 0 1600 [101] vinay sankar s. no variable definition and categorical coding mean standard deviation minimum maximum 10 crop number number of crops cultivated by the respondent in a year 0.51 0.787 0 4 11 commercial crop number number of commercial crops cultivated by the respondent in a year 0.28 0.686 0 4 12 education number of years of schooling of the respondent 7.64 4.088 0 17 13 household size number of members in the respondent household 4.63 1.831 1 13 14 children number of children in the respondent household 1.31 1.204 0 5 15 number of years of local residence number of years the respondent has been living in the household 36.73 22.251 0.5 86 16 drinking water availability amount of drinking water available in a year; 1 if sufficient, else 0 0.78 0.418 0 1 17 period of availability of drinking water period of drinking water available in a year; 1 if whole year, else 0 0.79 0.412 0 1 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] s. no variable definition and categorical coding mean standard deviation minimum maximum 18 perception of cleanliness the respondent’s perception of cleanliness of panchayat pond; 1 if perceived clean, else 0 0.74 0.438 0 1 19 dependent households ponddependent households 59.14 37.928 0 100 20 distance from nearest road distance from the nearest motorable road to the pond (in metres) 157.66 182.585 1 500 21 cis composite institutional score 92.73 13.102 30 100 22 ces composite ecological score 65.19 18.777 29 100 23 cds composite diversification score 37.52 36.567 0 100 source: field survey and author’s calculations ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 125–127, july 2019 report seeds of change: report from a conference on “gender equality through agricultural research for development” barbara pamphilon  in a small australian city, two researchers were talking together about research approaches in their shared field of passion gender-focused agricultural research for development. they dreamt that one day they would see an international conference that brought together the many innovators and scholars in this important field. two years later this dream was realised at the ‘seeds of change: gender equality through agricultural research for development’ conference held at the university of canberra, april 2-5, 2019.1 the conference achieved many things, not the least of which was to provide an interactive and intellectually stimulating environment for the 280 participants from 45 countries. although gender equality and gender equity are now ‘mainstreamed’, in reality many gender-focused researchers in agriculture are relatively isolated and have few opportunities to challenge and extend their thinking and practice. the conference sought to address this issue and to provide fruitful ground and opportunities for cross-fertilisation. the conference highlighted ways of successfully integrating gender into project design and implementation. it focused on effective ways to catalyse social and behavioural change for both agricultural and social outcomes; gendersensitive evaluation and impact assessment systems for continuous program  faculty of education, university of canberra, act 2601, australia; barbara.pamphilon@canberra.edu.au copyright © pamphilon 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.83 1 the conference was jointly sponsored by the australian centre for international agricultural research, the cgiar collaborative platform for gender research and the university of canberra. more information can be accessed from the conference website: https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/aisc/seeds-of-change https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.83 https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/aisc/seeds-of-change ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [126] improvement; and gender transformative approaches to the adoption of innovative technologies. the conference demonstrated the essential place of interdisciplinarity and the need for new epistemologies that do justice to the complex challenges of the global south. gender integration in agricultural research to-date has tended to focus on the production domain with relatively scant knowledge and systematic learning about the integration of gender within a broader agri-food system perspective. the implications of rapidly transforming agri-food systems and of development investments in gender equality/equity on gender gaps and opportunities, as well as what those mean for food security, health and nutrition, and livelihoods of vulnerable groups were a focus of the conference. large disparities in nutrition and health outcomes between different social groups, and how these intersect with gender was a further theme. as a result, how social categories such as age, caste, class, ethnicity, race, and religion, create differences in health and nutrition outcomes and processes were made visible. the relationships among gender, agricultural productivity, and rural transformation was a common theme. whilst rural transformation may be occurring due to outmigration of particular groups, improved infrastructure, increased access to public services, and new opportunities both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, gender relations both influence these processes of rural transformation and are changed by them. here, the conference sought to answer whether women were empowered by taking over new roles when men migrate or are they further burdened by additional responsibilities and through limited access to resources. this consideration of labour and production relations was further deepened by the challenging questions that must be asked as more men move out of rural areas, and more women must take greater roles in agriculture within various resource constraints. are they transforming the ways in which production has been carried out conventionally, while transforming themselves? what are the directions of these gendered changes? how are labour and production in farming altering? what factors are driving these changes? who is benefitting and in what ways? what are the implications of these dynamics? it is increasingly being recognised that focussing only on women is insufficient to overturn the norms that entrench gender inequality. in the context of agriculture, for example, divisions of labour and the control of income from cash crops have usually privileged men at the expense of women. changes in rural economies have a profound impact on both men’s and women’s lives. increasing reliance on cash crops, the migration of men for work and the thrust for gender rights are impacting across the world on [127] barbara pamphilon men’s roles in rural communities. whether such changes have caused a ‘crisis of masculinity’ and contributed to pernicious forms of masculinity was examined. the conference challenged participants to consider several ‘messy’ questions: (i) what are we measuring when we measure impact? how and why does change happen when it happens? what is missing from the economic empowerment agenda? [keynote speaker, naila kabeer, london school of economics] (ii) what works to ensure equitable access to the technologies, services and knowledge generated by agricultural development investments? how do we build the on-ramps for more equitable participation in the new opportunities that emerge with agricultural transformation? [keynote speaker, vicki wilde, gates foundation] (iii) is there more that unites us than divides us across gender, racial and religious lines? could it be that current academic structures and intellectual paradigms mitigate against seeking commonality and rather emphasize difference leading to division? [keynote speaker, jayne curnow, aciar] ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 5 (1): 139-176, january 2022 research paper the erosion of biodiversity and culture: bankura district of west bengal as an illustrative locale debal deb* abstract: the decimation of biodiversity at the species, genetic, and ecosystem levels as a direct consequence of the industrial resource use mode is well documented in human ecology and conservation literature. not only wild biota but also domesticated crop landraces have been pushed to extinction by industrial landuse systems. the process of biodiversity erosion impinges on, and is augmented by, the decimation of local cultural elements, such as food cultures, the vocabularies of local languages, house architecture, and an inchoate appreciation of the non-use value of biodiversity, i.e., beyond its instrumental value. this process of biocultural erosion is evident in the district of bankura, west bengal, india, and this article collates evidence from over two decades of my research on the biodiversity and cultural elements of the region. the replacement of a traditional eco-centric ethic with an industrial ethic, and its consequent impacts on biodiversity and local cultural traditions in this region, is illustrative of the global process of biodiversity loss keywords: biodiversity, biophilia, culinary art, language, tradition, west bengal 1. introduction a plethora of studies have documented the process of the loss of biodiversity and traditional cultures as a consequence of the urban– industrial mode of land use, economic growth, and market integration (unep 2005; elmqvist et al. 2016; irvine et al. 2016; ceballos, ehrlich, and dirzo 2017; aswani, lemahieu, and sauer 2018; curtis et al. 2018; brondizio et al. 2019; sánchez-bayo and wyckhuys 2019; rosin et al. 2020). the loss of the biotic components of local ecosystems, in turn, impinges on the local cultural fabric, which evolved alongside the direct and indirect use values of biodiversity. industrial land use, and an industrial ethic, gradually * centre for interdisciplinary studies 186a, kalikapur canal road, kolkata, india, debdebal@gmail.com copyright © deb 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.487 mailto:debdebal@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v5i1.487 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] displace biophilia (fromm 1973)—love and respect for life—inherent in indigenous societies, characterized by an inchoate appreciation of the nonuse value of biodiversity, i.e., beyond its instrumental value (kellert and wilson 1993; deb and malhotra 2001). this process of loss of life forms is often not obvious and is not recorded in mainstream biodiversity research until certain species are lost from a local ecosystem. owing to the complexity and multiplicity of biocultural interactions on the social, psychological, and ethical planes, the process of decay of local cultures is more insidious and seldom described in biodiversity research, although this decay may accentuate further loss of biodiversity. the process of biocultural decay is captured only in local case studies (e.g., byers, cunliffe, and hudak 2001; pauchard et al. 2006; amici et al. 2015; elmqvist et al. 2016) on urban–industrial land-use change and its impacts on biodiversity and indigenous knowledge systems. in this essay, i present a case study of a southwestern district of west bengal, india, to describe a long-drawn process of decay of biodiversity and local cultural heritage. in this effort to document the process of biocultural erosion, i describe biodiversity under two broad rubrics—wild and domesticated biota. however, the usage of the term “wild” warrants the following caveat. on the ecosystem level, there is hardly any entity that is purely “wild”, in the sense of “pristine” or “untrammelled” by human intervention. rather, all existing forest and wetland ecosystems on all lived continents have either been created or modified by human activities. nearly three-quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and use by indigenous peoples (lombardo et al. 2020; ellis et al. 2021). the imagining of a “pristine” or “virgin” wild land is an old european construct, created to distinguish the “west as civilization” from the rest of the world as wilderness (clement and junqueira 2010; fletcher et al 2021). as ellis et al. (2021, 7) write, depicting human use of nature largely as a recent and negative disturbance of an otherwise human-free natural world is not only incorrect but has profound implications for both science and policy. across the vast majority of this planet, traditional, indigenous, and contemporary cultural natures, together with their interwoven peoples and histories, and not areas free from human influence, are essential for understanding and sustaining terrestrial nature, including its biodiversity and contributions to people. dissociating “wild” ecosystems such as forests and wetlands from “the spiritual, economic, and cultural needs of past and present indigenous and local inhabitants” (fletcher et al. 2021, 3) in any part of india would thus be unrealistic. i intend to discuss these human economic and cultural [141] debal deb interconnections with nature—both wild and domesticated—to describe the process of biocultural erosion in the district of bankura. 2. the study site the district of bankura in the state of west bengal, india (fig. 1), is a part of the lateritic extension of the chota nagpur plateau. it supports dry deciduous forest vegetation and is situated between 22° 38’ n and 23° 38’ n and between 86° 36’ and 87° 46’ e. the district is a part of an ancient land mentioned in historical texts as rarh bengal. the tirumalai inscription of 1024 ce mentions four geopolitical units in the area—tandabutti (also known as dandabhukti in the historical literature), takkanaldam, vangaladesh, and uttiraladam, of which takkanaldam originally, dakshina rarha)—the southern portion of rarh—consists of today’s bankura, birbhum, bardhaman, and hoogly districts (ghosh 1992). the bhaivishya purana, composed between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ce, mentions tungabhum, which is today’s raipur community development block in the district. mallabhum refers to the kingdom of the malla dynasty of bishnupur (sixteenth to seventeenth century), which spread over the current administrative blocks (hereafter blocks) of bishnupur, indas, kotulpur, onda, and most of bankura (o’malley 1996 [1908]). a major part of the district was once covered with dense forests inhabited by forest people. as the açaranga sutta, a jain text of ca. fifth century bce (jacobi 1884) depicts, mahavira, the founder of jainism, had been travelling in the pathless country of vajjabhumi and subbabhumi of ladha (rarha), where forest people attacked him. the geographical features of the district are summarized in table 1. more than a fifth of the district’s land area is under forest cover. scheduled tribes and scheduled castes comprise over 42% of the district’s population and constitute the region’s “ecosystem people” (sensu gadgil and guha 1995), who largely depend on agriculture and non-timber forest produce for their livelihoods. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] figure 1: map showing community development blocks of bankura district in the state of west bengal credit: heerak nandy, kolkata, 2021 table 1: geographical features of bankura district descriptor statistical figure reference total area 6,882 sq km bankura district administration (2021a) total state forest area 1,482 sq km west bengal forest department (wbfd 2019) % of forest cover 21.53 wbfd (2019) conservation reserve 43.70 sq km wbfd (2019) reserved forest 80 sq km wbfd (2019) protected forest 1,311 sq km wbfd (2019) unclassified forest 91 sq km wbfd (2019) [143] debal deb descriptor statistical figure reference wasteland 2.38 sq km rsp green development and laboratories (2019) water bodies 265.61 sq km rsp green development and laboratories (2019) average annual rainfall 130–160 cm rsp green development and laboratories (2019) net area cultivated 1,615.071 sq km bankura district administration (2021a) gross cropped area 3,114.921 sq km bankura district administration (2021a) cropping intensity 192.86% bankura district administration (2021a) total population 35,96,674 censusindia (2011) no. of households 7,66,902 census india (2011) % scheduled caste 32.65 census india (2011) % scheduled tribes 10.25 census india (2011) 3. methods and data sources drawing on published literature and my research in the region over the past 24 years, i collate the signs and evidence of the processes and consequences of the loss of biodiversity at the species, genetic, and ecosystem levels and the erosion of traditional cultural entities in this region as a paradigmatic, contemporaneous example. the data were collected during my field research in three ways: (a) extensive survey in the region: phased inventorying of biodiversity of forests, sacred groves, sacred ponds, rare trees, and extant crop and animal landraces between 1996 and 2017. ecological inventories of forests and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [144] sacred groves were compiled in multiple line transects, while belt transects (3 km × 50 m) were employed for inventorying roadside vegetations, as described in my respective publications (deb 2007a; deb 2014; deb and roy 2021; deb et al. 2018). (b) individual interviews and group discussions with local residents: i gathered their perceptions of various elements of biodiversity. such interactions were mostly informal but also based on a structured questionnaire for recording people’s perception of the non-use value of forests and wildlife (deb 2014). in addition, i drew on my field notes during farmer workshops, year of science awareness (2004) programmes, and nature camps with local youth groups from 1997 to 2010 held in all parts of the district. (c) participant observations: during the period 1996–2010, i lived in bishnupur block to conduct my participatory research on the folk traditions of natural resource-use modes and cultivate folk crop landraces in my conservation farm. i accompanied women’s groups during their foraging of wild foods and participated in folk ceremonies held at sacred groves, ponds, and rice farms. the subject population in my interviews and the interactants in my participant observation exercises consist of rural farmers, including scheduled tribe and scheduled caste families, who are largely dependent on the provisioning services of local ecosystems. 4. biocultural interfaces: a resident observer’s view i describe here how the local people perceive different categories of biodiversity, the integration of local cultures with biodiversity, and the impact of modernization on both biodiversity and local cultures. this paper is essentially a review and integrative summary of my prior research work and experience gathered over three decades in the district. i discuss here the status of biodiversity in the context of local cultures in two broad categories—“wild biota”, which includes vegetations, wetlands, and undomesticated flora and fauna, and “agrobiodiversity”, comprised by domesticated biota. 4.1 the wild biota the wildlife of the district includes forest lands, sacred groves and ponds, and the wild flora and fauna in the district. all the “wild” vegetations and wetlands in the district have in fact been managed by humans over centuries. [145] debal deb 4.1.1 forest the multi-tier mixed deciduous forests of the extended chota nagpur plateau, including the lateritic districts of bengal, were destroyed in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the british colonial forest policy transformed all native forests into silvicultural timber farms—initially for building railroads and ships, from the late 1850s, and later and more importantly, for military use during the world wars in 1914–1918 and 1940–1944 (flint 1998; sivaramakrishnan 1999). the existing sal forests of southwestern bengal are a consequence of the clearing of all commercially “inferior” species to ensure a sustained supply of class a timber from sal (shorea robusta), teak (tectona grandis), asan (terminalia tomentosa), and sisu (dalbergia sissoo). seventy years after independence, however, the country’s forest directorate continues with the same colonial forestry parlance of “inferior species” and “minor forest products” and the same colonial silvicultural agenda of maintaining “tree farms” of commercial value. populations of native tree species have been replaced with exotic species, such as eucalyptus tereticornis and acacia auriculiformis, chiefly to feed paper mills and for pulpwood export. although the new forest policy (2000) explicitly emphasizes conservation and prohibits clear-felling of any forest, the practice of rotational harvesting of sal forests in the state has not stopped, while the professed goals of conservation of local biodiversity and providing support to rural economies have been compromised. the state’s forest physiognomy and biodiversity improved with the evolution of joint forest management (jfm), begun in the early 1980s in west medinipur district, and officially approved by government orders in 1989 and 1990 (deb 2013; deb and malhotra 1993). the task of forest protection was shared by villagers, who were motivated by the increased supply of non-timber forest products (ntfp) in the patches of forest they protected (malhotra, deb, and vasulu 1992). more than 2,000 forest protection committees (fpcs) sprang up in the forest villages of the southwestern districts, mostly through the villagers’ own agency. a government order of 1989 placed local forest officials on top of the fpcs and arranged for 25% of the sale proceeds to be paid to fpc members after eight years of rotational harvest of sal poles (deb 2013). however, this arrangement disgruntled many villagers—“why should we protect the forest with so much diligence if it is cleared after eight years, only to go back to the state of getting no ntfp?” besides, bureaucratic high-handedness and corruption, often accompanied by collusion with panchayat heads (banerjee 2004; deb 2007b; 2013), undermined the participatory nature of jfm, and relegated all decision-making power back to forest officials, for whom “participatory management” meant an “i do, you participate” policy (deb ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [146] 2009a, 413) aimed at enhancing forest revenue from commercial plantations. during 1989–2000, thousands of native dipterocarp species were extirpated for the plantation of exotic species, chiefly eucalyptus tereticornis (deb 2013; deb 2014). with the continuation of state authority over forest usufructuaries, “the interests of primary collectors dependent on ntfps have been ignored… for the sake of safeguarding the state revenue” (palit 1999: 25). all the forests in the district are protected forests, where villagers have the right to collect selected ntfps. a few forest habitats in the district host a wide range of faunal diversity. owing to the large number of migratory birds visiting the area, mukutmanipur has now been declared a conservation reserve. neither the forest department (fd) nor the west bengal state biodiversity board (wbsbb) has taken account of the conservation status of flora in the state. an indefinite number of rare floral species has been pushed into the endangered (en) and critically endangered (cr) categories of the iucn (2001) red list, as instanced by the extinction of vitex glabrata from the state (deb 2008; deb 2019c). 4.1.2 vegetations outside the forest all over india, trees outside forests contribute to vegetation cover. an estimated 2.68 billion trees outside forests contribute an equivalent additional area of 9.99 m ha, contributing to about 13% of the country’s total area under tree cover (fsi 2003). stands of vegetation outside forest lands constitute important elements of the rural landscape and portray the traditional indian mode of living integrated with biodiversity. clusters of non-forest vegetation exist throughout the district of bankura in the form of home gardens, alongside roads and ponds, and as village sacred groves. home gardens home gardens are a form of land-use system that involves managing the trees and shrubs within individual house compounds. the biodiversity and economics of the home gardens of southern india and the north-eastern states have received much attention (george and christopher 2020; das and das 2005; ramakrishnan, das, and saxena 1996), but the home gardens of bengal remain neglected in biodiversity surveys. almost every village homestead in bankura district harbours diverse plants to meet household needs for fruits (mango, jackfruit, aegle marmelos, and moringa oleifera), cattle fodder (leaves of jackfruit, feronia limonia, and syzygium cumini), fuel (leaves of acacia auriculiformes, twigs of a. nilotica), medicinals (azadirachta indica, aegle marmelos, ocimum sanctum), wood for construction [147] debal deb (syzygium cumini, holoptelea integrifolia, alangium lamarckii, and gmelina arborea), and household articles such as mats and baskets (leaves of borassus flabolifer and phoenix sylvestris). further, many plants are commonly raised for ornamental and religious uses. in addition, species of no direct economic use are also maintained (deb 2014). trees on roadsides and pond margins an ancient tradition in most of bengal is to line pond margins with numerous trees. palmyra palm, date palm, drumstick (moringa oleifera), and bamboos are the most commonly used trees for this purpose. trees along pond banks used to be the primary source of palm wood for use in building the roofs of huts in every village. as the practice of planting palm trees has discontinued over the past few decades, villagers have been compelled to replace their traditional house architecture with expensive concrete structures. roadside trees throughout the district are a rich bank of biodiversity. in many places, there is considerable species richness that supports a wide range of vertebrate fauna, including tree frogs, lizards, birds, and mammals like palm civets and bats. a study of two forest fringe villages in bishnupur block, conducted along three belt transects (3 km x 50 m each) to inventory all trees outside the state forest, revealed that several indigenous hardwood trees (e.g., cordia macleodii, crateva nurvala, ficus krishnii, vitex glabrata, and ternanthera monopetala) existed in non-forest habitats but not in the adjacent forest stands managed by the fd (deb 2014). the absence of these native tree species in the state forest tracts was corroborated by our extensive inventory of rare trees conducted afresh in 2017 (deb et al. 2018) as well as unpublished data obtained from forest range officers and the conservator of forest (research) in the district. moreover, a few native floral species (e.g., cordia dichotoma, crateva nurvala, and ventilago maderas-patana) are found in higher densities in non-forest vegetations than in the state forest patches (deb 2014). many of the trees on roadsides and pond margins have no direct economic use value. while economists can surmise some indirect use value for such trees, including carbon sequestration, albedo reduction, soil binding, and biodiversity enrichment, villagers had not been aware of these global ecological services while planting them. rather, the existence value and bequest value of the trees with “no uses” are prominent. trees like crateva nurvala, haldina cordifolia, oroxylum indicum, soymida febrifuga, and streblus asper are never harvested for food, fuelwood, or medicinal purposes and are not popularly known for distinctive ecological services such as soil binding or albedo reduction (deb and malhotra 1993, 2001). yet, they are frequently ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [148] maintained on roadsides, pond margins, and even on homestead lands (deb 2014). this testifies to our conjecture that people in these villages planted these trees because they value the existence of diverse trees in their surroundings rather than their instrumental value. sacred groves sacred groves (sgs) constitute natural or near-natural patches of vegetation in or on the outskirts of villages (deb 2007a; 2008b), where harvesting of any living matter is generally prohibited. these sgs constitute a glorious example of traditional cultural institutions fostering biodiversity conservation and helping conserve a range of rare and endemic life forms (gadgil and guha 1992; deb and malhotra 2001). in bankura district, every block, and almost every panchayat area, has a sacred grove that is known by the generic name “than”. most of these groves are a legacy of ancient tribal sgs. all santal hamlets contain sacred groves called baram-than, salui-than, and jaher-than. many of the older sgs have come under the pale of subaltern hinduism and are named after subaltern hindu deities, such as bhairab, dharmaraj, chandi, sitala, manasa, and buri-ma, and represent the historical transformation of belief systems, while retaining the sanctity of the grove. an sg in dariapur village, sonamukhi block, contains an image of a jain tirthankar (saint and spiritual guide), although the grove is named bhairab-than. this image is worshipped as an incarnation of bhairab, a deity of the hindu pantheon. several sacred groves in the district are consecrated for a female deity named sini, who is traditionally worshipped by tribal and scheduled castes. choudhury kamilya (1992) has discussed in detail the origin of, and the rites associated with, sini-thans across rarh bengal and given a list of 95 sini-thans in the district. no image of any deity exists in these old sgs. byaghrasini-than in boidhya village of bishnupur block, berasini-than and jadusini-than in panchal, and kutasini-than in kanaipur village, sonamukhi block, and madana-than in chhandar village, barjora block, are examples. however, jina sini of bankura town and bamni sini of shukla village of sonamukhi block are warrior goddesses on horseback, whose exquisite idols are worshipped. such images are a legacy of the continuous process of “sanskritization” (srinivas 1956), by which brahminical hinduism subsumes and transforms indigenous, non-brahminical cultural elements. some of these “sanskritized” groves have concrete platforms, roofs, and images of the deity. the removal of wood for use in the construction of temples is an important cause for the thinning of several sgs. the construction of highways, railways, and power-line extension, along with industrial growth, has expunged many sgs from the district. in [149] debal deb addition, the erosion of the belief system associated with sgs has led to wood theft for commercial use in several villages (fig. 2a). uncontrolled cattle grazing has in many cases stopped the process of regeneration of sg vegetation, leading to the decimation of the grove (fig. 2b). in many places, the sg has been replaced with a temple with one or two trees (fig. 2c) or a concrete platform on an empty parcel of land (fig. 2d). most of the sgs in the district are small, spanning less than 500 m2 area, rarely exceeding 2,000 m2 (deb 2017a). it appears that the taxic diversity of the sg biota is independent of the grove area. diverse plant families corresponding to more than eight species occur in most of the small sgs, whereas tapoban pahar sg in gangajalghati block, covering 6,700 m2, contains only a single species of eucalyptus tereticornis (mitra et al. 2017). such exotic plantations are a result of modern commercial plantation drives. except for such exotic plantations, many of these sgs are rich in biodiversity, hosting rare and endangered life forms such as vitex glabrata, whose last specimen in the state was recorded in a perforated sg at a crossroads in chhandar village (deb 2008; 2014). owing to the customary ring of protection around these groves, many animals tend to prefer sgs for nesting and breeding. deb, deuti, and malhotra (1997) recorded in the neighbouring district of west medinipur that many birds, including the threatened species, large indian parakeet (psittacula eupatria), distinctly prefer sgs for nesting. my survey has also recorded (deb 2008; 2021a) that apart from the sgs, the nesting habitats of birds and bats also receive cultural protection in indigenous cultures. for instance, khejurbediya village of bankura-2 block is famous for a cluster of old trees that are a breeding habitat of egrets (ardea alba). in majdiha village in onda block, a cluster of trees is a permanent roosting habitat for greater indian fruit bats (pteropus medius). in both places, villagers consider the groves as sacred and never harm the animals. this care and empathy toward all life forms used to be an inherent characteristic of all indigenous cultures (kellert and wilson 1993), and bankura’s cultural tradition is no exception. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [150] figure 2: stages of dilapidation of sacred groves. a: removal of trees: kuchishol, onda block (2006). b: thinning and grazing in the grove: bonkati, bishnupur block (2002). c: trees displaced by a temple: beliatore, borjora block (1998). d: an altar with no tree in the grove: panchal, sonamukhi block (2003). photo credit: author numerous sgs were clear-felled by the fd during the colonial period, and there are hardly any sgs remaining inside the forest lands managed by the department. in line with the historic colonial attitude, a large section of the fd continues to treat the forest as commercial “tree farms” at the expense of the stated goal of conservation. while old-growth trees are now extremely rare in the forest, due to the rotational felling of sal trees since [151] debal deb the 1970s, corruption in the fd, in collusion with a few political heads in the village-level administration, has destroyed many village forests outside the fd’s jurisdiction. an explicit example is the clear-felling of 130 oldgrowth sal (shorea robusta) trees in rajarbandh sg in bhalukkhulya mouza of radhanagar forest range, bishnupur block, in early 2005. this sg is a priest family’s property, exempt from land tax by a royal edict several centuries ago, and contained over 200 old-growth sal trees and a multitude of other species, including madhuca longifolia, lagerstroemia parviflora, diospyros melanoxylon, and a rare species, tamilnadia uliginosa. during a felling operation as a part of the district working plan of 2005, the fd encroached into the sg and removed 130 mature sal trees without informing the landowner. the fd officials, in collusion with a handful of executive members of the village fpc, did not pay heed to the objections of the hired labourers and villagers. as the destroyed sg was not in the jurisdiction of the fd, the harvest was off the fd’s official records and the booty was shared among the officials. my protest letters to the highest echelons of the state fd, demanding disciplinary measures against the erring officials and compensatory reafforestation in the sg, failed to elicit any official response. subsequently, in 2006, the fd filed two suits (no. 4 c/2006 and no. 5 c/2006) at bishnupur sub-divisional court, accusing me and my associates of wood theft from the forest (deb 2007b). the suits continue after 15 years, while the unique ecosystem of the ravished sg has disintegrated. in addition to clearing of trees, extension of roads and industrial growth are a major threat to the existing sgs, most of which are already derelict. numerous groves have been perforated by roads, and some have been cleared off: the fragmentation of an ancient sg at the crossroads of chhandar village (deb 2014) is an example of the first kind, and a small sg at the bus stand in pakhanya village is an example of the second. the existence of sgs is also threatened by the modern educational curriculum, which fosters a repudiation of traditional modes of customary land use as retrogressive and inculcates an industrial ethic that reduces the value of biodiversity to a price tag. thus, sacred habitats in the district are considered little more than an institution of superstition, which may be disposed of for an immediate economic benefit. in some cases, outside agents (like a road contractor) initiate such destruction, but, in many others, the local youth do not mind depleting the sgs of their villages for a quick buck. 4.1.3 wetlands a large number of wetlands have been “reclaimed” or filled up for ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [152] urbanization and highway projects. of the existing ponds and small lakes, many have been adapted for the pisciculture of exotic carp and predatory african sharptooth catfish (clarias gariepinus). prior to the release of fish fry for rearing into the pond, “pond preparation” with a saponin-rich mahua (madhuca longifolia) oil cake (deb and banerjee 1987) eradicates all zooplanktonic species, amphibia, and “weed fish” species. consequently, the native aquatic ecosystem structure is irretrievably lost. moreover, the voracious african catfish (clarias gariepinus), introduced in the 1980s in the district, devours all aquatic crustaceans, molluscs, amphibia, and even domestic ducks. though the government of india issued an order on 29 june 2000 prohibiting the rearing of this fish in ponds and tanks, the order is not effectively enforced in the district. a few unique biodiversity-rich ponds still exist in bankura. in the village of chhandar, bodher pukur is an ancient sacred pond that is not used by villagers for bathing, washing, or fishing. the name is a corrupt derivation of “bouddher” (pertaining to buddhists), indicating that it was originally associated with a buddhist shrine by the pond. the buddhist influence in the district during the pala imperial dynasty, until the consolidation of the malla dynasty in rarh bengal sometime between 1298 and 1350 ce, is evidenced by the buddhist stupas in the region (sanyal 2018). bodher pukur, therefore, seems to be at least 600 years old. the pond surface is covered with floating vegetation (fig. 3) comprised by a complex assemblage of diverse grasses and herbaceous flora. the pond water contains many photosynthetic bacteria that can survive in the atrophic water, eight fish species, two frog species, and a population of a large leech, poecilobdella manillensis (deb 2003; 2008b). villagers report that until the 1970s, a few turtles could also be found in the pond. the description of the turtle (olive shell with a central ridge and thin stripes) matches with the kachuga tentoria flaviventer, which is a species never reported from the southwestern districts of bengal. however, this turtle no longer exists in the pond. [153] debal deb figure 3: the bodher pukur sacred pond with floating vegetation, in chhandar village photo credit: author, 2003 another sacred pond exists in belboni village by the durgapur–bankura state highway. all the households of two nearby hamlets depend on this pond for drinking water, although there are tube wells as well in the village (deb 2008). the pond ecosystem was in the past constituted by a unique composition of organisms, including an otter family that was exterminated in the early 1980s. as of 2008, the zooplankton community of this pond included the protist difflugia sp. and bdelloid rotifers, which presumably kept the pond water free from pathogenic microbes (deb 2008). however, this unique ecosystem disintegrated in 2010 when the villagers pumped out the water and removed the bottom sediment from the pond for “renovation”—an activity that removed the littoral plankton and benthic fauna (deb 2021a). an examination of the pond water after the perturbation revealed the disappearance of difflugia sp. and the dominance of mesocyclops spp. in the planktonic community. 4.1.4 endangered plants over centuries, various elements of folk religious tradition and customs were assimilated into the mainstream hindu religion. in this process of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [154] sanskritization, new meanings, messages and significance have been attached to folk deities and customs, even by restructuring or incorporating the brahminical mythology into folk stories of local deities and rituals (xavier 2010). thus, several trees (such as aegle marmelos, ficus benghalensis, f. religiosa, and crateva nurvala) and animals (barn owl, hanuman langur) held sacred in native animistic traditions are also considered sacred in mainstream hindu culture (deb and malhotra 2001). many of these trees, such as the banyan (f. benghalensis), mahua (madhuca longifolia), and sal (shorea robusta) are keystone species in the local ecosystem. several trees with no direct economic use have been incorporated into indigenous ceremonies. thus, karam (haldina cordifolia), rohin (soymida fabrifuga), and manasa (euphorbia neriifolia) are essential in the eponymous ceremonies in the indigenous cultures of rarh bengal (deb and malhotra 2001). deb (2014) reported the threatened status of crateva nurvala, cordia macleodii, ficus krishnii, tamilnadia uliginosa, and vitex glabrata (tables 2a and 2b), surviving in a few old sgs and inferred to be critically endangered (cr) in the state, based on the iucn (2001) red list criteria: b1 (extent of occurrence estimated to be <100 sq km), b2 (habitat severely fragmented; observed, inferred, or projected decline in area, extent and/or quality of habitat), c (number of mature individuals <250), c2 (no subpopulation containing >50 mature individuals), and d (population size estimated to number <50 mature individuals). among these cr trees, v. glabrata was represented by the last specimen in the state in an sg perforated by a crossroads at chhandar village. in 2016, this tree was cut down by a stall owner under the tree (deb 2019c; 2021a). however, the cr status inferred from the surveys conducted in west bengal and adjacent states may not conform to the global status of the species, as the same species may exist in a few other states of india and other countries. cordia macleodii is another cr tree in the district, which was first recorded in the district by sanyal (1994). the national herbarium collection contains a few specimens from the district of west medinipur. however, the bengali and santali names of the tree, sitapatra and jugia, respectively, are not mentioned in any taxonomic literature, and thus, as the botanical identity of the tree was unknown to the local residents, botanists were unable to identify the tree from its vernacular names. furthermore, the taxonomic literature does not mention some of its important characteristics. one of the morphological characteristics of sitapatra is that scratches on the upper surface of the leaf elicit permanent black marks (fig. 4), which is a feature so prominent that local folklore includes a story of an exiled sita writing her message on the leaf of this tree to send to her husband, rama—hence the bengali name of the tree—"sita’s letter” (deb et al. 2018; deb 2019c). [155] debal deb while sitapatra is now identified as c. macleoidii, the occurrence of flowers with five (pentamerous) and six (hexamerous) petals and stamens on the same tree (fig. 4) contrasts the tetramerous and pentamerous flowers of c. macleoidii recorded in taxonomic literature. furthermore, none of the earlier texts describing c. macleodii mentions the occurrence of male and female flowers on different trees. therefore, sitapatra appears to be a likely subspecies of c. macleodii, previously undescribed (deb et al. 2018). my extensive survey, conducted from 2002 to 2014 and in 2017, recorded the existence of only five mature individuals of sitapatra in two discrete locations of bankura district and nowhere else in the entire state of west bengal (ibid.). table 2a: a brief list of threatened wild taxa in bankura district (flora) vernacular name botanical name location of occurrence (block) no. of mature individuals status in district* reference bhadu vitex glabrata barjora last specimen felled in 2016 ew deb (2019c) sitapatra cordia macleodii bishnupur, sonamukhi 6 cr deb et al. (2018) bharna crateva nurvala all blocks <800 en deb (2014) krishna bat ficus krishnii bishnupur, onda, patrasayar, ranibandh, taldangra 4 cr deb (2014) pidra tamilnadia uliginosa bishnupur, onda, ranibandh, sonamukhi, taldangra <200 en deb (2014) leda ternanthera monopetala all blocks, except bankura-i <1000 r deb (2014) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [156] table 2b: a brief list of threatened wild taxa in bankura district (fauna) vernacular name botanical name location of occurrence (block) no. of mature individuals status in district* reference tricarinate hill turtle melanochelys tricarinata chhatna, ranibandh, bishnupur, sarenga <500 cr unpublished data bon rui manis crassicaudata bishnupur, ranibandh, sarenga, taldangra <100 en unpublished data bhondar lutrogale perspicillata bishnupur, ranibandh, sarenga <50 cr unpublished data shajaru hystrix indica chhatna, onda, taldangra, ranibandh, sarenga < 2 sightings in 25 years en unpublished data chita biral prionailurus bengalensis chhatna, ranibandh, sarenga n.d. r unpublished data * iucn (2001) criteria applied to each species in the state of west bengal. cr = critically endangered; en = endangered; ew = extinct in the wild; r = rare. source (for tables 2a & 2b): author’s compilation, 2021 [157] debal deb figure 4: sitapatra (a) mature leaf showing permanent mark after writing (b) twig (c) dry flowers, without and with the calyx (d) pentamerous corolla (e) hexamerous corolla photo credit: author, 2018 4.1.5 endangered fauna several animals mentioned in folklore and zoological records, such as the leopard, are no longer found in the district of bankura. tiger hunting is depicted in the terracotta images on the walls of jor bangla temple (built possibly in the seventeenth century), and folklore commemorates king bir hambir for having slain a tiger, but the animal has been extinct from the southwestern districts altogether since the eighteenth century. the wolf is the largest predator that still exists in the district forest. birds in mukutmanipur conservation reserve include winter visitors like the lesser whistling teal, red-crested pochard, gadwall, common coot, swallows, wagtails, darters, spot-billed duck, grebes, buntings, rufous-tailed lark, and different terns. the honey buzzard (pernis ptilorhynchus ruficaulis), which preys on the honey and larvae of the wild honeybee, apis dorsata, is rarely sighted, but a nesting pair was recorded in 2008 in binodbati village ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [158] of bishnupur block. following conservation efforts at basudha farm in collaboration with villagers, the number of breeding pairs increased by 2020 to six, nesting in the village and the neighbouring forest area. most of the district forests are habitats for elephants and constitute parts of eastern india’s elephant corridors. however, the ranibandh-sutan forest tract is currently out of the elephant migration route, and the mayurjharna elephant reserve, spanning across southern bankura and west medinipur districts, is now a “dead project” (bankura district administration 2021b). the conservation status of faunal biodiversity is hardly mentioned in official district survey reports. these reports are often based on older reports, seldom match the current status of species, and are replete with largely unreliable information about rare and endangered flora and fauna. for example, the district survey report of bankura (rsp green development and laboratories 2019) mentions the prevalence of the american porcupine (erethizon dorsatum) “throughout the area” (p. 19). the reports of the fd likewise give fictitious reports of the distribution of some animals that have not been sighted in the region over the past two decades. in contravention of the spurious official data about the district’s fauna, i describe the status of animals based on my own surveys in the district following the iucn (2001) red list criteria, regardless of their status published in the national database. for instance, the indian porcupine (hystrix indica) is rarely sighted in the district. over the past three decades, our extensive survey failed to record either a direct sighting of the animal or indirect evidence of its existence (such as its quills), indicating that the animal is likely en in the district. the smooth-coated otter (lutrogale perspicillatas) is critically endangered (possibly extinct)1 in the district (table 2b), primarily due to extermination by people in their zeal to protect the fish in their ponds. the tricarinate hill turtle, (melanochelys tricarinata), found in and around susunia hill and the southern bankura forests, is now extremely rare and probably cr. the indian pangolin (manis crassicaudata) is also en in the district and was occasionally sighted in the bishnupur and ranibandh forest ranges over the past 20 years. sadly, on each sighting, the local youth in bishnupur block were unable to name the animal; i was only able to record these sightings after the youth came to me to confirm the animal’s identity. although official reports of the state fd mention the existence of the wild cat (felis 1 “critically endangered (possibly extinct) […] is not a new iucn red list category, but is a flag developed to identify those critically endangered species that are in all probability already extinct but for which confirmation is required; for example, through more extensive surveys being carried out and failing to find any individuals” (iucn n.d.). [159] debal deb chaus) and the fishing cat (prionailurus viverrinus) in the district, there is no evidence of the former’s existence in the 21 forest ranges of the district over the past 20 years, while the latter is rarely sighted in the southern blocks of the district (unpublished records). 4.2 agrobiodiversity this section is meant only to indicate the trend in the decline in domesticated biodiversity in the district. i will highlight a few special instances that are scarcely mentioned in scientific literature. 4.2.1 agroecosystems beginning with the advent of the green revolution in the late 1960s, traditional multiple cropping practices were replaced with a monoculture of cereals and vegetables, leading to low crop diversification, with a predominance of rice monoculture, in the southwestern districts of west bengal (chakraborty and mistri 2017; das et al. 2016; de and chattopadhaya 2010; grbnep 2011; paul et al. 2020). farm architecture across west bengal has also been homogenized with the removal of large trees from farm fields, which used to serve as breeding and nesting habitats for a multitude of fauna such as owls, nightjars, open billed storks, lizards, frogs, and other natural enemies of crop pests. an increasing number of modern rice farmers are also applying a range of highly toxic insecticides (banerjee et al. 2016). in addition, the national agricultural research institutions promote widespread use of herbicides (e.g., pathak et al. 2019), which the farmers of bengal, including bankura district, are increasingly applying to their farms (kumar 2020). herbicides are known to eliminate grasses, broadleaved flora, frogs, birds, and pollinators (annett, habibi, and hontela 2014; relyea and jones 2009), thereby truncating several trophic levels of the farm food web and reducing long-term farm productivity (deb 2009b; 2020). 4.2.2 crop genetic diversity a multitude of crops and animals have been domesticated in india (fuller 2011; larson and fuller 2014), expanding the region’s biodiversity with thousands of landraces that are adapted to local environmental conditions and “are named, selected and maintained by the traditional farmers to meet their social, economic, cultural and ecological needs” (teshome et al. 1997, 256). each crop landrace and each domesticated animal breed is a unique genomic assortment that reveals the astounding genetic diversity of the species. nevertheless, just as the human-made landscapes are excluded from the mainstream understanding of “nature conservation”, the genetic diversity of domesticated biota is often excluded from the conventional ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [160] discourse of biodiversity. until the early 1970s, 5,556 rice landraces were grown in west bengal, most of which are now extinct from farm fields (deb 2005; 2019a). with the advent of the green revolution, thousands of folk rice landraces have been replaced with a handful of high-yielding varieties (hyvs). as of date, no more than 320 landraces are in cultivation across west bengal (deb 2019a; updated records of vrihi, unpublished), implying the loss of ca. 93% of indigenous rice genetic diversity. many of the landraces extant in bankura district have remarkable osmotic stress tolerance (karmakar et al. 2012). the current records of vrihi (1997–2021, unpublished), the country’s largest folk rice seed bank, indicate that the number of landraces currently in cultivation in bankura does not exceed 22, which is a rapid reduction from the 45 recorded till 2005 (deb 2005). the aesthetic appeal of lemma and palea colour, bran colour, aroma, and the culinary qualities of many rice landraces are important for their cultivation in indigenous food cultures. several landraces are also known for their therapeutic properties in folk medicine. in traditional medicine, the pink starch of kelas, an upland variety, is a diet for lactating women to cure their peripartum anaemia (deb 2017; 2019a). dudheswar was known to enhance growth in children, and paramai-sal was believed to be a diet for good health (deb 2017). recent studies (deb, sengupta, and pradeep 2015; sen gupta et al. 2017) reveal that grains of kelas contain a high amount (34.6 mg/kg) of iron, while parmai-sal rice is rich in manganese (124.60 mg/kg) and zinc (20.7 mg/kg), which are all important dietary micronutrients. the bran of the parmai-sal and khas dhan rice varieties also contain high amounts of arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, essential for neonatal brain development (ray et al. 2021). a large range of vanishing rice landraces, such as gopalbhog, kharishabhog, and sada kaya, are rich in b1, b5, and b6 vitamins (roy et al. 2020; mondal, datta, and deb 2021). these findings highlight the need for conservation of folk crop varieties for the nutritional security of the poor. http://cintdis.org/vrihi/ [161] debal deb table 3: endangered crop landraces and animal breeds of bankura district crop plant landrace animal breed khero (citrullus lanatus) unnamed cow (bos indicus) birbhuiyan mustard (brassica oleracea) tori chicken (gallus gallus domesticus) selection from chittagung jhanti# selection from aseel ekangi kasturi (kaempferia galanga) unidentified# aubergine (solanum melangena) lurka kalo tuni rice (oryza sativa ssp. indica) ash gangajal* gangajali* khaskani# mihi nagra# punjab-sal# sada kalma# sada kaya# sada kelas* tetku# * extinct from entire bengal # conserved on basudha farm, odisha source: author’s compilation, 2021 the traditional farmers of bankura used to grow a multitude of millets and several landraces of aubergine, bottle gourd, mustard, and sesame. all these landraces are forgotten, along with the knowledge of mixed cropping. until the early 1990s, traditional bankura farmers in onda and bishnupur block ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [162] used to grow at least 20 different crops on their vegetable farms in the same season (personal observation). this practice has given way to monocultures of a few selected crops, entailing a permanent dependence on exogenous seeds and agrochemicals, and several crops have become obsolete in the process. an example is khero, the white-flesh watermelon (citrullus lanatus). mohanta and mandal (2019) have examined the agronomic properties of several khero genotypes, which only a handful of modern farmers in bankura are cultivating. with the advent of several hybrid varieties, traditional landraces are becoming scarce. several local landraces of aubergine, sesame, and mustard have become cr, grown in only a handful of small farms in the district (table 3). the ancient practice of growing the mustard landraces, jhanti and tori, between rows of rice in the rabi season (deb 2020) has also become obsolete, owing to the prevalent practice of rice monoculture. 4.2.3 domesticated animal diversity fao’s domestic animal diversity information system (fao n.d.) records 80 indian breeds of cattle, while the national bureau of animal genetic resources (nbagr) has registered 50 breeds of domestic cattle in india. however, neither list includes the birbhuiyan breed of rarh bengal. this breed is characterized by its short stature, relatively small distance between the horns, and low milk yield (table 4). this breed, with an outstanding ability to survive on low water uptake, shows a remarkable adaptation to the dry summers of the region. unfortunately, no research and documentation of this cattle breed are yet published. the breed was common in most tribal villages of bankura until the 1980s. however, with the increasing trend of adopting modern hybrid cattle breeds, the birbhuyan faces imminent extinction (table 3). in ranibandh block, an unnamed, distinctive breed of fowl was noticed in the santal hamlets in the ranibandh forest beat. this breed, apparently a native selection of the indigenous aseel breed, has not been recorded elsewhere and is nearing extinction. another breed of fowl was recorded in saltora block. this breed is similar to the chittagong breed but has a larger and heavier build, probably attained through local selection over generations. it is imperative that the wbsbb as well as the state university of animal husbandry undertake the task of documenting their genetic characteristics and taking appropriate measures to conserve these endangered animal breeds. [163] debal deb table 4: key morphological characters of the birbhuyan breed of cattle breed descriptors mean value head length (cm) 380 body length (cm) 1,440 tail length (cm) 760 front leg length (cm) 630 hind leg length (cm) 570 distance between horns at base (cm) 120 distance between ears (cm) 190 ear length (cm) 200 ear width (cm) 70 distance between udders, front (cm) 70 distance between udders, rear (cm) 50 calving interval (days) 438 milk yield per day (l) 1.16 source: author’s compilation, 2021 5. the cultural impacts of biodiversity loss because biodiverse landscapes are the historical product of human intervention to maintain the direct and indirect use values of biodiversity (jackson and palmer 2015; fletcher et al. 2021), the loss of species and genetic diversity has adverse effects on diverse aspects of the local cultures, including social norms and perceptions. fromm (1973) argued that degradation of the biotic landscape serves to evaporate biophilia, leading to expressions of psychopathology in individual members of the society. culture includes “the setting and language that people use to describe their ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [164] environment and their relationship with the land” and implies “the underlying concepts of their words and the corresponding actions” appropriate for the use and maintenance of biodiversity (gómez-pompa and kaus 1992: 277). the disappearance of life forms from the indigenous landscape therefore not only leads to the abrogation of several use values of those biota, but also the loss of their names, social functions, ecological services and cultural significance from public memory. i discuss a few aspects of the cultural impacts of biodiversity loss on different levels. 5.1 degeneration of biophilia the degeneration of biophilia and the confinement of the value of life forms to their instrumental value is evident in most of the villages of bankura. in boidhya village of bishnupur block, a small group of open billed stork (anastomus oscitans) used to nest in an old tamarind tree, which the villagers cut down in 2017, on the pretext of keeping the place “clean”. the ancient institution of sacred groves is collapsing in many places, including in tribal villages. around the industrial township of barjora, all the sgs have been stripped of old-growth trees for timber. removal of trees for commerce is becoming a frequent occurrence in many remote tribal villages too. 5.2 loss of the cultural value of life forms numerous ceremonies associated with seed sowing and harvesting marked the agrarian culture of bengal (deb 2021b). in bankura, the nal sankranti ceremony was observed on the last day of the month of ashwin (midseptember), when most rice varieties start flowering. this ceremony involves planting a few seedlings of nal grass (phragmytes karka) and a few wild rice (o. rufipogon) plants in the north-western margin of a plot of cultivated rice. this ceremony is a ritual expression of the farmers’ celebration of the flowering of rice, in expectation of a good harvest. as industrial agriculture has become a market-driven activity, bereft of any cultural significance, ritual ceremonies have disappeared from the cultural calendar of the region. local food cultures pivot on local food crops. several rice landraces of bankura district were traditionally used to make muri (crisped rice) and chireh (beaten rice). several rice landraces were preferred for cooking specific culinary delicacies. for example, kaya rice was traditionally preferred for making aské pithé. jhinge-sal and danaguri were preferred for preparing patisaptah. small-grained, aromatic rice varieties, such as khaskani and khudi khasa, were used to prepare rice pudding. with the disappearance of these landraces, many of these culinary delicacies have been lost and [165] debal deb forgotten (deb 2021a; 2021b). farmers have also abandoned the cultivation of a special aromatic rhizome crop, ekangi kasturi (kaempferia galanga), traditionally used in making a special kind of chutney, whose recipe is now forgotten. 5.3 loss of words and knowledge base with the disappearance of an animal or a crop landrace, the names and uses of these life forms are eventually lost from the collective memory. the example of the villagers of arjunpur and sonamukhi forgetting the bengali and santali names of the pangolin mentioned above implies a cultural decay that is as deplorable as the loss of species. as the vocabulary used to describe ecosystem components forms the foundation for the resulting knowledge base that evolves, the loss of species is soon followed by the loss of words, eventually leading to severe erosion of the biocultural knowledge base (frainer et al. 2020; maffi and woodley 2010). a majority of modern youth of bankura do not know the bengali and santali names of not only rare trees like cordia macleodii but also of many relatively common trees like crateva nurvala and soymida fabrifuga. consequently, these trees no longer enjoy traditional cultural protection, and some of the eponymous festivals are devoid of the use of these trees, which remain unidentified in the villages. this phenomenon represents a “generational amnesia”, which occurs when older individuals fail to pass their experiences to future generations (papworth et al. 2009). the loss of biocultural knowledge may elicit apprehension of evil from unfamiliar organisms and facilitate the process of further biodiversity loss. for instance, in 2010, the youth in a forest fringe village in bishnupur block tried to kill a python fearing that it was a deadly venomous snake. likewise, local youths no longer recall the names of many rare flora and fauna. 5.4 disintegration of the communitarian ethos this dissolution of the cultural ring of protection around biodiversity signals the erosion of the traditional perception of the intrinsic value of biodiversity and of the communitarian ethos. the communitarian ethos shaped resource-use ethics in indigenous societies to protect their resource base. the foundation of this conservation ethic associated with customary biodiversity use is the user community’s drive to ensure the long-term availability of resources over generations. any exhaustive or “profligate resource use” (gadgil and guha 1992) would draw community disapprobation, which is known to strongly deter individual selfish behaviours against the common good (faber, petersen, and schiller 2002; deb 2009a). thus, the wild food gatherers (mostly women) of bengal villages used to leave at least a few mushrooms on the forest floor to ensure ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [166] that some spores of the fungi would replenish the stock in the next season. likewise, after extirpating wild tubers, the women used to either replant the vine or leave a piece of the tuber intact underground. no individual was allowed to extract a quantity of items exceeding what would suffice her family for the day. the “customary harvesting quotas” of bengal’s rural cultures are recorded to have persisted till the 1990s (deb and malhotra 2001). with the rapid spread of modernization and market integration, customary gathering norms have largely disappeared from local cultures. most of the old ponds, traditionally maintained as sources of drinking water for the entire hamlet, have now been converted into pisciculture ponds of private households. villagers near industrial towns often extract old-growth trees from sgs for a quick earning from the wood sale. in 2010, a santal young man in bonkati hamlet in bishnupur block, cut down the only specimen of an 80-year-old ventilago maderaspatana from his village sg to buy a bottle of spirit (deb 2021a). the last known specimen of bhadu (vitex glabrata) tree in the state (deb 2014), recorded to have existed in chhandar village of barjora block, was cut down in 2016 (deb 2019c). such violations of customary conservation norms no longer elicit resistance or remonstration from the village community. crop seeds in all agrarian cultures used to be a commons, shared among members of the community and exchanged with other communities (bray 1994; sajise et al. 2012; song et al. 2019; deb 2019b, 2021a). in all agrarian societies until the 1970s, hundreds of rice landraces were developed by unnamed, unknown farmer-breeders who shared their creations with all members of the community. the farmers of bankura, who had created the aromatic rice landrace khudi khasa, and the farmer(s) who had discovered the health benefits of kelas rice never claimed intellectual proprietorship over their innovations. more recently, in the 1990s, mr. asit de, a farmer in bankura district, developed a new rice variety named asit kalma (deb 2005; deb 2021a) and distributed its seeds for free among numerous farmers in the district. like all traditional innovations, which are widely accepted by the community and transmitted across generations, this new variety was incorporated into the region’s agricultural repertoire as a common property of all farmers. however, the rapid expansion of seed commerce in the district marked the decay of the seed commons. the abolition of the seed exchange custom has since led to a loss of self-respect among indigenous farmers, who now rely entirely on the commercial supply of seeds and wait on statutory agricultural institutions for knowledge about new seeds and markets. this process has further contributed to the abolition of hundreds of farmer landraces and farmer markets for the sale of farm produce and artisanal crafts. [167] debal deb a significant mark of the disintegration of the cohesive bond within the community is the disappearance of gânta a reciprocal labour exchange tradition that existed in all villages of bankura, which was akin to ayni in peru, bez in ladakh, and parma in nepal (deb 2009a). until the early 1980s, hired labour in agriculture was unknown in the region, because farmer neighbours used to share the tasks of land tilling, seed sowing, transplanting, crop harvesting, and housebuilding. after the 1980s, however, socio-political changes in the state accentuated the industrial ethic in production systems, highlighted private gains, introduced hired labour in agricultural lands, and fractured the autonomy of the rural community. 6. conclusion despite my attempts to give an objective depiction of the status of biodiversity and associated local cultural traditions, this narrative fails to conceal my despair and consternation at the tempo and extent of biocultural loss and decay in the region, which i feel is irreversible. this despondent view is bolstered by the failure of statutory institutions to conserve the state’s wealth of biodiversity (deb 2007a; 2008b; 2013). specifically, the state forest directorate has, over the past four decades, raised plantations of commercially valued exotics in all state forest lands at the expense of indigenous biodiversity (deb 2013; 2014). in parallel, the state’s promotion of cereal monocultures (eliazar nelson, ravichandran, and antony 2019), combined with perverse subsidies in agrochemicals and electricity (aktar, sengupta, and chowdhury 2009; shah and verma 2014), has caused local extinctions of numerous organisms and disintegration of agroecosystems. the replacement of community control of water resources with individually owned pump sets has encouraged ad libitum withdrawal of groundwater for irrigation, resulting in a rapid decline of the water table (deb 2009a). the forestry and the agricultural development agenda in all states continue to deplete the biodiversity of forests and agroecosystems throughout the country (deb 2009a; deb and malhotra 1993; gadgil and guha 1995), oblivious to all evidence of the biodiversity loss that is leading to the decline of ecosystem productivity and resilience (brzezina, kopainsky, and mathijs 2016; duval, mijatovic, and hodgkin 2019; hector 2011; liebman and schulte 2015; tilman, reich and isbell 2012; vandermeer and perfecto 2016); bankura district is no exception. neither the fd nor the wbsbb has taken any initiative to conserve the endangered biota and biodiversity-rich sacred groves and ponds. my decade-long communications with these statutory institutions about the threatened status of biodiversity in the sacred ponds in belboni and chhandar and about the last specimen of vitex glabrata (eventually destroyed in 2016) are ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [168] evidence of the bureaucratic lethargy and nonchalance towards biodiversity conservation. in view of this deplorable role of custodian institutions in biodiversity conservation, citizens’ action is the only option for effectively safeguarding the district’s wealth of biodiversity, which constitutes the foundation of local cultures, biocultural knowledge bases, and the food and livelihood security of the poor. however, given the continuing industrial enclosure of the commons and the evaporation of the communitarian ethos, i feel it imperative to conclude with this note of despair that the prospect of citizens’ action restoring the biocultural integrity and biodiversity-based economy in the region is bleak. acknowledgements i am thankful to prof. sheeladitya pal of christian college, bankura, for his encouragement to write this article. i am grateful to my research associates, debdulal bhattacharya, shanti roy, and debashis mukherjee of bankura, for their help with the collection and verification of several data, and to mr. arindam chakraborty of tribeni, hooghly, for his help with the identification of animal breeds. funding the author declares no funding support for this work. conflict of interest the author declares no conflict of interest. references aktar, wasim, dwaipayan sengupta, and ashim chowdhury. 2009. 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"an analytical study on the sanskritisation of the deities of folk tradition with reference to tamil nadu." proceedings of the indian history congress 70 (2009-2010): 621-634. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11164263 https://doi.org/10.2307/2941919 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1003074008785 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1208240109 http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/synthesis.html http://cintdis.org/vrihi/ http://www.westbengalforest.gov.in/upload/forest_of_wb/st1.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 5–10, january 2020 commentary integral ecology: an unexpected support for ecological economics by pope francis marina fischer-kowalski  1. introduction i was invited to give a talk at an international convention in the vatican, organized by the fondazione vaticano centesimo anno pro pontifice in june 2019. it should serve the purpose of evaluating the impact of the papal encyclical issued in 2015 under the title laudato sí, coining the term integral ecology, of which i so far had not taken much notice. the invitation took me by surprise: why would an institution like the vatican call for an conference to evaluate the impact of an encyclical, which is a papal letter sent to all bishops of the roman catholic church, and invite responses from both its own ―chapters‖ in the countries of the world (day one), and from international scientists irrespective of their religious background (day two) to give their feedback? before making a decision, i had to take a closer look at this encyclical. i found out it needed a long look (the document stretches across 186 pages), but my surprise deepened. the focus is clearly on the interlinkage between environmental destruction, global warming and social inequality as joint products of a particular model of progress. the following quotes from the encyclical make it clear. we are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to  institute of social ecology vienna, university for natural resources and life sciences, schottenfeldgasse 29, a-1070 vienna, austria; marina.fischer-kowalski@boku.ac.at copyright © fischer-kowalski 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.85 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.85 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature. (francis 2015, 104) further, it says that: human beings and material objects no longer extend a friendly hand to one another; the relationship has become confrontational. this has made it easy to accept the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which proves so attractive to economists, financiers and experts in technology. it is based on the lie that there is an infinite supply of the earth‘s goods. [...] the effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life. we have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups. decisions which may seem purely instrumental are in reality decisions about the kind of society we want to build. (francis 2015, 79–80) if that is not enough, it goes on to say: it is not enough to balance, in the medium term, the protection of nature with financial gain, or the preservation of the environment with progress. halfway measures simply delay the inevitable disaster. put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress. (francis 2015, 142) i was impressed. in these quotes, some fundamentally critical elements meet: the intertwining of environmental destruction and social inequality, a challenge to the idea of permanent economic growth, and a view on technology not as a solution, but as a means of imposing a mode of living in the interest of some powerful groups. mind who is speaking: the spiritual head of a religious organization comprising one third of humanity. finally: a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. (francis 2015, 35; emphasis as in the original) this all sounded close to what i pursue in my professional life: a fundamental critique of the prevailing model of development. so i took my decision and agreed to speak on day two of this convention, expecting my concerns, and my data, to be in good company. [7] marina fischer-kowalski 2. how the conference of the fondatione vaticano evolved the introductory session on this day, though, first reconfirmed my prejudice about the power of hierarchy, but also the lack of mutual support in this institution: cardinal p k a turcson elaborated on a number of things, lacking a strong emphasis on the issues of the encyclical. he took much more time than assigned to him and thus eliminated the chance for a public debate among the 400 participants for the rest of the day. janez potocnik, chair of the un environment international resource panel, then gave a perfectly disciplined keynote, backing up environmental alarms of the encyclical with current data on the relentless rise of global demand for natural resources (tripling from 1970-2017); the resource extraction and processing phase is shown to be responsible for 90 per cent of biodiversity loss and water stress, and 50 per cent of global climate change impacts. measured in material footprints, high-income countries are by far the largest consumers per capita and increasing their import dependence. the next keynote came from stefano manservisi, director general for international cooperation and development of the european union, on the current status of the 2030 agenda, compared to 1980. a compact assembly of good news and bad news, such as: poverty rate has declined, from 40 to 10 per cent (but still 800 mio people concerned; and 50 per cent of them live in middle-income countries); inequality is on the rise: the 1% richest has seen double the gains of the bottom 50 per cent. and this trend is all over the world but particularly acute in advanced economies. the extreme case is the united states, where the top 1 per cent now holds 42.5 per cent of the national wealth — much more than in any other oecd country. he emphasised the efforts from the part of eu to strengthen partnerships with others working on the agenda 2030 in developing countries. thus, for instance, whether we use the term ―integral ecology‖ or the eu‘s ―sustainable development‖, it is clear that there is a great convergence between the objectives of the holy see and of the eu. the sdgs are not only about convergence but also finding a new (and unknown) sustainable and inclusive development model where all, rich and poor, need to transform and to get closer. the major trends of our times technology, climate, migration, inequality, poverty – force us to rebuild a collective and cooperative action at international level. (manservisi 2019, 12) jeffrey sachs, professor and director of the centre for sustainable development, columbia university, took his turn into the history of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] philosophy, comparing the conception of ―economy‖ between aristotle (whom he views as a forebearer of the church‘s social teachings) and hobbes/adam smith, as moulders of capitalism. never could an economy built upon the premise of maximizing individual utility of each transaction properly take care of the common good. he welcomes the fundamental critique of the current economy as he finds it in the encyclical. in the ensuing panel discussion on ―the many obstacles obstructing the path to an integral ecology‖, i had my own chance to show, on the one hand, that in some ways the economy responds reasonably: disinvestment in fossil fuel mining companies spreads, and investment in renewables (that still amount to less than 5 per cent of global primary energy supply) rises. on the other hand, while the industrial cheerleaders (20 per cent of the world population) reduced their fossil fuel use in the last 20 years by a few percent, the emerging economies (who increasingly produce and deliver the commodities the cheerleaders use), more than doubled it (schaffartzik and fischer-kowalski 2018). thus, globally, fossil fuel use is still on the rise (krausmann et al. 2019). 3. did the papal encyclical laudato sí make a difference? in effect: if we use numbers to document the encyclical‘s impact, there is little to be found. but maybe, if we look for social movements and changed mindsets, something seems to be going on. when latent changes in mindsets turn public, they can trigger mass action as we now see with fridays for future movement. we face a really fundamental challenge, heading, if successfully resolved, for an entirely new approach to nature, economics and social distribution. the emergence of such a new approach presupposes a gradual and persistent change in mindsets across the globe, and across various segments of the world population. and this is where laudato sí may have already had some impact, and may continue to exert its influence, at a grass roots level. one could not but agree with the chairwoman anna maria tarantola (professor in economics and banker) when she observed at the end of the convention: laudato si‘ provides a prophetic voice which calls attention to the negative consequences ecological, social, economic and political of the present model of development and underline the urgency of systematic and concerted efforts aimed at an economy with a human face. [...] the dominant technocratic paradigm is part of a spiritual disorder, with the self at the centre of reality and will and desire dominating both society and nature. connected with this are not [9] marina fischer-kowalski just selfishness and greed, but also the externalisation of ecological and social costs. the problem is that our prevailing economic models privatise profits and socialise costs. (tarantola and pabst 2019, 2) among the propositions for practical action are: a four-day workweek with the same pay; fair, free public transport; the need to modify companies‘ strategies, governance and organization in order to take care of the needs of all the stakeholders, not only those of shareholders. so, quite obviously, not only the papal encyclical but also the follow-up convention confirmed the impression that the catholic church has put forth a fundamental critique of the dominant world economy, based on two arguments: its destructive impact on the natural environment (―our common home‖), its threat to the world climate in particular, and its production of massive social inequality. for ecological economists, nothing about this is particularly new. what is new though, i think, is that an institution accepted as religious and possibly moral authority by roughly one third of the world population, joins in on that interpretation, and sanctifies it. these views explicitly undermine the claims made by the deniers of human-driven climate change, underscore a critical situation crying for urgent change, and do not just appeal to hope and support from the mighty, but ask for action across the globe. such action, on the level of governments, cities, industry, local communities, and individual households, has started here and there; on the international level, the bottom-up process leading to the agreement on sustainable development goals also is a symptom for new ways. all this, i believe, has not yet reached a tipping point after which the process becomes selfreinforcing, and turns the numbers. we can also see many processes tipping the other way, towards increased hostility between social groups, aggressive nationalism, and denial of the ecological challenge. so our world is in suspense, possibly tipping in either direction; lucky those who share a firm belief, and get it reinforced by a papal encyclical. references francis, pope. 2015. laudato sí′: on care for our common home. encyclical letter. vatican city: our sunday visitor. accessed online at http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papafrancesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf on 19 december 2019. krausmann, f., c. lauk, w. haas, and d. wiedenhofer. 2018. ―from resource extraction to outflows of wastes and emissions: the socioeconomic metabolism of the global economy, 1900–2015,‖ global environmental change 52 (september): 131–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.07.003. http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf http://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.07.003 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] manservisi, stefano. 2019. ‗status of the 2030 agenda‘. keynote speech at the catholic social teaching from inception to the digital age: how to live the ‘laudato sì' convention 6-8 june 2019 new synod hall, vatican city. accessed online at http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1.paper-by-dr.-manservisi.pdf on 19 december 2019. schaffartzik a. and m. fischer-kowalski. 2018. ―latecomers to the fossil energy transition, frontrunners for change? the relevance of the energy ‗underdogs‘ for sustainability transformations,‖ sustainability 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082650 tarantola, anna maria and adrian pabst. 2019. ―summary of 2019 international convention‖. catholic social teaching from inception to the digital age: how to live the ‘laudato sì' convention 6-8 june 2019, new synod hall, vatican city. accessed online at http://www.centesimusannus.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/07/summary-of-2019-fcapp-internationalconvention.pdf on 19 december 2019 http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1.-paper-by-dr.-manservisi.pdf http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1.-paper-by-dr.-manservisi.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082650 http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/summary-of-2019-fcapp-international-convention.pdf http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/summary-of-2019-fcapp-international-convention.pdf http://www.centesimusannus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/summary-of-2019-fcapp-international-convention.pdf ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 31–46, january 2020 thematic essay soil conservation in a watershed: institutional alternatives chandan singha  abstract: the private, collective and public nature of soil quality in a watershed provides three different institutional alternatives for watershed management: individual, collective and government action. this study reviews the success and failure of these alternatives in different parts of the world. individual action by a farmer is driven by the net present value of farm profit and the resale value of the agricultural land. however, individual action for soil conservation remains suboptimal due to the presence of negative externality and the short-run income loss to the farmer. many government and development agencies have designed several mechanisms such as collective and government actions to internalise the externality. however, not all these alternative initiatives have been successful in ensuring successful management of soil quality in a watershed. 1. introduction soil quality in a watershed has the characteristics of a private, collective and public good. farmers have the property right to farmland and responsibility for farm soil quality. but soil erosion due to inefficient farm practices can affect soil quality of the neighbouring farms, especially the downstream farms in a watershed, thus causing a negative externality. cooperative action among the farmers is therefore required to contain this externality for a collective good or the common property of a group of people. there are many stakeholders of a typical watershed: farmers, the government, and the general public. the government may have property rights over the upland forest land and grasslands. the general public has property rights over the watershed too. and it is this property right over the watershed that ensures  hindu college, university of delhi, delhi-110007, india; csingha@gmail.com. copyright © singha 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.87 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.87 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] several things: water supply for the use of households and industry, safety from floods, carbon sequestration from forest and grassland etc. they are the public good services provided by a watershed. collective goods are those available for collective supply and collective use of a group of people. in a watershed, upstream forests, grazing lands and soil quality can be characterized as collective goods. in literature, upstream forests, grazing lands and soil quality of a watershed are characterized as common property resources. collective goods share characteristics of both public and private goods because they are divisible and rival in consumption (like private goods) while also being non-excludable (like public goods).1 because they are non-excludable, the externalities associated with the supply and use of these resources create the familiar free rider problem. much scholarly work has focused on explaining how collective action by the stakeholders can deal with this problem for the efficient management of these resources.2 samuelson (1954) defines public goods as goods available for joint consumption, with non-excludability and indivisibility properties, where, as in the watershed context, the supplier of the good may be one while the beneficiaries are many. in the present instance, forest and soil conservation in the uplands (by government and/or farmers) could benefit many in the downstream due to its role in controlling floods and providing fresh water. this means that upstream and downstream hydrological relationships obtain among the users of the watershed. hence, an efficiently managed watershed provides private, collective and public good service to the people. due to the public and collective good nature of a watershed, the market for many watershed services are either missing (for e.g., hydrological services, carbon sequestration, etc.) or are less than efficient as the price of food, wood, hydro power, etc. may not fully reflect the social cost. under these circumstances, the optimal provision and use of collective goods by farmers to achieve the larger interests of the society such as hydrological services, carbon sequestration, etc. may not be possible. however, there exist several mechanisms to internalise the negative externality and to provide incentives for on-farm investment in soil conservation in the watershed. they are: “(1) moral suasion; (2) regulatory limits and economic penalties; (3) taxes on negative externalities; (4) tradable environmental allowances (permits for negative externalities); (5) investment subsidies; (6) indirect incentives; (7) 1 cornes and sandlers (1984; 1996) 2 some of them are olson (2009), ostrom (2000), wade (1987), chopra et al. (1990) and baland and plateau (1996). [33] chandan singha mergers; (8) payments for environmental services; (9) changing and/or strengthening property rights and liability systems; and (10) facilitating negotiation and conflict resolution” (kerr et al. 2007). overall, the institutional alternatives for the efficient use of soil quality in a watershed and the effective implementation of mechanisms to internalise the externality require, in practice, a combination of individual, collective or group, and government actions. this paper reviews some empirical studies dealing with these three institutional alternatives for soil conservation in a watershed. section 2 discusses on-farm soil conservation and individual action. section 3 deals with inefficient farm practices and collective action for containing the externality of soil erosion. section 4 presents a discussion on forest conservation and government action. lastly, section 5 provides concluding comments. 2. on-farm soil conservation and individual actions inefficient agricultural practices could lead to soil erosion, which reduces farm productivity while significantly inflating the input cost. concerns regarding the actual/potential decline in yield and the higher cost of production lead individual farmers to adopt conservation measures to reduce topsoil loss. farmers are the owners of farmland on the basis of property rights. they make investment decisions regarding soil conservation considering the costs and benefits involved. in addition to the net private benefits from conservation measures, the resale and rental value of the land also influence an individual farmer‟s decision to invest in soil conservation. lutz et al. (1994) provide evidence that the net positive benefit from agriculture may offer an incentive to the farmers to invest in soil conservation. in a study of several countries in latin america, lutz et al. (1994) empirically established investment in soil conservation by a farmer is driven by the market prices of both inputs and outputs. a study by miranowski (1984) evaluates the impact of productivity loss on land management decisions in a watershed in iowa, usa, and yields similar results. the author established that the expected rise in crop price in future (which would mean a higher expected future profit) may also encourage farmers to adopt more intensive soil conservation measures. mcconnel (1983) established theoretically that the increasing soil loss over time was part of rational farm management choices and not due to a farmer‟s ignorance about the future. however, the possibility of soil loss could lead ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] to a decline in the resale value of land in future. the expected loss in future can force a farmer to invest in soil conservation. the studies of mcconnel (1983), lutz et al. (1994) and miranowski (1984), however, ignored problems related to negative externality of soil erosion. the paths of private and social rate of optimal soil erosion could diverge in the presence of significant negative externality (miranowski 1984) like change in hydrological cycle, increase in cost of water purification for water supply etc. in addition to externality, the eroded land slowly reduces the capability of the individual farmer to invest in soil and water conservation measures to halt the degradation of land due to the continuous fall in revenue and/or rise of cost in agriculture. therefore, without proper monetary incentives, it is difficult for farmers to invest in degraded land (barbier 1990). moreover, some soil conservation techniques not only lower the yield of the crop in the short run but also raise the cost of production immediately. this short-run penalty on profit may also discourage the farmer to adopt on-farm soil conservation. in response to lack of adequate incentives for farmers to invest in soil conservation, the u.s. federal government has started providing technical assistance to farmers while sharing the cost of soil conservation measures (walker and young 1984) – this is one way of providing investment subsidies for soil conservation. for instance, in the palouse region of the usa, the federal government has increased its expenditure in order to encourage on-farm soil conserving tillage system in order to manage crop residue. however, despite the progress in yield enhancing technology in the study area, the potential gain in crop yield was not realised due to the existing erosive farming system, i.e., the absence of tillage (walker and young 1984). a similar kind of initiative was undertaken in australia. in new south wales, for instance, a farm planning scheme provides technical (i.e., recommendations on specific soil conservation measures) and financial assistance (i.e., a long-term loan at cheaper rates of interest to farmers) for on-farm soil conservation measures.3 these and such assistances could be described as an amalgamation of moral suasion and indirect incentives to overcome the externality of soil erosion. in their study, king and sinden (1988) revealed that soil conservation measures fetched a higher price and a higher rental value of land. the findings of walker and young (1984) and king and sinden (1988) have established that investment subsidies, moral suasion and indirect incentives by governments in developed countries can provide farmers the incentive to undertake soil conservation measures. however, there have been many 3 see, king and sinden (1988). [35] chandan singha instances of such measures falling short of the expectations in countries of the developing world. in developing countries, development agencies, governments and donors have spent substantial amounts of money to encourage farmers to adopt on-farm soil conservation measures. these measures have been diverse in nature and very much region-specific. they have combined indigenous, mechanical (e.g., stone bunding and terracing) and agronomic (e.g., agroforestry, minimum tillage, etc.) practices. of these, the mechanical measures were funded by the government or donors. in the case of nicaragua and the dominican republic, for instance, an investment subsidy and indirect incentive succeeded in incentivising farmers to adopt soil conservation for a limited period of time in a soil conservation project implemented during the 1980s. it was however observed that farmers were not only abandoning soil conservation but physically removing conservation measures once the subsidy period was over (lutz et al. 1994). apart from the cost sharing strategy of soil conservation measures in the developing countries, governments have also tried to influence (i.e., regulate) output prices. for instance, pagiola (1996) examined the role of the pricing policy on the return to terracing in the semi-arid region of kenya by using experimental data where the kenyan government had artificially raised the price of maize (the main staple food in the land degraded area) to incentivise farmer to adopt soil conservation. the empirical findings suggested that the increase in maize price had increased the net present value of the crop in steep slopes but had decreased it in shallow slopes. therefore, the impact of the pricing policy adopted by the government on returns was not independent of the biophysical characteristics faced by the farmers. in addition, the problems with regard to implementation of on-farm soil conservation by an individual farmer are more prevalent in a developing country than in a developed country due to insecure property rights, wide spatial dispersion of agricultural activity and, consequently, the weak enforcement powers of the government (pagolia 1996), free riding behaviour of farmers due to lack of incentives, and lack of awareness and inadequate financial capability of farmers with regard to the importance of cooperative institutions (khisa et al. 2007; van rijn et al. 2012). 4 however, though important, these conditions are not in themselves sufficient as conditions to prompt the adoption of soil conservation (shiferaw et al. 2009). since soil conservation benefits are partly private and partly public 4 the decision regarding conservation is also influenced by socio-economic factors, farm characteristics, market-access variables, social learning, and social networks (teklewood et al. 2014; wossen et al. 2015). however, these factors are not the focus of discussion in this paper. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] goods, as mentioned before, collective action could result in efficient onfarm soil conservation decisions by farmers. 3. inefficient farm practices and collective action for containing the externality of soil erosion the soil quality of farmlands is a collective good as the soil quality of a farm carries consequences for the quality of land in neighbourhood farms. it is especially so in the context of soil erosion in upstream farms, which could affect soil quality in downstream farms in a watershed. this upstream and downstream linkage creates interdependence among users of the resource. but, in a free market situation, getting farmers to adopt soil conservation technology voluntarily in order to achieve the goal of required adoption and diffusion of the technology is not easy. soil conservation requires collective provision and use of soil quality in a watershed, especially in a micro watershed. given this externality of soil erosion, soil quality has to be conserved as a collective good. the studies of wade (1987), chopra et al. (1990), ostrom (2004), and baland and plateau (1996) have suggested principles for successful collective action for managing collective goods like soil quality in the context of externality. they are presented as operating principles for or limits to collective action. the institutional characteristics for successful collective action include: (i) the characteristics of user groups, (ii) the presence of institutions for discussion of common problems, (iii) the presence of rules for sharing the costs and benefits of collective action, (iv) the existence of sanctions and punishments for not adhering to rules of cooperation, (v) the presence of mechanisms to resolve conflicts, and (vi) the recognition of the user group‟s property rights to the resource by government. some examples of successful cooperation for managing collective goods in the indian context can be found in wade (1987) and chopra et al. (1990), among other studies. the possibility of successfully managing topsoil loss through collective action also depends on the demographic composition of the group since the demographic composition and organisational structure of the group may influence the outcome of collective action for soil conservation. for instance, a heterogeneous group in terms of ethnicity and social class may reduce cooperation. even the size of the group (large or small) and inequality among group members may create problems regarding coordination within the group (shiferaw et al. 2009). however, problems that hinder the emergence of collective action due to heterogeneity among [37] chandan singha group members can be minimized, if not eliminated, by the strict enforcement of rules for collective action and the fostering of reciprocity among group members (white and runge 1994). as far as soil conservation is concerned, collective action could entail a certain network externality that would act as the driving force behind farmers‟ efforts to adopt soil conservation. according to meinzen-dick et al. (2002), farmers take action to ensure soil conservation not only because of their dependence on agriculture for their livelihood but also due to growing pressure from peer groups or other farmers from the locality. in many micro watershed projects in india, ngos too have persuaded farmers to voluntarily adopt soil conservation measures and/or voluntarily contribute to community labour for soil conservation efforts (kerr et al. 2007). willy and holm-muller (2013), who studied whether collective action can act as a driving force behind farmers‟ adoption of soil conservation measures in rural kenya, reported that, in their study area, there were a number of collective action initiatives, including physical and/or financial, to manage natural resources. the findings of the study suggested that collective action by the farmers resulted in the efficient management of soil conservation. a study by nyangena (2008) in the context of watershed conservation programme in rural kenya confirmed these findings. collective action does not always mean physical and/or financial support by individuals within a group as, in some cases, it can go beyond these supports. for instance, in the land care approach adopted in the philippines in the mid-1990s, the group, after formation, identified the local level problems about natural resource degradation. they then took upon themselves the responsibility of disseminating information and mobilizing action by and financial support from the community to improve the condition of land, water and vegetation. cramb (2005), who evaluated the impact of the land care programme on the individual adoption of soil conservation (natural vegetative strips and contour hedgerows) in the philippines, found that participants in the land care group had a positive and significant impact on the adoption of soil conservation measures. the above example suggests that collective action in soil conservation underscores the power of moral suasion as a tool to overcome negative externalities. however, instances of collective action have been reported where mechanisms other than moral suasion have been used to overcome externalities. in india, the provision for imposing a penalty for illegal grazing, in the form of a fine by the local government, exists in many areas in order to ensure better land management under community forestry. in 87 villages of the indian dryland state of rajasthan, a tax has been introduced to discourage overgrazing as well as a fee for grazing in order to conserve ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] top soil under world bank‟s integrated watershed development programme (kerr et al. 2007). in addition to these mechanisms, a form of the merger is practised in the watershed of sukhomajri village in india, where villagers share water, forest and pasture products among themselves irrespective of the ownership (i.e., status and area) of land. here, groundwater is treated as a common property of the watershed rather than the private property of the owner of the land. this kind of collective sharing of the benefit provides incentive to the dwellers to conserve land (chopra et al., 1990). given that the soil quality of a watershed is collective good, governments and/or development agencies encourage collective action through institutional mechanisms for better management of watershed development programme. for instance, in semi-arid region in india (parts of maharashtra, karnataka and andhra pradesh) users‟ groups were put in place by implementing agencies to set rules and their monitoring: grazing and deforestation in upper reaches of treatment area, cultivation of water intensive crops in lower reaches of treatment area and community labour to build soil and water conservation measures in treatment area. some examples of such projects were: myrada, aga khan rural support programme and several major bilateral watershed programmes with european countries. 5 number of studies evaluated the environmental and socio-economic outcomes of these watershed projects. findings of kerr (2002) and reddy et al. (2004) suggested that various watershed development programmes under study were able to preserve natural resources with modest improvement in some of the livelihood indicators. in another watershed intervention, villagers collaborated in constructing ponds and trenches, planting trees and plugging gullies, etc., to improve agricultural outcomes. these interventions took place on both private and public land in madhya pradesh, another indian state in the semi-arid region. hope (2007) in his study established that the treated villages experienced a reduction in water collection time in the dry season. however, the treated villages experienced no significant gain in the return to farming. in addition to the above, there are other case studies which show that collective action is moderately successful in preserving soil and water vis-àvis the provision of tangible economic benefit. for instance, shiferaw et al. (2009) studied the contribution of collective action in a watershed of semiarid region of india to community investment in natural resources (wells, check-dams, ponds, etc.) and household welfare and poverty reduction (livestock, food security, seasonal and permanent migration, etc.). this 5 see, kerr (2007) and kerr (2002) for details. [39] chandan singha study considered two strands of variables: a) enabling institutions and b) participation and organisational performances, in order to measure collective action. a number of variables, like the existence of rules to ensure co-operation and the fraction of members who respect the various rules, were used to measure the enabling institutions. to capture participation and organisational performance, the study used the fraction of members participating in user group meetings and the percentage of well-managed user groups. it established a strong correlation between collective action and increase in community investment in natural resources while reporting a statistically insignificant association between changes in natural resource conditions and farm outcomes. as mentioned before, the success of collective action in managing natural resources is dependent upon various factors like group size, distribution of benefits, etc. in addition, the probability of success through collective action depends on exclusively defined property rights (reddy et al. 2007). in many tropical countries, forest land is owned by government. collective action cannot work efficiently in forest areas where private property right is absent or is not well-defined. besides, in many developing countries there are varying property rights to land even within watersheds. often, private property is in the form of farmland owned by farmers in the downstream and forest land upstream is owned by government. farmers adopt number of on-farm soil conservation measures individually or collectively, as we saw before, but forest areas face the threat of deforestation, seen in many countries, including tropical countries, although the forest cover upstream provides some very important ecosystem services, among them the provision of hydrological services and soil conservation as well as the maintenance of soil nutrients downstream and biodiversity. forest, therefore, is an important component of a watershed (pattanayak 2004) and government intervention is required for its conservation since neither market mechanisms nor collective action can optimally ensure that it renders the services identified above. 4. forest conservation and government action governments directly try to internalise the externalities of watershed management by investment, regulation, ban, penalty, subsidy and innovative incentives like payment for ecosystem services. governments of many countries in east and south asia (e.g., thailand, taiwan, china, malaysia and india) have imposed a logging ban (label & daniel 2009; lu et al. 2001) as well as restrictions on grazing (kerr et al. 2007) in upland forest in order to mitigate downstream impact. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] a number of empirical studies that have investigated the effects of upland forest conservation through government intervention have provided evidence of significant benefits to stakeholders who are located downstream of a watershed. in malaysia, for instance, vincent et al. (2015) have shown that the conservation of virgin (undisturbed) and logged tropical forest located in the mountainous terrain of the country reduced the cost of water treatment in the coastal plains that were converted to nonforest land. in another such government initiative, pattanayak and kramer (2001) and pattanayak and butry (2005) found that regeneration of forest cover in the upstream watershed provided drought mitigation service to downstream farmers in indonesia. in contrast, many studies have revealed that regulations imposed by the government can be inefficient due to typical command and control type problems. veloz et al. (1985), for instance, analysed soil conservation benefits in the context of a hydroelectric dam in the mountain watershed of the dominican republic, where the government had laid down guidelines for land use patterns in the four slope classes of the watershed: a) class a (3% to 20% slope) – mulching and contour ploughing along with traditional agriculture, b) class b (21% to 35% slope), and class c (36% to 50% slope) – agro forestry in place of cropland and renovation of rangeland respectively, c) class d (more than 50% slope) – afforestation in existing crop and rangeland. the findings revealed that except for farmers in slope class a, those in other slope classes earned negative private net present value. to internalise the externality of the farmer in the upland, governments in many countries also provide incentives such as compensation in monetary form to farmers of a region to change the existing land use pattern on their land. for instance, in the midwest us changes in land use from upland forest and wetlands to farm and pastures has increased the intensity of flooding, deteriorated water quality, and threatened biodiversity. given that the restoration of land has the potential to benefit the community at large, the us senate passed the wetland reserve programme bill in 2002. under this bill, the government offers farmers compensation for restoring forest and wetland on private land (zedler 2003). to address the failure of the market to deal with the externality of upstream stakeholders affecting downstream stakeholders, governments in many countries have started facilitating mechanisms to pay for ecosystem services for the purpose of managing natural resources. the payment for ecosystem services can be seen as a coasian contract (pattanayak et al. 2010), where the government is directly or indirectly involved in money transfers to upland farmers conditional on the conservation of forest and biodiversity. the [41] chandan singha difference between payment for ecosystem service by design and other approaches to checking externality such as regulatory limits, economic penalties, taxes and tradable permits is that the former is based on the „beneficiary pays principle‟ while the latter are based on the „polluter pays principle‟(engel 2016). under the payment for ecosystem services principle, a farmer in a particular area receives payment for a fixed tenure contract. the us and european union are the pioneers in adopting the practice of payment for ecosystem services. in the us, the government pays usd 1.7 billion per year to farmers, which is conditional upon maintaining forest cover on a portion of farmland and evidence of measures for sustainable agricultural practices including soil conservation. countries of the european union also spend usd 7.2 billion per annum as payments to farmers to maintain forest cover and to derive the benefits of ecosystem services (armsworth et al. 2012). in the context of developing countries, payment for ecosystem services is important due to certain reasons. first and foremost, mountains in developing countries contain huge portions of tropical forest, which plays a major role in providing environmental benefits. secondly, both governments as well as the majority of the people are resource poor. hence, any scheme related to payment for environmental services can be seen as win-win situation which would reduce poverty while preserving the forest (pattanayak et al. 2010). examples of facilitation by the government for payment for ecosystem services can be seen in latin america, where the longest running programme for payment of ecosystem services, the pagos por sercios ambientales, in costa rica was initiated by the costa rican government in 1997 (arrigada et al. 2012). in asia, too, there are examples of payment for ecosystem services for the purpose of protecting and maintaining the vegetative cover. in china, for instance, the main objective of the sloping land conservation program was to reduce soil erosion through afforestation in the 12 million hectares of the upper reaches (pattanayak et al. 2010). in southeast asia, many governments have facilitated the rewarding upland poor for environmental services (rupees) project, which is a payment mechanism to the upland poor to adopt land conservation (kerr et al. 2007). however, the findings of several studies (ferraro 2008; winscher et al. 2008) suggest that the rate of success of payment for ecosystem services to preserve and restore forest is limited. the first precondition for the effectiveness of payment for ecosystem services is a well-defined property right which, as discussed before, is not always found in developing countries. the efficacy of the scheme also depends upon the administrative targeting of the beneficiary, the degree of compliance and administrative ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] monitoring, and the enforcement capability of the implementing agency (arrigada et al. 2012; engel 2016). 5. conclusion this study reviewed the institutional alternatives for soil conservation in a watershed. soil quality in a watershed has the characteristics of a private, collective and public good. the three institutional alternatives to protect a watershed are: on-farm individual, collective and government action. since these actions are not mutually exclusive, a distinct categorisation of institutional alternatives and comparing their role in soil watershed management is difficult. nevertheless, this study reviews a number of empirical studies on watershed management, especially in the context of soil conservation, and provides evidence on the roles of individual, collective and government action. as the studies reviewed show, farmers invest in soil conservation if they realise that soil erosion will reduce their agricultural profit and the resale and rental value of farmland. however, due to the presence of externality and insufficient financial capability, on-farm investment in soil conservation remains sub-optimal. this has led governments and development agencies to implement several mechanisms such as penalties, taxes, direct and indirect subsidies. nonetheless, evidence of success of these measures to encourage on-farm investment by farmers is very limited, especially in developing countries. it is also well-established that soil quality in a watershed is a collective good. consequently, various development agencies have tried to develop intuitional mechanisms for successful collective action to manage soil quality in a watershed. but the success of the collective action depends on an effectively determined set of rules; mechanisms to monitor farmers and to tackle defectors through regulatory limits and penalties; and the ability to cope with conflict and to provide solutions to disputes over property rights. available empirical evidence suggests that the outcome of the collective action to maintain soil quality and to provide tangible benefits to stakeholders of watersheds remains moderately successful. it is quite clear that government intervention is also required to protect watersheds on account of market failure. it is also a fact that the upland areas of watersheds in tropical countries are covered with forests which are mainly under government control. governments have taken many initiatives to protect forest cover such as ban on logging and grazing, regulation of land use patterns, and subsidies and conditional cash transfers [43] chandan singha to farmers for protecting forest cover. like the other two institutional arrangements, evidence of the success of government action in maintaining forest cover to protect watershed is also mixed. the review of literature on individual, collective and the government action on soil conservation come up with key policy implication. it is necessary to get over the schematic perspective that stakeholders can/cannot preserve watershed and recognise their inclination and capacity to bear the burden of watershed conservation across site, and over time. therefore, recognising the elements which subscribe to constructive watershed management by stakeholders can provide valuable input in identifying where watershed development programme can be implemented easily, and where extra effort of development agencies is required. references armsworth, paul r., szvetlana acs, martin dallimer, kevin j. gaston, nick hanley, and paul wilson. 2017. “the cost of policy simplification in conservation incentive programs.” ecology letters 15 (5): 406-414. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01747.x arriagada, rodrigo a., paul j. ferraro, erin o. sills, subhrendu k. pattanayak, and silvia cordero-sancho. 2012. “do payments for environmental services affect forest cover? a farm-level evaluation from costa rica.” land economics 88 (2): 382-399. https://doi.org/10.3368/le.88.2.382 baland, jean-marie, and jean-philippe platteau. 1996. halting degradation of natural resources: is there a role for rural communities? rome: food and agriculture organization of the united nations. barbier, edward b. 1990. “the farm-level economics of soil conservation: the uplands of java.” land economics 66 (2): 199-211. https://doi.org/10.2307/3146369 chopra, kanchan, gopal k. kadekodi, and maddipati narasimha murty. 1990. participatory development: people and common property resources. new delhi: sage. cornes, richard, and todd sandler. 1984. “easy riders, joint production, and public goods.” the economic journal 94 (375): 580-598. https://doi.org/10.2307/2232704 cornes, richard, and todd sandler. 1996. the theory of externalities, public goods, and club goods. cambridge: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139174312 cramb, rob a. 2005. “social capital and soil conservation: evidence from the philippines.” australian journal of agricultural and resource economics 49 (2): 211-226. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8489.2005.00286.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01747.x https://doi.org/10.3368/le.88.2.382 https://doi.org/10.2307/3146369 https://doi.org/10.2307/2232704 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139174312 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8489.2005.00286.x ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] engel, stefanie. 2016. “the devil in the detail: a practical guide on designing payments for environmental services.” international review of environmental and resource economics 9 (1–2): 131-177. https://doi.org/10.1561/101.00000076 ferraro, paul j. 2008. “asymmetric information and contract design for payments for environmental services.” ecological economics 65 (4): 810-821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.07.029 hope, r. a. 2007. “evaluating social impacts of watershed development in india.” world development 35 (8): 1436-1449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.04.006 kerr, john. 2002. “watershed development, environmental services, and poverty alleviation in india.” world development 30 (8): 1387-1400. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-750x(02)00042-6 kerr, john, grant milne, vasudha chhotray, pari baumann, and a. j. james. 2007. “managing watershed externalities in india: theory and practice.” environment, development and sustainability 9 (3): 263-281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-0059022-3 khisa, p., c.k.k gachene, n.k. karanja., and j.g. mureithi, 2007. “the effect of post-harvest crop cover on soil erosion in a maize-legume based cropping system in gatanga, kenya.” journal of agriculture in the tropics and subtropics 103 (1): 17–28. king, david a., and j. a. sinden. 1988. 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resurreccion 2008; weeratunge et al., 2010). in doing this, i take the readers to the field the fisheries of myanmar. the country is still struggling with internal conflict, and its many ethnic groups exhibit social norms that might fairly be glossed as patriarchal. in myanmar, as in many other countries, the gendered division of labour and restrictions are observed in most aspects of domestic and public life, and this is more emphatically apparent in rural communities.2 myanmar‟s fishing industry is  crawford school of public policy, australian national university, j. g. crawford building, 132 lennox crossing, acton act 2601 australia; sayuri.ichikawa@anu.edu.au copyright © ichikawa 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.80 1 there are, of course, many exceptions to this. see, for example david palazon‟s documentary on female fisherfolk of atauro island in timor-leste (palazon 2013), kuntala lahiri-dutt‟s documentary on women‟s role in the fishery sector of mumbai, india (lahiridutt 2019), and charotte moser‟s work “listening to women fishers on the sekong river” (moser 2015). 2 for a more detailed discussion on the status of women in present day myanmar, see, raising the curtain from gender equality network (gen 2018). https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.80 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [112] no exception; women make a significant contribution to fish processing and marketing, yet their role is not fully acknowledged in the official statistics and is largely ignored by the policy-makers. my research focused on the small-scale fishery value chain of fishing communities of ayeyarwady region and was carried out as part of an internship for network activities group.3 i carried out the research in early 2019 using qualitative methods for analysing the roles of multiple actors in myanmar fisheries value-chain, their genders, their relationships and the opportunities and constraints they face, with the aim of identifying spaces for interventions that will better the lot of women working within the industry. my fieldwork revealed surprising and unexpected aspects of „gender‟, and some even contradicted with the main-stream associations and perceptions of the term. in this note, i share these unexpected findings to illustrate the complexity and diversity of gender issues and challenges present in rural communities. 2. is the phrase ‘women are chatty’ common across cultures? a popular belief is that men tend to look for peace and quiet to cope with stressful situations in contrast to women, who look for a chat to cope with the stress of everyday life and enjoy their time (gray 2004; pease and pease 2016). in my experiences of growing up in japan, i saw generally more men than women enjoyed drinking and talking for hours at the end of the working week. this experience made me sceptical about this gendered perception of women in myanmar. as a gender researcher, i have come to realise that such perceptions are built upon the gender perspectives that societies usually impose on individuals (cornwall 2000). yet, what i found even more surprising was how this perception surfaced in many of the rural fishery communities where i conducted my fieldwork. a gendered pattern of behaviour that emerged in the focus-group discussions is one of the most undeniably astonishing findings that i came across, and one that made me reconsider what these so-called relationship books talk about. in each of the four villages, where my research was based, i conducted separate focus group discussions with a male group and a female group, each comprising 5-6 participants representing different 3 the network activities group is a major ngo in myanmar that works on community development and governance throughout the country. see, https://nagmyanmar.org/whowe-are/ https://nagmyanmar.org/who-we-are/ https://nagmyanmar.org/who-we-are/ [113] sayuri ichikawa activities in the fishery value chain. i conducted easy-to-grasp activities such as mapping the fishery value chain and gender access and control matrix, but also somewhat awkward activities that go into unfamiliar concepts like identifying gender-based role associations, gendered perspectives and expectations from “male” and “female”. in all four villages, i observed that the focus group discussions with men were quiet and consisted of minimal conversations, making the atmosphere serious with almost no smile or laughter. often, i would have to ask additional questions to the set questions i had prepared in order to get the information i sought. in instances where they found the questions or topic awkward, they would only show an awkward smile in response. on the other hand, the focusgroup discussions with women were always “chatty”, making the atmosphere lively with constant talking and laughing. in one of the villages, women could not stop laughing at the fact that we were asking them about what roles they associated with “male” and “female” in the community. yet, from the reports of researchers who conducted the women‟s focusgroup discussions, we found that most of their chats were neither relevant nor helpful in achieving the objective of the activity. in another case, while we were informally talking with the women of the house where focus-group discussions were held, they told us that “men must listen to our concerns and our issues, and if they don‟t listen we will make them listen, because we are strong enough to do so and that is what they need to do to be good husbands.” this particular case surprised me for two reasons; first that women do indeed want to talk about and ask for a partner who will listen to their concerns, and second, women do have the power to ask for such things to men within the household. in men are from mars, women are from venus, which has become one of the greatest bestsellers writing about relationships, gray (2004) states that men will withdraw into solitude to deal with the issues he faces while women will look to share her issues with people whom she trusts, and in doing so demand such attention from their partners. assuming that these women and men in myanmar‟s rural fishery communities might have never come across such books, their statement presumably comes from the gendered perceptions that their society has imposed on them. this made me consider where gender perceptions come from and how they can interestingly be identical across cultures sometimes. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [114] 3. gender perspectives and occasional contradictions another unexpected finding, and one that has confused me in my interpretation of gendered perspectives in myanmar‟s rural fishery communities, is how women, being associated to “home,” do not always mean restricted mobility. when i conducted fieldwork in an inland village where fish processing is a popular livelihood option for women, i found that these female fish processors were one of the most mobile, making regular travels of approximately 2-3 hours one-way to yangon‟s central market and back to sell their products directly to fish traders and the middlemen. however, at the same time, i observed that women are associated with the “home”, responsible for everything ranging from house chores and raising children to collecting fish from fishing nets and fish processing. in the light of works of gender researchers such as resurreccion (2006), which show that women‟s association with home restricts their overall mobility, my observations in myanmar troubled my interpretation of this association between women and home. this was even more troubled when i compared these results with the results of the focus group discussions with female actors. in a delta-area village, from where access to yangon‟s central market would require approximately five hours of travel one-way, two hours by boat to the regional city and then another 2-3 hour by bus to yangon, female fish collectors stated that the women stayed home, and the men travelled. in interviews, these female fish collectors, who are engaged in the business with family and relatives, stated that women stay at home and take responsibility for collecting fish and managing finance, while men travel with the fish products to the market to ensure safe delivery and payment from collectors in the central market. while a comparison between fish processors and fish collectors from different regions is difficult, a possible interpretation is that two gender perceptions, “women are chatty, thus are more suited for bargaining and sales” and “women are associated with home” clashed but the former trumps the latter for leveraging economic gains and influences women‟s mobility related to sales activity, which is counterposed to their predominant role of homemaker. such contradicting findings have made me realize the complexity of gender studies, and how it can change depending on various aspects such as culture, time and location. [115] sayuri ichikawa 4. learning the complexity of gender research as is often concluded in gender research and observed in rural fishery communities, women are associated with “home” and “being chatty”, thus often making them responsible for house chores and raising children as well as selling their products (resurreccion 2006). in our fieldwork in myanmar‟s rural fishery communities, we came across unexpectedly universal gendered behaviour such as women being chatty and wanting someone to listen to their issues and at the same time unexpectedly contradicting gendered behaviour by being the most mobile at the same time associated with home. such mixed findings made my interpretation of the gender perspectives in these rural fishery communities difficult, but at the same time made me appreciate what gender studies have always emphasized: gender differs based on many factors such as time, culture, location, and society. acknowledgements this fieldwork was conducted as part of the institute of coastal and water research project supported by the livelihoods and food security funds through a research internship at network activities group (nag) in myanmar. i would like to express my gratitude to nag and their research team for assisting me in this research and fieldwork. i would also like to thank keith barney and kuntala lahiri-dutt for their guidance, and michael rose for his valuable feedback. references cornwall, a. 2000. making a difference? gender and participatory development. brighton: institute of development studies. fröcklin, s., m. de la torre-castro, l. lindström, and n. s. jiddawi. 2013. “fish traders as key actors in fisheries: gender and adaptive management.” ambio 42 (8): 951–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-013-0451-1 gender equality network. 2018. raising the curtain. yangon: gender equality network. gray, j. 2004. men are from mars, women are from venus: the classic guide to understanding the opposite sex. new york: harper collins publishers lahiri-dutt, k. 2019. “fished! fisherwomen of mumbai.” video, 19:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqadimryqa https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-013-0451-1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqadimryqa ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [116] moser, c. 2015. “listening to women fishers on the sekong river.” journal of lao studies special issue: 140–160. palazon, d. 2013. “wawata topu (women divers in rasua dialect) mermaids of timor-leste.” video, 32:53. https://vimeo.com/81265144 pease, a. and b. pease. 2016. why men don't listen & women can't read maps: how to spot the differences in the way men & women think. united kingdom: hachette. resurreccion, b. p. 2006. “rules, roles and rights: gender, participation and community fisheries management in cambodia‟s tonle sap region.” international journal of water resources development 22 (3): 433–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900620500482949 weeratunge, n., k. a. snyder, and c. p. sze. 2010. “gleaner, fisher, trader, processor: understanding gendered employment in fisheries and aquaculture.” fish and fisheries 11 (4): 405–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2010.00368.x https://vimeo.com/81265144 https://doi.org/10.1080/07900620500482949 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2010.00368.x ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (1): 139–144, january 2019 notes from the field mountain agriculture at a crossroads? understanding household-level decision-making in rapidly changing socio-economic contexts reinmar seidler, rinzi lama  and poonam rai  1. agricultural innovations, alternative livelihoods and “resilience” we have been implementing an action-research program in 30 villages of the darjeeling hills (north bengal). these villages are scattered around the borders of two significant protected areas, singalila national park and senchel wildlife sanctuary. our over-arching research questions have been: what impact is the changing climate currently having on rural life and economy, and what can be expected in the near future? to answer these questions, we have gathered data on agricultural productivity at the household level over five years. but we have also wanted to understand what options there might be for increasing rural resilience and adaptation to changing conditions; so we have supported interventions in several simple but useful agricultural technologies. these include polyhouses to protect delicate crops such as chillies and leafy greens; bee boxes to increase and systematize honey production, and to support pollination services;  department of biology and graduate program in critical and creative thinking, university of massachusetts, boston, 100 morrissey blvd, boston ma 02125, usa; reinmar.seidler@umb.edu.   department of anthropology, north bengal university, raja rammohunpur, darjeeling734014, west bengal, india; rinzi.lama@gmail.com  ashoka trust for research in ecology and the environment (atree), darjeeling office, 17/b cooch bihar road, darjeeling-737401, west bengal, india; poonam.rai@atree.org copyright © seidler, lama and rai 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.61 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.61 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] mushroom production; and training in soil management technologies such as vermiculture, terrace management, and the use of cover crops and organic pesticides. we have sought to help forge market linkages for new products where these were lacking, and to support villages interested in building community enterprises in eco-tourism and educational tourism. we are aware that many of these innovations tend to communicate a vision of “resilience” that is in some sense “conservative”. strengthening village agricultural economies, encouraging investments in soil management for the long term, advocating for the importance of healthy soil microbiota, thinking in terms of future climate scenarios — these interventions tend to reinforce concepts of village food security and the continued relative independence of village economies. yet, as the rural road network extends into the hills and vehicular traffic increases, there is a parallel, and in some sense opposite, regional trend toward market integration and urban-rural interdependence. as the pace of socio-economic change accelerates, possibilities open up that were previously closed to many rural communities: easier market access, better education, off-farm employment opportunities, etc. a widening range of life choices naturally produces a revaluation of previously-accepted aspects of daily life. consequently, a family’s priorities may rapidly shift away from the size and quality of the household harvest. even if a household still considers itself fundamentally a farming household, within a few seasons the effort put into the strenuous work of farming may be reduced. low-productivity portions of land may be abandoned. ripening crops may be less vigorously defended against the intrusions of wild animals. the availability of local alternatives to smallholder agriculture raises the opportunity costs of continued farm work. how then should we expect people to respond to our interventions? as in any sample of communities, household-level data show wide variation in individual responses. some of the more entrepreneurial-minded adopt the new technologies and push them forward to strengthen their agricultural base. others see smallholder mountain agriculture as a “losing game” in competition with the cheap food-stuffs trucked up from the plains. the result is a rapid overall turn toward reduced investment in smallholder agriculture, and a growing emphasis on non-farm income and mixed livelihoods. however, when asked in surveys why they are reducing farming, many respondents emphasize environmental factors — especially human-wildlife conflict (hwc) and climate change. villagers say both of these have been intensifying over the last 10-15 years. but these perceptions coexist with the [141] reinmar seidler, rinzi lama, and poonam rai transformative regional economic trends described above. are environmental changes actually driving current economic choices? or on the other hand, are rapidly changing values and opportunities the main determinants of livelihood choices, despite the discourse emphasizing climate and hwc? 2. ambiguous trends in human-wildlife conflict it is challenging to verify that hwc is in fact increasing, and if it is, when the increase started. in these villages, we know that earlier generations regularly set night watches to prevent crop attacks during harvest seasons. this shows there must always have been pressure on crops — understandably, since fields of ripening crops close to forest edges would always have represented a uniquely rich nutrient source for animals. already in some of its earliest issues, the environmental journal down to earth (dte) reported complaints of increasing hwc. for instance, in january 1994, amit mitra published a piece describing the problem in a hilly area of pune district (mitra 1994). he quotes a tribal farmer: “all 25 households in my village have been affected and more than half our crop has been destroyed.” as early as 1987, formal research on the subject had already been carried out in the area: “a sample survey of 25 hamlets in the area revealed that 412 farmers had been affected and 96,000 kg of food grains were lost that year." and these villagers seemed quite certain about the cause of increased depredation by wild boar: it was the new bhimashankar wildlife sanctuary (gazetted 1987) and the attendant ban on hunting. in 1998, another report in dte (anonymous 1998) described tribal community distress in parambiculam wildlife sanctuary, kerala (established 1973). this article referred to the “same old story of crop-raiding, as the wild animals destroy whatever is planted in the little land they have”. just how old was this “same old” hwc story in 1998? across much of india, there seems to have been an inflection point in the early-to-mid-1990s when published hwc reports become more numerous. this inflection point is correlated in time with the establishment, throughout the 1980s, of many new protected areas (pas). from fewer than 200 in 1980, the total number of pas in india leapt to nearly 500 by 1990 (envis n.d.). these pas imposed strict bans on hunting and forest livestock grazing. although currently somewhat taboo in india, it is recognized across the globe that without large populations of top predators, fast-reproducing ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] herbivore populations in pas tend to expand explosively (e.g., massei et al. 2014). a clear corollary of this ecological reality is that pa management must assume responsibility for controlling these populations – both for social reasons and for ecological ones. disproportionate expansion of herbivore populations can only have destabilizing and degrading effects on the reserve’s ecology, endangering its value both as habitat and as national heritage. as today’s debates about the systematic culling of fast-reproducing, depredatory mammals become increasingly contentious (arockiaraj 2015; choudhary 2016; chakravartty et al. 2016; balachandran 2016), it is easy to forget that already in the 1980s, environmentalist anil agarwal and researchers at the centre for science and environment were pointing out the necessity for a systematic approach to population control of wild boars and other depredating species (mitra 2015). our own research on crop raiding in darjeeling hills shows that there is relentless pressure on forest village crops from wild boar, muntjac, porcupine, black bear and macaque. the losses are greatest among the households that depend most strongly on agriculture, plant the most and thus have the most to lose. we are experimenting with combinations of fencing types, but the effectiveness of any fencing method depends crucially on long-term maintenance and also on village micro-geography. large villages on steep, irregular terrain with dense surrounding forest are probably impossible to fence effectively. in such places, the best currently available defense against crop raiding is, in fact, to reduce the investment in crops. thus, when viable livelihood alternatives emerge, the opportunity costs of continuing to pursue agriculture rise exponentially and many households contemplate leaving agriculture entirely. isn’t this a social cost india’s pa system should be considering in its management plans? 3. local variability in climate change impacts what about climate change? we know that the himalayan range is experiencing rapid changes. but these trends are extremely complex and variable across the region. high-relief terrain, deep and steeply-carved valleys produce extreme rain-shadow effects. variable soils and substrates can create conditions of drought due to run-off even in high-rainfall areas. for instance, south sikkim district, just across the rangit river valley from darjeeling, receives an average of 1625mm of precipitation annually – generous in the larger scheme of things, but only half of sikkim’s maxima (e.g., gangtok, 3494 mm). yet even within comparatively tiny south sikkim, there is great variability: the edges of the district receive more than [143] reinmar seidler, rinzi lama, and poonam rai 2000mm annually, while namchi subdivision in central south sikkim is considered a “drought-prone region”. even at a single location, annual rainfall may vary from some 750mm in july to none at all in december. communities situated high atop ridges, far from the perennial rivers below, depend on hill-side springs for fresh water. springs depend on groundwater recharge processes, which in turn depend not only on quantity of rainfall but also on timing and intensity. thus, if an average or above-average quantity of rain falls during a monsoon month, but is restricted to relatively few days of fierce rainfall, much of the water will run off the surface, leaving negligible recharge. given this high degree of local spatio-temporal variability, attributing outcomes to climate change in the eastern himalaya is very tricky. in summary, the two most often-cited environmental pressures on agriculture in eastern himalaya are complex and difficult to measure reliably. they are occurring in tandem with fast-moving, multidimensional socio-economic changes. decisions on livelihoods and resource use are being made within an unprecedentedly fluid social context. we must be circumspect in attributing such decisions to any single driver, and we should not expect surveys to tell the whole story. acknowledgements the research program described here was supported in part by grants from usaid india (aid-386 a-14-00011) and from the barr foundation (boston). references anonymous, originally published 1998, updated 2015. “tribe in distress”. down to earth, july 4, 2015. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tribe-in-distress-22302 arockiaraj, j. 2015. “wild boar menace goes out of control”. the times of india, july 19, 2015. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/wild-boar-menacegoes-out-of-control/articleshow/48129715.cms balachandran, m. 2016. “india is killing thousands of wild animals to apparently protect its farmers”. quartz india, june 16, 2016. https://qz.com/india/705190/india-is-making-it-easier-to-kill-some-of-its-wildanimals-because-they-damage-crops/ chakravartty, a., r. ganesan, and r. sengupta. 2016. “enemies of the state?” down to earth, july 13, 2016. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlifebiodiversity/enemies-of-the-state--54628 http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/tribe-in-distress-22302 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/wild-boar-menace-goes-out-of-control/articleshow/48129715.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/wild-boar-menace-goes-out-of-control/articleshow/48129715.cms https://qz.com/india/705190/india-is-making-it-easier-to-kill-some-of-its-wild-animals-because-they-damage-crops/ https://qz.com/india/705190/india-is-making-it-easier-to-kill-some-of-its-wild-animals-because-they-damage-crops/ https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/enemies-of-the-state--54628 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/enemies-of-the-state--54628 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [144] choudhary, a.a. 2016. “supreme court refuses to stay culling of nilgai, wild boar, monkey”. the times of india, june 20, 2016. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-refuses-to-stay-cullingof-nilgai-wild-boar-monkey/articleshow/52829199.cms envis: wildlife and protected areas website. envis database. wii dehradun https://web.archive.org/web/20120406212506/http://oldwww.wii.gov.in/envis/ pa_database.html massei, g.j. kindberg, a. licoppe, d. gačić, n. šprem, j kamler, e baubet et al. 2014. “wild boar populations up, numbers of hunters down? a review of trends and implications for europe”. pest management science 71(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.3965 mitra, a. 1994/updated 2015. “caught between boars and bureaucracy”. down to earth, june 7, 2015. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/29271 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-refuses-to-stay-culling-of-nilgai-wild-boar-monkey/articleshow/52829199.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-refuses-to-stay-culling-of-nilgai-wild-boar-monkey/articleshow/52829199.cms https://web.archive.org/web/20120406212506/http:/oldwww.wii.gov.in/envis/pa_database.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120406212506/http:/oldwww.wii.gov.in/envis/pa_database.html https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.3965 http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/29271 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 11–30, january 2020 thematic essay has economics caught up with climate science? shreekant gupta  oh, east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet, … but there is neither east nor west, ... when two strong men stand face to face, tho‘ they come from the ends of the earth! the ballad of east and west (rudyard kipling, 1889) abstract: whereas scientific evidence points towards substantial and urgent reduction in greenhouses gas (ghg) emissions, economic analysis of climate change seems to be out of sync by indicating a more gradual approach. in particular, economic models that use benefit cost analysis, namely, integrated assessment models (iams) have been criticised for being conservative in their recommendations on the speed of reducing ghg emissions and the associated levels of carbon taxes. this essay focuses on a prototypical iam, namely, nordhaus‘ dice model to argue the schism between science and economics is more apparent than real. analysis of the dice model suggests extreme climate scenarios can be captured through alternative specifications of the damage function (the impact of temperature on the economy). in particular, damage functions that extend the standard quadratic representation are highly convex (weitzman 2012). thus, they are able to capture climate tipping points as well as ―fat tail‖ risks originating from uncertainty with regard to equilibrium climate sensitivity. 1. introduction a fundamental question in climate policy is by how much should greenhouse gases (ghgs) be reduced and how fast?1 economists attempt  department of economics, delhi school of economics, university of delhi, delhi 110007; sgupta@econdse.org. copyright © gupta 2020. released under creative commons attribution-non-commercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.86 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.86 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] to answer this question using the framework of benefit-cost analysis (bca) since the cost of reducing ghg emissions has to be incurred now, whereas the benefit of doing so will accrue in future, though perhaps not so distant future. put differently, the economic gain from business-as-usual (bau) is now whereas the pain, that is damages due to climate change, will be down the road. however, the nature, magnitude and timing of these damages is uncertain and sometimes even unknown. further, some of these damages are irreversible. thus, economic analysis of climate change is an exercise in intertemporal bca but with the added dimensions of risk, uncertainty and irreversibility. the centrality of bca in economic analysis of climate change was epitomised by the award of the nobel prize in economics last year to one of its primary exponents, william nordhaus. 2 while bca is the reigning orthodoxy in climate change economics, critics argue it ignores or does not adequately address what climate science is telling us about risk, uncertainty, and irreversibility. according to them this severely limits policy recommendations emanating from bca, if not making them downright incorrect and misleading (see for instance weitzman 2009 and stern 2014).3 critics contest the mainstream view among economists (based on bca models) that mitigation of ghgs must start gradually and then be ramped up. the so-called ‗policy ramp‘, argues climate policy, should lead to ―modest rates of emissions reductions in the near term, followed by sharp reductions in the medium and long term‖ (nordhaus 2007).4 critics argue this does not square with what climate science is telling us about tipping points and other abrupt changes in climate. according to them economic analysis based on bca does not find the need for immediate and deep cuts in ghg emissions and this is problematic. a more fundamental methodological critique of bca is by weitzman (2009), who argues climate science poses an existential question for bca, namely, in the presence of potentially catastrophic and irreversible damages 1 in this essay, i cast the analysis at a global aggregate level and thus abstract from issues of burden sharing across nations. issues of inter-generational burden sharing are of course unavoidable. in fact, intertemporal trade-off is at the heart of the problem being studied. 2 in this essay bca is used in a broad sense as some overall economic analysis focused on maximizing welfare. thus, it overlaps with an integrated assessment model (iam) such as the celebrated dynamic integrated climate economy (dice) model of nordhaus and we can treat the two terms as interchangeable. 3 these two citations are representative of several papers and one book by these two economists, who have been the most prominent critics from within the profession of bca as applied to climate change. 4 the climate policy being alluded to is carbon prices which should start low and eventually get ratcheted up to high levels. by corollary, emissions reductions should be modest in the near term and increase gradually. [13] shreekant gupta bca is not even meaningful. according to him uncertainty permeates climate science especially with regard to equilibrium climate sensitivity (ecs).5 despite decades of research, science has not been able to pin down this key parameter and there is a significant downside risk of it being very high. thus, ―the main purpose of keeping ghg concentrations down is effectively to buy insurance against catastrophic global warming‖ (weitzman 2011, 279). the problem, however, of accepting this argument is that there is ―little role for economics or any analysis of trade-offs or assessing costs and benefits because these don‘t matter when the science is so clear and the future of mankind is at stake‖ (mckibbin 2014, 560). unfortunately, in the messy real world one cannot sidestep economics – the scale and pace at which countries and the world as a whole are reducing ghg emissions reflects trade-offs, if not explicitly then implicitly. while the ―deep structural uncertainty‖ (a la weitzman) surrounding ecs has an important bearing on climate policy, i argue bca models of climate change can in principle incorporate such uncertainty. it does not make them irrelevant. in particular, i show how bca can incorporate the possibility of catastrophic climate damages and thus remains a useful framework for climate policy. the purpose of this essay is not to defend bca as an end in itself. indeed, bca has several ethical and methodological problems embodied in it (stern 2014). nonetheless, i argue bca can lead us to the very conclusion, namely, immediate and large reductions in ghg emissions (henceforth ‗urgent action‘) that climate science may suggest. with this limited purpose in mind, the next section describes economic models of climate change that use the bca framework, the so-called integrated assessment models (iams). for expository purposes, i consider a simple and highly aggregated iam, namely, the dynamic integrated climate economy (dice) model of william nordhaus. i identify the key features of this model that are influenced by climate science. this is followed by a discussion of specific issues in climate science that have a direct bearing on economic analysis, namely, uncertainty regarding equilibrium climate sensitivity (ecs), nonlinear climate damages and tipping points. the fourth section shows how these aspects can be captured in iams (dice in particular) and can lead to emissions trajectories consistent with ‗urgent action‘. the final section concludes the essay. my basic message is from kipling‘s poem whose first 5 ―the transient climate response (tcr) is the temperature change at the time of co2 doubling‖ and the ―equilibrium climate sensitivity‖, t2x, is the temperature change after the system has reached a new equilibrium for doubled co2, i.e., after the ―additional warming commitment‖ has been realised‖ (comín, francisco and ma rodríguez-arias 2003, 21). as i show later, there is a non-negligible probability of ecs being very high. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] line is widely cited but whose third and fourth lines, though less well known, are more applicable in the context of this essay. 2. economic modeling of climate change the standard economic approach to modeling climate change is through integrated assessment models. as the phrase suggests, these are scientific models that combine knowledge from several domains into one framework in order to better understand a problem that has multiple dimensions.6 this is particularly true for climate change, which is closely connected with geophysical sciences and economic activities. thus, iams of climate change integrate geophysical stocks and flows, especially of ghgs, with economic stocks and flows so that all key endogenous variables can be analysed simultaneously. ―iams generally do not pretend to have the most detailed and complete representation of each included system. rather, they aspire to have, at a first level of approximation, a representation that includes all the modules simultaneously and with reasonable accuracy‖ (gillingham et al. 2018).the first climate-economy iams were essentially energy models that included a carbon emissions module and later a small climate model. there are five key links that map anthropogenic climate change in an iam: a) from ‗people‘ (producers/consumers) to emissions of ghgs b) from emissions to stocks of ghgs c) from ghg stocks to changes in temperature d) from rising temperature to climate change more broadly e) from climate change to human (economic) impact in this section, i focus on nordhaus‘ dice model as a prototypical iam. without going into too much technical detail, i describe heuristically its main features especially how it models climate damages.7 while there are several widely used iams (see gillingham et al. 2018 for a recent comparison), the dice model is a simple yet elegant construct that goes to the heart of the policy question stated at the beginning of this essay. the genesis of dice model can be traced back to nordhaus‘ papers in 1977 and was first articulated in its current from by nordhaus in 1992.8 dice belongs to a class of iams known as benefit-cost (bc) iams as contrasted to detailed process (dp) iams (see weyant 2017) for details). while both 6 in effect the term ―integrated assessment‖, of course, is generic and can apply to a range of contexts. here it is used explicitly in the context of climate-economy models. 7 the complete dice model can be found in nordhaus (2008) and also at http://webdice.rdcep.org/static/docs/equations_141227.pdf 8 see, nordhaus (1977 a, b) and nordhaus (1992 a, b). for a history of the evolution of the dice model see newbold (2010). http://webdice.rdcep.org/static/docs/equations_141227.pdf [15] shreekant gupta classes of models analyse climate-economy interactions, the former are simpler and present a highly aggregate representation of costs of ghg mitigation and of climate damages.9 the primary motivation for bc iams is to ―compute the optimal trajectory of global ghg emissions, and the corresponding prices to charge for those emissions‖ (weyant 2014, 381). together these constitute what is often termed as ‗optimal‘ climate policy. an ‗optimal‘ emissions trajectory is one that equates the marginal (discounted) benefits of avoided climate damage with the marginal (discounted) costs of ghg mitigation. put differently, this time path of ghg emissions maximises the discounted present value of global welfare.10 a benefit-cost iam such as dice calculates this time path and also the shadow prices of emissions, namely, the social cost of carbon (scc).11 2.1. overview of the dice model the dice model views climate change within the framework of neoclassical economic growth theory. in the ramsey–cass–koopmans (rck) optimal growth model (ramsey 1928; cass 1965; koopmans 1965) society invests in capital goods by reducing consumption today in order to increase consumption in future. the main decision in each time period is how much to consume and save. the dice model ―extends this approach by including the ‗natural capital‘ of the climate system as an additional kind of capital stock. in other words, it views concentrations of greenhouse gases as negative natural capital, and emissions reductions as investments that raise the quantity of natural capital (or reduce the negative capital). by devoting output to emissions reductions, economies reduce consumption today but prevent economically harmful climate change and thereby increase consumption possibilities in the future‖ (nordhaus 2013, 1080). an increase in concentration of ghgs has a negative impact on future economic output because of its influence on the global mean surface temperature (gmst or att or simply t ). 12 the fraction of output ( y ) 9 for example, in the dice model the world is taken as one region. dice also has a regionally disaggregated companion model, namely, the regional integrated climate economy (rice) model (nordhaus and yang 1996). in its most recent version, the rice model divides the world into 12 regions of which india is one (nordhaus 2010). 10 some readers may find this framing problematic. indeed, there are a number of critiques of iams some methodological and others more broad ranging (e.g., ackerman et al. 2009; pindyck 2013, 2017; stern 2013). again, my objective is not to defend iams as an epistemology. it is to demonstrate that iams like dice with suitable modification can result in a big bang reduction in ghg emissions. 11 the only ghg that is controlled in dice is emissions of co2 from industries. co2 from land-use change (e.g., deforestation) and other ghgs are treated as exogenous trends. 12 captured through equilibrium climate sensitivity (ecs) parameter. also note att actually refers to a change in temperature from pre-industrial baseline. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] figure 1: schematic illustration of the dice model note: . the dark blue arrows represent the economic component of the model. red arrows show how the economy impacts climate and vice versa. green arrows illustrate the effect of climate policy. source: adapted from wieners (2018) lost in each time period is captured through a hicks-neutral damage function (  ). by devoting some portion of economic output to ghg abatement (  )(investment in natural capital), future temperature increases and associated climate damages (  ) can be avoided. the net output in each period ( q ) then is divided between consumption and investment in physical capital (figure 1). following nordhaus (2008), net output at time t, )t(q is gross output )t(y scaled by climate damages )t( and minus abatement expenditures )t( (percentage of output spent on reducing ghg emissions). )t(q is further allocated between consumption )t(c (broadly defined) and investment )t(i .13 13 it should be emphasized that consumption is broadly defined to include marketed goods and services and also non-market goods and services especially environmental amenities. similarly, damages reflect ―damages in various economic sectors, notably agriculture, farming, forestry, tourism, water, energy and real estate (human settlements), as well as impacts on human health and ecosystems. these are due to a number of mechanisms involving an increase in average temperature, sea level rise, and (extreme) weather patterns and events like rainfall, storms, heat waves and hurricanes‖ (botzen and van den bergh 2012, 373). [17] shreekant gupta )t(y)]t()[t()t(q  1 (1)   1 )t(l)t(k)t(a)t(y (2) ])t(t)t(t/[)t( atat 2 2111  (3) )t(i)t(c)t(q  (4) here, the damage function )t( represents one minus the fraction of aggregate output lost due to climate change, i.e., net output. for t = 0, )t( = 1 (no climate damage) whereas for large temperature changes )t( approaches zero (maximum damage). 14 it is evident then the damage function plays a central role in the dice model and in bca more generally. it maps the impact of increase in temperature due to an increase in ghg concentration into lost output. as i show below, alternative functional forms of the damage function can lead to very different results. the climate module in dice tracks stocks and flows of carbon in 3 reservoirs: lower atmosphere, shallow ocean, and deep ocean. ―the climate equations are a simplified representation that includes an equation for radiative forcing and two equations for the climate system. the radiative forcing equation calculates the impact of the accumulation of ghgs on the radiation balance of the globe. the climate equations calculate global mean surface temperature ( att ) and the average temperature of the deep oceans for each time-step. these equations draw upon and are calibrated to largescale general circulation models of the atmosphere and ocean systems‖ (nordhaus 2008, 36). dice generates an optimised path of savings and reduction in ghgs over a planning horizon of several centuries. the objective function that is maximized is the discounted sum of future utility from consumption.15 the utility function is of the constant relative risk aversion (crra) form where 14the dice damage function is calibrated to damages in the range of 2 to 4°c which as we shall see later is problematic. 15 more formally, the objective function is    maxt t )t(r)].t(l),t(c[uw 1 where u is utility, c(t) is consumption in period t and l(t) is the population in period t. t )( )t(r   1 1 is the discount factor determined by the pure rate of time preference  (also known as the utility discount rate). optimal policy is the path of emissions reductions that maximizes the objective function and the carbon tax that achieves those reductions. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] future utility is discounted at a constant pure rate of time preference  .16 dice can also be thought of as an optimal control model where ghg emissions are control variables,17 whereas change in global mean surface temperature (t) is a state variable. t is a key variable that describes the climate system and a change in t depicts (one dimension) climate change. through policy instruments, such as carbon taxes, policymakers can influence ghg emissions. three key features of the dice model drive the ‗policy ramp‘ recommendation that was mentioned earlier: (i) the discount rate (not to be confused with the pure rate of time preference or the utility discount rate),18 (ii) ecs and (iii) damage function )t( . while the choice of discount has profound implications for ‗urgent action‘ (or the lack of it), the latter two are the ones most relevant for this essay. we focus on them in the next section. 3. what does climate science tell us? recall five key links that map anthropogenic climate change in an iam: a) from ‗people‘ (producers/consumers) to emissions of ghgs b) from emissions to stocks of ghgs c) from ghg stocks to changes in temperature d) from rising temperature to climate change more broadly e) from climate change to human (economic) impact climate science is deeply embedded in links (b), (c) and (d). while there is not much debate about quantification of (b), considerable uncertainty surrounds (c) or ecs. i discuss this in detail below and the interlinked issue of ―fat tails‖. the dice model suffers from two major problems vis-à-vis climate science. first, it does not handle well the uncertainty vis-à-vis ecs and its implications for catastrophic outcomes. second, dice skips link (d) and goes directly from (c) to (e) via the damage function )t( described 16 also known as the constant intertemporal elasticity of substitution (cies) utility function    1 1 c )c(u which can be represented by logarithmic utility clog)c(u  when  = 1. 17 in dice this is the emissions control rate, i.e., the fraction of emissions reduced by a climate policy, for example, carbon taxes. under business as usual scenario emissions control rate is set to zero. 18 the discount rate gr  (ramsey rule) where  is the pure rate of time preference (utility discount rate),  is the parameter of the crra/cies utility function and g is the growth rate of consumption. [19] shreekant gupta earlier in equation (4). this is a potential problem since it is (d) that links rising temperatures to climate impacts such as sea level rise and a greater frequency of extreme weather events. it is also here that tipping points and nonlinearities can be captured.19 in the absence of this link, increases in temperature directly enter (e) and the climate damage function in the dice model gets seriously flawed. but all is not lost. in the next section i show how dice can be modified to address these shortcomings. before doing that, it is important to discuss the key uncertainty in climate science, namely, climate sensitivity and its corollary, ―fat tails‖. 3.1. equilibrium climate sensitivity (ecs) and the problem of “fat tails” ecs and tcr (see, footnote 5) are useful metrics summarising the temperature response of the climate system to an externally imposed radiative forcing (rf). 20 while tcr is a short-run concept, ecs is the eventual temperature response to increases in ghg concentrations. more precisely, ecs is the equilibrium change in gmst following a doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (for details see stocker et al. 2013, tfe.6). it measures how sensitive global average temperature is to changes in co2 concentration in the long run. ―it is perhaps the most studied and most frequently quoted summary statistic in all of climate science‖ (heal and millner 2014, 121). the problem, however, as mentioned at the beginning of this essay, is that despite decades of research, science has not been able to pin down this key parameter and there is a significant downside risk of it being very high. figure 2 depicts various estimates of the probability distribution for climate sensitivity (millner, dietz and heal, 2013). rather than going into technical detail on why they differ, note instead that all of them indicate ―it is very unlikely that climate sensitivity is less than 1°c. in addition, a lot of the weight in most of the 19 a tipping point is an irreversible change such as the collapse of the western antartic or greenland ice sheets or the melting of the permafrost. see, lemoine and traeger (2016) for a discussion especially in the context of dice. nonlinearities imply climate damage functions do not follow neat quadratic, exponential, or other smooth functional forms. a very recent paper in nature shows tipping points are much more imminent than previously believed (lenton et al. 2019). 20 radiative forcing or climate forcing is the difference between insolation (sunlight) absorbed by the earth and energy radiated back to space. changes to earth's radiative equilibrium, that cause temperatures to rise or fall over decadal periods, are called climate forcings. positive radiative forcing means earth receives more incoming energy from sunlight than it radiates to space. this net gain of energy will cause warming. conversely, negative radiative forcing means that earth loses more energy to space than it receives from the sun, which produces cooling. a system in thermal equilibrium has zero radiative forcing. (wikipedia contributors 2020) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] figure 2: estimated probability density functions for climate sensitivity from a variety of published studies collated by meinshausen et al. (2009) source: millner, dietz and heal (2013). distributions is in the 2 to 4.5°c range, which is the ipcc‘s official ―likely‖ range for climate sensitivity. the disagreement between the estimates occurs in the upper tails of the distributions, that is, the data do not limit the estimates of the high end of climate change well at all (allen et al. 2006; roe and baker 2007) which means that we understand little about the likelihood of worst case outcomes‖ (heal and millner 2014, 123). in graphical terms, most of the climate sensitivity distributions are right skewed – implying realisations of higher temperatures are more likely than low ones. in other words, the long right tails of these distributions have non-negligible probability. weitzman picturesquely phrases this as ―extreme disaster lurking in the distant tails of distributions‖ (weitzman 2007, 17). a revised estimate of ecs, based on different and newer datasets and expert judgement, is found in the ipcc fifth assessment report (far) of 2013. using ipcc terminology for uncertainty, it is likely (66% or greater probability) that ecs will be in the 1.5°c to 4.5°c range. it is extremely unlikely (up to 5% probability) to be less than 1°c and very unlikely (up to 10% probability) that it will be greater than 6°c. this is shown in figure 3 where a log-normal distribution is fitted around the ―likely‖ range for [21] shreekant gupta figure 3. eventual global average warming due to a doubling of carbon dioxide source: adapted from wagner and weitzman (2015) climate sensitivity in ipcc far. to show why these probabilities are disconcerting we must turn our attention to so-called ―fat tails‖. 3.2. “fat tails” and their consequences for climate policy as mentioned earlier, climate sensitivity is a key indicator of the eventual temperature response to greenhouse gas (ghg) changes. it is likely to be in the range 1.5°c to 4.5°c with a best estimate of 3°c but values substantially higher than 4.5°c cannot be excluded. this leads us to the issue of fat tailed probability distributions. whereas in a thin tailed distribution, such as the normal distribution, the probability of reaching the extremes of the tails converges to zero relatively quickly, for a fat tailed distribution the probability in the extreme ends converges to zero very slowly. as stated earlier, weitzman was the most vocal proponent of ―fat tails‖ as applied to climate policy. figure 4 shows the difference in probability for each standard deviation (―sigma‖) from the mean between a thin tailed normal and a fat tailed pareto distribution (nordhaus 2011). it is evident that assuming a thin tail distribution when it is fat tailed can lead to a serious underestimate of probabilities in the tails. as an illustration of fat tails in the context of climate change, consider the following point from wagner and weitzman (2015). though global average warming of 5 or even 6°c is horrifying and unimaginable, when we combine ecs from ipcc with a likely 700 ppm scenario (iea 2013) this doomsday scenario has a greater than 10 percent of occurring (figure 5).21 the show the consequences of this scenario with just one fact — the last time global average temperatures were about 2 to 3.5°c above the 21like figure 3, this one fits a log normal distribution around the ipcc‘s (2013) ―likely‖ range for climate sensitivity. but in the specific context of ghg concentrations of 700 ppm co2e. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [22] figure 4: illustration of tails for a normal distribution and a pareto distribution with scale parameter a = 1.5. note 1: sigma = standard deviation from mean note 2: each curve shows the probability that the variable will be greater than the sigma shown on the horizontal axis source: adapted from nordhaus (2011) pre-industrial level (3 million years ago) sea levels were up to 20 meters higher than today (ipcc 2013)!22 the implications of fat tails are extremely serious. proponents of this view argue against framing climate policy in terms of bca. instead, they view climate change as a risk management problem (risky business project 2014; wagner and weitzman 2015). according to them ―average projections are bad enough, but it‘s the small-probability, high impact events that ought to command particular attention. that possibility all but calls for a precautionary approach to climate policy‖ (convery and wagner 2015, 308). as mentioned earlier, weitzman through his numerous papers and a book made the most persuasive case for going beyond bca. he argued climate change is among a small list of potentially catastrophic low-probability, high impact events. thus, it merits special attention that standard bca (namely, 22 a 2 to 3.5°c warming above pre-industrial levels must be juxtaposed against the fact 1°c warming has already occurred. so another 1 to 1.5°c above current levels could potentially tip us over the precipice. [23] shreekant gupta iams such as nordhaus‘ dice model) cannot offer. in his view aggressive action on ghg mitigation is like buying insurance against climate catastrophe (which has a non-negligible probability of occurring). 4. can economic modeling of climate change catch up with climate science? how damaging are non-linearities and tipping points in climate change (as captured in fat tails) for bca? like most iams, dice is a deterministic model. in order to address uncertainties (or surprises) about future costs and benefits, it uses ―best guesses‖ (expected values) over a hypothesized probability distribution.23 in other words, dice attempts to incorporate abrupt climate change by calculating the expected value of low-probability, high-cost catastrophic damages. this is done by running monte carlo simulations after probability distributions have been assigned to various parameters. as ackerman et al. (2010) put it, ―dice addresses catastrophic risk in theory, only to turn it into a deterministic guess in practice‖ (ackerman et al. 2010, 1658).24 focusing attention on the damage function 23 in particular, it makes the standard assumption that the climate sensitivity parameter is 3 (midpoint of the ipcc range). 24 cai and lontzek (2019) develop a stochastic dynamic programming version of the dice model, namely, dsice which can, inter alia, model the impact of uncertainty about climate tipping points on economic policy of climate change. in an earlier paper using dsice they show the uncertainty associated with the timing of stochastic tipping points indicates carbon taxes have to increase by at least 50% compared to the deterministic dice model (lontzek, cai, judd and lenton 2015). for a rapid, high-impact tipping event, these figure 5: eventual global average warming based on passing 700 ppm co2e source: adapted from wagner and weitzman (2015) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [24] and following ackerman et al. (2010) the dice damage function (equation 3) can be rewritten as n n at at d   1 (5) where d is climate damages as a fraction of world output and t is the increase in temperature from the base year. the use of equation (5) prevents climate damages from exceeding the value of world output.25 this would be logical if damages only reduced current income as dice assumes. however, more realistically if we assume climate damages also include loss of capital assets, damages can exceed 100% of annual output. the exponent n measures the speed with which damages increase as temperatures rise. as can be seen from figure 6 for the quadratic formulation used by nordhaus (n = 2), damages rise gradually and less than half of global output is lost till t = 19°c — ―far beyond the temperature range that has been considered in even the most catastrophic climate scenarios‖ (ackerman et al. 2010, 1660). in contrast, as n increases, half of world output is lost at temperatures of about 7°c for n= 3; 4.5°c for n= 4; or 3.5°c for n= 5, implying a sense of urgency. as n tends to infinity, eq. (5) approaches a vertical line. ―this would be the appropriate shape for the damage function under the hypothesis that there is a threshold for an abrupt world-ending (or at least economy-ending) discontinuity…thus choosing a larger n (―closer to infinity‖) means moving closer to the view that complete catastrophe sets in at some finite temperature threshold. choosing a smaller n means emphasizing a gradual rise of damages rather than the risk of discontinuous, catastrophic change‖ (ackerman et al. 2010, 1660). below i discuss the implications of a highly convex damage function (footnote 27). it is evident from this illustration that iams such as dice are a tool and do not provide answers independent of the assumptions built into them. dice can essentially yield results in line with weitzman by manipulating the parameter space, modifying the damage function or introducing endogeneity in the model. for example, ackerman et al. (2010) examine the implications of incorporating a fat-tailed probability distribution for ecs and modifying the damage function in the dice model (see above). they conclude, taxes should increase by more than 200%. they conclude the discount rate to delay stochastic tipping points is much lower than that for deterministic climate damages. in a different line of research, kelly and kolstad (1999) show how bayesian learning can influence policy in a model with uncertainty. 25 unlike the case where d = atn. [25] shreekant gupta figure 6: damage function exponents: dice and variants source: ackerman et al. (2010) [i]f either the damage function exponent remains at or near the default value of 2, or climate sensitivity remains at or near the default value of 3, then dice projects relatively little economic harm. with plausible changes in both parameters, however, dice forecasts disastrous economic decline and calls for rapid mitigation. the bad news is that the optimal policy recommended by a standard iam such as dice is completely dependent on the choice of key, uncertain parameters. the good news is that there is no reason to believe that sound economics, or even the choice of established, orthodox models, creates any grounds for belittling the urgency of the climate crisis. (ackerman et al. 2010, 1664; emphasis added) i conclude this section by citing a recent significant paper by dietz and stern (2015), whose title says it all.26 they show if dice takes into account three essential features of the climate problem, namely, endogeneity of economic growth, highly convex damage function and climate risk (i.e., high values of ecs), ―optimal policy‖ of dice calls for strong controls. dietz and stern (2015) extend earlier work such as ackerman et al. (2010) to incorporate endogenous drivers of growth and allow climate change to adversely affect these drivers. this is in sharp contrast to existing iams that are based on the rck optimal growth model, where the major driver of growth is exogenous improvements in productivity and where climate change only impacts current output. next, they assume the damage function is highly convex for a large increase in temperature like 6°c, but 26 ―endogenous growth, convexity of damage and climate risk: how nordhaus‘ framework supports deep cuts in carbon emissions‖ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [26] not for smaller increases. 27 consideration of some of the science, for example, on tipping points, leads them in this direction. finally, they allow for explicit and large climate risks by allowing the possibility of high values of climate-sensitivity. 5. concluding thoughts without exaggeration climate change poses an existential threat to human civilization. what is worse, this threat is more imminent than previously believed—the phrase ―climate emergency‖ is now part of the discourse. climate science almost on a daily basis provides new evidence of this. global mean temperatures are already 1.1°c more than pre-industrial levels and business as usual climate scenarios are truly horrifying. the period 2015–2019 is on track the warmest five-year period ever recorded. undoubtedly, deep and immediate cuts in ghg emissions are required. the question then is whether standard economic analysis that weighs benefits and costs up to the task? the answer is it is possible. economic models are useful analytical tools but what they produce depends on what goes into them. by incorporating more realistic assumptions and giving up some very limiting ones, and by incorporating science more carefully as they build their models, economists have the potential to be in sync with calls for action. economics ‗done right‘ has the potential to catch up with climate science. acknowledgments i would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and sujayata choudhry for her assistance. kanchan chopra provided the encouragement and impetus to write this essay and kuntala lahiri-dutt nudged me along. journal office was of immense help with the figures. i am grateful to all of them. this is to also acknowledge permission granted by springer and elsevier towards construction of figures 2 and 6, and william nordhaus for figure 4. 27 the damage function taken from weitzman (2012) captures tipping points better. weitzman introduced convexity in the dice damage function by adding a third term to the quadratic specification by nordhaus: ])t(t)t(t)t(t/[)t( .atatat 7546 3 2 2111  . the exponent of the third term is chosen such that at t = 6, 50 percent of output is lost. 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irrigation, agricultural development, and poverty in godavari river basin with heterogeneous hydrogeological resource conditions, and their implications for resource governance, using primary data from 825 farm households. the analysis showed that households with access to groundwater earn relatively higher household and per capita incomes. the large farmers seemed to have better access to water resources. although poverty headcount ratio is high among the upper reach farmers, depth, and severity of poverty is more among middle reach farmers. land size per se is not a significant variable in determining access, but the access is conditioned by sources of non-farm income, credit facility, education and caste hierarchy. while small farmers used more water per acre for irrigation without commensurate economic productivity, the differences in their economic productivity in comparison to large farmers was found to be associated with inequality. keywords: well ownership, groundwater access, per capita income, poverty and inequality, water use and productivity 1. introduction groundwater irrigation, driven by both demand side and supply side factors, has experienced explosive growth during the past few decades, and now it plays an important role in the agricultural development of india  centre for economic and social studies, n. o. campus, begumpet, hyderabad-500 016, telangana; jeena@cess.ac.in.   institute of economic growth, university of delhi enclave, north campus, delhi110 007; chandra@iegindia.org copyright © srinivasan and nuthalapati 2019. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.77 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.77 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] (shah, singh and mukherji 2006; shah 2009; world bank 2010; goi 2014; kulkarni and shankar 2014; zaveri et al. 2016). availability of better drilling and pumping technologies, subsidised energy for extraction, flexibility and timeliness of supply, and poor delivery of public water supply system have contributed to raising groundwater consumption in farming. this helped the farmers optimise input use, diversify to high value crops, and achieve higher water productivity (shah et al. 2007; world bank 2010). while this led to reduction in rural poverty through various pathways (hussain and hanjra 2004; narayanamoorthy 2007), the highly intensive development of groundwater also resulted in over exploitation, decline in groundwater levels in certain areas and sea water intrusion in coastal areas (dhawan 1989; chopra 2003; bhandhopadhyay 2007). according to recent estimates, out of 6584 groundwater assessment units, 1034 are over exploited, 253 units are critical, 681 units are semi-critical, 4520 units are safe, and 96 units are saline in the country. the overall stage of groundwater development in the country is 62% and in several states like punjab, rajasthan, haryana, and delhi it is over 100% — implying that annual groundwater consumption is more than annual groundwater recharge and is unsustainable (goi 2017). the implications of groundwater depletion are many and serious, as there is already an inherent inequality in groundwater accessibility due to skewed distribution (sarkar 2011). with falling water tables and reduced well yields, users must pump water from greater depths, often using high capacity pumps, thus increasing the cost of extraction while making the resource out of reach for small and marginal farmers (saleth 1996; kulkarni et al. 2015). this, together with heterogeneous hydrogeological conditions, implies that resource endowment conditions are inequitable even within a typical village (kulkarni and thakkar 2012). the situation perpetuates with further scarcity, leading to unequal economic returns and finally taking the most exploitative form where the ‗large landlords‘ emerge as ‗water lords‘ through surplus accumulation forcing the small and marginal landholders to become landless agricultural labourers (ballabh 2003; sarkar 2011). this leads to water conflicts, which are becoming endemic at all levels in india in its various social, economic, and ecological dimensions (joy et al. 2008). studies in india have shown that the small landowners are also likely to go deeper and poach water from their neighbouring farmers by lowering the water table under their own lands (foster and rosenzweig 2008). the pathways through which irrigation can impact poverty reduction are not only direct and indirect but are often also complex and diverse. not all the poor are water-poor and not all water-poor are poor. the influence of water and agricultural activity on poverty is strongly dependent on the [47] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati overall development trajectory within the basin1 (woolley et al. 2009; cook et al. 2009). the effect of water stress on livelihoods, hence poverty, can be felt in a variety of ways (cook and gichuki 2009). a lack of consensus on the linkages between irrigation and poverty reduction is evident: studies based on macro data tend not to find significant links between investment in irrigation and poverty, while micro-data tends to establish a robust relationship between access to irrigation and poverty reduction (gebregziabher et al. 2009). contrary to the long-prevalent consensus on gisser-sanchez effect (gse) that states that benefits of optimally managed groundwater are insignificant, koundouri (2004) found that groundwater management significantly increases welfare in many situations. an inverse relation between access to irrigation and poverty has been observed in india (narayanamoorthy 2007; sekhri 2014). evidence from sub-saharan africa shows that equitable distribution of income is critical for poverty reduction and that nationwide policy may inadvertently overlook high inequality at sub-regional and commune levels (manero 2017). participation in small-scale irrigation was found to reduce poverty by 50% among users relative to non-users in northern ethiopia (zeweld et al. 2015). while irrigation for small landowning farmers is seen as an important vehicle to promote (especially rural) poverty alleviation, food security (at various scales, from local to global) and land and labour productivity, as well as rural employment and general economic development, adaptation to climate variability (ngigi 2009 cited in villoth 2013), the implications of spatially heterogeneous resource availability are important, too. research also needs to focus on differential impact on various categories of farmers as farm size is a significant determinant of both groundwater-irrigated farm acreage and groundwater irrigation application rates per unit of land area; besides, spatial variability in groundwater use has important implications for policies to correct common property externalities and for welfare maximisation (koundouri 2004; saak and perterson 2012). on one hand groundwater use by millions of small landholders of developing countries has reduced poverty in the rural side (shah 2005), on the other, its depletion and degradation have increased poverty (janakrajan and moench 2006). studies have found a significant contribution of 1 the basin focal projects (bfp) of the cgiar challenge programme on water and food conducted large number of studies in ten river basins, including the indo-ganges, in various countries to study these relationships. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] groundwater irrigation in production2 and productivity3 (grogan et al. 2015; srivastava et al. 2014). however, the direct positive impacts hinge on the availability of other factors like availability of hydrogeological, institutional, technological, and policy frameworks (koundouri and xepapadeas 2004; janakrajan and moench 2006; zeweld et al. 2015; srivastava et al. 2014; woolley et al. 2009). therefore, this is an empirical issue that needs to be analysed in a specific context. further, the literature has focused more on the river basins in the indogangetic plain; there is little analysis of the peninsular region. while the former covers 1.09 million km2 of area, godavari river basin covers 0.31 million km2 of area forming 10 per cent of india‘s geographical area. interestingly, despite the surface irrigation made available in these river basins, large share of irrigated land in all the basins depend on groundwater (shah et al. 2009). in the arid and semi-arid regions, where livelihood is based on groundwater socio-ecologies (gwses), it is the demand-pull that leads to unsustainable extraction from relatively poor groundwater endowments (shah 2005). there is a knowledge gap in how groundwater systems are exploited in the drier parts of south asia and how they impact livelihoods (bandyopadhyay 2007). the basin focal projects of the cgiar that analyse different basins indicate specific linkages (cook et al. 2009; woolley et al. 2009), which again point to the need for basin-wise studies on the nature of linkages. against this background, this study aims to contribute to understanding of the relationship between access to groundwater irrigation, agricultural development, poverty and inequality in a multi-crop farming system in a river basin with heterogeneous hydrogeological and resource availability conditions and its implications for the resource governance. based on the user recall, we estimate groundwater use at farm level from irrigation hours for each crop and the type of pumps used for irrigation. we define access to groundwater irrigation as the farming households‘ ability to irrigate their crops, fully or partially, either from their own irrigation wells or through water markets or their social and kinship networks. here, the focus on ‗ability‘ is intended to include a wide range of social relationships that can constrain or enable people to benefit from resources without focusing on property relations alone (ribot and peluso 2004). those who have been identified as having access to groundwater irrigation during the reference 2 grogan et al. (2015) found, using hydrological model, that mined groundwater contributed to 15-27% of national total crop production in china during 1981-2000. 3 using panel data analysis from india, srivastava et al. (2014) concluded that irrigation increased yields by 15% in cereals and 3% in oilseeds. [49] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati agricultural year 2012-13 are referred to as ‗users‘ and others as ‗non-users‘.4 as the past studies pointed out inequity in groundwater access by small and marginal farmers and those belonging to the marginalised communities (shah 2009; prakash 2005), we first confirmed whether their access had improved or not using our data. for analytical purposes, farmers have been categorized into two groups based on land size: small (less than 5 acres) and large (above 5 acres). while small farmers among the users are found to use more water per acre for irrigation without commensurate economic productivity, the difference in economic productivity among large farmers was found to exist along with higher inequality. while poverty headcount ratios were high among the upper reach farmers, depth, and severity of poverty was more among the middle reach farmers who were becoming agricultural labourers. improving access to groundwater irrigation and adopting measures to address problems associated with groundwater depletion are necessary to reduce the gap in economic productivity of small and large farmers as well as inequality and poverty in the study area. the rest of the paper is divided into the following sections: section 2 briefly describes the study area, data sources and analytical tools. household income, inequality and poverty are analysed in section 3. groundwater access, utilisation and determinants are examined in section 4.the final section concludes with policy implications. 2. study area, data and methodology 2.1. study area the study sample is drawn from the godavari river basin (figure 1), which extends over 3,12,800 km2 across the states of maharashtra, andhra pradesh, telangana, chhattisgarh, madhya pradesh, odisha, and small parts of karnataka. divided into 12 sub-basins by the central water commission (cwc), the basin is characterised by high variability in the average annual rainfall—from 400 to 2500 mm; in the spatial distribution, nearly 15% of the basin area received less than 800 mm and another 12% received more than 1600 mm of rainfall during 1971-2005 (nrsc 2011). the estimated average water resource potential of the basin is 110.540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of which the utilisable surface water is 76.3 bcm and replenishable groundwater is about 40.65 bcm (cwc, 2011). hydrogeologically, this 4 since farming is considered the major groundwater-based livelihood, landless who depend on other groundwater-based livelihood, if any, are not considered as ‗users‘ in the study. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] basin is predominantly under basalt (42.54%) and banded gneissic complex (17.38%) aquifer system. the upper reaches of the basin are mostly occupied by the deccan traps, the middle part is principally archean granites and the eastern ghats dominate the lower part of the drainage basin and are formed mainly from the khondalites (goi 2011). the basin has agriculture (59.7%) and forests (30%) as major land uses. as much as 46% of the net irrigated area of the basin is irrigated by ground water sources, 37 % by canals, 11% by tank and the rest 6% by other sources (cwc 2011). other socio-economic characteristics of the basin show that nearly 14.3% and 16.6% of the estimated population of 75.83 million belongs to the socio economically marginalised scheduled caste (sc) and scheduled tribe (st) communities, respectively, according to the census of india 2011. the basin is also characterised by severe district level rural poverty, ranging from 36% to 70% (chaudhari and gupta 2009; mohanty et al. 2016). in the typology of shah et al. (2003), the upper reaches are marked by rise in the use of ground water, while the middle reaches in the study area fall in the early symptoms of groundwater overexploitation. primary data collected from farming households in the godavari river basin includes both users and non-users of groundwater. it covers nashik, karimnagar and west and east godavari districts from maharashtra, telangana and andhra pradesh that belong to g1, g6, and g10 sub-basins or river systems corresponding to the upper, middle, and lower reaches (goi 2013). as most of the socio-economic information is available at administrative boundary level only (figure 1). from each of these districts, three mandals or sub-districts were selected based on the stage of ground water development, viz. overexploited (>100%), critical (70-100%), and safe (<70%)5. in a similar manner, three to four villages were selected from each of these sub-districts and a survey was conducted to list out all groundwater user and non-user households for in-depth survey. the groundwater users and non-users were randomly selected from these villages in the ratio of 60:40 from the census list till a pre-decided sample size of 100 households from each mandal and 300 for each district was reached. however, for the lower reaches the sample had to be limited to 225. the final sample consisted of 825 households (494 users and 331 nonusers) covering a total population of 10,064. the household surveys were carried out by trained investigators using structured questionnaires and administered to the head of the households. user and non-user weights 5 the stage of groundwater development has been 58% in nashik, 70% in karimnagar and 25 and 45% respectively in east and west godavari districts with considerable variations across mandals in 2011 (cgwb 2014). [51] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati figure 1: location map of study areas in the godavari basin source: the figure is prepared based on the map given by cwc (2011) were used in the calculation of averages. stata and spss software were used for data analysis. 2.2. methodology to assess poverty and inequality in the region, we estimated total household income, comprising both agricultural and non-agricultural incomes. crop and livestock were important components of household agricultural income. net returns from agriculture was estimated by taking the difference between gross value of output produced and the total paid out costs of variable inputs for each crop separately and then aggregated for all crops for the household. similarly, expenses incurred for the upkeep of animals were deducted from gross returns (asset value of livestock not included) to arrive at net returns from livestock. non-agricultural incomes from salary, wage or self-employment for each member of the household, social security allowances, and remittances from migrated family members were included for the reference year of the study. in addition to these, sale of water for drinking and irrigation purposes was also found to be a source of income for some of the households. total annual household income was used to estimate the monthly per capita income of the household. inequality in the distribution of land and incomes was measured using gini coefficient for the users and non-users from small and large farmers both reach-wise and for the entire basin. the gini coefficient measures the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] extent to which the distribution of wealth within a group deviates from a perfectly equal distribution, with values from 0 to 1 (foster et al. 2013). poverty was estimated using foster greer and thorbecke (1984) measures such as the head count ratio, poverty gap and squared poverty gap.6               q i i z yz n p 1 1 (1) in the above equation α is a measure of the sensitivity of the index to poverty; the poverty line is z; the value of per capita monthly income for the ith households is yi ; and q is the number of people who were poor or below poverty line. when parameter α = 0, p0 is simply the head count index, when α=1, the index is the poverty gap index p1, and when α=2, p2 is the poverty severity index. this study measured poverty using all three measures of poverty separately for the users and non-users and by land size classes.7 the study reference for the poverty line was rs 860 per capita per month for the state of undivided andhra pradesh for middle and lower reaches and rs 967 per capita per month for maharashtra for the upper reaches, as per the erstwhile planning commission of india8 for 2011-12 for identifying poor households (planning commission 2014). we analysed the sampled households by size of landholding and examined their access to groundwater across different reaches using descriptive statistics. this was followed by an analysis of the determinants of sample households‘ access to ground water using a logit model as specified here. z e y    1 1 (2) where the dummy dependent variable y represents whether farmers have access to groundwater or not and on the right hand side, z is the linear combination of the explanatory variables x1, x2, x3,….xk; z=a+ b1x1+ b2x2+…+ bkxk; and a, b1, b2, b3…bk are the coefficients. the independent variables included those related to socio economic and demographic characteristics of the households such as family size, age, gender social 6 while estimating poverty and inequality, we also faced problems due to negative net incomes. we adopted the ‗equalisation‘ method in which individual income components with negative values were set to zero before computing the total income of each household (sandoval and urzua 2009). 7 sandoval and urzua (2009) show that almost all poverty measures cannot cope with the possibility of some incomes being negative. while the problem is less relevant in the case of head count ratio, other measures could behave abnormally in extreme cases. 8the planning commission of india was replaced by niti aayog by the bjp-led nda government in 2014. [53] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati category, farm size, occupation, and literacy status of the head of the household, whether they own livestock, whether household head owns the property right to land or not, have access to credit, knowledge of aquifer, rainfall in the region etc. water use was measured in terms of the quantity of water applied for each crop at various stages of crop growth and was estimated using the number of irrigation hours, type and horsepower of pump used, depth of the well etc. (srivastava et al. 2015).9 crop-water productivity is defined as the ratio of crop yield or crop value, to groundwater applied in the process of growing a crop. if the same crop is grown in more than one cropping season, then all the seasons were taken into account. in this study, we mostly used average economic water productivity of crop which is defined for individual farmer household as:   n ic i ii c wa py wp (3) where wpc represent he average economic water productivity of crops and c represents the crops from i to n. yi is the physical yield of crop i, and pi is the price realized by the farmer household, while wai represents the water applied for crop i in cubic meter per acre.10 the determinants of water use and productivity are then estimated using log-linear model that was found to be suitable based on the distribution. the independent variables represent the socio-economic characteristics of farm households and other factors that may influence their water use (or productivity), which included land, crop and irrigation related factors as well as other factors (table 1). 9 it was assumed that one horsepower pump can pump 30 litres of water per second, and the efficiency of pump was taken as 83.5 %. based on this assumption, we first estimated the water pumped in litres per second for a pump of a certain horsepower from a certain depth at the above efficiency. this was converted to cubic meter per hour depending on the irrigation hours. 10 we are not estimating marginal productivity of water and therefore not addressing the question of optimality. table 1: description of variables included in the regression models (n=825) variable definition mean std. dev min max user_nonuser 1 if farmer household (hh) is user, else ‗0‘ 0.61 0.49 0 1 age_hh age of the hh head (years) 49.11 12.84 20 90 sc ‗1‘ if household belong to schedule caste and schedule tribe, else ‗0‘ 0.29 0.46 0 1 gender ‗1‘ if gender of the head of the hh is male, else ‗0‘ 0.93 0.26 0 1 fam size number of family members 4.63 1.98 1 16 illiterate ‗1‘ if hh head is illiterate, else ‗0‘ 0.33 0.47 0 1 land_size_class ‗1‘ if hh is a small farmer, else ‗0‘ 0.55 0.49 0 1 livestock_owned ‗1‘ if hh has livestock assets; else ‗0‘ 0.65 0.48 0 1 no_plots number of plots owned by hh 1.45 0.79 0 6 no_crops no. of crops cultivated by hh 1.69 0.82 0 5 occupation ‗1‘ if main occupation of hh head is own farm agriculture; else ‗0‘ 0.82 0.38 0 1 mobile_ph ‗1‘ if hh has mobile, else ‗0‘ 0.88 0.33 0 1 credit ‗1‘ if hh has access to credit, else ‗0‘ 0.74 0.44 0 1 aquifer ‗1‘ if hh has knowledge of aquifer, else ‗0‘ 0.52 0.49 0 1 depth_well depth of open or bore well in metres 25 35 0 201 dripsprinkler ‗1‘ if hh use drip or sprinkler or drip irrigation, else ‗0‘ 0.07 0.26 0 1 energy_cost annual energy (diesel/electricity) cost in rupees 1987 5304 0 63600 water use per acre amount of water used for irrigation in cubic meters per acre 2379 5375 0 73671 water productivity per acre water productivity in rupee per cubic meter of water used 83 921 0 23900 dis_out_mkt distance to nearest output market in kms 16.49 8.13 1 35 hi_value_crops ‗1‘ if hh cultivate high value crops, else ‗0‘ 0.52 0.49 0 1 property right ‗1‘ if farmland is in the name of head of hh, ‗0‘ otherwise 0.75 0.43 0 1 rainfall rainfall in millimetres per year 566 122 431 795 source_borewell ‗1‘ if the main source of irrigation is borewell, else ‗0‘ 0.31 0.46 0 1 water mkts ‗1‘ if hh participates in water markets, else ‗0‘ 0.08 0.28 0 1 source: field surveys [55] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati 3. inequality and poverty in the river basin the households‘ average annual and monthly per capita incomes show wide variations in the share of agricultural and non-agricultural incomes in relation to the relative abundance or scarcity of groundwater resources and its access across the reaches (figure 2). higher average annual and per capita incomes as well as higher share of agricultural incomes have been observed among all users in the upper reaches and among large farmers with access to groundwater across other reaches. while the average annual household income for non-users was less than one lakh rupees, it was over two lakh rupees for users in the basin. though the average incomes of non user small and large farmers did not differ considerably, the same was not true in the case of users where the incomes of large farmers were much higher than that of small farmers. statistically, the users in all the reaches of the river earned higher farm income as well as total household and per capita income vis-à-vis those who did not have access to ground water. the large farmers among the users also had significantly higher household and per capita income by virtue of better farm earnings. the upper reaches reported the highest average annual farm household income for groundwater users small (rs 1.64 lakhs) and large (rs 4.15 lakhs). around 70% of their total income came from agricultural sources. however, farm household income for the non-users was very low along with low share of agricultural income in total income for both small (25%) and large (38%) farmers. interestingly, middle reaches reported the lowest levels of average annual household as well as per capita incomes for all, including large farmers for whom share of non-agricultural income in total income was over 40%. this part of the river basin is in the fourth stage of groundwater socio-ecologies (gwse) with agrarian distress.11 this naturally increases the cost of water extraction as well as borewell failures, as was found by narayanamoorthy (2015). in our sample, about 20% of the households in the middle reaches reported well failure as compared to 9% and 5% respectively in the upper and lower reaches. however, considerable difference in the average incomes between users and non-users and between small and large farmers was observed in the lower reaches, where the users had about 75% of their income from agricultural sources and nonusers had just 35% share from agricultural sources as they were not able to cultivate high value crops like tobacco. 11 shah et al. (2003) explained the stages of groundwater socio-ecologies in four different stages. figure 2: average annual household income and monthly per capita income in the study area source: field surveys note: i indicates standard errors when all farmers are considered, the income inequality was found to be higher than the inequality in farm size in general among farmers in the upper reaches. similar observation was also made in the case of users as compared to non-users across all reaches. while the inequality in the farm size averaged around 40%, per capita income inequality was 54% (table 2). contrary to what was observed in the study by foster and rosenzweig (2008), farm-size inequality was associated with higher income inequality in the godavari river basin, perhaps due to the differences in the economic productivity of water, which we discuss in the latter section of this paper. the gini coefficients of small and large farmers within the user and nonuser subgroups were at comparable levels except for per capita income of large farmers among the users in the upper reaches who had higher levels of inequality as compared to others. this could also be due to the difference in the age of grapevines grown by large farmers, some of which may not have started giving yields. the overall inequality of the users and non-users in the middle and lower reaches was comparable, though there were differences between the small and large farmers in both cases. coming to the poverty levels, the estimated head count ratio shows higher levels of poverty in the upper reaches (33%), followed by middle (25%) and lower reaches (7%) with discernible difference across the user and non-user groups and farm size wise. these figures are comparable with district level poverty estimates based on nsso data by (mohanty et al. 2016). the head count ratio was relatively high for small farmers in the upper reaches followed by the large farmers in the middle reaches among both the users and non-users. the upper and middle reaches with the highest levels of poverty had the contrasting characteristics with respect to groundwater availability and access. while the availability of groundwater was better in the upper reaches, the status of groundwater has been far from being safe in most parts of the middle reaches rendering them to seek non-agricultural activities, mostly wage labour as their supplementary source of income. moreover, the poverty gap index and squared poverty gap shows that poverty is both deeper and severe in the middle reaches as compared to the other two reaches. interestingly, poverty is more severe among the users in the middle reaches, where farm households depend on agriculture as their major source of income. from the estimates of poverty gap index, it was seen that while 14% of the poverty line amount is required to take the poor out of poverty, for large farmers among the users in the middle and upper reaches it was over 26% and 22%, respectively. depth of poverty was also found to be very high among the large user farmers in the middle reaches. on the other hand, poverty levels were found to be very low in the lower reaches. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] table 2: inequality in the distribution of land and income (gini coefficients) reach of river user/ non-user category of farmer gini coefficient (in percentage) poverty measures (in percentage) land per capita income head count ratio poverty gap index squared poverty gap index upper non-user small (85) 19 36 35.3 10.1 3.9 large (36) 22 34 27.8 12.2 6.8 all (121) 34 35 33.1 10.7 4.8 user small (95) 20 56 36.8 22.6 17.1 large (84) 29 70 28.6 18.1 14.7 all (179) 42 65 33 20.5 16 all small (180) 39 63 36.1 16.7 10.9 large (120) 39 71 28.3 16.3 12.3 all (300) 39 65 33 16.5 11.5 middle nonuser small (71) 21 30 23.9 8.5 5.7 large (41) 18 38 29.3 20.1 33.8 all (112) 35 33 25.9 12.8 16 user small (94) 24 34 21.3 18 35.5 large (94) 24 45 28.7 26.3 35.6 all (188) 40 40 25 22.1 35.6 all small (165) 25 37 22.4 13.9 22.7 large (135) 25 44 28.9 24.4 35 all (300) 40 42 25.3 18.6 28.3 lower nonuser small (41) 18 40 2.4 1 0.4 large (45) 16 26 17.8 7.9 9.6 all (86) 29 36 10.5 4.6 5.2 user small (71) 25 46 5.6 6.9 21.2 large (68) 24 49 4.4 2.7 1.8 all (139) 40 44 5 4.9 11.7 all small (112) 25 46 4.5 4.8 13.6 large (113) 24 39 9.7 4.8 4.9 all (225) 40 44 7.1 4.8 9.2 all nonuser small (197) 43 35.5 24.4 7.6 3.8 large (122) 40 35.3 24.6 13.3 16.9 all (319) 41 35.5 24.5 9.8 8.8 user small (260) 32 57.6 22.7 16.7 24.9 large (246) 37 57.4 22 17 19.1 all (506) 34 57.6 22.3 16.8 22.1 all small (457) 39 54 23.4 12.8 15.8 large (368) 39 54 22.8 15.7 18.4 all (825) 39 54 23.2 14.1 17 source: field survey note: figures in the parentheses are respective sample sizes. [59] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati 4. groundwater access, utilization and determinants 4.1. water use profile of farmers in selected villages we will have a look at the groundwater access from the census of the selected villages before turning to the detailed analysis of the sampled households. among the 10,064 households enumerated in the census survey, 37% were landless, 47%smallandthe rest large farmers (figure 3). landlessness ranged from 20% in the upper reaches to as high as 55% in the lower reaches. even when access to groundwater was primarily tied to land ownership in india, only 34% of the surveyed land-owning farmers reported access to it with considerable heterogeneity across reaches and categories of farm sizes. while the large farmers reported better access, ranging from 46% to 84% from the lower to upper reaches, small farmers figure 3: distribution of households by land size-class and access to groundwater in godavari river basin source: census survey of field surveys note: i indicates standard errors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] figure 4: well ownership in the study area by land size-class in godavari river basin source: field surveys note: 1. i indicates standard errors 2. figures in the brackets represents the following: first: number of households reporting total number of wells and no. of wells per acre; second: number of households reporting bore well and its depth; third: number of households reporting open well and its depth. in the lower reaches (20%) and middle reaches (45%) had relatively poor access to groundwater. 4.2. land and well ownership the sampled households on an average owned 4.68 acres of land and 1.3 wells (bore plus open wells) in the godavari river basin. in other words, there existed one well for approximately every three and half acres of land. surprisingly, each well serviced 2.236 acres in case of small farmers, while the same was 6.12 acres for large farmers. across all reaches, it was seen that the average number of bore wells, open wells and both put together were higher among large farmers as compared to small farmers (figure 4). [61] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati a t-test confirmed that these differences were statistically significant at one per cent level of significance, except in the case of open wells in the lower reaches. the average depth of bore wells was found to be around 220 m, whereas it was around 48 m for open wells in the study area. the depth of open wells was more for the large farmers in the upper and middle reaches, whereas the depth of bore wells was more only for the large farmers in the middle reaches where groundwater scarcity was found to be more severe. these differences were statistically significant. it was also seen that about 15%of all non-users in the study area attempted digging wells at some point of time, and encountered problems of well failure. more than 80% of such well failures were reported from the middle reaches at an average depth of 200 m or so for bore wells. almost 60 % of those who reported well failures were small farmers. this implied that as water levels go down, it was mostly the large farmers who are able to construct deeper wells and extract groundwater. in other words, the larger the land area owned, greater was the possibility of striking groundwater and that the heterogeneity in access to groundwater irrigation observed in some of the earlier studies (shah 2009; prakash 2005; janakarajan and moench 2006) exists even today. while the analysis of census data using descriptive statistics seem to show that the large farmers are better placed than small farmers in terms of their access to groundwater and ownership of wells, it was not clear what factors determined a household‘s access to groundwater. 4.3. determinants of access to groundwater an analysis of the sample survey data using the earlier specified logit model shows that access to groundwater is determined by a host of social, economic, climatic and hydrogeological factors along with the households‘ access to information and communication technologies (table 3). interestingly, farm size per se was not a significant variable in determining the access, but the access was conditioned by the factors like sources of non-farm income, credit facility, education, and social and caste hierarchy with better access among the forward communities. households belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and illiterate household heads were less likely to have access to groundwater as compared to others. the number of individual plots owned by the households was a significant factor influencing access across all reaches. this could be due to the possibility that the households owning a greater number of plots might be owning them in diverse local hydrogeological conditions and groundwater endowment thus increasing the prospects of striking water when a well is dug. the coefficient and marginal effects of the variable for awareness of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] table 3: determinants of access to groundwater in godavari river basin upper reaches (n=300) middle reaches (n=300) lower reaches (n=225) all (n=825) variable co-eff marginal co-eff marginal co-eff marginal co-eff marginal constant -5.757** (-1.839) -3.168** (-1.232) -0.41 (-2.04) -4.10 (-0.82) fam_ size 0.083 (-0.079) 0.193 (-0.018) 0.174* (-0.096) 0.038* (-0.021) 0.008 (-0.110) 0.002 (-0.025) 0.078** (-0.046) 0.180** (-0.011) occupation -0.612 (-0.477) -0.134 (-0.097) 0.501 (-0.352) 0.113 (-0.082) 1.741*** (-0.636) .409*** (-0.129) 0.332 (-0.212) 0.079 (-0.051) illiterate -0.468 (-0.430) -0.112 (-0.105) -0.363 (-0.301) -0.080 (-0.067) -0.563 (-0.373) -0.129 (-0.086) -0.414** (-0.191) -0.097** (-0.045) sc -1.625*** (-0.457) -0.384*** (-0.099) -0.687** (-0.322) -0.156** (-0.075) -1.797*** (-0.538) -0.343*** (-0.078) -0.898*** (-0.185) -0.21*** (-0.043) age_hh -0.002 (-0.015) -0.001 (-0.004) 0.003 (-0.012) 0.001 (-0.003) 0.020 (-0.015) 0.005 (-0.003) 0.009 (-0.007) 0.002 (-0.002) gender 0.682 (-0.728) 0.167 (-0.181) 0.394 (-0.599) 0.090 (-0.143) -0.523 (-0.573) -0.110 (-0.109) -0.058 (-0.325) -0.013 (-0.074) land_size _class 0.018 (-0.326) 0.004 (-0.076) 0.251 (-0.314) 0.546 (-0.069) 0.714** (-0.359) 0.169** (-0.079) 0.105 (-0.172) 0.024 (-0.040) no_plots .431* (.257) .100* (.059) 1.413*** (.313) .306*** (.062) .344 (.197) .0778546* (.04431) .530*** (.125) .122*** (.028) property right 0.397 (-0.453) 0.095 (-0.111) -0.047 (-0.337) -0.010 (-0.072) 0.180 (-0.378) 0.041 (-0.086) -0.038 (-0.198) -0.009 (-0.045) aquifer 1.326*** (-0.439) 0.264*** (-0.071) -0.406 (-0.309) -0.856 (-0.063) 0.328 (-0.412) 0.076 (-0.097) 0.284 (-0.179) 0.065 (-0.041) rainfall 0.004** (-0.002) 0.001** (0.000) -0.002 (-0.002) -0.001 (0.000) 0.002*** (-0.001) 0.001*** (0.000) livestock owned 2.124*** (-0.359) 0.486*** (-0.070) 0.64** (-0.310) 0.142** (-0.070) 0.291 (-0.349) 0.066 (-0.080) 0.851*** (-0.170) 0.200*** (-0.040) credit 1.314*** (-0.304) 0.298*** (-0.065) -0.814* (-0.480) -0.153** (-0.076) 0.133 (-0.447) 0.031 (-0.104) 0.779*** (-0.185) 0.186*** (-0.045) mobile ph 0.924 (-0.744) 0.226 (-0.180) 1.169*** (-0.456) 0.278*** (-0.110) 0.812** (-0.407) .192** (-0.091) 1.076*** (-0.255) 0.261*** (-0.061) lr chi2 120.42; prob > chi2=0.000 pseudo r =.298 probability (user) 0.631 lr chi2 79.43; prob > chi2=0.000 pseudo r.200 probability (user) 0.683 lr chi2 61.16; prob > chi2=0.000 pseudo r 0.204 probability (user) 0.655 lr chi2 =170.930; prob > chi2=0.000 pseudo r 0.155 probability (user) 0.639 source: estimated from the field survey data notes: 1. figures in the parenthesis are standard errors; ***, ** and * are significance levels at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively. 2. co-eff indicates co-efficient; marginal indicates marginal effects. [63] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati the type of aquifer and rainfall were found to be positive and significant in the upper reaches. rainfall was found to be a determinant of access in the upper reaches as well as in the entire basin. while access to credit was found to influence access to groundwater positively in the upper reaches as well as when all the reaches were taken together, it showed an unexpected negative relation in the middle reaches. it was noted that the highest groundwater usage in the godavari river basin was recorded in the middle reaches. the access to mobile phones, which might be helping households to reach out to different sources of information and other support services like technical and credit services, was also found to be a significant factor in determining the household access to groundwater in the study area except in the upper reaches. 4.4. water use, productivity and determinants: the average groundwater consumption per acre of farm was the lowest in the upper reaches of the river basin with the highest economic water productivity (figure 5). it is worth mentioning here that grapes, onion, soybean, maize, wheat, and tomato are cultivated in the upper reaches, while paddy, cotton, maize are the mainstay in both middle and lower reaches. tobacco was the major crop for the users in the lower reaches and cotton for the non-users.12 owing to water intensive crops, the highest per acre water usage was found in the middle reaches followed by the lower reaches. overall, the water usage by the small farmers was found to be significantly higher without significant difference in productivity. before analysing the results of econometric models on the determinants, we present the descriptive statistics of the variables. the farm households on average had 4.82 members per family. the average age of the head of the household was 49 years (table 1). the average farm size per household was 4.68 acres that utilised 2379 cubic meters of water per acre. the average rainfall was 566mm. the depth of average well was 25m (201 m maximum). a household on an average incurred an amount of rs 1987 per year as cost of energy for irrigation. the sample households cultivated two crops on average, and they had to trudge 17km to reach the nearest market for selling their agricultural produce. the formulation of several binary variables is explained in the table. 12 crop-wise water use calculated was comparable to those of srivastava et al. (2015) with minor variations. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] figure 5: water use and economic productivity of groundwater for irrigation in godavari river basin (a) upper reaches 2 1 6 0 .3 4 5 7 .0 1 2 3 5 .5 9 9 6 .8 5 2 4 .6 7 5 8 .8 4 4 3 6 .1 1 4 1 8 .0 2 7 9 8 .1 6 0 9 .3 2 3 0 .3 3 8 6 .6 3 1 8 1 .5 1 5 9 1 .9 2 1 9 8 .4 7 9 7 .4 4 5 7 .8 6 1 2 .0 3 7 5 7 .5 9 8 2 .6 2 5 6 6 .1 1 4 5 2 .9 6 9 7 .5 9 8 1 .0 6 2 1 .7 1 9 7 .8 3 2 6 .6 5 5 8 .6 4 4 0 .9 5 0 2 .0 28.6 39.8 125.6 101.4 3999.6 2531.6 18.7 150.7 64.9 40.5 34.5 -250 0 250 500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500 2750 3000 3250 3500 3750 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 s m al l (1 1 ) l ar g e (1 3 ) a ll ( 2 4 ) s m al l (3 9 ) l ar g e (3 9 ) a ll ( 7 8 ) s m al l (1 1 ) l ar g e (1 3 ) a ll ( 2 4 ) s m al l (3 ) l ar g e (4 ) a ll ( 7 ) s m al l (1 0 ) l ar g e (1 6 ) a ll ( 2 6 ) s m al l (3 6 ) l ar g e (4 4 ) a ll ( 8 0 ) s m al l (2 5 ) l ar g e (1 9 ) a ll ( 4 4 ) s m al l (2 3 ) l ar g e (3 8 ) a ll ( 6 1 ) s m al l (6 ) l ar g e (1 4 ) a ll ( 2 1 ) s m al l (2 1 ) l ar g e (2 1 ) a ll ( 4 2 ) paddy maize grapes groundnut onion soyabean tomato wheat bengal gram bajra e c o n o m ic p ro d u c ti v it y o f w a te r p e r c u b ic w a te r u se p e r a c re i n c u b ic m e te rs upper reaches water applied per acre economic productivity of water per acre per cubmt (b) middle reaches 5 4 3 9 .1 3 6 9 2 .5 4 4 5 8 .9 2 0 9 9 .7 3 8 7 .4 1 2 4 8 .6 3 5 2 .5 1 6 8 .4 2 4 5 .2 6.3 13.4 10.3 5.2 14.5 9.8 15.9 29.3 23.7 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 -1000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 s m al l (3 7 ) l ar g e (4 7 ) a ll ( 8 4 ) s m al l (1 6 ) l ar g e (1 6 ) a ll ( 3 2 ) s m al l (3 6 ) l ar g e (5 0 ) a ll ( 8 6 ) paddy maize cotton e c o n o m ic p ro d u c ti v ty o f w a te r p e r c u b ic m e te r w a te r u se p e r a c re i n c u b ic m e te rs middle reaches water applied per acre economic productivity of water per acre per cubmt [65] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati (c) lower reaches 5 3 8 3 .8 4 6 9 7 .4 5 0 4 4 .5 1 9 4 4 .6 1 3 2 6 .6 1 6 7 6 .1 1 0 4 6 .0 7 7 4 .6 8 8 7 .0 4 .7 1 1 .2 7 .9 2 8 .4 3 7 .9 3 2 .5 1 5 5 .6 1 3 4 .7 1 4 3 .4 -50 0 50 100 150 200 250 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 s m al l (8 ) l ar g e (8 ) a ll ( 1 6 ) s m al l (1 2 ) l ar g e (9 ) a ll ( 2 1 ) s m al l (3 ) l ar g e (4 ) a ll ( 7 ) paddy maize tobaco e c o n o m ic p ro d u c ti v it y o f w a te r p e r c u b ic m e te r in ru p e e s w a te r u s e p e r a c re i n c u b ic m e te rs lower reaches water applied per acre economic productivity of water per acre per cubmt (d) all reaches 3 4 5 2 .4 1 7 7 5 .2 2 6 6 9 .1 4 7 8 2 .5 3 6 0 3 .6 4 1 8 5 .3 4 4 2 7 .0 3 8 3 4 .0 4 1 4 7 .9 3 9 6 2 .9 2 6 0 1 .7 3 3 0 9 .0 1 5 2 .4 4 3 8 .8 2 8 6 .1 2 0 .2 4 0 .2 3 0 .3 2 9 .2 4 5 .4 3 6 .8 9 9 .1 2 6 3 .7 1 7 8 .2 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 s m a ll ( 9 4 ) l a rg e ( 8 3 ) a ll ( 1 7 7 ) s m a ll ( 9 4 ) l a rg e ( 9 4 ) a ll ( 1 8 8 ) s m a ll ( 7 1 ) l a rg e ( 6 7 ) a ll ( 1 3 8 ) s m a ll ( 2 5 9 ) l a rg e ( 2 4 4 ) a ll ( 5 0 3 ) upper middle lower all e c o n o m ic p ro d u c ti v it y o f w a te r in r s p e r c u b ic m e te r w a te r u s e p e r a c re i n c u b ic m e te rs all reaches water use per acre economic productivity of water per cubic meter source: field surveys note: i indicates standard errors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] using the regression model specified earlier, the determinants of water use and productivity showed that farm size was inversely related with water use per acre and directly with economic productivity of water in the sample as a whole and also in all the reaches of the river basin (table 4). in other words, large farmers apply significantly lesser amount of water per acre and attain higher levels of economic productivity as compared to small farmers. this was a very important result to observe when we consider the fact that majority of the farms in india are small and marginal. the sign and significance of the coefficient of the variable for number of crops cultivated indicates that while addition of crops results in additional water usage, it table 4: determinants of per acre water use and productivity in the study area (contd.) upper reaches (n=172) middle reaches (n=170) variable water use water productivity water use water productivity constant 7.146*** (0.909) 1.679* (0.966) 7.270*** (0.628) 2.368*** (0.649) fam_ size 0.005 (0.043) -0.026 (0.045) -0.044 (0.047) 0.020 (0.049) occupation -0.248 (0.277) 0.022 (0.294) -0.266 (0.253) 0.397 (0.262) illiterate 0.073 (0.261) -0.049 (0.277) 0.108 (0.183) 0.049 (0.190) sc 0.166 (0.345) -0.573 (0.367) 0.155 (0.208) -0.273 (0.215) age_hh -0.016* (0.009) 0.020** (0.010) -0.009 (0.007) 0.001 (0.007) gender land_size_class 0.628*** (0.204) -0.660*** (0.216) 0.196 (0.177) -0.325* (0.183) no_plots 0.006 (0.117) -0.105 (0.124) 0.118 (0.097) -0.140 (0.100) rainfall 0.000 (0.001) 0.001 (0.001) livestockowned -0.222 (0.265) 0.198 (0.282) -0.102 (0.208) 0.0451 (0.215) credit 0.235 (0.188) -0.061 (0.199) -0.487** (0.250) 0.423* (0.262) water_mkts 0.472 (0.393) -0.231 (0.418) -0.326 (0.345) 0.326 (0.356) no_crops 0.609*** (0.102) -0.190* (0.108) 1.170*** (0.163) -0.803*** (0.169) drip sprinkler 0.380 (0.324) 0.268 (0.344) source_borewell 0.563 (0.322) -1.155*** (0.342) 0.397** (0.199) -0.325 (0.206) energy_ cost 0.000 (0.000) 0.000 (0.000) 0.000 (0.000) -0.000 (0.000) depth_ well -0.030*** (0.004) 0.035*** (0.005) -0.014*** (0.002) 0.013*** (0.002) dis_out_mkt -0.008 (0.010) -0.023** (0.011) 0.014 (0.011) 0.000 (0.011) hi_value_crops 0.083 (0.248) 0.845*** (0.264) -0.572 (0.223)** 1.048*** (0.231) f (18, 153) = 9.42 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.470 f (18, 153) = 10.46; prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.499 f (16, 153) = 7.62 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.385 f (16, 153) = 6.81 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.355 [67] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati table 4: determinants of per acre water use and productivity in the study area (from pre-page) lower reaches (n=127) all (n=469) variable water use water productivity water use water productivity constant 7.895*** (0.930) 2.396** (1.061) 6.975*** (0.518) 1.739*** (0.559) fam_ size -0.002 (0.043) -0.011 (0.049) -074*** (0.028) 0.054* (0.030) occupation -0.113 (0.164) 0.058 (0.177) illiterate 0.299* (0.160) -0.220 (0.182) 0.347*** (0.130) -0.260* (0.141) sc -0.099 (0.167) -0.163 (0.190) 0.146 (0.128) -0.253* (0.138) age_hh -0.002 (0.006) 0.008 (0.006) -0.013*** (0.005) 0.013** (0.005) gender 0.240 (0.231) -0.140 (0.263) 0.033 (0.236) -0.150 (0.254) land_size_class 0.516*** (0.139) -0.605*** (0.158) 0.377*** 0.114) -0.441*** (0.123) no_plots 0.084 (0.072) -0.261*** (0.082) 0.152** (0.062) -0.280*** (0.067) rainfall -0.004*** (0.002) 0.004*** (0.002) 0.001 (0.001) 0.002*** (0.001) livestockowned 0.016 (0.144) 0.065 (0.164) -0.113 (0.131) -0.032 (0.141) credit -0.353* (0.211) 0.261 (0.241) 0.231* (0.135) -0.083 (0.145) water_mkts -0.276* (0.171) 0.364* (0.195) 0.089 (0.184) 0.106 (0.199) no_crops 1.093* (0.124) -0.804*** (0.141) 0.609*** (0.070) -0.280*** (0.075) drip sprinkler .0191 (0.232) -0.093 (0.265) 0.186 (0.184) 0.181 (0.198) source_borewell 0.334 (0.251) -0.186 (0.286) 0.371*** (0.137) -0.338** (0.148) energy_ cost 0.000 (0.000) 0.000 (0.000) -0.000*** (0.000) 0.000*** (0.000) depth_ well -0.035*** (0.005) 0.038*** (0.006) -0.019*** (0.001) 0.0186*** (0.002) dis_out_mkt 0.095** (0.030) -0.115*** (0.034) -0.002 (0.007) -0.009 (0.007) hi_value_crops -0.404 (0.172) 0.873*** (0.197) 0.109 (0.123) 0.623*** (.0133) f (18, 108) = 12.87 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.629 f (18, 108) = 11.97 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.611 f (19, 449) = 15.14 prob>f = 0.000 adjr2 =0.365 f (19, 449) =14.55 prob>f = 0.000 adj r2 = 0.355 source: estimated from the field survey data note: figures in the parenthesis are standard errors; ***, ** and * are significance levels at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively results in decline of productivity. this finding was consistent across all reaches of the basin. it implies that specialization might help in reducing water usage per acre and increasing economic productivity of water. the economic productivity of those who cultivated high value crops including vegetables and fruits was found to be better in all reaches. access to borewell and subsidized power for water lifting devices encouraged elevated water use with lower productivity. in other words, higher the user cost of power, lower the water use and better utilization. participation in water markets did not impact water use or water productivity in the sample. the coefficient for water productivity for modern irrigation technologies was insignificant. this could possibly be because these technologies are ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] used mostly in the upper reaches for grape gardens and many of them are still in the vegetative phase. the difficulty in accessing the markets in the lower reaches of the river basin seems to have resulted in higher water usage and lower water productivity. the vibrant water markets in the lower reaches resulted in lower water use with higher economic productivity. as expected, those with deeper wells in all the reaches of the river basin used less water and achieved higher productivity. as water extraction from deeper depths becomes more difficult, the users tend to extract less and use it better. in other words, the scarcity of the resource might be driving them to efficient resource utilisation and better returns. 5. conclusions and policy implications this study examined the access to groundwater for irrigation and its impact on agriculture, poverty, and inequality against the backdrop of heterogeneous conditions of groundwater availability in the godavari basin and its implications for resource governance. it uses data collected from 825 farm households that included 494 groundwater users in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the basin. data was analysed using various statistical and econometric methods that yielded important results at both aggregate (basin level) and disaggregate levels. at the aggregate level, large farmers were found to have better access to groundwater vis-à-vis small farmers. households with access to groundwater earned higher household and per capita income compared to those without access. however, reaches-wise disaggregate level analysis, including those done separately for farm size as well as user-non-user categories, shows that in addition to access to groundwater, the amount of value that the farmers tend to generate out of groundwater irrigation is an important factor in determining household income or poverty levels. it may be noted that farmers with access to groundwater expectedly had a higher share of agricultural income to total income but also had higher levels of inequality. the poverty headcount ratios were at higher levels in the upper reaches, which had better groundwater access and availability conditions. however, the poverty levels were both severe and deeper in the middle reaches where groundwater scarcity conditions were more widespread as compared to others. the experience of the middle reaches also shows that as depletion or scarcity of groundwater increases, it is mostly the large farmers who tend to reap better productivity. the small farmers drift towards non-agricultural sources of income including wage labour that can be termed distress-driven diversification. [69] jeena t srinivasan and chandra sekhara rao nuthalapati a detailed analysis of the determinants of access to groundwater showed that access was determined by a host of social, economic, climatic and hydrogeological factors along with households‘ access to information and communication technologies. even though farm size per se was not found to be a significant variable in determining access, it was a significant variable in determining per acre groundwater usage as well as economic productivity of water. basin level analysis showed that farm size was inversely related to water use per acre and directly related to economic productivity. the higher per acre usage of water by small farms without commensurate economic productivity was perhaps a major concern for a country like india where majority of farms are small and marginal. reaches-wise disaggregate level analysis pointed to the lowest groundwater usage per acre by the farmers in the upper reaches with the highest levels of economic productivity in contrast to the middle reaches with high per acre water usage irrespective of farm size and low levels of economic productivity of water. these differences could be due to the choices of crops adopted by farmers, including the number and types of crops grown. the upper reaches were characterized by a diverse variety of crops, which include high-value and less water consuming crops in contrast to the high-water consuming, less diverse and low-value crops in the middle reaches. it was observed that in the upper reaches mere addition of a number of crops led to higher per acre water usage and a decline in economic productivity, thus pointing towards the need for crop specialization to reduce per acre water usage to spur economic productivity of water. while ownership of borewells had a differential impact on water use and productivity across reaches, the depth of borewells, an indicator of groundwater depletion, was found to be significant in determining water use and productivity. farmers seem to adopt measures to economize water use and improvements in productivity when they face actual scarcity situation rather than when they just foresee it happening. the case of lower reaches showed that difficulty in accessing output markets often resulted in higher water usage and lower water productivity, whereas vibrant water markets tend to help in reducing water use and increasing economic productivity of water. to sum up, this study attempted to throw some light on the complex and diverse relationship between groundwater irrigation, agriculture, poverty and inequality under heterogeneous conditions of groundwater availability in the godavari river basin. understanding and incorporating them in policy are of paramount importance not only for the conservation of groundwater resources but also to reduce the gap in economic productivity of water and reduction of poverty and inequality across different size classes of farmers in the study region. while the overall policy should be directed ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] towards more equitable access to groundwater resources, measures to economise groundwater use per farm acre as well as improvement in economic productivity across regions and size classes of farmers, considering regional specificities, are equally important. otherwise, situations like middle reaches will be more widespread, and as manero (2017) points out, national policy may inadvertently overlook the complex relationship of agriculture, water use, economic farm productivity, and poverty, which is critical for the reduction of poverty and inequality and for the promotion of agricultural growth and development at the sub-regional levels. acknowledgements this study was funded by jamsetji tata trust through erstwhile research unit for livelihoods and natural resources (rulnr) of the centre for economic and social studies, hyderabad. the suggestions by the two anonymous reviewers of the journal 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https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2013.821644 https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060802666179 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084005 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 9–20, july 2019 thematic essay science, uncertainty, and society: getting beyond the argument culture to shared visions robert costanza  abstract: practical problem-solving in complex societies requires the integration of three elements: (1) active and ongoing envisioning of both how the world works and how we would like the world to be, (2) systematic analysis appropriate to and consistent with the vision and (3) implementation appropriate to the vision. scientists generally focus on the second step, but integrating all three is essential for both good science and effective, democratic decision-making. subjective values enter the vision of broad social goals and the pre-analytic vision that necessarily precedes any form of scientific analysis. because of this need for vision, completely objective scientific analysis is impossible. to better support democratic decisionmaking, scholars of all varieties need to acknowledge the need to engage more directly in all three elements of the process while sharing their knowledge of how the world works and bringing their understanding of uncertainty more effectively to the table. this more integrated role of the scholars can help overcome the currently widespread denial of critical knowledge about how the world works, especially about climate, wellbeing, and evolution, and support better, more democratic decision-making about how we would like the world to be and how to get there. 1. what is science? the public and policy-makers often confuse science with ―objective‖ analysis. because of the need for a vision, completely objective scientific analysis is impossible. joseph schumpeter put it this way: in practice we all start our own research from the work of our predecessors, that is, we hardly ever start from scratch. but suppose we did start from scratch, what  vc‘s chair in public policy, crawford school of public policy, the australian national university, 132 lennox crossing, canberra, act 2601, australia; robert.costanza@anu.edu.au copyright © costanza 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.70 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.70 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] are the steps we should have to take? obviously, in order to be able to posit to ourselves any problems at all, we should first have to visualize a distinct set of coherent phenomena as a worthwhile object of our analytic effort. in other words, analytic effort is of necessity is preceded by a preanalytic cognitive act that supplies the raw material for the analytic effort. in this book, this preanalytic cognitive act will be called vision. it is interesting to note that vision of this kind not only must precede historically the emergence of analytic effort in any field, but also may reenter the history of every established science each time somebody teaches us to see things in a light of which the source is not to be found in the facts, methods, and results of the preexisting state of the science. (schumpeter 1954, 41) nevertheless, it is possible to separate the process into a more subjective, or normative, envisioning component and a more systematic, less subjective analysis component (which is based on the vision). ―good‖ science is that which makes clear its underlying preanalytic vision, and whose analysis is consistent with that vision. 2. a changing vision of science the task would be simpler if the vision of science were static and unchanging. but as the quote from schumpeter makes clear, this vision is itself evolving as we learn more. this does not invalidate science, as some deconstructionists would have it. quite the contrary, by being explicit about their underlying preanalytic visions, scientists can enhance their honesty and thereby their credibility. scientific credibility proceeds from an honest discussion of this underlying vision and its inherently subjective elements, as well as from constant, pragmatic testing of conclusions against real-world problems, rather than by appealing to non-existent objectivity. the preanalytic vision of science is changing from the ―logical positivist‖ view, which holds that science can discover ultimate truth by falsification of hypotheses, to the more pragmatic view that we do not have access to any ultimate, universal truths, but only to useful, abstract representations (models) of parts of the world. science, in both the logical positivist and this ―pragmatic modelling‖ vision, works by building models and testing them. but the new vision recognizes that the tests are rarely, if ever, conclusive (especially in the life sciences and the social sciences); the models can only apply to a limited part of the real world; and the ultimate goal is therefore not the truth, but quality and utility. in the words of william deming, ―all models are wrong, but some models are useful‖ (mccoy 1994). the primary goal of science, then, is the creation of models whose utility and quality can be tested against real world applications (costanza 2001). the criteria by which one judges the utility and quality of models are [11] robert costanza themselves social constructs that evolve over time. there is, however, a fairly broad and consistent consensus in the scientific community about what these criteria are. they include (1) testability, (2) repeatability, (3) predictability, and (4) elegance (i.e., occam‘s razor: the model should be as simple as possible, but no simpler!). but because of the nature of real-world problems, there are many applications for which some of these criteria are difficult or impossible to apply. these applications may nevertheless still be judged as ―good‖ science. for example, some purely theoretical models are not directly testable, but they may provide fertile ground for thought and debate and lead to more explicit models that are testable. likewise, field studies of watersheds are not repeatable, strictly speaking, because no two watersheds are identical. but there is much we can learn from field studies that can be applied to other watersheds and tested against the other criteria of predictability and elegance. how simple a model can be depends on the nature, type and scope of the questions being asked. if we ask a more complex or more detailed question, the model will probably have to be more complex and detailed. as science progresses and the range of applications expands, the subjective criteria by which utility and quality are judged, must also adapt. this inherently subjective process goes on constantly within the scientific community. scientists are not the only ones building models of the world. every human, and indeed every sentient life form, employs models. a model, in this context, is any abstract, useful, representation of reality. we navigate the world using the model of the world each of us has in our brains. our mental models or world-views guide our every action and determine how we interpret things that happen in the world and predict what will happen next (gentner and stevens 2014). traditional and religious belief systems are also models of how the world works. like all models, they are wrong, but they may be useful guides to behaviour while helping to build social capital. the discussion about traditional/religious models versus scientific models thus needs to move beyond ―truth‖ to the utility of the models in guiding behaviour and creating a sustainable and desirable future. from the point of view of utility, these models are not necessarily mutually exclusive (wilson 2010). more on this further on. one often hears these days about ―cognitive bias‖ — the idea that we only perceive things that conform to our mental model of the way the world works (caverni et al. 1990). religious fundamentalists may reject data that does not conform to their mental model of a 6,000-year-old world. climatedeniers will not accept data of human-caused climate change if it does not conform to their mental model. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [12] science, as an enterprise, explicitly attempts to overcome confirmation bias by testing hypothesis against the real world and not existing mental models. for example, mental models based on the hypothesis of the inherent superiority of one subset of humans over others can be shown to be inconsistent with reality. but racist or misogynist mental models are difficult to change, in part because of confirmation bias. science itself is not immune to confirmation bias, and there are many historical cases of theories that have ultimately been proven false hanging on in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. but an important part of the issue is that, as argued above, there is often no definitive answer to complex problems. the best we can do is to develop useful models that acknowledge the uncertainty. how we deal with uncertainty is a key issue in the world of ―fake news‖ and ―alternative facts.‖ 3. dealing with uncertainty one of the main issues with scientific uncertainty is not just its existence, but the radically different expectations and modes of operation that scientists, the public and policymakers have developed to deal with it. to solve this, these differences need to be understood and better methods designed to incorporate uncertainty into democratic decision making. to understand the scope of the problem, it is necessary to differentiate between risk and true uncertainty. risk is an event with a known probability (sometimes referred to as statistical uncertainty). true uncertainty is an event with an unknown probability (sometimes referred to as indeterminacy) (tversky and fox 1995). for instance, every time you drive your car, you run the risk of having an accident because the probability of car accidents is well known. the risk involved in driving is well known because there have been many car accidents with which to calculate their historical frequency, which is taken as an estimate of the probability of having a car accident in the future. these probabilities are known with enough precision to be used by insurance companies, for instance, to set rates that will assure those companies of a certain profit. there is little uncertainty about the possibility of car accidents. if you live near the disposal site of some newly synthesized toxic chemical, however, your health may be in jeopardy, but no one knows to what extent. because no one knows the probability of your getting cancer, for instance, or some other disease from this exposure. this is true uncertainty. most important policy issues suffer from true uncertainty, not mere risk. uncertainty may be thought of as a continuum ranging from zero for certain information to intermediate levels for information with statistical [13] robert costanza uncertainty and known probabilities (risk) to high levels for information with true uncertainty or indeterminacy. risk assessment has become a central guiding principle in many government management agencies but true uncertainty is yet to be adequately incorporated. scientists treat uncertainty as a given, a characteristic of all information that must be honestly acknowledged and communicated. over the years, scientists have developed increasingly sophisticated methods to measure and communicate uncertainty arising from various causes. scientists have often uncovered more uncertainty rather than the absolute precision that the lay public often mistakenly associates with scientific results. scientific inquiry can only set boundaries on the limits of knowledge. it can define the edges of the envelope of known possibilities, but often the envelope is very large, and the probabilities of what‘s inside can be a complete mystery. for instance, scientists can describe the range of uncertainty about global warming and toxic chemicals and maybe say something about the relative probabilities of different outcomes, but, in most important cases, they cannot say which of the possible outcomes will occur with any degree of accuracy. current approaches to management and policymaking, however, avoid uncertainty and gravitate to the edges of the scientific envelope. the reasons for this bias are clear. policymakers want to make unambiguous, defensible decisions, which are often codified into laws and regulations. although legislative language is often open to interpretation, regulations are much easier to write and enforce if they are stated in absolutely certain terms. for most of criminal law, the system works reasonably well. either cain killed his brother, or he did not; the only question is whether there is enough evidence to demonstrate guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (with essentially zero uncertainty). because the burden of proof is on the prosecution, it does little good to conclude that there was an 80-percent chance that cain killed his brother. but many scientific studies come to just these kinds of conclusions. science defines the envelope while the policy process gravitates to an edge—usually the edge that best advances the policymaker‘s mental model and political agenda. but to use science rationally, democratic policy decisions must consider the whole envelope and all its contents. 4. who bears the burden of proof? a key question in dealing with uncertainty is: who bears the burden of proof? in many cases, in western democracies, the burden of proof has fallen on the public. this allows uncertainty to be manipulated to benefit private interests, who cannot be held responsible for damages until it is ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [14] proven that they were the cause. given the discussion of uncertainty above, it should be clear that this is a severe burden of proof. it allows private interests to externalise the risks of their activities. this distorts market behaviour and leads to overuse and exploitation of the commons. a necessary condition for efficient markets is that all externalities be internalised. the question is how? if impacts are uncertain, how can we internalize them? our current approach to dealing with the risk of private interests damaging public assets is to assign liability to the private interests with the burden of proof on the public. the public must demonstrate damages after the fact, claim compensation, endure a lengthy judicial process, and finally hope to recover just reparations. in addition, the total liability is often limited. for example, in the u.s., the oil pollution act of 1990 limits the liability for oil spills to usd 75 million and the price-anderson act limits the liability for nuclear power plant accidents to usd 10 billion. the exxon valdez oil spill resulted in an estimated usd 3.4 billion in fines, compensation, and cleanup costs, and a court settlement of usd 2.5 billion in punitive damages that took decades of lawsuits after the incident and was ultimately reduced by the supreme court to usd 500 million in 2008 (maag 2008). in many other parts of society, we require private interests to buy insurance to deal with the risks they impose on the public. for example, purchasing automobile insurance is often mandatory, and assurance bonds are often required from building contractors. requiring assurance bonds or insurance forces private interests to internalize the risk of their activities before any damages occur. it gives them strong financial incentives to reduce risk, since it is their own money that they stand to lose. the deepwater horizon incident, like the banking crisis, resulted from inadequate attention to the risks that the public was left to bear. precautionary measures were known but not taken. investments in safety devices (like the acoustic blowout preventer) were not made. corners were cut. short-term private profits motivated taking high risks with public assets. the fundamental problem is that while private interests are ultimately liable for damages to public assets, they are only held accountable long after the fact and only partially. this gives private interests strong incentives to take large risks with public assets—far larger than they should from society‘s point of view. if society does not change investment incentives, private interests will continue to devote vast sums of capital to pursue increasingly risky oil reserves (or financial products) that provide less net energy and maintain our oil addiction—an addiction which simply cannot be physically sustained. it also encourages climate inaction, since costs and liabilities can be externalized and pushed into the future. [15] robert costanza one way to internalize these risks would be to require private interests to post an ―assurance bond‖ large enough to cover the worst-case damages (costanza and perrings 1990; costanza and cornwell 1992). portions of or the entire bond (plus interest) would be returned, if and when the private interests demonstrate that the suspected worst-case damages had not occurred or would be less than was originally assessed. if damages did occur, portions of the bond would be used to rehabilitate or repair the assets and to compensate injured parties. the critical feature is that the risk to the public asset is apparent to the private interests in financial terms before the fact, not as a liability that may or may not be enforced after the damage occurs. science can contribute to this process substantially, because it is often easier to quantify the worst-case scenario than to identify where within the range of uncertainty the impact may fall. consider the impact of fossil fuel use on climate. climate deniers argue that there is no impact while the scientific community presents a range of estimates that acknowledge the uncertainty, including a worst-case scenario. what if the fossil fuel producers were required to post an assurance bond to cover the potential worst-case impact of carbon emissions from fossil fuels, in addition to internalizing the social cost of carbon emissions with a carbon tax? the speed of transition to renewables that this would cause would be amazing. 5. manipulating uncertainty in the argument culture uncertainty can be manipulated for political purposes. the climate ―debate‖ is the most obvious current example. the scientific community, as summarised in the ipcc reports, clearly lays out what is known about the changing climate, its causes, and the degree of uncertainty in each element of the assessments. climate deniers seize on the fact that there is uncertainty to argue that the assessments lack any credibility and cannot ―prove‖ that humans cause climate change. this feeds into what deborah tannan (1998) has called the ―argument culture.‖ in this culture, even the most complex problems are cast as polar opposites with no uncertainty. all discussions are cast as a debate between two extremes in which one side is right while the other is wrong. the media, the law, politics, and academia are all caught in the argument culture, and its influence and control over our lives is increasing. the problem is that, while there is nothing inherently wrong with debate and direct confrontation on some topics, it does not work for all topics. certainly, the complex problems that are the focus of democratic decision-making require ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [16] a more multifaceted, complex approach—one that encourages real dialogue and does not cast every discussion as a zero-sum, win-lose, either-or dichotomy. as tannen notes: throughout our educational system the most pervasive inheritance is the conviction that issues have two sides, that knowledge is best gained through debate, that ideas should be presented orally to an audience that does its best to poke holes and find weaknesses, and that to get recognition, one has to ‗stake out a position‘ in opposition to another. (tannan 1998, 261) the argument culture pervades our political process and makes truly democratic decision-making difficult, if not impossible. the ‗winner take all‘, win-lose, two party system is locked in to the argument culture and cannot support informed discussion of issues that acknowledge the fundamental uncertainties involved. democracy should be about building a broad consensus about shared goals and the policies to achieve them. instead, the argument culture obscures the complexity of the world and allows disinformation and distortion to flourish. tannen goes on to challenge us to find ways to go beyond the argument culture: ‗‗it will take creativity to find ways to blunt the most dangerous blades of the argument culture. it‘s a challenge we must undertake, because our public and private lives are at stake‘‘ (1998, 290) we need to further develop processes like deliberative democracy (drysack 2010) that can facilitate engaged discussion among a broad range of stakeholders about complex issues, rather than confrontational debates. scientists are a key group in these processes, especially as they bring their understanding of uncertainty into the discussions. as buchanan (1954) put it: ―the definition of democracy as ‗government by discussion‘ implies that individual values can and do change in the process of decision-making‖ (buchanan 1954, 120). to reinvent democracy, we have to reinvent discussion and move beyond the argument culture. 6. what can we do? science is critical to the process of building a shared-vision of the world we want and implementing policies to achieve that vision. but the system today is locked-in or addicted to patterns of behaviour that prevent the needed transformation. societies, like individuals, can get trapped in patterns of behaviour called social traps or ―societal addictions‖ that provide shortterm rewards but are detrimental and unsustainable in the long-run (costanza 1987). examples include our societal addiction to inequitable [17] robert costanza over-consumption fuelled by fossil energy and a ―growth at all costs‖ economic model. we can learn from therapies that work at the individual level to help develop therapies that might work at the societal level (costanza et al. 2017). in particular, motivational interviewing (mi) is one of the most effective therapies at the individual level. it is based on engaging addicts in a positive discussion of their goals, motives, and futures. one analogy to mi at the societal level is a modified version of scenario planning (sp) that has been extended to engage the entire community (community scenario planning, csp) in thinking about goals and alternative futures via public opinion surveys and deliberative forums. both mi and csp are about exploring alternative futures in positive, non-confrontational ways and building commitment or consensus about preferred futures. effective therapies for societal addictions may be possible, but, as we learn from mi, they will require a rebalancing of effort away from only pointing out the dire consequences of current behaviour (without denying those consequences) towards building a shared vision of a positive future, and the means to get there. in the policy sphere, science has mainly contributed to pointing out the dire consequences of the current behaviour. but part of the reason this science is now being ignored by some is that it does not conform to their mental model of how the world works. climate deniers are indeed in denial about the science of global climate change, in the same way that drug addicts or cigarette smokers can be in denial of the well-known harmful effects of their habit. at the individual level, mi techniques engage with addicts in a nonjudgmental way to help them develop a positive vision of a better life for themselves that is based on their deepest values. such a vision can often motivate a substantial change. this is what a strategy of scenario planning and envisioning extended to include public opinion surveys and broad societal dialogue about what alternative futures could provide at the societal level. what is necessary to implement this strategy is to fully engage the larger society in discussing and sharing alternative futures and building consensus on preferred futures. putting future scenarios out to the public in the form of public opinion surveys (costanza et al. 2015, chambers et al. 2019), dialogues, media events, films, videos, and other approaches can do this, but this is a largely unexplored area and is certainly a far cry from politics as usual. workshops with a broad range of stakeholders from across the political spectrum have consistently shown that if the question is: ―what kind of world do you want in the future?‖ there is much broader consensus than one would imagine based on current, polarized positions. in order to ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [18] bring people together we need to first focus on developing a shared vision of the future, and this will not be as difficult as it at first appears. there is ample room for creative design and testing of a range of societal therapies to build this shared vision and escape the argument culture. scaling up what works at the individual level may be an important path for more effective societal therapies that will allow us to build a truly democratic, sustainable, and desirable future together. 7. summary and conclusions i sum up my observations as follows: (i) there is no such thing as scientific objectivity, because all science must be (1) based on a pre-analytic vision that is inherently subjective and (2) judged for utility and quality against criteria that are inherently subjective. we can, however, be very clear about the distinction between the vision and values component of the process and the analysis component built on that vision. (ii) the quality of scientific work can thus be judged based on its adherence to the pre-analytic vision and its pragmatic utility in modelling the real world, as tested against the general criteria developed by the scientific community. we can judge between ―good‖ science and ―bad‖ science according to these subjectively determined criteria of quality, but it is not really honest or useful to use objectivity as a yardstick. (iii) subjective values also enter the discussion when we talk about how we would like the world to be. this aspect of future visions strongly determines which set of current policies are most appropriate, given the huge level of uncertainty about the current and future state of the world. (iv) the major source of uncertainty about our current policies is at this level of visions and worldviews, not in the details of analysis or implementation within a particular vision. (v) democracy should be about building a shared vision of the world we want and implementing policies to achieve that vision. the sustainable development goals (sdgs) are a major step in the right direction. (vi) by developing alternative future scenarios, the critical assumptions and uncertainties underlying each vision can be more easily seen. the broader public can be engaged (via public opinion surveys, deliberative [19] robert costanza fora, and other methods) to overcome the argument culture and build a broad consensus on the future we want and how to get there. references buchanan, j.m. 1954. ―social choice, democracy, and free markets.‖ journal of political economy 62: 114–23. https://doi.org/10.1086/257496 caverni, j-p., j-m fabre, and m. gonzalez, eds. 1990. cognitive biases. amsterdam: north holland press. chambers, i., r. costanza, l. zingus, s. cork, m. hernandez, a. sofiullah, t. z. htwe, d. kenny, p. atkins, t. kasser, i. kubiszewski, y. liao, a. c. maung, k. yuan, d. finnigan, and s. harte. 2019. ―a public opinion survey of four future scenarios for australia in 2050.‖ futures 107: 119-132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.12.002 costanza, r. 1987. ―social traps and 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learn from individual therapies?‖ ecological economics 131: 543–550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.09.023 dryzek, j.s. 2010. foundations and frontiers of deliberative governance. oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562947.001.0001 gentner, d. and a. l. stevens, eds. 1983. mental models. new york: psychology press. maag, c. 2008. ―supreme court decision on exxon valdez damages a blow to alaskans.‖ the new york times june 26. accessed at https://doi.org/10.1086/257496 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.12.002 https://doi.org/10.2307/1310564 https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051%5b0459:vvvatn%5d2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051%5b0459:vvvatn%5d2.0.co;2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0921-8009(90)90013-k https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.1992.9930930 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.09.023 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562947.001.0001 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [20] https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/americas/26ihtalaska.4.14027236.html on june 6, 2019. mccoy, r. 1994. the best of deming. knoxville: statistical process control press. schumpeter, j. 1954. history of economic analysis. london: allen & unwin. tannen, d. 1998. the argument culture: moving from debateto dialogue. new york: random house. tversky, a. and c. r. fox. 1995. ―weighing risk and uncertainty.‖ psychological review 102: 269–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.102.2.269 wilson, d. s. 2010. darwin’s cathedral: evolution, religion, and the nature of society. chicago: university of chicago press. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/americas/26iht-alaska.4.14027236.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/americas/26iht-alaska.4.14027236.html https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.102.2.269 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(1): 31-51, january 2023 research paper exergy analysis: a guide to sustainability? tejasvi chauhan and vinod k gaur abstract: this paper argues for a continuing exploration of nature’s organizing principles that sustain prolonged homeostasis of the earth’s ecosystems punctuated by forceful transitions to new emergent states. ecosystems develop and maintain a dynamically stable state by transacting energy and materials with the surrounding flows to keep reversing their continual fall to the ground state. conversely, the elevation of any component of the ecosystem above the ground level may be regarded as a measure of its functional efficiency. this measure, called exergy, can be calculated for an eco-subsystem based on knowledge of the energy and material fluxes that thread it and, most importantly, of where the ground level happens to be. admittedly, it is not straightforward to quantify these figures, and the departure of assumptions from reality will inevitably translate into errors in the calculated exergy figures. however, the variance may be estimated by analysing the results of an ensemble of calculations with randomly perturbed input values. even with these limitations, however, a map of exergy losses characterizing different parts of an ecosystem has the potential to reveal relative thermodynamic efficiencies for appropriate ameliorative interventions. keywords: exergy, ecosystem, thermodynamic limits 1. introduction sustainability is not a value-neutral concern, begging the question as to what is it aimed at. but at its heart lies the ambition to prolong the ambient state of the earth’s ecosystems, whose future trajectories are inalienably conditioned by the current state. insightful hints to design a path towards sustainability, irrespective of the focus of its concern, can perhaps be gleaned by looking more incisively at the way ecosystems work.  indian institute of technology, bombay, india. chauhan.tejasvi9@gmail.com  csir fourth paradigm institute, bangalore, india. gaurvinod36@gmail.com copyright © chauhan and gaur 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.914 mailto:chauhan.tejasvi9@gmail.com mailto:gaurvinod36@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.914 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [32] planet earth’s ecosystems are unique in the solar system. they evolved from rudimentary forms of self replicating molecules, feeding off solar radiation or energy from the deep earth, growing slowly at first and then more deliberately by dispersal and structure formation. the first of these is a piece of the universal process that inexorably enlarges the degrees of freedom available to a system’s condition, a natural consequence of unbiased treatment of all aspects of a situation. the second process, also seen at work in inanimate systems fed by constant energy (such as atmospheric convection) has been extensively studied through laboratory experiments (for example, the bénard convection). the results suggest that structure formation in constantly powered systems (like ecosystems) greatly enhances the rate of energy dissipation, perhaps to hasten the descent to equilibrium. the significant fact is that they develop and sustain lowentropy organized entities in the very act of falling along a gradient. every habitat on earth, including that of humans, belongs to some ecosystem of the planet (figure 1). ecosystems are a society of living and breathing beings much like our own, sustained by throughflows of matter, energy, and information exchanged with the surroundings. they grow, develop and stay alive by abstracting energy from other sources, such as solar radiation and solar-driven cycles of wind and water, to constantly restore the driving gradients of their arterial flows. their potential energies keep falling inexorably toward the dead state of equilibrium through the very act of flowing. this is the spontaneous process forever at work in the universe — a progressive flattening of all gradients. highlands erode to peneplains, gurgling mountain streams slow down to staid meanders, concentrated materials disperse into environmental wastes, and energy molecules oxidize to inert ones. unless injected constantly with fresh energy, these downhill processes would eventually lay all systems to eternal rest (figure 2). even when a source such as the daily inflow of solar radiation exists, and the landscape can sustain thermal, topographic, and material flows (as seen in other planets in the solar system) these do not result in a 'goldilocks world’ where the conditions for life are just right. for that to happen, the solardriven flows need to be channelled through entities that can transform their energy into useful work; entities that would keep reversing the downhill processes by assembling inert matter into a chain of energy molecules, and transforming wastes to clean the environment and mitigate hazards. this functional machinery developed on earth as its ecosystems, made possible by the planet’s special endowments: just the right mass to hold an atmosphere in its gravitational cage and the right distance from the sun to let liquid water exist. in turn, these conditions orchestrated the evolution of [33] chauhan and gaur a blue planet, dynamically driven within by plate tectonics and on its surface by the hydrological cycle. in time, the latter greened and flowered its land, turning it into one of the most spectacular objects in space. figure 1: a visual representation of an ecosystem source: authors figure 1 presents an iconic view of an ecosystem. its several distinctly recognizable units are, in fact, mutually supported through invisible streams of energy, materials, and information flows. these flows, primarily driven by the thermal and electrochemical gradients created by solar radiation, are, in turn, channelled through a vast network of energy, material, and information transforming devices or ‘eco-engines’. the latter use the work potential of their throughflows to maintain their live state and resist the universal tendency towards levelling. in the process, they perform critical ecosystem services, most notably, they help other eco-engines down the line do the same. 2. ecosystems as a hierarchical network of ecoengines since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but only transformed through flows of heat, work, materials, or information, ecosystems are essentially constituted as energy transforming devices called ‘engines’. in the manner of all dynamical systems with continual energy inputs, which are known to maximize the efficiency of energy transformation by developing ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [34] an orderly structure (for example, bénard convection cells, as examined in demirel, 2002), ecosystems too develop an optimal network of energytransforming flows. they exploit all possible configurations allowable by their landforms and the daily and seasonally renewable stocks of energy and materials, to maximize their flow density pathways, especially of the miracle substance, water. the extraordinary properties of water as a universal solvent and its large thermal inertia, further enhance an ecosystem’s opportunity space for differentiation and co-development. the result is a hierarchically ordered web of material and energy flows and their storages that nourish and create the foundational structure of the food chain: soils, forests, lakes, wetlands, groundwater, and biodiversity (allen & starr, n.d.; müller, 1992; o’neill et al., 1989; pahl-wostl, 1993). the invention of steam engines in the seventeenth century was inspired by the experiential learning of early civilizations about transforming heat to mechanical energy (for example, fire pistons used by neolithic communities) and creation of several ingenious devices that used steam power to move shafts. in the nineteenth century, an analytical inquiry in the efficiency of energy transformation processes led to an understanding of energy quality as distinct from energy quantity. analyzing the results of a thought experiment, sadi carnot (kelvin et al., 1924), showed that whilst steam flowing from a high temperature source can be made to perform work by moving a piston to drive a wheel, the amount of work (w) performed by it was only a certain fraction () of the input steam energy (q). as the energy of flowing steam is progressively consumed in the process of performing work, its thermal potential, that is, its temperature, gradually reaches equilibrium with the surroundings. thereupon, the residual heat, unable to flow and be transformed any further, simply joins the vast and unusable stock of environmental heat. the part of a system’s total energy capable of being turned completely into work can thus be measured by the elevation of its ambient state above the equilibrium level. this is called ‘exergy’, and it is measured in the same unit as energy on a scale defined by the zero potential energy of the equilibrium state or a state of complete stasis. equivalently, the exergy of a particular system state is the energy required to create it from the chemically inert, thoroughly dispersed, zero gradient states of its components. for example, the exergy of one mole (a pack of a given number of molecules) of biogas (methane) being 832 kj, means that a mole of the gas will produce 832 kj of energy when allowed to unpack itself. this is in fact, equal to the energy stored in every mole of methane through the work performed by bio-organisms to i) extract carbon dioxide (20 kj) and water (2.6 kj) from the environment, ii) bond the extracted [35] chauhan and gaur carbon and hydrogen molecules into one of methane (818 kj), and iii) return the residual oxygen (–7.8 kj) to space. unlike energy, exergy is not conserved, and is, therefore, a more sensible qualifier of the work potential of material and energy flows. figure 2: flow of energy within an ecosystem source: authors figure 2 illustrates the ability of systems to perform work through certain processes by virtue of the fact that their elevated states are lifted above the flat equilibrium state: raised highlands erode to renew soil fertility, evaporated sea water is blown by wind to drive the hydrological cycle, inert carbon dioxide molecules hydrogenated through photosynthesis form highenergy glucose molecules, and the osmotic flow of water to plant roots is driven by the concentration gradient. left to their own devices, systems possessing potential energies tend to move downhill to the zero gradient equilibrium state, consuming the stored exergy that can be utilized to perform useful work if channelled through an engine, such as the production of electricity from falling water or metabolic energy from the oxidation of carbohydrates in the guts of living beings. ecosystems integrate these processes into a biogeochemical cycle by abstracting the exergy of inflowing solar energy and outflowing heat energy from the earth’s depths to build gravitational and chemical potential energies in the form of landscapes and biomass. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [36] ecosystems maintain their health and build reserves for the future by channelling the surrounding flows of materials, energy, and information into a succession of lower-order streams thereby harvesting the maximum of the available exergy (silow & mokry, 2010). exergy extracted from the daily and seasonally restored natural flow gradients that drive the atmosphere and oceans, and proton flows in plant cells, is consumed to rebuild other less consumptive gradients of the ecosystem. fertile flood plains develop in the wake of diminishing stream power, as do wetlands, where an incredible diversity of bio-organisms reduce environmental wastes to organic carbon, thus preparing the base of the food chain. as some exergy is irretrievably lost along each flow path as dead heat (because of the ubiquitous presence of irreversibilities), the hierarchically organized chain of eco-engines is driven by a progressively diminishing sequence of residual exergies delivered by a preceding one (figure 3). the entire exergy of solar radiation extracted by ecosystems is, thus, used up by a succession of their eco-engines to sustain the vital environmental flows and store some of it as chemical exergy in the food and fuel molecules for use in the lean season (silow et al., 2011). analogously, one can visualize the same process at work when considering a mountain stream that drives large rock masses down a steep valley and deposits them on the flattening valley floor on entering the plains (figure 3). this happens because the reduced gradient and approaching closeness to equilibrium reduces the potential for energy exchange, reducing the stream’s power even as the quantity of its flow remains the same. this progressive reduction in stream’s power continues apace, depositing finer and finer sediments into the biogeochemical marvel of a delta as it levels with the sea. thus, all of the earth’s energy requirements, including those of its biosphere and human civilization, are met from the exergy or quality of solar energy (figure 3), not its quantity as in case of a hydroelectric plant (which draws from the gravitational exergy of a flowing stream without consuming a single drop of water). figure 3 shows how the exergy of solar energy is used by the two principal thermodynamic engines of the earth system: the atmosphere-ocean and the ecosystem, by harnessing the electromagnetic (thermal and electronic) gradients created by the high exergy solar radiation. one is created by the earth’s non-uniform heating, and the other by excitation of its otherwise inert molecules (photosynthesis). the first converts solar exergy to move the atmosphere & oceans, which in turn, drive the hydrological cycle and a cascade of progressively smaller engines, notably the nutrient cycle and the longer time-scale rock cycle (not shown). the hydrological & nutrient cycles collaborate with the photosynthesizing engine to grow and develop the [37] chauhan and gaur living world, which continually reverses the various potential gradients to maintain its low entropy islands against their ineluctable attrition. like all dynamic systems that evolve into an organized structure, the earth’s primary engines too, harness the daily supply of solar radiation to structure the earth’s climate and ecosystems. the figure (left middle) shows how the exergy of solar radiation is used up in maintaining and developing the living earth through a progressively diminishing cascade of energy and material transforming carnot engines, losing some exergy at every stage as heat without using any of the energy received from the sun, which at the end of the day, is radiated back to space with all its exergy reduced to zero. figure 3: uses of the exergy of solar energy source: authors at the top of the earth’s exergy flow pyramid are two major flow–field gradients forged directly by the sun (figure 3). the first one is the thermal ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [38] gradient resulting from the non-uniform distribution of temperature on earth because of its asymmetry with respect to the sun – earth axis and the varying reflectivity of its variegated surface features. the inexorable levelling of the thermal gradient mediated, in turn, by convective flows of the earth’s fluid spheres keeps the planet at a moderate temperature and creates humidity gradients, thereby driving a hydrological cycle. the latter, interacting with solid earths near surface texture and topographic gradients, creates surface flows of freshwater and its delayed release storages in mountain glaciers, soils and in the ground below. the second major gradient, collaboratively created with hydrological flows and the entrained nutrients, is the electrochemical gradient created by the absorption of solar photonic energy by electrons in the green molecules of plants and algae (called chlorophyll). the exergy yielded by the flow of protons down this gradient hydrogenates the carbon dioxide (co2) molecules plucked from the air, packing part of the flow energy in the molecular bonds of the new glucose molecule (c6 h12 o6), which is the basic building block of all life. an economically viable replication of the process may indeed deliver us one day from the conundrum of global warming. the earth’s internal thermodynamic engine too builds topographic and geochemical gradients through episodic upheavals, subsidence, and volcanic effusions, but this involves much longer time scales than the diurnal and seasonal flows of energy powered by the sun and the solar energy–driven hydrological cycle. however, the former is responsible for sculpting the longer-lasting surface features of the earth into smaller biogeophysical units in which the annual and seasonal scale solar-powered environmental processes operate. ecosystems flourish by flowing their share of fresh water and materials along their landscape gradients (principally the gravitational and the climatic) and generating a cascade of new ones using the exergy extracted from the former. the latter gradients, which are primarily biogeochemical, tend to organize themselves into a network of productive subsystems to maximize the extraction of all available free energy for conversion into biomass and ecological services, which is required by dependent communities. the efficiency with which the seasonally replenished natural resources of an ecosystem can be harnessed to sustain its well-being and productivity is largely determined by the efficiency with which available free energy in its various flow systems is harvested. haphazard anthropogenic interventions across the globe have disrupted many ecosystems with selforganized flows. however, these may yet be rewired to maximize the [39] chauhan and gaur productivity of their eco-engines using creative engineering designs informed by thermodynamic limits. what are these limits? 3. thermodynamic limits as explained previously, living systems (figure a1) survive by being open, that is, by exchanging materials and energy with the environment, and by using up the latter’s exergies to maintain their well-being, and, thereby the functioning of their subsystems. healthy ecosystems unceasingly deliver vital eco-services in the form of energy and material storages for use in regular and lean seasons and ensure the availability of clean water and a clean environment by transforming wastes. these processes, however, proceed in strict accordance with the laws of thermodynamics. the first of these laws states that energy is always conserved in any process. this is a corollary of the fundamental principle of symmetry established by emmy noether in 1915, a principle which helps explain the evolving universe. since energy transformation can only be mediated through the exchange of heat, matter, information, or work, and the total energy must be conserved, we can represent this fact symbolically as: qnet + enet (matter) + enet (info.) − wnet = (einternal)syst. (1) the rhs of (1) denotes net additions to a system’s energy stock accrued from transformations of flowing streams of heat (q), materials, and information minus the work (w) delivered by the system. work (w), in particular, denotes the energy associated with the displacement of materials mediated by force or pressure (such as moving a shaft). the statement asserts that the net sum can only appear as a change in the system’s molecular structure and its kinetic energy, collectively understood as its internal energy (einternal). however, this statement gives no indication of the quality or potential of the resulting exergy in terms of performing work. for example, the heat energy of a stable atmosphere, which is known to be very large, cannot be made to perform any work unless it is made to flow along a temperature gradient, which is done by artificially creating a colder reservoir. quantifying energy quality is a concept that is explored in the second law of thermodynamics, which was distilled from the analysis of a deeply insightful thought experiment by sadi carnot in 1824. assuming the flow to be unhurried to allow reversing the process at any instant without any losses (such as pushing a bicycle pump infinitely slowly), he proved that the maximum useful work (w) extractable from a heat flux (qh) flowing from a hot reservoir at temperature th to a colder one at temperature t0 (to drive ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [40] a motor, for example), is only a certain fraction () of the total inflow (qh). the unhurried, reversible condition specified in his thought experiment was used to ensure that no part of the input energy leaked out as waste heat (as would otherwise happen, for example, when a bicycle pump is pushed energetically). the efficiency () with which heat energy can be transformed to work is equal to {1 – (t0 / th)}, which is always less than 100%, even in a slowly transforming reversible process, because, when flowing down a thermal gradient with concomitant cooling, a part of it (= q0) cannot produce any work when it reaches equilibrium with the surrounding air at t0. he further proved that this limitation was universally true irrespective of the nature of the material flowing through the engine, thereby making the result applicable to a wide range and variety of energy transformation processes. of equal significance is the fact that he proved that there was no way by which this theoretical limit of efficiency could be breached, and further, that in a reversible process of energy transformation from state a to state b, the quantity, sb = (q/t)b, remained constant irrespective of the path of transformation. claussius (1824) recognized this quantity as a characteristic of the state of a system and called it ‘entropy’—a greek word related to transformation. as explained previously, entropy is inevitably generated in any process that transforms heat to work when a part of the input energy is reduced to impotence upon reaching equilibrium with its surroundings. indeed, entropy is generated in the transformation of even those energies that possess 100% exergy, such as electric energy or mechanical work, because of the various dissipative losses involved in all physical operations. the ubiquitous presence of irreversibility in the real world, such as friction-generated heat, thus makes the entropy of a subsequent state of any physical system (sb) greater than the entropy of the preceding state (sa). biological systems and refrigerators transform energy to create lower entropy islands locally at the expense of a larger quantum being added to the environment. this one-way street, where a system constantly evolves into a state of higher entropy, is thus an unexceptional rule of energy transformation in the universe. or, dsa→b = (sb – sa) = (qb /tb – qa /ta ) = a →b d(q/t) = a →b ds  0 (2) the equality holds strictly true for a reversible process where q = ts, which, however, provides a reference for how far removed the efficiency of a non-reversible physical system is from the ideal, and how imaginative interventions may enable minimizing the gap. given the thermodynamic arbitrage imposed by the second law, we can restate the conservation law for reversible processes as: ts + enet (matter) + enet (info.) − wnet = (einternal)syst. (3) [41] chauhan and gaur drawing logical corollaries from the above equation, we can show (vide appendix) that under reversible, ideal conditions, the rate of performing useful work, or the power delivery of an open system exchanging heat, matter, and information, is provided by (4) below. ẇcv = − d/dt(ecv − t0scv) + i=1→n q ̇i (1 − t0 /ti) + ṁ (h + h* − t0s) (4) here, wcv is the work potential of the system, or its exergy, expressed as the net sum of various inflowing exergies (of its internal energy, heat, mass, and information). however, irreversibilities in real-world systems invariably destroy some of the available exergy depending on the degree of their imperfections, reducing the actual delivery to less than what was computed from equation (3). the quantum of exergy destruction by an open system distilled from (3) is given by (5): (exergy destruction rate)cv = t0{d/dt(sgen)} (5) the exergy destruction figures of an ecosystem or of its subsystems (which can be calculated by applying (5) to the observed data) are an illuminating indicator of their respective health. by mapping the exergy destruction figures of sub-systems across an ecosystem, we can identify the ones whose performance is short of the theoretical limit for reversible processes, and thus warrant design interventions. 4. exergy flow through the earth system the earth system receives a daily supply of highly concentrated radiation energy, qs  1.4 × 1022 joules, or 1.74 × 1017 watts (kleidon 2012), shone by a 6000* k hot sun. since this radiation is non-uniformly distributed on earth, a thermal gradient develops between the equator and the poles, driving atmospheric and oceanic flows that keep the earth at an average temperature of 300  27* k. despite this prodigious supply of daily radiation, the earth system, on average, is not heating or cooling significantly during the day, as it radiates back virtually the entire qs, after abstracting its exergy  qs = (1 – 300/6000) qs = 0.95 × 1.74 × 1017 = 1.65 × 10 17 watts, to fuel its works and the living world. additionally, the moderate thermal state of the earth, mediated by its circulating fluid spheres and constantly hydrated by the wind-driven hydrological cycle, promotes photosynthesis. the latter process can produce biomass exergy equal to 7.0 × 1020 joules per day at 5% theoretical efficiency (zhu et al. 2008), if every ray of sunlight were to be captured by a green plant. actual biomass production on earth is, however, limited by ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [42] non-ideal conditions to 70 giga-tonnes/yr. (popp et al. 2014), providing a daily budget of 3.5 x 1018 joules of chemical potential energy that fuels all life forms on earth and most of their eco-service requirements. the significant point to note here is that in any energy transformation process, which is only possible through the exchange of heat, matter, information, or work, mediated by a system (or engine), while energy itself is conserved, the part available for performing work, that is, its exergy, even under ideal conditions, is always less than the original: exergy   energy. thus, while the exergies of various forms of energy have some maximum theoretical limits denoted by , the values actually realised are less than  because of the ubiquitous presence of irreversible processes in far from ideal, real-world systems. the latter are determined by the texture of specific systems, such as friction-generated heat losses in an electric motor despite the 100% theoretical exergy of electrical energy or pollutantsinduced biogeochemical debilitation in the performance of ecosystem services. the deficit of an actual state, compared with the maximum attainable energy (represented by ) of various system components, may thus be regarded as a measure of exergy loss that could be minimized by better design. the numerical values of the available or designed exergies of ecosubsystems, can, therefore, prove quite useful, not only in ranking their relative contributions to an ecosystem’s well-being, but also in targeting potentially ameliorative ones. furthermore, exergy, being a system’s work potential, is a dynamic quantity that increases when energy is stored in it and decreases as the system moves downhill in the course of performing some work. its value at any given stage thus measures both its economic worth and health. also, as work potential, it acts as a universal metric (in joules) for quantifying the state of any component of a system, whether physical, chemical, or biological. 5. exergy of ecosystems the exergy of ecosystems is primarily driven by their biomass, which includes all life forms. it can be explicitly calculated by unpacking the second term, enet (matter), in (3) above. this can be shown (vide a6f of appendix) to be equal to the sum of the fractional concentration densities xq of the endemic chemical and biological species present in a given ecosystem, multiplied by their respective weighting factors, q, that is: execo = k=0→n ( k xk) (6) [43] chauhan and gaur the  values for a fair number of commonly occurring species have been calculated based on data from various ecosystems, which, in turn, determines the efficiency of their exergy use. these values have been updated accordingly in newer models (jørgensen 2002; jørgensen et al. 2005). some interesting applications in the study of the exergy of ecosystems can be found in silow et al. (2011). the wide range of ecological services that sustain us are rarely acknowledged. what receives even lesser recognition, however, is the role played by the immense diversity of life forms in sustaining the perennial wheeling of energy and material cycles, which are essentially mediated by the biochemical functions ordained by their embodied genetic information. as explained above, the growth space available to ecosystems for maximizing the harvestable exergy of solar radiation is dependent on the number and variety of their eco-engines, that is, their biodiversity. the latter also reinforces the resilience of ecosystems when it comes to withstanding newly emerging stressors. eco-engines do this by increasing their bio-geographical spreads by creating new niches that suit a proportionately larger pool of differentiated genetic traits. indeed, some studies on exergy analysis of ecosystems (silow et al., 2011) confirm that the movement away from thermodynamic equilibrium during ecosystem growth and development coincides with higher levels of organization, system configurations, and maximization of exergy use and storage of both its chemical and information potential. in essence, the pursuit of rational inquiry looks for an organizing principle underlying masses of data. the intriguing work of living organisms in relentlessly reversing downhill universal processes to maintain a dynamically stable state has long engendered the conjecture that life processes are governed by some overarching principles. based on acute observations of how the living world sustains itself, lotka (1921−22), in his papers, proposed that in the event of there being higher available exergy than utilized, “an opportunity is furnished for suitably constituted organisms to enlarge the total energy flux through the system”. this prescient conjecture implies a self-directed orientation towards a higher range and level of organization and complexity (information potential) in ecosystems that would maximize the harvesting of available exergy, given the existence of a suitably constituted genetic order. an interesting experiment designed by horowitz and england (2017) showed that a special configuration of atoms (lotka’s suitably constituted genetic order), will start tapping into those energy sources, aligning and rearranging to better absorb energy and dissipate it as heat. prigogine and stengers (1984) state that the growth of organized structures, which characterize the growth of all living systems, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] can only be maintained by exporting a proportionately higher entropy energy, produced by higher dissipation. this could, therefore, be a directive principle leading the evolutionary trajectory of all dynamical systems. further, the implied principle, in order to be specific, must in some way be unique, such as an extremal principle (kelidon and lorenz, 2005). indeed, several other indicators of ecosystem health have been proposed, notably emergy (odum 1991), total system throughflow (patten 1995), and ascendency (robert e ulanowicz 2000). however, as fath et al. (2001) argue, they are either implied by each other or are complementary. thus, persuasive as these ideas are, they remain to be tested, even though a substantial amount of data may now be available in traditional archives of ecological research. exergy analysis of eco-subsystems (by providing a direct measure of their efficiency) lights a path to maximize exergy storage for a given set of inputs, thereby also maximize the total system throughflow (considered by some as an independent goal function). in our view, therefore, exergy analysis by itself or, wherever possible, complementarily with other indicators, offers obvious advantages in designing ecosystems and subsystems at various scales to serve urgent contemporary objectives such as meeting the decadal goals of ecosystem rehabilitation. it also holds high promise of leading to a robust theory of ecosystems, further enriching the methodology and approach to ecosystem design that would streamline its human dimension. appendix exergy analysis of ecosystems ecosystems constitute a web of energy-transforming sub-systems (figure 3) that constantly exchange energy, materials, and information with their surroundings to maintain their evolving dynamic states above the thermodynamically dead state of equilibrium. their ability to keep producing ecosystem goods and services is accordingly measured by their dynamically maintained distance (potential) from the downhill flat equilibrium state. this equals the total useful work or exergy that a system will yield if it were allowed to drift towards the equilibrium state of zero exergy when it ceases to exchange any energy or materials with its surroundings (figure 2). similarly, this potential is equal to the energy required to create this system out of the zero gradients everywhere of all physical and chemical potentials. [45] chauhan and gaur figure a1: a schematic of an open system source: authors figure a1 provides a schematic of an open system—an energy and material-transforming engine— lying in the field of flowing streams of heat, information, and work from which it abstracts exergies depending on its specific structure. the application of the principles of thermodynamics to the ambient dynamical parameters of the open system enables us to calculate the gap between their actual functioning and a possible one, thereby providing a diagnostic tool to identify their state of viability and design engineering interventions to improve their condition. to calculate the exergy produced by such a system, we visualize a representative element of it, called the control volume (figure a1), with flowing streams of heat, materials, information, and work. let qin (t), min (t), iin (t), and win (t) denote the heat, mass, information, and work, respectively, contained in an imaginary wafer of thickness dx, ready to be pushed in such a control volume at the time instant t, by pressure pin. a similar wafer containing the respective quantities of qout, mout, iout, and wout leaves the control volume, t, seconds later at the time (t + t), pushed out by pressure pout. unlike the heat and work streams, however, the material stream carries at least five forms of energy: i) internal energy, ii) the work performed by the difference of pressures moving the wafers through the system, iii) kinetic energy, iv) gravitational potential, v) and chemical potential released by chemical reactions such as the digestion of food. material streams also contain much of the information flowing through the system in the form of biodiversity (gene codes) and learned knowledge that guides the various organisms to seek food and mates and protect ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] themselves from predators. thus, the second and third terms in (1) can be written as: enet (matter) + enet (info.) = [j min{(u + pvsp.) + (cin2 /2 + gz + q0j + i)}in − k mout {(u + pvsp.) +(cout2 /2 + gz + q0k + i)}out] = 1→j m(h + h*)in – 1→k m(h +h*)out, (a1a) here, the summation over j and k denotes the number of inlet and outlet portals an open system may have, c is the velocity term in kinetic energy, h is the specific enthalpy per unit mass of internal energy u, pvsp is the work performed by the inlet and outlet pressures, and h* denotes the sum of the kinetic and potential energies of gravitation, information, and chemical bonds of the qth chemical species. accordingly, it is instructive to rewrite the conservation equation (1) more explicitly by including all forms of energy: qnet + enet (material) + enet (info.) − wnet = (einternal)cv. = [1→n qnet + 1→j m(h+h*)in − 1→k m(h+h*)out ] – q0 – wcv , (a1a) or, wcv = –ecv + 1→n qnet + 1→j m(h+h*)in − 1→k m(h+h*)out – q0 (a1b) here, wcv is the output work of the system and q0 is the heat dumped in the surroundings, adding entropy equal to srev. = q0/ t0 at its equilibrium temperature, t0. t0 remains largely unaffected by the various exchanges with the system because of its substantially larger thermal reservoir. we use this fact to temper the conservation law, otherwise devoid of any sense of energy quality, with the limits imposed by the second law. according to the second law, the change in entropy scv within the control volume over a time interval t is equal to the net sum of entropies associated with the inflowing and outflowing streams of heat and materials [{(sq)in –(sq)out +  (ms)in − (ms)out], regarded as ideal reversible processes, in addition to the entropy sgen generated within the system due to all departures from the assumed reversibility. accordingly, scv = [{sgen – (q0/t0)} + {1→n{(qi/ti) + 1→j (ms)in − 1→k (ms)out}] (a2a), where capital s refers to the residual entropies of the system as well as those generated within, and its lower case to specific entropy (per unit mass). or, q0 = t0[–scv + sgen + [1→n {(qi/ti) + (ms)in – (ms)out] (a2b) substituting the above value of q0 into (a1), one obtains the work output of the system as: [47] chauhan and gaur wcv = −(ecv − t0scv +t0sgen) + 1→n qnet (1 − t0 /ti) + 1→j m (h + h* − t0s) – 1→k m (h + h* − t0s) (a3a) the first term on the rhs is the sum of i) exergy lost from the internal energy of the system due to various irreversibilities of energy transformation over the time interval t, while the second and third terms are the exergies gained by the system from the streams of heat and materials through a reversible transformation. dividing the various difference terms in (a3a) by t, the time interval over which the change in the flow regime through the system is defined by the entry of an infinitesimally thin wafer of their contents and the exit of another, one can express the work output of the system by an equivalent power output as: ẇcv = − d/dt(ecv − t0scv +t0sgen) +  q ̇i (1 − t0 /ti) + ṁ (h + h* − t0s) (a3b) since exergy is the work potential of a system assuming reversibility of transformations, it is obtained by deleting the t0sgen term from (a3b), being the only one caused by irreversibilities. thus: (exergy power)cv = −d/dt(ecv − t0scv)+ q ̇i (1 − t0 /ti) + ṁ (h + h* − t0s) (a3c) the difference between (a3b) and (a3c) yields the amount (ex)dest of exergy lost or destroyed by a given transformer. (ex)dest rate = d/dt(t0sgen) (a4) since (ex)dest should ideally be zero for a perfect system or only marginally positive for a healthy one, its value above zero indicates the health of an ecosystem. mapping the numerical values of the exergy destruction of ecosubsystems, which can be calculated using (a4), provides a powerful tool for auditing the functioning of extant ecosystems as well as for testing the efficacy of those ecosystems designed for engineering interventions. as an example, consider the case of a flowing stream in a steady state, that is, d/dt(ecv) = 0, and all heat exchanges taking place at the environmental temperature t0. with these conditions the exergy/mass of a steadily flowing stream is given by: (specific exergy)steady flowing stream = (h + h* − t0s)in − (h + h* − t0s)out (a5) exergy of ecosystems the work potential of biomass resides in i) energy stored in the chemical bonds that hold the molecules of a substance together, ii) information contained in the genetic code of bio-organisms that ordain their functioning, and iii) the network of biological society that catalyses their ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] collective synergy. thermodynamic processes involving material transformations either perform work to raise the exergy of lower exergy inert molecules or extract the energy stored in their chemical bonds by breaking them. in either case, the energy transaction alters the chemical potential of the molecular assemblage, which is accordingly defined as the energy required to add or remove an atom or molecule from a given mass. the chemical potential q of a particular species q in a mixture is accordingly defined as the partial derivative of the energy of the substance with respect to the number of that species, all other species remaining constant q = e/nq. the chemical exergy of an ecosystem is hidden in the last term of (a3c). therefore, when rewriting this expression in a differential form for a unit molar mass and dropping the suffixes, we get: de = d(ts – pv) +  q = 1→n dq (a6a) or, (de – tds – sdt – pdv + vdp) =  dq, which, for isothermal and constant volume processes largely true for ecological systems, may be reduced to: vdp = dq = (rt/p)dp (a6b) integrating (a6b), one obtains: q = rt[ log (pq/pq0) q0] = rt  q = 0→n xq [log (xq /xq0) – q0 ] (a6c) where pq is the partial pressure associated with the flow of the qth chemical species = xqp0, xq being the molar fractional concentration of the qth species such that xq = 1, and xq0, its value in the zero gradient equilibrium state. the summation includes species of inorganic (q = 0) and organic molecules (q = 1) and bio-organisms (q  2). the latter, viewed as information exergy engines, are driven by both coded information in the genes of different communities and network information. the biochemical exergy of an ecosystem, which is defined as the work potential above the equilibrium state xq q0, is therefore given by: execosystem = rt  q = 0→n xq log(xq /xq0) (a6d) values of xq for the inorganic as well as organic molecules in the ecosystem can be determined by measuring their fractional values in the laboratory. to obtain these with respect to bio-organisms, we must interpret them from the perspective of the probability of their occurrence in the environment: xq = pq x, where x =  q = 1→n xq, and x0 =  q = 1→n xq0 (a6e) [49] chauhan and gaur where x0 is the total organic matter per mole, at the equilibrium state, which, for an evolving ecosystem, represents a previous state. assuming, however, that there is no substantial transfer of matter during the period, we see: execosystem = xrt  q = 0→n pq log(pq /pq0) =  q = 0→ n qxq, (a6f) jørgensen (2002) indicates how the quantity rt log(pq /pq0) = q, may be calculated by measuring the concentration density of the respective species in the environment. this calculation is based on available knowledge of the genetic structure of endemic communities, and the model assumed for transforming information into eco-products. new research on the structure of information-controlling genes, for example, was used by jørgensen et al. 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a critical reassessment of the ‘maximum power principle.’” ecological modelling 222 (8): 1347–1353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.02.002. silow, eugene a, and andrew v mokry. 2010. “exergy as a tool for ecosystem health assessment.” entropy 2010 12 (4): 902–925. https://doi.org/10.3390/e12040902. silow, eugene a, andrew v mokry, and sven e jørgensen. 2011. “some applications of thermodynamics for ecological systems.” in thermodynamics: interaction studies – solids, liquids and gases, edited by juan carlos moreno piraján. london: intech open. https://doi.org/10.5772/19611. ulanowicz, robert e. 2000. “ascendency: a measure of ecosystem performance.” in handbook of ecosystem theories and management, edited by s e jørgensen and f müller. boca raton: lewis publications https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2004.11.020 https://doi.org/10.1007/b12042 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0316 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(92)90070-u https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00131538 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(93)90040-y https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(93)90040-y https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3800(94)00037-i https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.01.056 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.02.002 https://doi.org/10.3390/e12040902 https://doi.org/10.5772/19611 [51] chauhan and gaur zhu, xin-guang, stephen p long, and donald r ort. 2008. “what is the maximum efficiency with which photosynthesis can convert solar energy into biomass?” current opinion in biotechnology 19 (2): 153–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2008.02.004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2008.02.004 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (2): 219–222, july 2020 in memory narpat s. jodha: forever restless pranab mukhopadhyay  and rucha ghate  pranab first met narpatji in kathmandu in a small thakali restaurant in 2004, as part of a meeting organized by manik duggar (the then programme manager of the south asian network for development and environmental economics, sandee). narpatji, rucha, and pranab were to edit a book together soon. so priya shyamsundar (programme director of sandee) suggested that we get to know each other. we (rucha and pranab) had, of course, heard of him and he, of course, had not heard of us. the first thing that struck us was that the man we saw seemed far removed from narpatji’s name and fame. he had no airs about himself; he appeared to be the quintessential common man. since this first meeting, rucha had the privilege of working with him as a colleague at the international centre for integrated mountain development (icimod) from 2013 to 2015. narpatji was easy to converse with. in fact, once he got started, one could sit back with a cup of tea while he happily narrated stories about his field insights, each one weaving into the next. his stories were utterly believable in the village context but challenged urban economic rational expectations. narpatji was sceptical of econometric studies that relied on complicated models with restrictive assumptions. he often spoke about his experience during his stint at the world bank—he was a misfit and often disagreed with others there. he was primarily a ―concept‖ researcher who believed in  department of economics, goa university, taleigao plateau, goa 403206, india; pm@unigoa.ac.in.   foundation for ecological security; c-616, athashri, off pan card club road, baner, pune 411045, maharashtra, india. ruchaghate@gmail.com. rucha ghate and pranab mukhopadhyay co-edited a book with narpat singh jodha titled promise, trust and evolution: managing the commons of south asia, which was published by oxford university press, uk, in 2008. this is a note in memory of one of our mentors. copyright © ghate and mukhopadhyay 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.90 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i2.90 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [220] narpat singh jodha at the ninth biennial of the international society for ecological economics (isee), held at the india habitat centre, new delhi in december 2006. [image courtesy: insee] making generalizations based on direct observations. he opined that the problem with econometricians was that they ―tortured‖ the data until the latter ―confessed‖ what the former wanted them to say. narpatji is probably the least known among the famous economists that graduated from the delhi school of economics (d school). one of the stories that he would tell everyone he met was about this struggle with english and, therefore, economics, while at d school. indeed, he conducted many failed searches at the ratan tata library for an economics book in hindi. the average graduate student might have dropped out of d school under these circumstances. but not narpatji. he used to say, ―keep trying; it will happen‖, which was a lesson he had internalized in his long struggle through many professional challenges. his work on livelihood dependence on common property resources (cprs) in semi-arid regions was completely unfashionable for his time (1986). what made his work so unique was his ability to grasp what many of us routinely see but do not recognize. his was a skill that was impossible to pick up within the four walls of a classroom. what also made him stand out was his relentless work ethic. we once spoke to him about the poverty debate between utsa patnaik, jean drèze, and angus deaton. at this, narpatji reminded us that he had published a paper [221] rucha ghate and pranab mukhopadhyay as early as 1988 on the errors of conventional poverty measures. on another occasion, we were talking about climate change and the south asian contribution to this domain of research. here, he reminded us that he was one of the early contributors to this body of work (in 1989). his 2005 paper on mountain-specific poverty, which highlighted the limited accessibility, fragility, marginality, and diversity in mountainous regions that create specific circumstances, laid the foundation for poverty studies in icimod in particular. while they were colleagues, he would sometimes share some of his writing with rucha and ask for comments. he would likewise talk to freshers and young researchers with humility. he was a regular attendee of the guest lectures in icimod, and almost always had a question that would prompt long conversations that continued over tea or lunch. when we worked together on the edited commons volume, we thought that he would take only a fleeting interest, given his age; however, he proved us wrong. he was very much present and systematically worked on the project, adding editorial comments for each paper. as his retirement from icimod drew closer, his biggest worry was what to do with the books and documents that he had accumulated over time. after formally retiring from icimod, he would often sit in the sandee library (which was then on the icimod campus) and make himself available to anyone who wanted to pick his brain. as the years went by, we were less frequently in touch. but we knew he was still active, writing and publishing as recently as 2019. it takes a lot to keep going, but that was narpatji—forever restless. references bhatta, laxmi dutt, anil shrestha, nilhari neupane, narpat singh jodha, and ning wu. 2019. ―shifting dynamics of nature, society and agriculture in the hindu kush himalayas: perspectives for future mountain development.‖ journal of mountain science 16: 1133–1149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-018-5146-4. jodha, narpat singh. 2005. ―adaptation strategies against growing environmental and social vulnerabilities in mountain areas.‖ himalayan journal of sciences 3 (5): 3342. https://doi.org/10.3126/hjs.v3i5.459. jodha, narpat singh. 1988. ―poverty debate in india a minority view.‖ economic &political weekly 23 (45–47): 2421–28. https://www.epw.in/journal/1988/45-4647/special-articles/poverty-debate-india-minority-view.html. jodha, narpat singh. 1989. ―potential strategies for adapting to greenhouse warming: perspectives from the developing world.‖ in greenhouse warming: abatement and adaptation, edited by norman j. rosenberg, william e. easterling iii, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11629-018-5146-4#auth-4 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11629-018-5146-4#auth-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11629-018-5146-4#auth-5 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11629-018-5146-4#auth-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-018-5146-4 https://doi.org/10.3126/hjs.v3i5.459 https://www.epw.in/journal/1988/45-46-47/special-articles/poverty-debate-india-minority-view.html https://www.epw.in/journal/1988/45-46-47/special-articles/poverty-debate-india-minority-view.html ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [222] pierre r. crosson, and joel darmstadter, 147–158. washington: resources for the future. jodha, narpat singh. 1986. ―common property resources and rural poor in dry regions of india.‖ economic and political weekly 21 (27): 1169–1181. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 83-111, july 2023 research paper who accesses solar pv? energy justice and climate justice in a local government rooftop solar programme julianne tice and simon pj batterbury abstract: certain groups within society, such as the poor, the elderly, and those renting their homes, are at risk of bearing disproportionate costs from the transition to a low-carbon economy. these groups are particularly at risk of energy and climate-related injustices linked to their ability to purchase sufficient energy (low-carbon or otherwise) or to adequately heat or cool their homes. the solar saver programme in melbourne, australia, was an early attempt by darebin city council, a local government, to address these issues. the programme enables seniors, low-income residents, and tenants in the city of darebin to install solar pv in their homes at no upfront cost. the system costs are repaid interest-free over 10 years through residents’ council rates. this article assesses the success of the programme in reaching its target audience and achieving justice for participants in 2018 and 2019. we find that local councils are important and trusted delivery agents of household energy programmes. we also find that schemes like solar saver must be actively targeted to achieve energyand climate-justice outcomes for residents who are at risk of energy poverty and disproportionate climate impacts. keywords: energy justice; energy poverty; climate justice; solar pv; renewable energy. 1. introduction despite its benefits, there are financial and human costs to transitioning to a renewable-based, low-carbon economy. in this transition, improving energy efficiency in high-consumption homes as well as decarbonising  university of melbourne. ticejulianne@gmail.com  associate professor, sgeas and melbourne climate futures, university of melbourne, australia. simonpjb@unimelb.edu.au copyright © tice and batterbury 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.748 mailto:ticejulianne@gmail.com mailto:simonpjb@unimelb.edu.au https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.748 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] industry, electricity generation, transportation, and other critical sectors is vital (sovacool, lipson, and chard 2019; carley and konisky 2020). in developed economies, where carbon reduction efforts are strongest and are beginning to be heavily legislated, an “inclusive, just energy transition” involves “structural transformations” towards meeting the 1.5°c objective in the paris agreement (un energy 2021). differences in levels of government support, housing tenure, and energy efficiency can leave the poor, the elderly, and those renting their homes at risk of bearing the financial and practical costs of this transition (ashby et al. 2020; bickerstaff, walker, and bulkeley 2013b). melbourne, australia, a large metropolis of almost five million people, experiences strong temperature variability—in 2021, temperatures ranged from –3.7 °c at night in may to 41.5 °c during the day in january (bureau of meteorology 2023). as a result, household energy bills can run up to thousands of dollars a year, even with a deregulated market for electricity as well as the availability of natural gas in some areas (wrigley 2023). energy or fuel poverty exists in the region, meaning some households cannot afford to use as much energy as required to live well, especially when costs rise (day, walker, and simcock 2016; waitt and harada 2019). in addition, as climate variability increases and climactic events become more severe, these groups may face greater difficulties coping with the impacts of climate change—such as increased heat waves—than the general population (bickerstaff, walker, and bulkeley 2013a). across the world, state-led programmes that are aimed at addressing energy poverty in low-income and senior households often face challenges, with some programmes inadvertently imposing unfair or disproportionate costs on vulnerable residents (bickerstaff, walker, and bulkeley 2013b). distributional inequalities in access to low-cost, sustainable energy may occur. with the energy transition already underway in australia, identifying ways to reach those who may have difficulties in dealing with temperature extremes and energy transition costs is vital. this article charts the strengths and weaknesses of an innovative residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (pv) programme, arguably the first of its type, which was designed to assist residents in the city of darebin who were in need of reduced power costs. we explain how the project has operated over time, whom it has reached, and the general lessons it offers for other energy transition programmes. specifically, the article determines the extent to which this solar pv programme has been successful in achieving climate justice (cj) and energy justice (ej). its success is determined by how well the programme has been able to reach its target audience; the household income of participants, which acts as a proxy for the extent of financial assistance required to [85] tice and batterbury acquire solar pv to access low-cost energy; and the extent to which the participants have been better able to access affordable energy after solar pv installation. box 1: australian climate policy, 2012–2022 recent australian climate policy: 2012–2022 australia is a significant contributor to climate change due to its mining activities and export of fossil fuels (mcdonald 2015), making climate policy a contentious political issue. until very recently, australia had chosen economic security over climate action, despite its vulnerability to the impacts of climate change (mcdonald 2015). australia introduced a carbon price in 2012, which was repealed in 2013 after the election of a conservative federal government (crowley 2017). the next eight years saw a stalemate on climate policy under this government. the morrison government announced its target of reaching net zero by 2050 in 2021 (taylor 2021), and the centre-left labor government elected in 2022 quickly legislated this target, along with an interim target of 43% emissions reduction compared to 2005 levels by 2030 (mcallister 2022). source: crowley (2017); mcallister (2022); mcdonald (2015); taylor (2021) 1.1 background on the solar pv programme the case presented here is of a residential rooftop solar pv programme, called solar saver (ss), in the city of darebin, a melbourne local government area (lga) located just northeast of the melbourne central business district, with a target audience of low-income residents, seniors, and tenants (hereafter referred to as the “target audience”). similar to melbourne as a whole, the city of darebin is a moderately affluent city with wide income diversity. darebin city council was the first local government in the world to declare a “climate emergency” (council action in the climate emergency n.d.) and is known in melbourne for being progressive and environmentally conscious. the programme began in 2014 and has had varied eligibility criteria from year to year since its inception to the present day (see table 1). in 2018–19, it aimed to cover some of the upfront costs of rooftop solar pv for these households and to support residents in dealing with climate impacts and energy costs (darebin city council 2015). the programme had previously been identified as an innovative and award-winning renewable energy financing model (mey, diesendorf, and macgill 2016; meiklejohn et al. 2018) and as a successful means of addressing the problems that energy programmes targeted at vulnerable populations encounter (browne and ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] schultz-byard 2021; law, meiklejohn, and mountjoy 2015; toovey and malin 2016). the programme offers a no-interest loan for solar panels and installation, which is delivered by the local government rather than the private sector. residents repay the loan over 10 years through a special charge on their council rates (darebin city council 2016b). in australia, council rates are quarterly local government taxes that cover essential services such as waste collection and road maintenance. this special charge is enabled through the victorian local government act 1989, the main piece of legislation in the state governing the establishment and operation of local councils, and charges are due from the owners of each property (darebin city council 2018b). one innovation of the ss programme was that homeowners and tenants were both eligible to participate, recognising that renting is usually a severe barrier to installing renewable energy systems on a property. however, tenants have to obtain approval from their landlord to participate.1 the complication in this case is that the eligibility criteria and the size of the programme have changed from year to year (see table 1). several “rounds” have been offered since 2014, each with limits on how many households could receive discounted rooftop solar pv. in 2018–2019, eligibility for the scheme was opened to all residents, with the priority target audience remaining low-income residents, pensioners, and renters, to facilitate residents’ access to the scheme and increase penetration of rooftop solar pv systems in the city of darebin (see section “4.1 expansion of the ss programme”). table 1 captures the eligibility criteria used by the programme since its inception. in this table, “senior” refers either to those aged 60 years or above or those having a partial capacity to work and with incomes under a certain threshold (services australia 2020). “low income” refers to households with a total income under us$55,2122 per year, with over 30% of this income spent on average on rent or mortgage, and a combined income under us$44,020 per year (darebin city council 2020). to be eligible, tenants must rent privately from a landlord or a real estate agent and must meet the low-income criteria. reaching these residents is important as they are more likely to be disadvantaged than owneroccupiers, and, thus, less likely to be able to afford the high costs associated with purchasing a home (australian government productivity commission 2019) or participate in energy transitions away from fossil fuels. the 1 an alternative programme is also offered in darebin through which residents pay the system costs upfront at a discounted price due to economies of scale (city of darebin 2018). 2 currency conversion based on au$1=us$0.75. [87] tice and batterbury majority of electricity in victoria is still sourced from its ample supplies of energy-intensive brown coal, although that percentage is dropping rapidly as supply from renewables increases. it is illegal for landlords to pass on the costs associated with solar pv installation to tenants through the programme, meaning that only landlords must pay even if the solar pv installation is requested by the tenant. table 1: eligibility criteria in different rounds of the ss programme and the number of participants in each round year eligibility number of participants 2014 seniors only 300 2015 seniors only 200 2016 seniors, low-income & tenants 207 2017 pause in programme – 2018 open eligibility 481 2019 open eligibility 518 2020 low income only 113 2021 low income only 74 2022 low-income and renters 36 (as of november 2022) source: darebin city council (2017a; 2016a; 2018a; 2019c; 2019b; 2019a) 1.2 climate justice and energy justice despite the recent reductions in production costs, solar panels, their associated controllers, and wiring add up to significant costs. this means that households that have a higher financial capacity are generally more likely to be able to access solar panels and their associated benefits, while those with fewer resources are less likely to install them (boardman 1993, 2012). this article addresses whether this inequality in access to solar pv is addressed or reinforced through the ss programme. similar forms of inequality have been theorised as key elements in climate justice (cj), which applies “conceptions of distributive and social justice” (schlosberg 2013, 46) to the climate debate and draws attention to differential inequalities in the impacts of climate change. cj developed from the north american environmental justice movement (schlosberg and collins 2014). similarly, the term energy justice (ej) applies the principles of unequal access to energy consumption, including barriers to accessing available options as a response to high utility costs and extreme weather (jenkins et al. 2016). ej applies principles of justice to various dimensions of energy, focusing on the victims of injustices—for example, those with insufficient access to energy, such as cooling—and maps the localities where such injustice occurs (jenkins et al. 2016). the proponents of these ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] concepts discuss “energy poverty” (day, walker, and simcock 2016) or “fuel poverty” (waitt and harada 2019), which are interpreted as symptoms of energy injustice. in the energy justice field, distributional injustices are identified to reduce inequities in access to adequate energy (jenkins et al. 2016). cj and ej encompass several dimensions (see table 2). these dimensions of justice acknowledge that groups within an area—here, an lga— experience climate risk and energy access unequally (forsyth 2014). for this reason, programmes to address cj and ej must be targeted towards the most affected groups to ensure justice is achieved. table 2: conceptions of justice as they relate to climate justice and energy justice dimension of justice climate justice energy justice distributive geographic distribution of climate change impacts (schlosberg and collins 2014). distribution of benefits and detriments of energy infrastructure and services (jenkins et al. 2016, 176). procedural participation of a range of actors in climate change– related policymaking processes (schlosberg 2004). “access to decision-making processes that govern the distributions” of benefits and detriments of energy infrastructure and services (jenkins et al. 2016, 176–178). recognition acknowledgement of differential climate change impacts between groups (schlosberg 2004). “adequate recognition of all actors” including social aspects, cultural contributions, and concerning the law (uffelen 2022, 7). source: schlosberg (2004); schlosberg and collins (2014); jenkins et al. (2016); uffelen (2022) our key research question is whether the ss programme successfully addresses both of these conceptions of injustice, differentiated by the type of home occupancy. survey and interview questions were designed to determine the respondents’ level of energy access before and after solar panel installation as well as their specific situation, including dwelling type, income level, and housing tenure. 2. literature review installation of rooftop solar pv in australia has increased drastically in recent years, as costs per kilowatt (kw) have reduced (clean energy [89] tice and batterbury council 2022). regardless, groups who would benefit the most from the associated energy and cost savings continue to be left out of the solar pv market because they lack capabilities—such as the ability to pay upfront costs—exacerbating socio-spatial inequalities in the urban landscape (bridge and gailing 2020, 1037). though the ss programme targets solar pv installations by low-income residents, tenants, and seniors, the extent to which these groups benefit is unclear. inequalities that arise in access to solar pv occur at multiple scales of the energy transition, since urban environments such as melbourne—a western city with sharp income differentials and racial diversity—have “uneven power relations” (heynen 2014, 600). the urban political ecology of renewables indicates that only well-off residents can access solar, but the aim is to establish an “empowering… socionatural condition” (heynen 2014, 600) addressing the differential access to this particular resource. cj focuses on inequalities in the distribution of climate change impacts and addresses these inequalities through the transition to a zero-carbon economy by “providing assistance to vulnerable communities” (schlosberg and collins 2014, 366) most heavily impacted by climate change. the approach began as a response to capitalist modes of energy production where energy producers profit while accelerating climate change and unjustly and disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities (ibid). the cj and ej frameworks both encompass concerns around who benefits from and who bears the costs of emissions-mitigating activities, as well as the varying degrees of capability to respond to climate change through mitigation and adaptation (jenkins 2018). the two approaches can be considered in parallel. for example, the rising costs of energy may worsen and exacerbate affordability issues as climate change intensifies (jenkins et al. 2016; shepard and corbin-mark 2009). ej posits that humans should have adequate access to energy as a basic human right (day, walker, and simcock 2016), while the cj perspective “means providing for those rights to which we have already agreed” (schlosberg and collins 2014, 365), such as access to energy. an integrated approach to ej and cj would address inequities in access to affordable energy while also addressing the inequitable impacts of climate change. redressing inequity can include providing affordable, low-carbon cooling during heat waves. addressing cj without explicitly focusing on ej risks placing the costs of climate action on the already vulnerable disproportionately, thus exacerbating energy injustices (walker and day 2012). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] local governments are an important site of climate governance and for addressing cj, because they are physically close to the people they govern in cities such as melbourne (broto and bulkeley 2013). in addition, while they are municipal institutions that must deliver value for money, they are not capitalist or profit-seeking. they have direct interaction with “people’s lived experience of climate change” (mckendry 2016, 1357). in the absence of a strong national climate policy (see figure 1; mey, diesendorf, and macgill 2016; hadfield and cook 2019), some local governments stepped in much earlier by setting their own emissions targets and implementing carbon mitigation programmes (mey, diesendorf, and macgill 2016; darebin city council 2017b; broto and bulkeley 2013; batterbury 2010). addressing inequalities in access to renewables is one way local governments can attempt to address both cj and ej, although other local government programmes worldwide, operating at similar scales or with similar budgets, have been criticised for exacerbating existing inequalities (mckendry 2016; broto and bulkeley 2013). 3. methods the research was conducted using a questionnaire targeted at programme participants and interviews with programme participants, darebin city council staff, and city councillors.3 the questionnaire revealed general information on participants’ attitudes and motivations and the impact of solar pv on their energy consumption; participant interviews then expanded on this information. interviews with staff and councillors were used to gain insight into the political and social context underpinning the programme. in this paper, “participants” refers to darebin residents who took part in the ss programme; “interviewees” refers to individuals who were interviewed as part of this research. 3.1 questionnaire in october 2020, an email was sent out by the programme staff to all the participants of the 2018 and 2019 rounds, asking if they were interested in participating in the research. responses were received through november 2020. the questionnaire was then sent via email to willing respondents. some 898 initial emails were sent out by programme staff; of these, 295 (32.8%) were classified under the programme as “high priority” (i.e., low income or senior); 542 (60.4%) as “general priority”; and 60 (6.7%) as inconclusive (blank answer on the registration form). the questionnaire was returned by 48 respondents from different groups: they were self-selecting, 3 research clearance was obtained through the human ethics board at university of melbourne. [91] tice and batterbury with only highly engaged participants filling it out. however, the responses to individual questions indicate a bias towards participants who worked fewer hours or were retired, with fewer responses from those who were time-poor. ethical considerations prevented us from recruiting potential respondents directly. additionally, drawing respondents from the 2018 and 2019 rounds made it difficult to fully assess the justice criteria, since the programme was open to any resident in darebin in those two years. 3.2 interviews one questionnaire question asked participants to indicate whether they were interested in being followed up for an interview. from a sample of 41 positive replies, four were randomly selected. three of these individuals were retired and one was employed full-time. one of the retirees was on a low income, one was on a medium income, and one income unknown. the full-time employed individual was on a high income. semi-structured interviews were conducted and recorded with the interviewee’s permission. from darebin city council, three individuals were interviewed: one former and one current elected councillor, and a former programme staff member. direct quotes from these interviews are used in the key findings section, but they are not attributed to an individual to maintain confidentiality. programme developments were monitored after the initial research was conducted. 3.3 analysis questionnaire responses were examined to determine whether respondents were better able to afford the energy they consumed after solar pv installation and whether they were now able to use as much energy as needed. the analysis focused on affordability rather than gross cost savings. general questions were posed around the participants’ ability to afford all living expenses, including energy bills. the distinction made between “affordability” and “ability to use adequate energy” is crucial here. the former refers to a participant’s ability to afford energy and other bills.4 if they indicated that they were able to afford essential bills “mostly without problems” before solar and “with no problems” after, an improvement in affordability was recorded. the latter refers to the participant’s ability to use 4 determined by the difference in response to the questions “how well were you able to afford all your essential bills (energy, food, rent/mortgage, etc) before having the solar panels installed?” and “how well were you able to afford all your essential bills (energy, food, rent/mortgage, etc) after having the solar panels installed?” ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] energy.5 if a participant indicated they were able to heat their home “some of the time” before solar and “as much as i want” after, this was recorded as an improvement in the ability to use adequate energy. greater improvements in affordability and energy use were taken as indications of higher levels of programme success and the achievement of ej and cj outcomes. people’s motivations for installing solar pv6 and the impact of solar on participants’ lives7 were also investigated. these questions determined whether participants had financial motivations for participating, indicating whether financial need drove decisions and thus whether the programme helped in achieving ej, and potentially cj, outcomes. responses were grouped and counted to determine the frequency of responses. participants’ income levels were also grouped into quintiles and compared with the australian bureau of statistics (abs) data for the entire lga, to determine the participation rates in each income group and the extent to which low-income groups had accessed the scheme. interviews were transcribed using nvivo to code answers to key research questions as well as to identify themes. ej, cj, and inequalities in access to solar pv were examined, along with any emergent relevant but unexpected themes. grouping interview codes relevant to the key research questions and identifying overarching themes based on the linkages between the codes assisted thematic analysis (bryman 2012). 3.4 limitations the most significant limitation encountered was the lack of access to the original programme participants’ contact information. council staff lacked the capacity to follow up on survey non-respondents. this meant that participants without an email were excluded from the survey. additionally, council-wide electricity consumption data to enable a control group comparison against survey responses around bill cost changes after solar pv installation (table 4) was sought but could not be obtained. 5 determined by the difference in response to the questions “to what degree were you able to heat your home in winter before having the solar panels installed?” and “to what degree are you now able to heat your home in winter as a result of having the solar panels installed?” 6 examined through the question “what was your main motivation for having solar panels installed on your home?” 7 examined through the question “how else has having solar panels installed on your home impacted your life? please explain.” [93] tice and batterbury 4. key findings we report on selected findings, with a focus on the extent to which the ss programme has met the needs of poorer households. there are definitional problems in establishing “low income” as a proxy for justice. for this case study, we have inferred that low income refers to anyone receiving australian government centrelink payments (government assistance to those on low income); those with a total yearly household income less than us$55,212 (us$1,062 per week), with more than 30% spent on rent or mortgage; those with a total yearly household income less than us$44,020 (us$847 per week), regardless of the proportion spent on rent or mortgage; or those receiving a “rates rebate”, which is a deduction on council rates for holders of eligible concession cards (e.g., pensioner concession card). a “senior” is a resident who holds a pensioner concession card (see section “1.1 background on the solar pv programme” for pension eligibility). household rather than individual incomes were taken as a wealth indicator since these form the eligibility criteria for the scheme and are a more realistic measure than individual earnings.8 around 32.8% of ss participants in 2018–2019 self-classified themselves in their applications as “low income” or “senior” (data could not be disaggregated between the two categories). this data is not easily comparable with the darebin lga as a whole due to a lack of senior-specific abs data. however, a rough percentage can be determined, as 14.2% of darebin residents are aged 65 and over, and 26% of darebin residents earn a weekly household income under us$750 (figure 1; in keeping with the ss programme’s definition of low income). therefore, 40.2% of darebin residents can be classified as either senior or low-income. there may be a degree of overlap between these categories. the income distribution of survey respondents ranged between us$375 and us$1,950+ per week. the majority of survey respondents (41%) fell in the us$750 to us$1,350 per week income range, and no survey respondents fell in the lowest income category of less than us$375 per week. additionally, 20.5% fell in the us$375–750 per week range and 10.3% in the us$1,950+ category. while significant conclusions cannot be drawn, the percentage of participants accessing ss who identify as low-income or senior (32.8%) may be less than in darebin as a whole (40.2%). therefore, the programme may 8 eligibility criteria applies during restricted years, but not in 2018 and 2019. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] not have adequately focused recruitment efforts on the target audience after the programme’s expansion in 2018–2019. though examining ej and cj outcomes for those occupying rental properties was an objective of this research project, the programme did not adequately reach tenants. this could be seen from tenants’ lack of response to the survey (see “4.2 low uptake by tenants”). table 3 shows the percentage of survey respondents who experienced either an improvement in energy affordability after solar panel installation (i.e., an improvement in the ability to afford the energy they consumed after solar pv installation) or an improvement in energy use (i.e., an improvement in the ability to use as much energy as needed where they had been unable to previously), or both (see “3.3 analysis”). only 33.4% of respondents experienced an improvement in one or both measures, indicating either that most respondents had little difficulty in being able to afford or use adequate energy prior to the solar pv installation, or that the installation of solar pv did not help improve their situation. with all but four respondents reporting a decrease in energy bill costs after installation (table 4), the former appears more likely. table 3: percentage of survey respondents who experienced an improvement in energy affordability, energy use, or both (n=48) measure % of respondents improvement in energy affordability 10.4 improvement in energy use 18.8 improvement in both affordability and energy use 4.2 total 33.4 source: participant survey responses table 4: survey respondents’ answers to the question “please estimate how much your bills have reduced since having solar panels installed” (n=48) change in bill cost after solar pv installation % of respondents reduced by 0–25% 31.3 reduced by 26–50% 35.4 reduced by 51–75% 12.5 reduced by 76–100% 12.5 increased 2.1 i don’t know 6.25 total 100 source: participant survey responses [95] tice and batterbury as indicated by table 5, only 25% of survey respondents reported that their major motivation for participation in ss was financial. these respondents also indicated energy bill reductions after solar pv installation, and onethird also experienced an increase in either affordability or the ability to use adequate energy. since this finding suggests that most participants were not motivated by finances, it does not support the attainment of ej criteria through meeting financial need. residents with higher incomes may have been motivated by financial savings, which may not be linked directly with an increase in affordability or adequate energy use. environmental motivations were a driving factor for 60.4% of the participants, indicating that financial need was secondary for most of them. table 5: response rates to the survey question “what was your main motivation for having solar panels installed on your home?” (n=48) motivation for participation % of respondents environmental 60.4 financial 25.0 both environmental and financial 12.5 other (not specified) 2.1 total 100.0 source: participant survey responses table 6 lists the various ways in which having solar pv installed impacted survey respondents’ lives. some 39.5% of the respondents made a positive behavioural adjustment in their energy consumption. after solar pv installation, 12.5% of the respondents became more aware of their energy consumption. while improving awareness of and changing behaviours around energy consumption is not an explicit aim of ss, it is a potentially significant outcome. the presence of solar panels may encourage more concern about energy use but may also encourage increased energy consumption. additionally, 4.2% of the participants experienced improved thermal comfort after solar pv installation, and a further 4.2% of solar panel recipients felt less guilt about using electricity. since there were no other efficiency upgrades made to homes as part of ss, an improvement in thermal comfort was not a specifically intended outcome of the programme. instead, these participants likely felt more comfortable using their heating and cooling from a financial standpoint. of these 8.4% respondents, one stated that “in the summer, as an older woman, i don’t have the stress of feeling too hot”—a clear ej and cj outcome, as the participant was able to improve their thermal comfort and reduce their ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] energy costs. however, another stated that “the main reason [for having solar pv installed] was to ‘power’ the three pool pumps”—it is unlikely any justice was obtained here, given the high cost of swimming pool ownership and maintenance. interview transcripts from scheme managers and local elected officials responsible for the scheme were analysed for emerging themes. three major themes emerged: • maintaining and actively reaching the target audience became difficult after the ss programme’s expansion; • ss has low uptake among tenants; and • the local council plays a unique role in delivering the programme. table 6: frequency of responses to the survey question “how else has having solar panels installed on your home impacted your life? please explain.” if a respondent gave multiple answers, all answers were counted (n=48) response frequency % of respondents made a behavioural adjustment in energy use 19 39.5 financial impact 12 25.0 improved environmental contribution 7 14.5 increased awareness of energy consumption 6 12.5 no other way 4 8.3 reduced guilt about energy consumption 2 4.2 improved thermal comfort 2 4.2 other 2 4.2 source: participant survey responses 4.1 expansion of the ss programme in 2018, the ss programme expanded from its initial focus on poorer or disadvantaged households to include all residents. the aim became to double the solar generation capacity in darebin from 19 mw to 38 mw (darebin city council 2017b). this caused several problems for ss, including financial strain on the council, a surge in demand for participation, and difficulties in reaching the households genuinely requiring financial assistance. first, programme expansion strained council budgets, as the greatest proportion of funds were put towards installation costs, with “a small amount that went into… operations”. however, “administration costs were—are—significant”, despite the programme being perceived as understaffed; in the words of one respondent, “ambition from councillors [97] tice and batterbury was not translating into the appropriate resourcing and organizational support [from the council].” upon programme expansion, there was “a lot of cash going out, and only a little trickle coming back in”, resulting in a significant deficit for the council. in 2020, the programme was scaled back to the pre-2018 target households only, “mainly because of the impact of covid-19 on the budget”, but also partially “to maintain the programme into the future”. this demonstrates the enduring financial strain of programme expansion, which was made particularly difficult by the pandemic. second, the expansion of ss caused a surge in demand and led to associated delays in installation. one interviewee noted that the council was “so maxed out on our waiting list, we weren’t promoting it for the past two years because we couldn’t fit everybody in”. one participant interviewee said that they “didn’t hear anything [from the council] for quite a few months”, causing uncertainty about their inclusion in the scheme. this excess demand became an issue for ss: understaffing meant that prospective participants waited months for their installation to begin, and ss lacked the capacity to focus recruitment efforts on its target audience. despite the backlog, a former ss staff interviewee confirmed that “we will always prioritise [seniors] and low-income households so that they weren’t on any waiting list; they would just get in”; this was done by prioritising sending these households to suppliers first. third, the scheme encountered difficulties in reaching senior and lowincome households in general. one interviewee asserted that “in the early iteration of [the scheme], before we injected more money into it, it was absolutely a success. in terms of, you know, reaching those [senior] households, not so much low income.” another interviewee stated, “i would say though, once we did expand the programme, whether we actually concentrated our recruitment efforts enough to make sure that we’re continuing to capture the vulnerable parts of the community, maybe that’s a question.” these claims are supported by the survey responses from a substantial proportion of senior participants, but an under-representative proportion of low-income respondents (see figure 1). another interviewee stated that “once we got to a certain scale… there was a little bit of worry that we weren’t managing that aspect of it around the poverty.” while ss became successful in overall participation, it is evident that the target audience may not have been adequately prioritised after programme expansion. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [98] 4.2 low uptake by tenants enabling access to solar pv by tenants was a clear goal of ss, with council documents stating that the “council will continue to explore innovative ways of engaging tenants and landlords to jointly participate in the program” (darebin city council 2017a, 2) after expansion and council interviewees stating that “there was a lot of work done on engaging real estate agents and [tenants]”. it is crucial to note here that the aim was to get landlords, not tenants, to pay for any costs to their properties such that the solar panels would remain on the property should tenants move on. despite this important distinction, there is evidence that reaching tenants became a real challenge over the scheme’s various iterations: this issue was brought up several times by interviewees, and though there is anecdotal evidence that there were some tenant participants, it only amounted to “a handful each round”. this was reflected in the survey responses, which included no tenants. the difficulty in reaching tenants through home upgrade programmes is due in large part to the split incentive phenomenon, where landlords lack incentives to upgrade their rental properties with energy-efficiency measures and solar pv because they are responsible for the costs but do not realise the benefits (bird and hernández 2012). despite claims that the ss model has overcome the split incentive (browne and schultz-byard 2021), the programme has unfortunately been unsuccessful in doing so. interestingly, one of the randomly selected participant interviewees, who was a landlord, offered some insight into the perceptions of landlords towards helping their tenants access solar energy, “why would we want to give them solar panels and we’re having to pay for it? the landlord would want to call back that money [for the solar panels] by increasing the rent”. due to the structure of ss and its utilization of the victorian local government act for rate repayments, landlords are legally unable to share costs with tenants, making the split incentive an enduring issue. however, in 2022, a stream was added to the scheme for tenants, wherein landlords were made to be solely responsible for repayments (darebin city council 2022b). ultimately, as one interviewee suggested, engaging tenants “was just put in the ‘too hard’ basket… i think that perhaps we could have done more work. it was kind of a lower priority because we already had great uptake for the programme”. [99] tice and batterbury 4.3 the role of the local council an integral component of ss is the local council as the delivery agent. the council is politically progressive and was effectively led by the australian greens party during the study period, in an alliance with independently elected councillors. as the first local government in the world to declare a “climate emergency”, darebin is well-known and regarded as “an environmentally conscious city” and very much sees itself as a leader and a “role model for others” in climate action. the ability of victorian councils to declare special rates [local government taxes] through the local government act is a critical financial mechanism for ss, enabling participants to receive solar pv with no upfront costs. other entities in the state do not possess this repayment mechanism, making delivery through local councils key. indeed, the state-wide solar savers scheme was introduced through a pilot in 2016 based on the ss model. solar savers initially operated in 26 rural and metropolitan victorian lgas and offered solar pv to senior households through a low-interest bank loan or the same rates repayment mechanism offered by ss (eastern alliance for greenhouse action n.d.). currently, only nine metropolitan and one rural victorian lga offers solar savers to low-income and senior households through a low-interest loan or through a bulk buy mechanism (where economies of scale enable discounted costs) (solar savers 2019). one participant stressed the importance of the council’s role in educating residents, stating that its distribution of the programme’s informational materials prompted him to “update [his] knowledge” and realise that solar pv is no longer as expensive as it once was. another participant noted the importance of the council’s engagement around ss, which enabled them to realise that they were eligible. several interviewees mentioned that “people trust the council”, which was integral for participants to trust its suppliers and to believe they were getting a fair deal. the council’s role in procuring suppliers on behalf of participants removes a potentially insurmountable barrier for some: there was a role for the council because, particularly for vulnerable households, the cost is not the only barrier. in fact, it’s potentially an even bigger barrier to be able to navigate the solar [installation] system and advocate for yourself with a solar company and power companies, to even just be able to understand the information and have the confidence and the trust that you’re getting a reliable supplier who’s not going to rip you off. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [100] despite the relative affluence of some interviewees, they mentioned uncertainty around finding a trustworthy solar installer and the burden of having to navigate the system, indicating the importance of this element of the programme. the council’s role in ss was also significant because it filled a policy void left by the australian federal government. interviewees from within the council believe that “it’s way more efficient and better and will provide a more orderly transition for communities, society, the economy, if [this programme is] done at a federal and state level. but without that, we need to keep chipping away, even if it’s just rooftop by rooftop reducing emissions”. while local councils are “ideally placed” to run this type of programme, “they don’t have the money”, making it preferable for the state or federal government to provide funding while local councils deliver. federal funding could ensure that benefits reach all australians, not just residents of victoria. in the absence of this support, however, the council sees itself as putting “upwards pressure towards other levels of government” to take similar action on climate issues. the programme has been successful in doing this, to a degree—the solar savers scheme was introduced in 2016 and the solar victoria (sv) scheme in 2018. sv is run by the victorian government and offers a rebate to eligible households9 for solar pv, solar hot water, solar batteries, and other energy-efficient appliances (solar victoria 2021c). sv differs from ss in that participants must pay for system costs upfront but they receive a discount on costs. additionally, tenants and landlords are legally able to share and repay costs with a no-interest loan on tenanted properties (solar victoria 2021b). 5. discussion the combination of survey results and the ss programme’s larger dataset reveals that most ss participants in 2018–2019 owned their homes, receive a moderate to high income, and live in a single-family dwelling. determining the degree to which the ss programme achieved cj or ej outcomes—which is not completely satisfactory given the recipients’ profiles—requires a comparison of the programme’s goals and achievements during the years examined. to briefly revisit the definitions of justice, ej was defined as the distributional aspect of inequities in access to energy (jenkins et al. 2016), and cj refers to the disproportionate climate impacts that vulnerable communities face, such as an inability to cool or heat a home (schlosberg 9 eligible households include those with a household taxable income under us$134,028 with a property valued under us$2.2 million (solar victoria 2021a). [101] tice and batterbury and collins 2014). based on these definitions, we hope to identify positive outcomes in terms of the three indicators described in the following paragraphs. when coupled with the positive outcomes associated with these indicators, the programme’s ability to reach its target audience indicates that those who may bear disproportionate costs and impacts of climate change were reached, an indication of both ej and cj outcomes. first, a greater percentage of the target audience’s residents participated in ss than are found within the general darebin population. this indicates that the target audience was effectively reached by the programme. around 32.8% of the participants in 2018–2019 self-identified as low-income or senior; this was not significantly higher than the 40.2% of low-income or senior residents in the entire darebin population. a higher percentage of these cohorts served through the programme would indicate that these cohorts – the program’s target audience – were reached effectively through the programme. since this percentage was lower, the target audience was likely somewhat displaced by more affluent residents after the programme’s expansion. second, participants were primarily motivated by financial savings. financial motivation indicates that financial assistance with energy costs was required, which is consistent with mitigating ej (walker and day 2012). the ss programme does seem to have achieved ej to an extent for 25%10 of participants who required financial assistance to access adequate energy. third, participants who received solar panels experienced an improvement in energy affordability and/or energy use. improvements in energy affordability and/or energy use indicate a resulting improvement in access to affordable energy, a clear indication of ej outcomes (jessel, sawyer, and hernández 2019). an improved ability to use cooling in summer is an indication of cj, as this is a method of coping with increased heat waves, particularly for older households (jenkins 2018; walker and day 2012). around 39.6%11 of participants experienced either reduced guilt around energy consumption, improved thermal comfort, or an improvement in energy affordability and/or energy use. these participants saved money on their energy bills or were better able to use the energy they needed after solar pv installation. this indicator signifies that residents with extra cooling needs—especially older residents—will be better able to afford to cool their homes with solar pv. as the effects of climate change progress, 10 16.7% of these participants were also covered in indicator one. 11 this figure refers to the total number of participants falling into at least one of these categories indicating achievement of both energy and climate justice—see tables 2 and 5. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] this will become increasingly important for the maintenance of climate justice. this is especially relevant in the city of darebin, which is an innercity lga experiencing the urban heat island effect due to a relatively high proportion of hard surfaces (sun et al. 2019). in examining the above indicators together, 20.8% of programme participants both experienced ej or cj outcomes (indicators two and three) and were low-income or senior residents (indicator one). the major critique of ss as an effort to assist disadvantaged residents with solar pv is the “mission drift” it has encountered over years of operation. it began as a scheme specifically targeted to help seniors, low-income residents, and tenants access solar pv, but the ambitious mission of doubling solar pv capacity in darebin in 2018 shifted focus away from this audience. demand for the scheme generated by the broader group of residents meant that ss staff did not need to intentionally seek out new target audience participants, which made it difficult to consistently achieve socially and environmentally just outcomes. while the programme was able to achieve ej and cj for the low-income and senior participants it reached, the high proportion of high-income participants and low uptake by tenants meant these goals could only partially be realised. the two forms of justice can be addressed simultaneously through the provision of low-cost, low-carbon cooling to those who require assistance accessing it. however, this can be achieved only if assistance is properly targeted; as one interviewee noted, ss “really is a model that can be used for energy and climate justice. but it kind of has to be specifically done that way. it won’t just happen by accident”. in the absence of focused targeting, the energy-related “unjust socio-environmental conditions” (swyngedouw and heynen 2003, 901) that ss sought to address are likely to be maintained. while the distribution of solar panels need not be an inherently political process, the cost considerations and variations in access can make it so. because of these costs, most residential solar programmes serve wealthy homeowners, marginally reinforcing their position in a hierarchy of wealth, as they save more money on their energy bills. meanwhile, residents who are unable to access such schemes, especially tenants, miss out almost entirely. ej operates with the potential to entrench energy poverty. access to solar pv is characterised by “multiple power relations” (swyngedouw and heynen 2003, 901) at varying scales. sufficient wealth, income, and home ownership enable some residents to access and install solar pv easily. the landlord–tenant relationship results in the inability of many tenants to access solar pv, meeting resistance from landlords. [103] tice and batterbury tenants settled in their desired locations in australia generally rent because they cannot afford their own homes. an inability to access the moneysaving benefits of solar pv may further reinforce societal wealth inequalities, owing to their reduced ability to access cheap renewable energy. as with many renewable energy programmes, there is a question regarding the true sustainability of the ss scheme. in the wider transition towards renewable energy sources, schemes such as ss focus on offering supply-side interventions and do not address demand reduction. for example, the latter would involve improving the energy efficiency of each home or changing cultural norms to reduce energy use. demand reduction, ironically, would even reduce the number of solar panels required and, thus, the resultant energy and resources required in each home. installation of solar panels enables consumers to maintain their current lifestyles without making the significant demand-side changes necessary for combating climate change; this is why we term schemes like ss a form of “weak sustainability” (neumayer 2010). in addition, while improving access to adequate energy is important for those households lacking access for technical or financial reasons, solar pv installation may increase their energy use, as they feel less financial pressure when using heating or cooling. this may be counterproductive in terms of true carbon reduction and sustainability, as households rarely derive 100% of their energy consumption from their solar panels. the electricity grid in victoria is still predominately coal-powered, though the penetration of renewables is increasing and coal power plants are being retired early (opennem 2021; aemo 2022). 5.1 policy recommendations enabling access to home energy-efficiency upgrades may be a stronger sustainability measure than rooftop solar pv for low-income and senior households. energy-efficiency upgrades will lower energy consumption while increasing climate resilience, especially for older residents, as they will improve thermal comfort (williamson et al. 2022). providing relatively simple energy-efficiency upgrades, such as insulation, highly efficient reverse cycle air conditioners, or hot water heat pumps through a similar financial mechanism could result in a similar financial outgoing for the local council while improving thermal comfort for residents and reducing stress on the electricity grid. addressing low uptake by renters requires the implementation of minimum energy-efficiency standards, which would effectively make energy-efficiency upgrades mandatory on homes falling ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] below the minimum standard (lang et al. 2022). standards are set at the state rather than the local level in australia, meaning that it is outside the scope of the local council’s abilities. 6. conclusion we set out to determine the degree to which cj and ej are addressed through the ss programme developed and operated by a local council in melbourne, and whether the programme reduces or reinforces inequality in access to solar pv. this is a question rooted in the political ecology of energy supply and consumption and provides historical lessons as well, given that this form of subsidy was developed quite early by this progressive council. the findings reveal that ej and cj outcomes were achieved for 39.6% of the low-income and senior residents in the participant sample population or slightly less than half of the participants. this finding speaks to an institutional “mission drift” through the life of the ss programme, as it expanded its eligibility criteria. we also found that programme participants surveyed were primarily motivated to install solar pv for environmental rather than financial reasons. most participants were able to meet their household expenses, including energy consumption, without great difficulty. as most participants had sufficient financial capacity to meet their energy needs before obtaining solar pv, it does not appear that these participants meet the criteria for households suffering from energy injustice or climate injustice. the majority of ss participants were homeowners living in detached, singlefamily homes, and those who rent their homes have been largely left out of the programme. it is well-known that tenants are a particularly difficult cohort to reach for energy-related programmes (bird and hernández 2012). landlords rarely take up energy upgrades on their rented properties despite the availability of generous incentives, suggesting a need for stronger energy regulation—a measure beyond the remit of local government (law, meiklejohn, and mountjoy 2015). additionally, the inability of solar pv costs to be passed on to tenants through ss is a potential barrier to reaching more tenants. in the absence of assistance through a programme such as ss, the groups that are least likely to be able to access solar power are tenants, older residents, and those on low incomes. ss attempts to address these inequalities by targeting these groups; however, in 2018 and 2019, the programme did not do this as actively as in other years. the council’s goal [105] tice and batterbury of doubling solar pv capacity in the city of darebin issued in 2017 led to an overwhelming demand from more affluent residents. ss has the potential to reinforce inequality because higher-income residents became the major scheme recipients. future rounds of the programme should consider limiting eligibility to only those target residents requiring financial assistance, which means investing resources to verify their eligibility. indeed, in 2022, programme eligibility was limited to “disadvantaged people and discriminated communities”, with a household income of less than us$67,500 per year (darebin city council 2022b; 2022a). limiting the scale of the programme may free up funds and staff capacity to actively target residents. renewable energy scheme providers must be perceived as trustworthy. this was the case for this council, which helped educate residents about the benefits of solar power and their eligibility, providing them with assistance with navigating the installation process. in victoria, the council as the scheme provider has the legal ability to implement the mechanism to enable resident repayments for solar pv through council rates. darebin is a progressive council and has innovated this programme as an exemplar for other governments. as action in this area at the state and federal levels continues to lag, the local council has taken up the challenge of delivering a targeted programme. in conclusion, the ss programme did not wholly reinforce inequality in access to renewable energy. it enabled access for certain residents who would have otherwise been unable to install solar panels. however, inequalities were not addressed adequately. the implication is that this type of programme cannot fully address inequality in access to energy while also serving high-income or wealthy homeowners, who displace target audience residents, as what has occurred within the scheme during the years of expansion to all residents. as there is clear potential to use programmes such as ss to address the justice concerns of low-income, tenants, and senior households, if programmes are targeted, solar energy schemes may be useful but only with a clear focus on those who really need this source of energy. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research is not available since no means of publicly storing data are available to the author. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] conflict of interest statement: no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. references ashby, 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experiences of fuel poverty.” transactions of the institute of british geographers 44 (4): 794–807. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12320 walker, gordon, and rosie day. 2012. “fuel poverty as injustice: integrating distribution, recognition and procedure in the struggle for affordable warmth.” energy policy 49: 69–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.01.044 williamson, t, v soebarto, h bennetts, la martina, d pisaniello, a hansen, r visvanathan, a carre, and j van hoof. 2022. “assessing human resilience: a study of thermal comfort, well-being and health of older people.” in routledge handbook of resilient thermal comfort, 108–127. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003244929-10 wrigley, kelseigh. 2023. “compare cheapest electricity prices in victoria.” canstar blue, march 6, 2023. https://www.canstarblue.com.au/electricity/cheapestelectricity-prices-victoria/ https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/australias-plan-reach-our-net-zero-target-2050 https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/australias-plan-reach-our-net-zero-target-2050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102764 https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12320 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.01.044 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003244929-10 https://www.canstarblue.com.au/electricity/cheapest-electricity-prices-victoria/ https://www.canstarblue.com.au/electricity/cheapest-electricity-prices-victoria/ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6 (1): 137-142, january 2023 book review a sinking feeling: new insights into the himalaya’s pressing environmental issues ruth gamble jayanta bandyopadhyay and sayanangshu modak, governing the ‘water tower of asia’: the case for a system of integrated knowledge for the hindu kush himalaya, march 2022, observer research foundation this vital work by bandhopadhyay and modak (2022) addresses one of the most compelling dilemmas of our time: how do we conserve rivers now that they are stressed by climate change and growing human need for freshwater? it considers what is arguably the globe’s most important hydrological system—the 10 rivers that flow from the hindu kush himalaya (hkh). the book explains that at least 2 billion people live in these basins, distinguished by a highland– lowland divide. the river systems are formed in ecologically fragile and complex  la trobe university, melbourne, r.gamble@latrobe.edu.au copyright © gamble 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.871 mailto:r.gamble@latrobe.edu.au https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.871 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [138] highlands before descending to densely populated foothills and plains where “poverty reduction is a priority” (10). most of these rivers are fed by snow/ice melt and monsoonal climate systems that create high seasonal flow divergences. these complex river systems are made even more administratively burdensome by the national borders that transect the basins. they flow through 16 nation-states, and 8 of the 10 rivers require international governance. bandyopadhyay and modak demonstrate that the governance of these rivers has operated on a “reductionist paradigm” (104) that has not served the rivers or the humans residing around them. they propose a compelling new approach to this governance called the system of integrated knowledge (sink). unlike earlier water governance systems, it includes a governance model and the scholarship, policy, and community processes through which this model could be implemented. sink begins with the notion that “nature organises itself in a systematic and integrated manner” (9) but argues that river governance has been predominantly reductionist, and that this has interrupted nature’s systems. the creation of multiple knowledge silos has caused this reductionism through single-discipline, time-bound research projects and an over-reliance on engineering solutions. for rivers to thrive, they need to be governed holistically, requiring “integrated knowledge” based on a more comprehensive, multi-disciplinary array of inputs. furthermore, this integrated knowledge needs to be implemented. as the authors point out, water management theory has promoted the integrated water resource management (iwrm) approach since the 1990s; it seeks to avoid “resource challenges from escalating into crises” (6). however, as it operates from a crisis avoidance perspective, it has ultimately become a means to gain funding rather than to help rivers and has not been widely utilized by governments (26–28). sink is “a framework for bringing iwrm closer to practice” (6) through primary, secondary, and tertiary knowledge integration. the primary level integrates similar research disciplines; the secondary level integrates less similar and non-scholarly indigenous and local knowledge systems; the tertiary level integrates previous knowledge into water governance through the efforts of experts, policymakers, and civil society. “water governance experts”, they say, “should manage the integrated and inclusive knowledge through a model of a ‘knowledge pyramid’: the most consolidated and synthesised knowledge is at the top – often characterised as wisdom” (9). [139] gamble the authors’ use of the extensive hkh river system enables them to stretch the case for holistic river governance from the interdisciplinary and integrated stakeholder level to the inter-basin and international level. they argue that this large area has shared issues such as high monsoon flows, disputes over access to water, and water-scarce periods that would be best approached through transnational cooperation rather than nationalist frameworks. this would require a series of transnational studies that fill in the many data holes that uneven research funding and water governance approaches have created. it would also require the recognition of each basin’s “unique characteristics in terms of meteorological, hydrological, political and ecological features” (12). bandyopadhyay and modak systematically lay out the theory and practice of sink through an introduction, a literature review, an overview of the 10 hkh basins, and a chapter entitled “the case for sink”. their introduction offers a brief overview of the hkh region and its river basins’ geographies, cultures, and economies. it describes the basins’ relationships to inner asia’s mountain ranges and plateaus, and how these mountains have influenced atmospheric circulations and precipitation. in this and other parts of the work, the book’s graphics and imagery are excellent and greatly help readers understand this complex topic. the authors show the relationship between the region’s three dominant weather systems—the westerlies and the east and south asian summer monsoons—and how the mountains’ rain shadows direct precipitation. the introduction explains how the region’s hydrological system has “extended vital ecosystem services to support life, in general, and in particular, the human communities” (10) in the mountains and on the lower basins’ vast plains. their review of previous literature provides an overview of iwrm and its limited uses and abuses. it then highlights four ideas circulating in global “post-iwrm” (27) discussions about water governance that would be helpful in hkh water governance: (1) a focus on the initial motivations for integration; (2) a critical examination and assessment of the processes and sub-processes that generate integrated knowledge; (3) an examination of the factors that bind water governance elements together; and (4) the creation of the scope to apply knowledge to diverse and complex situations. they conclude this chapter by outlining research areas wherein knowledge needs to be integrated: (1) knowledge of the earth’s surface; (2) knowledge and perception of flows in rivers; and (3) knowledge of science, society, and governance. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [140] the overview of the 10 hkh river basins describes each basin’s physiography, socio-cultural milieu, and the challenges associated with integrated governance. this excellent outline could stand by itself as a reference for basin comparison. after identifying each basin’s common and unique issues, the authors make a key and detailed argument in the last chapter, “the case for sink”. this chapter explains that sink is a “framework for research, education and communication programmes for creating a new community of professionals and policymakers who are better equipped for initiating and sustaining new governance processes” (104). as noted earlier, bandyopadhyay and modak argue that this integration needs to be approached at three levels: primary (close-disciplinary), secondary (trans-disciplinary and indigenous/local knowledge systems), and tertiary (between these systems and governance). as they explain, this approach will allow “experiential as well as experienced learning that will act as feedback to fine-tune the integrations at the lower levels” (109). their approach envisions a system in which research, local experiences, and governance expertise inform each other, and each group adjusts its practice as a result. the chapter outlines how this integrated approach, and the fine-tuning feedback it prompts, will address what they see as the eight core challenges for the hkh river basins: (1) addressing water-related hazards, (2) sediment management, (3) the conservation and use of aquatic diversity, (4) water quality recovery, (5) transboundary cooperation and conflict resolution, (6) the hydropower dilemma, (7) the promotion of desired land use and economic activities, and (8) the institutional process for the adoption of payment for ecosystems services. as with the overview of the basins that preceded it, the authors’ succinct and insightful overview of these issues is immensely helpful for appreciating hkh rivers’ multiple large-scale dilemmas. the central premise of the work is compelling, and the related issues within the text, and the authors’ approach that the following few paragraphs identify, enforce this main argument. they emphasize the need to work across disciplines and, more importantly, to work with local and indigenous communities in the highlands and lowlands. along with its many strengths, the text also has several minor faults and a main drawback. the minor faults include several geographic and historical mistakes. the authors say that the “eastern margin of the qinghai-tibetan plateau” is “west of pamir and tien shan mountains” (16), while the entire plateau is east of these mountains. the unclear use of the term “n/a” in the tables makes it seem like there is no agriculture in china’s section of the [141] gamble brahmaputra basin (64), when large areas of it are irrigated (li et al. 2017). their use of the term “social sciences” is vague and seems to include humanities, law, and social science subjects (108). they represent nationalist rhetoric as history in some of their historical readings. an example of this is the idea that great yu is a historical figure (39) and that ancient china’s approach to water was balanced (41), when evidence suggests that humans had already changed the rivers’ hydrology in 500 bce (kidder and zhuang 2015). the authors claim that the nepali name sagarmatha is older than the english name for the mountain, everest (15), without acknowledging the controversy around the mountain’s nepali name. the mountain’s only long-standing pre-colonization name was its tibetan/sherpa name, chomolungma. the proposal’s main drawback is its approach to local and indigenous knowledge systems. on one hand, this work insists that sink should include “other disciplinary knowledge systems, including indigenous/local/traditional knowledge” (9), and praises these systems as being “highly diverse and adaptive” (106). on the other, it suggests that they are not “formal knowledge entities” (106), thus suggesting that only university knowledge systems are formal. it also assumes that locals “have limited exposure to the formal knowledge systems” (106), which, given the previous assumption, suggests that they do not have a university education; this is a sweeping generalization. rather than problematizing the relationship between large nation-states and their often highland minorities and asking whether environmental justice issues can be included in river management—for instance, by assigning water sovereignty provisions for these groups—the work sidesteps the contentious issue of sovereignty. the authors’ only acknowledgment of the region’s multiple nations is oblique and reproduces several of the problematic majoritarian stereotypes about them. it describes them as objects of study—of “social anthropological importance” rather than as autonomous subjects. and it problematises their multiplicity, stating that “the same diversity can be a cause for potential conflicts over the products and services of the natural environment, including river flows” (13). such an approach naturalizes the status-quo, nation-state-led, extractive approach to the rivers’ headwaters and ignores the rivers’ multiple forms of sovereignty. the “potential conflicts'' over the rivers will be resolved only by addressing this issue. these criticisms of facts and focus are not merely scholastic pedanticism. they reflect the integration to which sink aspires and the basins require. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [142] as the authors suggest, to live with the rivers, we must grapple with issues not usually regarded as water governance. this includes minoritization and local indigenous sovereignty. let us hope everyone is prepared for the challenges sink advocates because it is necessary for the sake of the rivers and humanity. references bandyopadhyay, jayanta and sayanangshu modak. 2022. governing the ‘water tower of asia’: the case for a system of integrated knowledge for the hindu kush himalaya. observer research foundation. li, shicheng, zhaofeng wang, and yili zhang. 2017. “crop cover reconstruction and its effects on sediment retention in the tibetan plateau for 1900– 2000.” journal of geographical sciences 27 (7): 786–800. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1406-4 kidder, tristram r, and yijie zhuang. 2015. “anthropocene archaeology of the yellow river, china, 5000–2000 bp.” holocene 25 (10): 1627–1639. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683615594469 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-017-1406-4 https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683615594469 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 2 (2): 75–108, july 2019 research paper estimating willingness to pay for wastewater treatment in new delhi: contingent valuation approach vasudha chopra  and sukanya das  abstract: given the increasing demand pressure on water resources coupled with supply holdups and institutional failures, fresh-water resources are increasingly susceptible to depletion and could potentially add to water stress in india. a vast demand-supply gap necessitates water conservation, including recycling measures. india has a great potential in wastewater treatment, and one of the ways to address it is decentralisation of wastewater treatment given its environmental benefits. based on the contingent valuation method (cvm), this study assesses delhi urban households‘ willingness to pay for the operation & maintenance (o&m) costs of a local wastewater treatment plants (wwtp) that supplies residential complexes treated water for toilet-flushing. the study found that if freshwater prices rise sufficiently for consumers, they may be willing to subsidise a decentralized wwtp to cover at least their non-potable water uses. in addition, the co-provision of such public goods can become an important supplement to urban municipal finance. keywords: community participation, contingent valuation, willingness to pay, wastewater treatment, double hurdle model. 1. introduction global water resources are vulnerable to climate change and population growth and are affected by rising water demand, worldwide. in india, as also in the entire sub-continent, the rising population has reduced per capita  phd student, the university of tennessee, knoxville, tennessee, united states; vasudhachopra08@gmail.com.   associate professor, department of policy studies, teri school of advanced studies, new delhi, india; sukanya.das@terisas.ac.in. copyright © chopra and das 2019. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.77 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.77 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] average freshwater availability by about 65% in the latter half of the 20th century and is expected to reduce further over the next 30 years (kaur et al. 2012). overall, water demand is projected to increase by about 55% by 2050 causing worldwide depletion of water resources (mountford 2011). while india might not be critically water scarce at present, in terms of the water stress index,1 some parts of northern and southern india (e.g., uttar pradesh, andhra pradesh, telangana, and odisha) are ‗critically‘ water scarce (rijsberman 2006). the emerging groundwater problem in south asia and the middle east and their increasing populations are causing demand for water (for domestic uses, irrigation, and industries) to rise, leading to depletion of fresh-water aquifers on one hand and rising salinity and contamination of usable groundwater on the other (barker, koppen, and shah 2000). india is no exception and hence needs to critically examine supply augmentation options by reusing treated wastewater to bridge the demand-supply gap. municipal bodies are caught in a downward spiral of disrepair and are unable to meet demand or maintain effluent standards for treated wastewater. inefficiency, low investment levels, financial unviability, and absence of customer orientation means customers face inadequate and unreliable low-quality water supply (dutta, chander, and srivastava 2005). about 70-80% of domestic water use translates into wastewater production. according to central pollution control board (cpcb), in 2007, the combined wastewater generation from cities and towns was 38,354 million litres daily (mld) whereas sewage treatment capacity was only 11,786 mld—a gap of about 26,568 mld. in 2017, the gap, although lower, was still about 22,939 mld. presently, the average utilisation of the eight sewage treatment plants (stp) owned by delhi government is 52% of total installed capacity, which is rated as gross underutilization (gautam et al. 2017). in developed nations, treated wastewater is used for agriculture and industrial purposes, however, avenues for its use in urban areas are rising. often, scarcity is caused due to mismanagement in the distribution of water resources (cse 2013). the city water-excreta survey2 portrays a succinct picture of demand-supply gap and leakage losses in metro cities and other classifications. based on water supply norms of central public health and environmental engineering organisation (cpheeo), water demand is in 1 according to this index, a country is defined as being water scarce when its water resource availability is less than 1000 cubic metres per capita (sengupta 2011). 2 the survey was published in 2005-06 by centre for science and environment (cse). it depicts the water supply scenario of 71 cities in india. [77] vasudha chopra and sukanya das excess of supply in 35% of the 71 cities surveyed with the highest shortfall and demand-supply gap in metropolitan cities (narain 2012). in india, according to cpcb, urban areas generate 22,900 mld of domestic wastewater, which has surpassed industrial wastewater generation (13,500 mld). however, the treatment capacity for domestic wastewater is only 25% (sengupta 2011). water recycling and reuse have proved to be a feasible and sustainable way of water management (anderson 2003). this is demonstrated by chennai metro water supply & sewage board‘s (cmwssb) zero-water discharge programme in which all wastewater generated is treated and fully reused. as of 2018, 15% of chennai‘s water demand is met from recycled water (international water association 2018). about 40% of domestic water demand of newly built houses and 8% of industrial water demand is met from the treated wastewater (international water association 2018). in bengaluru, recycled water is used for toilet flushing and landscaping in apartment buildings. in a recent study, 67% of survey respondents in bengaluru city expressed willingness to buy recycled water (ravishankar, nautiyal and seshaiah 2018). wastewater treatment has great potential, and it may be feasible for the users and governments to cosponsor setting up wastewater treatment plants (wwtp). in fact, wwtps are a pre-requisite to the overall development of urban metropolises as they internalise the negative environmental externalities of urbanisation. the primary objective of this study is to find out urban residents‘ willingness to pay (wtp) for the maintenance of a decentralised wwtp that treats domestic wastewater (―grey‖ water) for non-potable reuse. the study identifies main factors that affect monetary participation as measured by wtp and environmental attitude of individuals. contingent valuation method (cvm) was used for valuation of a non-market environmental good i.e. treated wastewater and its reuse. the survey responses were elicited through an individual contingent valuation questionnaire using payment card format for the wtp bids, and econometric analysis was undertaken to determine the impact of household perceptions, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on the wtp bids of urban households. subsequently, the average wtp and net benefits were computed. the water saving potential was computed in monetary terms as a reduction in the freshwater bill3 when recycled water was reused by households. 3 the new freshwater bill is the original bill less the water-savings based on water consumption level plus the share of o&m cost of the treatment plant that is payable by the residents. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] the paper contributes to (1) the existing contingent valuation literature in a developing country context with respect to wastewater treatment; (2) a novel econometric identification strategy; and (3) providing the numerical value of water saving potential for urban households in delhi and its potential benefits for the households. the next section describes various technical options to treat domestic wastewater and some examples from the indian context. section 3 focuses on description of cvm, theoretical framework and related literature. section 4 depicts the present study area, survey data and empirical strategy. section 5 discusses salient findings, and section 6 describes study limitations. the last two sections conclude the paper and highlight policy implications. 2. treatment options in order to be reused, domestic wastewater is treated with specific processes determined based on the level of effluent standards and reuse purpose. wastewater reclamation involves various levels of treatment including primary (bar screens, grit chambers, skimming tank followed by a primary sedimentation tank), secondary (trickling filter, activated sludge process, secondary settling tank, oxidation ponds and sludge treatment) and tertiary treatment i.e. removal of residual organic matter (tchobanoglous and burton 1991). each treatment level is associated with a certain level of water pollution as well as purpose, and pollution level decreases with an increase in the level of treatment. benefits of wastewater reclamation include conservation of fresh-water resources, prevention of overextraction and pollution reduction of water bodies. recently, there has been a paradigm shift with studies demonstrating wastewater treatment to its reuse, especially for industrial and agricultural purposes. some metropolitan cities in india like chennai and bengaluru are working on tapping the potential for wastewater treatment and reuse. in chennai, it is compulsory for every community to treat wastewater. the water balance study for wastewater reuse (toilet flushing and irrigation) in sangamam, tamil nadu shows that potable fresh-water demand reduced by 120 litres per capita daily (lpcd) (cpcb, 2008). for non-potable purposes, secondary treatment like activated sludge process (asp), sequencing batch reactor (sbr), moving bed biological reactor (mbbr) and membrane bioreactor (mbr) are preferred to achieve the required effluent standards. table 1 provides processes4 and their effluent standards, that is biological oxygen demand (bod) and suspended solids (ss). mbr is a popular 4 detailed description of processes is provided in table a6 in annexure. [79] vasudha chopra and sukanya das table 1: output water quality technology bod (mg/l) ss (mg/l) asp <20 <30 sbr <10 <10 mbbr <30 <30 mbr <5 <5 source: sugam, jain and neog (2017) technology given its capacity to treat wastewater to prescribed river water quality levels but is costly (kamyotra and bhardwaj 2011). the costs are calculated for 1 mld, hence, there are limitations in scaling down the costs due to the presence of scale economies (sugam, jain and neog 2017). in terms of scale economies for centralized versus decentralized plants, there are cost differences, however, decentralized plants are designed to operate at a smaller scale as compared to centralized ones (massoud, tarhini and nasr 2009). the benefit of decentralized plants is the feasibility of community involvement in sharing operation & maintenance (o&m) costs that reduces monetary burden for government budgets. since this is on a need basis, it will also not lead to wasted potential as opposed to centralised treatment plants. in the end, the assessment of centralised plants often indicates wasted potential as well as issues of improper piping that lead to mixing of treated and untreated water hence wasting the entire effort of treatment in the first place (narain 2012). although devoid of scale economies, the decentralised plants are better suited in the urban as well as rural context. 3. contingent valuation method the contingent valuation method (cvm) accounts for necessary scenario change for which valuation is done i.e. treatment of domestic wastewater through construction of wwtp and subsequent improvement in water quality from q0 to q1. the method assesses total consumer welfare from the utility through improved water quality. this utility benefit can be measured using the hicksian compensating variation (cv) (weldesilassie et al., 2009).5            0101 0111 hhhhh u,q,peu,q,pecv (1) where, eh (p, q, uh) is household‘s expenditure function, p is price vector, q is the level of public good and the household‘s utility i.e. uh. the superscript 0 refers to the current scenario (no provision of public good) and superscript 1 refers to improved scenario (with the provision of public 5 the contingent valuation framework helps to determine what amount of income change would be required to compensate the consumer for the payment. for a ―good‖ change, wherein utility is higher than before (an assumption), cv correctly measures the wtp (varian, 1992). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] good). the compensating variation is equivalent to the maximum amount of money that can be appropriated from the consumer, that is shadow price or wtp of an individual (weldesilassie et al. 2009). ―willingness to pay is defined as the maximum price a buyer accepts to pay for a given quantity of goods or services‖ (gall-ely 2009). equation (1) can also be written as the integral of the shadow price of the environmental good: dqu,q,pecv h q q hh       01 1 0 (2) where, due to unobservable nature of the shadow price function πh (p, q, uh) = −∂e (p, q, uh) / ∂q, the willingness to pay is elicited through cvm. if individual‘s income in the utility function is yi and the payment for the environmental good is hi for an individual i, in the context of random utility model, a respondent will be willing to pay hi (which raises the quality of the environmental public good, that is treated wastewater, from q0 to q1) if: ),z,y(u),z,hy(u iiiiiii  11 (3) where, z vector contains socio-economic and demographic characteristics. equation 3 simply states that an individual will be willing to pay a certain bid if they are better off with the payment and the public good provision (dutta, chander and srivastava 2005). this gives rise to the probability of an individual saying yes, expressed as: )},z,y(u),z,hy(upr{)yespr( iiiiiiii  11 (4) the utility function of an individual is additively separable into a deterministic and random component. iiiiii )zy(u),z,y(u  (5) let the deterministic part (non-stochastic) of the utility function be as follows: )hy(zu iiiii  (6) the stochastic part is the error term i.e. . the utility difference is calculated as: )hz(uu iiiii  01 (7) [81] vasudha chopra and sukanya das 0 )iiiii hzpr()yespr( (8) where, α is the difference of vector of coefficients to respective socioeconomic and demographic variables between two scenarios i.e. 01i  . the behaviour assumptions for error term necessitate independent and identical distribution (iid) with zero mean (dutta, chander, and srivastava 2005). usually, logit (logistic cdf) or probit (standard normal cdf) models are used depending upon the choice of the cumulative distribution function (cdf) for the data obtained. however, wtp calculation is not derived from the random utility model for payment card format. prior cvm studies have measured wtp both for setting up a common treatment plant as well as improving the capacity of an existing plant (rollins et al. 1997; tziakisa et al. 2009). a recent study in bengaluru states that decentralized wastewater treatment plants are an attractive solution to the rising water scarcity problems in urban india (kuttuva, lele and mendez 2018). they distinguish between the voluntary role of the public in adopting the system versus incentives used to gain compliance and conclude that even though such systems are a partial solution to addressing the scarcity issue, voluntary adoption is quite challenging, and consumers must be incentivized for adoption. the study highlights prior arguments made against centralized wastewater treatment as a non-optimal solution as compared to the decentralized treatment that leads to larger environmental benefits (kuttuva, lele, and mendez 2018). given that other cities in urban india face similar constraints in terms of water scarcity and sub-optimal performance of centralized wastewater treatment plants, the present study offers a potential solution. the framework proposed here requires an institutional setting where a government-sponsored public good is made available to people and they pay a monthly subscription, so it fits into the literature that measures benefits of decentralization of treatment plants. a global overview depicts the advantages of reusing wastewater, for instance, in australia, wastewater reuse decreased energy consumption and demand for fresh water. in places like lebanon and palestine, the grey water is used to irrigate crops rather than domestic reuse, however, it also has shown positive impacts for demand reduction (madungwe and sakuringwa 2007). a study in greece elicited residents‘ willingness to pay for the provision of a central wastewater treatment plant using cvm through a questionnaire on their socio-economic, demographic background and valuation concerns. the study found that about 97% of the residents agreed to pay for construction and their mean wtp was about 93% of the fresh-water price (tziakisa et al. 2009). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] another study in greece ensured the full operational capacity of an existing treatment plant and concluded that about 69% of respondents were willing to pay, and the total amount contributed by respondents covered the amount required for the full operational capacity of the existing plant (kontogianni et al. 2003). these studies follow a similar methodology; however, they look at individual households rather than a community. in communities, the mindset of respondents is different and often leads to comparatively lower zero responses. loomis et al. (2000) estimate the total economic value of restoring selected ecosystem services in a river basin and estimate wtp and other total economic value measures using cvm. rollins et al. (1997) elicited wtp by implementing the cvm and concluded a significant willingness to pay. the studies that focus on wastewater treatment and reuse have implications for water demand, that is, the provision of such public goods and perceptions about them have implications for water demand by respondents. 4. present study the study is based in new delhi, which is not only the capital of india but is also becoming a hub for activities causing pollution. there are 4 major districts i.e. north, south, east and west delhi as is visible in figure 1. the population of west delhi (about 25 lakhs) and south delhi (about 27 lakhs) is highest among all major divisions which correspond to high water demand and usage relative to other divisions (district census 2011). delhi‘s colossal water shortage problem coupled with massive population growth has led to groundwater exploitation. the water demand-supply gap was estimated at 173 mld (million litres per day) and rose up to 2,149 mld after accounting for leakage loss (narain 2012). groundwater resources cater to about 12% of the city‘s water needs, however, it is underestimated given unaccounted use of alternatives (hand pumps, illegal tube wells etc.). this has led to groundwater salinity and a fall in water tables up to 30-45 meters below the ground level in west, north west and south west delhi (economic survey 2014-15). india‘s per capita water availability is decreasing and is expected to fall from a level of 5177 cubic meter per year in 1951 to 1140 cubic meter by 2050 which warrants need for efficient water management (kaur et al. 2012). [83] vasudha chopra and sukanya das figure 1: districts in new delhi source: wikipedia (2019) domestic sewage is about 80% of the household water supply,6 which contributes to more than 80% of the pollution load (narain 2012). cpcb estimates 4,426 mld wastewater generation in delhi. this wastewater needs to be treated in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (mwwtp) to remove harmful chemicals and waste. although the number of treatment plants and capacity has increased over time; as of 2008, the treatment capacity was 3,250 mld at 100% capacity utilization. in other words, only about 70% of the wastewater generated in delhi could be treated (narain 2012). there was no domestic reuse and the treated water was dumped into drains that nullified the whole process. as of 2018, the installed capacity is only 75% of the total wastewater generated in delhi, and the utilization rate is about 75% (gupta, singh and gandhi 2018). this raises a question about improvement in centralised wastewater treatment plants and disposal process and their complementarities with decentralized plants (libralato, ghirardini and avezzù 2012). this study 6 domestic sewage consists of black water (containing faecal matter) as well as greywater (coming from household activities but not containing faecal matter); this study focuses on reuse of domestic greywater. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] focuses on decentralised stps as the focus is on domestic wastewater reuse within households. in addition, effects of improvement in centralized (government-owned) stps have been widely studied in the literature. although economies of scale may not hold with decentralized stps, it is important to recognize that decentralized stps do not always correspond to small scale.7 however, the decentralized approach is helpful in inducing wastewater reuse at a lower cost8 through savings in the cost of piping for supplying the treated water as compared to centralized stps. moreover, decentralised stps favour reuse instead of discharge into the environment (libralato, ghirardini and avezzù 2012). given the economy, efficiency and utility, decentralized wastewater treatment systems (dewats) jointly set up by community and municipality are becoming popular for greywater treatment (including wastewater from kitchen, washing machine and bathwater, etc.). vigyan vijay, an ngo based in new delhi, has set up a wastewater treatment plant in vasant vihar [capacity: 45 kld (kilo litres daily); reuse available: 40 kld] as well as a kitchen waste biogas plant with funding from the residents and the municipal corporation of delhi in order to scale up micro-sized plants (seshadri 2011). hence, cofunding is not only a proposed strategy for decentralized treatment plants, but it has also already been implemented in india. 4.1. study specifications this study is based on a primary survey of 167 urban households in eight group housing societies (ghs) in new delhi.9 households were identified based on stratified random sampling, where a stratum is defined as urban households living in group housing societies (each ghs has a common resident welfare association (rwa)). the societies were chosen given their proximity to municipal wwtp that treated their domestic wastewater. within each society, households were randomly chosen.10 as much as possible, the choice of households was random, but it is still subject to a sampling error. the households were surveyed from december 2015 – february 2016 and one representative from each household who was involved in household decisions was interviewed.11 the survey questionnaire12 was designed to elicit responses in three information 7 the scale (in kld or mld) will depend on a society if the study is to be generalized to relatively larger societies as compared to our sample. 8 the additional capital and maintenance costs for decentralized stps have been discussed under cost estimates. the dual piping is not initiated in delhi; hence no reasonable estimate may be utilized as per indian institute of technology, roorkee experts. 9 this represents 6.1 % of total households in 8 societies as of 2016. 10 on average, less than 10% of households within each society refused to be interviewed. 11 the 8 survey areas and number of respondents is included in the annexure. 12 the instructions for questionnaire are included in the annexure. [85] vasudha chopra and sukanya das categories: (a) attitudes, knowledge and behaviour, (b) economic valuation questions and (c) socio-economic characteristics. the pilot survey took place in december 2015 in punjabi bagh (west delhi), where seven households were surveyed to test and, if need be, amend the questionnaire in order to obtain all required information. the scenario structured for cvm in the context of delhi was quite similar to a study that was conducted in chennai to elicit consumer willingness to pay for wastewater management and reuse (das, bouzit and cary 2016). after ensuring the appropriateness of the survey questionnaire, the rest of the households (160) were surveyed during january – february 2016. the survey was conducted by way of a personal interview with a payment card format questionnaire in which a set of bids was provided, and the respondents chose their maximum wtp. there was only one scenario change13 that was provided to the respondents along with its characteristics. before the pilot study was implemented, the following steps were taken in reducing cvm biases. to begin with, as all households in the survey sample pay the water bill according to consumption levels, they were familiar with water use cost. further, all survey interviews were conducted by the same interviewer in order to minimize bias. all respondents were briefed that their freshwater bill would reduce by a certain proportion depending on their consumption levels. the interviewees were also told that there was no increased monetary burden, in case they ―dislike‖ the payment vehicle (whittington 2010). it was taken care that the time spent in asking the questions was more and less same for all interviewees and that the interviewer did not indulge in any personal talk in order to avoid anchoring or influencing the answers of the participants. also, for all societies, the individual households were chosen randomly, and the survey was completed on the same day to avoid survey information being passed on by neighbours. the remaining biases are discussed in the limitations. the bid amounts14 used for economic valuation were calculated using time series data on per capita water consumption in delhi for the past 10 years. the payment vehicle is a tax over and above the existing monthly water bill and can be thought of as a monthly payment to the rwa to financially support the o&m costs of the treatment plant. 4.2. survey data and econometric framework during the survey period (january – february 2016), the data entry was done manually and cross-checked after survey was completed to avoid data 13 the scenario change (in the questionnaire included in annexure) has been constructed after consultations with field experts, hydrologists, municipal officials and academicians. 14 assuming a 4-person household, the final water bill was rs. 950. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] entry errors. the data being of categorical nature required transformations to facilitate data analysis using stata.15 in terms of outliers and errors in reporting, data was not always consistent. it was observed that two households with same water consumption had a slightly different bill amount, but the analysis results are robust to that. given that the data had many zero responses that depicted people‘s unwillingness to pay, an empirical model that accounts for the meaning of zeros fits the data well. with such data, heckit type 2 or ―hurdle‖ models were suitable as they assumed a 2-step decision. in addition, the model assumed that factors affecting consumer participation have a different impact on consumption/payment hence a two-step process is followed (humphreys, 2013). it also allowed for covariates to be different for two processes i.e. participation and payment. these models were a less restrictive version of the tobit model, which assumes one process explains both decisions. according to jones‘ alternatives, hurdle models are best suited for ―genuine zero‖ responses when the participation and payment decision is taken simultaneously. hence, the double hurdle model was employed (humphreys 2013). in the first step, a probit regression is run for the participation decision, where a dummy for whether the respondent is willing to participate in the contingent market is regressed on explanatory variables (jones 2000). the second step is a truncated ordinary least squares (ols) regression to model the payment decision by those individuals that choose to participate in the contingent market. since a part (116 respondents) of the total sample population (167 respondents) was modelled for the second decision, the truncated ols is used instead of a simple ols regression model. the econometric representations given below characterize participation (9) and payment (10). )z,dem,hc,sec(y iiii1 (9) )z,dem,hc,sec(fy iiii2 (10) where, y1 is participation dummy, y2 is wtp,  standard normal cdf, f is truncated regression cdf, sec is socio-economic characteristics, hc is household characteristics, dem is demographic characteristics and z is environmental characteristics. the z vector includes awareness dummy (regarding wastewater disposal and treatment) and pollution dummy (opinion about pollution due to uncovered sewer drains). 15 stata, a statistical package, has also been used for the entire estimation of the empirical model described in this section in order to obtain findings. [87] vasudha chopra and sukanya das table 2: summary statistics name mean (std. dev) age (years) 45.4 (17.0) monthly income (rs.) 72997.0 (28591.5) monthly expenditure on food (rs.) 17481.0 (8758.6) total monthly expenditure (rs.) 40304.9 (16419.5) monthly water bill (rs.) 583.9 (371.8) monthly water consumption (kl) 21.4 (8.6) children 1.5 (0.8) household members 3.9 (1.4) toilets 2.4 (0.9) source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data 5. survey findings 5.1 empirical results a total of 167 urban households from 8 societies across 4 districts of delhi participated in the survey. all societies had an existing mwwtp responsible for treating the domestic wastewater, 70% of which were found to be grossly underutilized, and those that were fully utilized had a very low treatment capacity as compared to others. reasons for such poor performance have been documented in studies by cpcb as well as others (kaur et al. 2012). improper design, power cuts and lack of maintenance have been highlighted as the main reasons behind the neglect of stps. due to the lack of proper functioning of the facilities, most stps remain closed or underutilised (kaur et al. 2012). of the respondents surveyed, 60.5% were males. about 54% of the respondents possessed an undergraduate degree, 38% were post-graduates and 8% stated higher secondary level as their highest educational qualification. about 67% of the respondents were aware of wastewater disposal and treatment as well as the existence of an stp nearby. overall, 69% of the respondents were willing to pay for wastewater treatment in a contingent improved scenario and reuse of treated wastewater. of those who stated motivation behind the willingness to pay (51 respondents), 49% said it was for the environmental protection for future generations. these specific questions in the survey directly translated into economic variables of interest in order to employ the econometric strategy. the description of the variables is presented in annexure. table 2 provides summary statistics. the average age of the respondents was 45 years and they played a role in household decision-making. majority of the households had a single child, and some had more than 3. on average, the survey households had four members each and at least two toilets, and they came under a high tax bracket. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] table 3: regression results of the survey variables tier 1: probit coefficient (standard error) tier 1: probit marginal effects (at mean) tier 2: truncated ols coefficient (standard error) age of respondent 0.0152 (0.0154) .0019 (.001) -1.841** (.838) education dummy 0.236 (0.638) .0305 (.083) 99.362 (136.792) pollution 1.747*** (0.486) .2258*** (.086) 111.81** (48.757) awareness dummy 3.010*** (0.480) .3891** (.161) 40.590 (37.493) female 0.756* (0.438) .0977 (.071) -46.435** (23.99) monthly income 0.0000645*** (1.76e-05) 0.00000834*** (2.79e-06) .001229* (.0006) no. of children -0.156 (0.270) -.0202 (.037) no. of toilets 39.727*** (11.976) constant -7.397*** (1.787) -100.222 (159.502) observations 167 167 116 source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data note: robust standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1 to reiterate, 69% of the respondents were willing to pay for improved wastewater treatment services and reuse. this directly corresponds to whether they were aware of improper wastewater disposal and its negative environmental consequences. of the respondents who were unwilling to pay (31% of the total sample), about 52% believed the government should pay for such improvements. during the interview, many respondents said that they did not believe that the municipality put the resources to correct use, although it was not formally captured. hence, it is speculated that this belief was triggered due to a trust deficit of consumers in the municipalities given their opaque management system. a double-hurdle model for participation and payment decision was employed and results for both tier 1 and 2 are specified in table 3. female respondents were more likely to pay for wastewater treatment, however, their wtp bid was significantly lower than that of male respondents. there were some contradictory results obtained in the literature with respect to the gender of the respondent (genius & [89] vasudha chopra and sukanya das tsagarakis 2006). however, bilgic (2010) found that female respondents in turkey were willing to pay lower than their male counterparts given a greater role of males in decision making, which is consistent with the present study. household income was also an important and significant factor in determining participation and wtp amounts. some studies use food expenditure as a proxy for income, given the inherent problem of underreporting; food expenditure has a positive impact on wtp estimates (bilgic 2010). whittington et al. (1993) had similarly observed that higher income has a causal link with higher willingness to pay. awareness level of the individual regarding wastewater treatment is also a key determinant. level of education showed no significant effect on wtp for improved wastewater infrastructure in a study in canada (rollins et al. 1997). result of the present study is consistent with that and it is possible that correlation16 between awareness and education level may be high or it could also be a direct result of low variation in education level in the sample. another important factor that contributes towards participation is the respondents‘ knowledge and perceptions of pollution caused by sewage (positive and significant). groundwater pollution and coastal pollution have been used in drinking water improvement studies and results are in line with economic theory as groundwater is a major source for drinking in greece (tziakisa et al. 2009). in line with mainstream literature, the payment decision in this survey is influenced by perceived pollution level. in addition, gender and income have a significant impact on the amount that a respondent is willing to pay for wastewater treatment. the number of toilets (a proxy for water usage) is a significant determinant of the wtp bids chosen by respondents. the economic rationale being that those who consume more water and pay higher monthly water bill are the ones who can afford to do so; they have a high probability of choosing a higher bid than low consumption households. any reduction is beneficial to high consumption households and leads to a large potential freshwater and monetary saving. usually, it is expected that respondents having high water consumption have a higher contribution to the treatment of used water. the analogy is similar to the kyoto protocol for climate change—the countries that emit more carbon must abate at a higher rate. other measures of water usage identified in the literature are the water bill and water consumption. those who pay water bill that is inclusive of wastewater or sewerage charges would usually like to pay less for wastewater treatment (rollins, et al. 1997). 16 to ensure problem of multicollinearity is dealt with, if any, correlation between education and awareness is evaluated and it is not high as well as a joint f-test shows significance. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] a study done in greece on wastewater improvement concludes that consumers who consume more water are willing to pay a higher amount; these are cases of larger families with more no. of children and a high willingness to pay for their wellbeing (tziakisa et al. 2009). the salient findings from the survey are listed below. 1. relatively high level of awareness among people of wastewater treatment and disposal: as many as 69% of the total respondents were aware of wastewater treatment concerns in contrast to 44% reported by a similar study in bengaluru (ravishankar, nautiyal and seishaiah 2018). however, this awareness is lower in comparison to australia and florida, possibly because recycled water is already being reused in those countries (po, nancarrow and kaercher 2003). 2. a majority of respondents distrust government‘s fund management: more than half (53%) of total respondents were not willing to pay government directly, consistent with a similar choice-experiment study of wtp of local people near the ganges that found that even though people valued the improvement in wastewater quality, most of them were not willing to pay due to a substantial amount of distrust in the fund management of authorities (birol and das 2012). 3. nearly half (48.5%) of the respondents felt that wastewater treatment was important regardless of cost. also, 36.2% (42) of the total respondents (116) who were willing to pay for wastewater treatment stated their motivation as protection of the environment for future generations, while 76% of the respondents (89) felt that wastewater treatment was very important regardless of the cost. 5.2. willingness to pay the average willingness to pay varies across the survey respondents due to the existence of heterogeneity in awareness levels, socio-economic characteristics and environmental attitudes. the average wtp varies within a range of rs. 100 – rs. 200.17 the potential benefits from scenario change are constructed using reduction in freshwater bill, water saving potential and approximate cost constructed based on estimated cost regressions (starkl et al. 2018), which is compared to water bill in business as usual scenario. the comparison is systematically provided in section 5.3. the net benefits are calculated while accounting for operating and maintenance costs based on the premise that residents are responsible for o&m 17 table a5 in annexure captures average wtp for each society. [91] vasudha chopra and sukanya das table 4: household water saving potential consumer category water consumption (kl/month) average water saving (kl/month) average water saving (rs./month) potential saving (percentage of average monthly water bill) 1 (low) 0-20 2.09 14.68 6.1% 2 (medium) 20-30 4.04 142.10 21.0% 3 (high) above 30 6.27 367.27 26.6% source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data expenditure. the capacity18 of 200 kld was chosen to minimize the suboptimal use, achieve cost efficiency and overcome the inherent problem of inefficiency in government-owned plants. 5.3 water saving potential the activity-wise water consumption was calculated by a study done in all major cities in india, including new delhi (shaban and sharma 2007). in an urban household, bathing accounts for the highest proportion of water usage, followed by toilets flushing, and utensil washing (shaban and sharma 2007). based on this study, percentage of water consumption in toilets per month in delhi (16.5%) was computed for all the households. this study computes the water saving potential that equals the volume of water used in toilets in line with its premise that replacement of freshwater with treated water is channeled towards non-potable household use.19 the absolute figure depends on total household consumption. therefore, the households were categorized based on their consumption levels. to maintain congruity, we followed water consumption categories similar to those provided by delhi jal board in their tariff order for domestic consumers. the tariff rates used in the calculation are the revised rates for the year 2015. the average water saving for three consumer categories (in volume and monetary value) are provided in table 4. the interpretation of the results is quite straight-forward in that saving is proportional to consumption category: households in high consumption category had higher saving potential than those in low consumption category. for a medium category water consumer, average water saving was rs. 140 per month; which is, to say the least, not insignificant compared to the average bill in that category (i.e. rs. 675). similarly, high usage category households on average save 18 although the technology has been scaled down, costs cannot always be scaled down given scale economies hence, the scaled down costs from ceew estimates are compared with cost functions estimated by starkl et al. (2018). 19 please note that although non-potable includes a wide variety of uses, toilet reuse was not mentioned in the survey. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] rs. 367 on the average bill of rs. 1378 (i.e. average monthly saving of 26% of the average water bill for the category). users who are quite close to the upper threshold of categories have an incentive to reduce consumption20 and save a lot on the water bill, that is, say a household uses 22 kilo litres (kl) of water per month, by reducing even 2 kl consumer would jump down to the lower category thus saving on the water bill. based on these categories, if the average wtp is compared to average water saving in monetary terms, it gives a rough idea as to whether households are better off21 with the new scenario or not. for low and medium category users, the average wtp is higher than the average water saving per month whereas for the high category22 users, the potential water saving is much higher than average wtp. in table 6, similar findings by tziakisa et al. (2009) demonstrate wtp as a percentage of average water bill, which is 40.5%, 24.5% and 9.2% for low, medium and high users, respectively. the reason that this figure is relatively low as compared to the finding in greece (93%) may be because the fixed charge is also included in the original water bill instead of just comparing by the volumetric charge. also, the fact that low consumption households are not really low income users is also important here. high users were quite less relatively in the sample and gave zero responses, which drives down the average wtp. this, however, does not correspond to a comparison of the two scenarios which is done later in this section. 5.4 cost estimates there are different technologies for the secondary treatment of wastewater, some23 of these are listed in table 5 along with their per kld costs as estimated by starkl et al. (2018). council on energy, environment & water (ceew) computations for input cost24 of wastewater treatment technologies provide another comparison, however, it is subject to scale issues (sugam, jain and neog 2017). these cost estimates take into consideration the following specific characteristics of a wastewater 20 this reduction can stem from various sources i.e. lower absolute consumption of freshwater without any increase in alternative sources or reusing treated water such that it displaces freshwater consumption. 21 table a2 in annexure provides comparison of average wtp based on consumer category (low, medium or high) and average water saving (in rs.). 22 the average wtp of the high user category is less than that of the medium due to lower number of high users being in the sample and a higher percentage of them were not willing to pay as compared to the medium category users. 23 there are many more technologies that exist, however, this study depicts some of the more commonly used ones across india. 24 the reference values for the capital expenditure are obtained from cpcb; see table a4 ijn annexure for estimates scaled down for 200 kld plant. [93] vasudha chopra and sukanya das table 5: technology input cost technology total capital expenditure (rs. ‗000) total annual operating expenditure (rs. ‗000) sbr 644.4 – 5118.8 317.8 mbbr 410.6 – 6256.4 24 – 92.6 mbr 12200 13530 477.8 source: starkl et al. (2018) treatment plant: (1) capacity of 200 kld (for 350-400 households); (2) secondary treatment along with secondary sludge handling; (3) 100-150 m2 land area requirement; (4) gardening and toilet flushing reuse; (5) bod and ss standards. starkl et al. (2018) estimated cost functions based on actual observed capital and maintenance costs of over 50 stps all over india using all widely available treatment technologies, including the four described in this study. starkl et al. (2018) calculated the capital expenditure and the o&m expenditure for different technologies per kld in order to account for scale economies.25 membrane bioreactor requires much higher capital and operating expenditure; however, it provides a higher output water quality. as per cpheeo guidelines,26 bod must be less than 10 mg/l and ss must be nil in order to reuse water for non-potable purposes (toilet flushing, surface irrigation). there exist trade-offs with respect to water quality standards and costs between mbr and mbbr, hence, there is no ideal technology that can be justified as the best for all criteria, and this fact is well-supported in the literature (starkl et al. 2018). giving higher preference to effluent standards, this study uses o&m costs for sbr and mbr that are borne by the beneficiary community, while the governing agency incurs capital costs as infrastructure investment. the total freshwater cost for community members after the scenario change has been portrayed for each consumer category in comparison to their average original freshwater bill (before scenario change) to assess the benefits (refer table 6). o&m costs were calculated for all societies based on total resident population. as the number of residents differs across societies, a range of o&m shares is provided (table a3). the new freshwater bill is calculated using two components, original freshwater bill less the reduction i.e. average water saving and o&m cost share for recycled water. 25 the values are time adjusted as per changes in indian rupee (rs.). 26 the analogous standards as per us epa (environmental protection agency) are less than 10 mg/l for bod and ss. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] table 6: comparison of scenario a and b in terms of freshwater bill consumer category avg. water saving (rs./month) avg. original freshwater bill (rs./month) new freshwater bill sbr (rs./month) new freshwater bill mbr (rs./month) 1(low) 14.68 241.14 285.31 – 358.87 314.94 – 425.54 2 (medium) 142.10 675.32 592.07 – 665.63 621.7 – 732.3 3 (high) 367.27 1378.57 1070.15 – 1143.71 1099.78 – 1210.38 source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data; o&m costs based on calculations by starkl et al. (2018). based on the above comparison, it can be concluded that low category users do not benefit (the new bill is higher). however, it must be noted that here the division among residents is equal,27 whereas the water bill reduction isn‘t. the medium and high consumption users benefit more from the scenario change based on the sbr technology as their total cost of water reduces even assuming the higher range value. high category users particularly get a sizeable reduction in their freshwater bill, that is rs. 367, and benefit the most from such a decentralized stp construction and water reuse. 6. study limitations the contingent valuation method, a stated preference approach, is prone to certain biases given its very nature. some of those are mentioned in section 4 along with efforts to minimize the same. other plausible biases include hypothetical bias, that is an overestimation of wtp given that consumers do not make choices subject to a budget constraint (whittington 2010). cv studies may also be prone to an enumerator bias, that is people expressing positive willingness to pay in order to satisfy the interviewer (whittington 2010). prior literature finds that these biases do not exist at least at a statistically significant level, that is the revealed and stated preferences are quite similar for the context of developed countries (carson et al. 1996). however, there are mixed findings with respect to developing countries. whittington (2010) points out that there are two scenarios wherein the revealed preferences could deviate from the stated ones, that is in case of voluntary contributions. however, in this study, the participants were explained potential savings in the water bill, so contribution does have some future benefit which could reduce the bias to an extent. the other 27 there exist alternatives for proportional contribution based on water consumption and saving. [95] vasudha chopra and sukanya das scenario is a hypothetical choice in laboratory settings, which does not apply to a field setting. the study is based on a small sample size; however, it does not cause any statistical significance issues. it seems large enough to obtain mean effects for wtp and its determinants. although respondents were told about non-potable reuse of recycled wastewater, the questionnaire did not specifically mention toilet flushing to avoid any misgivings. also, there were some households for which data was not consistent, that is even with same water consumption for two households, they had a slightly different bill, which points out potential inconsistencies with water meters that measure consumption. with respect to ceew cost estimates, it is subject to the issue of scaling down due to the presence of scale economies. however, to overcome that cost estimates provided by starkl et al. (2018) for a plant as small as 1 kld are employed. since these cost estimates are fitted regressions based on a sample of 50 stps, these are not free from the errors of fitted cost regression lines. the study is largely focused on the computation of benefits. however, costs provide a good perspective in terms of assessment of net benefits. the scope of this study far exceeds the calculation of net present valued benefits and payback period, which are interesting future research avenues. based on a similar survey, the study can be replicated for the entire delhi region and other states. this study may be generalized, to an extent, to residential societies in delhi with common trends with respect to different socioeconomic characteristics such as income, education, etc. the societies that were surveyed for this study also contained a mix of middle-income and high-income households. it may not, however, be generalized at the state or national level given the different socio-economic characteristics of residents as well as differences in cooperation levels within societies. 7. conclusion wastewater reclamation has been a subject of considerable attention especially with respect to industries and agricultural reuse. however, this study aims at extending it to the domestic sector. the study utilized primary field data that was beneficial in raising awareness about water reuse and wastewater treatment among individuals. this was essential given awareness is a direct determinant of contribution towards a cleaner environment. this result is in line with studies done in major districts of canada, where prior awareness contributes to a higher wtp for a wastewater infrastructure project (rollins et al. 1997). as economic theory dictates, socio-economic and demographic characteristics (gender, income) significantly determine whether a household will choose to participate in the contingent market. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [96] overall, the survey reveals that 30% of the urban population living in residential colonies of new delhi is still unaware of wastewater treatment. the analysis concludes that medium and high usage consumers benefit the most based on technology choices. however, for low and medium users paying for expensive technology, that is mbr, the government must offer some subsidy in order to make them at least as better off as before. for low usage consumers, the study recommends a subsidy of at least rs. 73 a month considering the lower threshold of range for freshwater with mbr technology (table 6), and for medium usage consumers, a subsidy of at the most rs. 57 a month considering the higher threshold. hence, co-financed decentralized stps will benefit28 the urban residential colonies in delhi. this analysis is based on adapted suitable cost estimates that may be subject to error and whether the households adopt the practice voluntarily or otherwise is not the focus. however, it is another way forward for any extensions to the context of urban cities in india. 8. policy implications awareness of all individuals must be augmented in order to tackle environmental problems with suitable incentives. in fact, as mentioned in the paper, delhi government could think about replicating a mandatory framework used in the context of chennai. in addition, in kerala, the newly built residential buildings also include the construction costs of the wwtp within the cost of the house, therefore ensuring the residents finance the public good. to deal with lack of trust in local bodies, transparency and effective policy implementation can be targeted. the government can introduce a subsidy scheme for households that participate in water conservation such that they can be incentivised, and possibly other households can be motivated to invest in environmental protection. given that co-funding leads to some reduction in spending by the government, it would be interesting to try and assess whether a subsidy can be constructed that leaves everyone at least as better off as before. this gives way to potential savings in water bill and environmental benefits from cleaner drains. this study suggests a possible way of creating environmental and monetary benefits not only for the new apartment buildings but also for existing residential colonies. this, of course, depends on additional safeguards that treatment plants run at full capacity and are economically viable. although the study might inform policy, it is far from providing a well-structured policy, for which further research is encouraged on 28 these results are based on cost estimates that may change overtime and hence, are subject to dynamics of freshwater price changes and changes in o&m costs. 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"list of districts of delhi." accessed february 17, 2019. under free to use or share license (non-commercially). accessed on february 17, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4296/cwrj2202185 https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/decentralized-wastewater-management-overview-community-initiatives-new-delhi-vigyan-vijay https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/decentralized-wastewater-management-overview-community-initiatives-new-delhi-vigyan-vijay https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2018.03.002 https://www.thethirdpole.net/hi/2017/05/15/rethinking-wastewater-management-in-india/ https://www.thethirdpole.net/hi/2017/05/15/rethinking-wastewater-management-in-india/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2007.12.028 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.resource.012809.103908 https://doi.org/10.1029/93wr00184 [101] vasudha chopra and sukanya das figure a1: survey areas in new delhi 33 21 27 12 31 17 14 12 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 respondents source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data annexure a table a1: description of variables name of variable definition type age the age of a person in completed years that relates to his / her last birthday prior to the date of enquiry. discrete education the highest general and technical education levels attained by the person determine what is known as educational standard. categorical occupation the nature of economic activity performed by a person is his/her occupation. categorical female identifies the gender of the respondent. the dummy = 1 if respondent is a female, 0 otherwise. binary monthly income the monthly income includes all income accruing from economic activity i.e. wage/salaried employed. continuous awareness dummy = 1 if the respondent is aware about wastewater disposal and related services, 0 otherwise. binary children equal to the no. of children born to the respondent. discrete sewer drain pollution =1 if the respondent faces pollution from uncovered sewer drain, 0 otherwise. binary toilets equal to the no. of toilets/washrooms that are used in a respondent‘s household. discrete source: nsso (2001) for first three variables, and authors‘ own compilation for the rest. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [102] table a2: comparison of average wtp, average water saving & average water bill consumer category water consumption (kl / month) no. of observations average water saving (kl/month) average water saving (rs./ month) average wtp (rs./ month) average freshwater bill (rs. / month) 1(low) 0-20 57 2.09 14.68 97.89 241.14 2 (medium) 20-30 88 4.04 142.10 165.85 675.32 3 (high) above 30 14 6.27 367.27 127.5 1378.57 source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data note: the average freshwater bill is based on full consumption quantity, however, average wtp is based on the use of treated water for non-potable purposes, majorly toilet flushing, as freshwater saving potential measured in kl. the average saving is through the reduction in water bill as a result of reduced consumption of freshwater. table a3: computation of o&m cost consumer category water consumption (kl) average water saving (kl) average water saving (rs.) average wtp (rs.) average freshwater bill (rs.) o&m – sbr (rs.) o&m – mbr (rs.) 1 (low) 0-20 2.09 14.68 97.89 241.14 58.85 – 132.41 88.48 – 199.08 2 (medium) 20-30 4.04 142.10 165.85 675.32 58.85 – 132.41 88.48 – 199.08 3 (high) above 30 6.27 367.27 127.5 1378.57 58.85 – 132.41 88.48 – 199.08 source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data; o&m costs based on calculations by starkl et al. (2018). note: all figures are per month. [103] vasudha chopra and sukanya das table a4: technology input cost (based on ceew estimates) technology total capital expenditure* (rs. ‗000) annual operating expenditure (rs. ‗000) total annual operating expenditure (rs. ‗000) power repairs chemical manpower activated sludge process (asp) 2000 80.8 30 17 13.4 141.2 sequencin g batch reactor (sbr) 1800 66.8 23.2 17 8.2 115.2 moving bed biological reactor (mbbr) 1800 97.4 24.4 17 9.8 148.6 membrane bioreactor (mbr) 6400 132.4 44 132 24 332.4 source: sugam, jain and neog (2017) note: * signifies including land cost table a5: average wtp by society area average wtp (rs./month) total population of the society (no. of households) dwarka 181.61 400 paschim vihar (two societies) 152.18 400 paschim puri 165.5 250 punjabi bagh 196.85 200 tilak nagar 200.83 350 preet vihar 173.25 300 shalimar bagh 182.11 400 vasant kunj 101.25 450 source: authors‘ calculations based on field survey data ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [104] table a6: description of technologies technology description activated sludge process (asp) the first process requires aeration tank that uses oxygen to break down the bod components and a clarifier in the secondary process in order to separate sludge. sequencing batch reactor (sbr) involves three processes in a sequence—fill-aeration, settling and decantation to remove organic matter. moving bed biological reactor (mbbr) like asp, it uses aeration tank in order to treat the wastewater. membrane bioreactor (mbr) amalgamation of activated sludge process and microfiltration in order to treat wastewater. source: kamyotra and bhardwaj (2011) annexure b 1. instructions/introduction for each respondent (before the survey questionnaire)29 hello, my name is vasudha chopra and i am a master‘s student at teri university pursuing m.sc. economics. i am working on a study for my master‘s thesis that focuses on wastewater treatment. this is a field experiment in the economics of decision making. would you like to participate for a short interview? i have a short questionnaire form with me for you to fill based on your true preferences in wastewater treatment and reuse (for non-potable purposes i.e. gardening, toilet flushing, cleaning of cars etc.). some of the information is also contained in the questionnaire. if there are any questions or confusions while filling it out, please feel free to ask me to explain. before starting, i would like to stress on the fact that i want you to answer in line with your true preferences as re-use of recycled water leads to monetary saving in freshwater bill. thank you. 2. questionnaire a. household profile 1. name and address of respondent: name (optional); address; residing area; mobile/telephone (optional) 29 while this script was written out initially, it was made sure that the interviewer memorizes the same and speaks out loud while quickly introducing himself/herself to the respondent and asking for permission to be interviewed. if the permission wasn‘t granted, then another random household was picked and so on. [105] vasudha chopra and sukanya das 2. age (in years) of the respondent: __ 3. gender of the respondent: choose from  male; female 4. no. of members in the household (including you): __ 5. caste affiliation of the respondent: choose from  general; scheduled tribe; scheduled caste; other backward caste 6. education status of respondent: choose from  illiterate; higher secondary (up to age of 18); up to primary education (up to the age of 11); graduate; secondary school education (up to the age of 16); post graduate and above 7. education status of decision maker: choose from  illiterate; higher secondary (up to age of 18); up to primary education (up to the age of 11); graduate; secondary school education (up to the age of 16); post graduate and above 8. main occupation of respondent: choose from  service; student; self-employed; worker; pensioner/retiree; unemployed; other (if, specify __) 9. main occupation of decision maker: choose from  service; student; selfemployed; worker; pensioner/retiree; unemployed; other (if, specify __) 10. which class best describes your total monthly household income? choose from  less than rs. 10,000; rs. 20,000 rs. 30,000; rs. 40,000 rs. 50,000; rs. 10,000 rs. 20,000; rs. 30,000 rs. 40,000; higher than 50,000 11. how much is your approximate monthly household expenditure on food items?__ 12. number of children in your home, if any? __ 13. since how many years have you been living in your home? __ 14. do you own or rent your home? choose from  own house; rented house 15. provide the no. of toilets in the house? __ b. household provision of existing sewerage and water services: 16. what are the sources for potable water (drinking/cooking)? choose from piped water connection; rainwater; public tap; bottled/canned water; bore well/tube well/dug well; surface water (river, pond, canal etc.) 17. what are the sources for non-potable water (bathing/washing/cleaning etc.)? choose from piped water connection; rainwater; public tap; bottled/canned water; bore well/tube well/dug well; surface water (river, pond, canal etc.) 18. how much is your monthly household consumption of water (in kilolitres or units)? __ 19. how much is your average monthly water bill (in rupees)? rs. __ ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [106] 20. how much was the water consumption last year? __kl c. warm up and awareness questions 21. do you know where the household wastewater is being disposed? choose from  central sewerage system; groundwater seepage; river; roadside drains / sewer drains; canal; do not know 22. are you aware that the domestic wastewater is being treated in a sewage treatment plant? choose from  yes; no; do not know 23. are you aware of existence of stps owned by the government in order to treat wastewater in your society? choose from  yes; no; do not know 24. is there a sewer drain nearby your area? choose from  yes; no; do not know 25. how would you describe water quality of sewer drain in your area? choose from  very poor; poor; adequate; good; very good; do not know 26. how are the sanitation facilities in your society? choose from  excellent; adequate; very poor; good; poor; do not know 27. if you answered poor or very poor to the previous question, then how many times have you suffered from illness in the last 5 years? __ 28. are you suffering from pollution due to the sewer drain? choose from  yes; no; do not know 29. if a sewer drain exists nearby then have you experienced any illness due to its pollution in the last 5 years? choose from  yes; no; do not know. d. perception about environmental quality 30. which statement do you agree with the most? choose from  wastewater treatment is very important regardless the cost; wastewater treatment is important while holding the current cost; wastewater treatment is sufficient and we should cut down on cost. 31. cleaning of the nearby sewer drain may have various benefits, which among the following are the most important for your residing area? express your preference in order from 1 to 6 (1 signifies most important; 6 signifies least important)  eliminates odor; eliminates insects and mosquitoes; avoid groundwater contamination; reduce pollution; reduce health problems; lower the degradation of the environment 32. treatment of domestic wastewater may have various benefits, which among the following are the most important according to you? express your preference in order from 1 to 5 (1 signifies most important; 5 signifies least important)  water recycling and reuse; lower water pollution; improving health situation; conservation of scarce freshwater; protection of the environment [107] vasudha chopra and sukanya das 33. in order for conserving the scarce freshwater in india, treatment and reuse of domestic wastewater would be: choose from  very important; somewhat important; not important; important; less important e. contingent valuation o huge wastewater generation from households in delhi o only 55% of this wastewater is treated currently o causes enormous environmental and water pollution, groundwater contamination as well as health problems o there is a need for treatment of the remaining untreated wastewater current scenario (a): there is no treatment plant set up near your society. the stps by the government only partially treat the wastewater. o there is an environmental degradation involving groundwater depletion. o the untreated wastewater and poorly managed sewer drains cause health problems. improved scenario (b): a treatment plant is set up near your society which treats the wastewater and this can be reused for non-potable purposes like cleaning of cars and gardening. o water bill reduces since now fresh water is not being used for a few non-potable purposes. o there is an environmental improvement and due to better management of water in sewer drains there are lower health problems in your area. 34. suppose that wastewater plant were to be constructed, this will result in an improvement in the quality of environment from scenario a to b. would you be willing to pay higher water and sewage taxes for environmental improvement? choose from  yes; no; do not know 35. if you answered yes to q34, what amount are you willing to pay per month? choose from  rs. 95; rs. 114; rs. 142; rs. 161; rs. 190; rs. 237; rs. 256; rs. 285; rs. 304; rs. 332; none of the mentioned; if any other amount, rs. __. 36. if you chose none of the above for q35, would you be willing to pay a lower amount per month for the improvement of the environment? choose from  rs. 47; rs. 66; rs. 95; rs. 114; rs. 142; rs. 161; rs. 190; rs. 209; none of the above 37. would you be willing to pay a higher amount for environmental improvement than the ones offered before? choose from  yes; no; do not know 38. if you answered yes to q37, how much are you willing to pay for environmental improvement? choose from  rs. 190; rs. 285; rs. 380; rs. 475; rs. 237; rs. 332; rs. 427 39. if you are willing to pay for environmental improvement then please state your motivation to do so: choose from  wastewater management problem is important; enjoy contributing for a cleaner environment; protection of environment for future generations; water is being over-utilized and its ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [108] conservation is important; enjoy contributing for other reasons; other reasons if any 40. if you are not willing to pay for environmental improvement then state your reasons: choose from  the government should pay for water conservation rather than introducing new taxes; cannot afford to pay more taxes; not interested in paying for wastewater management; not interested in paying for a cleaner environment; this problem is not a priority; water is not being over-utilized and there is no need for water conservation ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 6(2): 59-81, july 2023 research paper exploring the “green”: a review of environment and ecology as embedded in the historical literature of pre-colonial assam anurag borah* abstract: “green history” in general refers to environmental history that traces the development of human–nature relationships and patterns of natural resource extraction and mobilization in our past. needless to say, a concern for the “green” is becoming a fast-developing field of enquiry given the growing incidence of environmental hazards across the world. however, comparatively, in india, environmental history is yet to make much headway. that is why david arnold and ramchandra guha, the pioneers of environmental history in india, have remarked that environmental history in india, and south asia in general, is under-developed as a discipline. assam, situated in the north-eastern part of india, has always been known for its rich flora and fauna and diverse biodiversity hot spots. this region shows a great diversity of climate, topography, and geology, which explains the rich biological diversity of this part of the country. but, interestingly enough, very few studies have been undertaken to examine the environmental history of assam, and most of them are on the colonial period. this paper aims to review particular references to the ecology and environment of pre-colonial assam that are embedded in the available historical literature. keywords: green history, environmental history, ecology, kamarupa, ahom kingdom, buranji, pre-colonial assam 1. introduction till at least a few years ago, when talking about the environmental history of india, the pre-colonial period was used only as a standard or reference point to understand how things changed or stayed the same in the nineteenth century and afterwards. the notion of a “static” pre-colonial india is often still dominant in the historiography of environmental history. * assistant professor, rangia college, department. of history, kamrup, assam, india. pin 781354. its_me_anurag@yahoo.com. copyright © borah 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.722 mailto:its_me_anurag@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.722 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] in the case of assam, the region’s environmental history is relatively unknown, particularly during the pre-colonial period. one of the reasons for this void is the lack of written records, as most of them date only from the thirteenth century onwards, from the advent of the ahoms. another reason is the lack of attention given to the natural environment in historical records. records from the ahom period primarily focus on political and social events—such as wars and dynastic changes—rather than on the natural environment. this is not unique to pre-colonial assam and is a common issue in many historical records from around the world. in recent years, scholars like rajib handique and arupjyoti saikia have increasingly turned their attention to the environmental history of assam, but their studies primarily focus on the colonial period. in british forest policy in assam, handique (2004) attempts to analyse the british forest policy from 1864 to 1947 ad in the context of assam, while in forests and ecological history of assam, 1826–2000, saikia (2011) comprehensively describes the changes in assam’s forests and ecology from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. however, in the recently published the unquiet river: a biography of the brahmaputra, saikia (2019) throws some light on the dependence of the ahoms on the brahmaputra and its tributaries for farming, irrigation, military defence mechanisms, etc. while there is still much to learn, there are ways to reconstruct the environmental history of pre-colonial assam. we observe a similar notion in the colonial perception of an “a-historical” india. romila thapar, in her erudite essay, “society and historical consciousness: the itihasa–purana tradition” states that we can use two terms to express historical consciousness of a time: “embedded history” (in which historical consciousness has to be prized out),and its opposite, “externalized history” (thapar 1986). the same phenomenon can be seen in the case of the environmental history of assam as well. as e. h. carr states, “the facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the door, and in what order or context” (carr 2018, 11). literary sources on assam’s history never considered the environmental aspects of the green world to be significant enough to incorporate them within their corpus, and the instances are therefore more-or-less embedded in nature and hence deserve close scrutiny. 2. methods the methodology adopted for this study is both descriptive and historical– analytical in nature. this study has been conducted as an empirical research, in the form of content analysis, using qualitative data. the sources of data include both primary as well as secondary sources available in the form of [61] borah books, lectures, articles, seminars, etc. the major primary texts that have been consulted include the kalika purana, deodhai asam buranji, purani asam buranji, asam buranji, satsari asam buranji, tungkhungia buranji, baharistan-ighaibi, hasti vidyarnava, fathiya-i-ibriyya, and the katha guru carit. the study focuses on the early and medieval periods of assam’s history and therefore concentrates on the period from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries ad. due care has been taken to make the interpretations rational and scientific. 3. results and discussion religious texts can provide valuable insights into the environmental history of a region by offering information on the beliefs and practices of the people who lived in that particular region. many religions have teachings and rituals that are closely tied to the natural environment, and religious texts often contain references to plants, animals, and natural phenomena that are important to the people who practise that religion. by analysing these texts, historians can gain insights into the beliefs, practices, and attitudes of the people who lived in the region, and they can use this information to develop a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between human societies and the natural environment. the kalika purana, one of the 18 minor puranas in the shaktism branch of hinduism, and written in the early kamarupa region of assam, is centred on the supremacy of the goddess in her regional manifestation as devi kamakhya. though the kalika purana is devoted mainly to the religious history of early assam, we find different places, tirthas (pilgrimage spots), rivers, rivulets, hills, hillocks, lakes, ponds, groves, and forests that are sacred to various gods and goddesses. with respect to topographical descriptions, the kalika purana looks mature enough, because it tries to conceptualize geography not only in terms of terrain names, but also in terms of cosmology and climate. a section of the kalika purana, chapters 78–80, is especially devoted to extolling the geography of kamarupa and the various places within it. in chapter 55, under the title “offering sacrifice to the goddess”, the kalika purana mentions different plants and animals. describing the entry of naraka into the city of pragjyotispura, it states: then the city of pragjyotisa being inhabited by the delightful and energetic people, full of herds of cattle, horses and elephants started shining again in splendour and became free from the impediments and calamities, and looked like amaravati, the favourite city of indra. (shastri 1994) ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] table 1: identification of current geographical locations from the data of the kalika purana geographical location in kalika purana in reference to deity/perso n chapter of kalika purana present name present locatio n “kamarupa” chapters 78–80 kamrup kamrup “tattvasaila” sri surya chapters 78–80 sri surya pahar goalpar a “manikuta” hayagriva chapters 78–80 hayagrivamadhava kamrup “asvakranta” chapters 78–80 asvakrant a devalaya kamrup “manikuta” manikarna chapters 78–80 manikarne swara temple kamrup “matsyadhvaj a” madana chapters 78–80 madankamdev kamrup west of “nilakuta” pandunath chapters 78–80 pandunath devalaya kamrup “nilakuta” chapters 78–80 nilachal kamrup east of “nilakuta” ugratara chapters 78–80 ugratara temple kamrup “urvasikunda ” chapters 78–80 urvasi island kamrup “citracala” worship of nine planets chapters 78–80 navagraha of citracala kamrup “sandhyacala” sage vasistha chapters 78–80 vasisthasr ama on sandhyaca la kamrup [63] borah source: kalika purana (shastri 1994) the kalika purana recommends worshipping the goddess by offering various forest products such as gourds, coconuts, dates, breadfruit, grapes, mangoes, bael fruits, citrons, water chestnuts, betelnuts, roots, rose apples, indian persimmons, dairy products, sugar lumps, various varieties of honey, parched grains, rice, fruits, sugarcane, white sugar, gooseberries, and oranges. in the kalika purana, animals were generally treated as mere offerings to the deity, which was a major feature of the saktism and tantrism that prevailed in early assam (shastri 1994). it was believed that by offering sacrifices of tortoises, alligators, he-goats, boar, buffalo, lizards, deer, yak, spotted antelope, hares, lions, and other animals, a devotee could achieve liberation, and, specifically, a king could defeat enemy kings. the prime flowers used as offerings to deities included kadamba (neolamarckia cadamba), jati (jasminum grandiflorum), mallika (jasminum sambac), maloti (aganosma calycina), kamala (nelumbo nucifera), tulasi (ocimum sanctum), utpala (nymphaea stellata), and bakula (mimusops elengi). the enormous territory of early kamarupa previously abounded with forests, hills, and rivers. the kalika purana states that of these, more than 50 different hills and rivers (most of which were regarded sacred) seemed to have been situated in the region of assam. rivers and mountains were treated as holy manifestations, and their names were inspired by brahmanical hinduism, while the physical environment was viewed with religious fervour. the kalika purana deified the rivers and mountains and promoted them as places of pilgrimage (tirthas), thus forging a relationship between pilgrims and nature. consequently, it played a seminal role in drawing people’s attention to the natural environment as well as instilling in them a wholesome respect for it. moreover, it also can be assumed that the purana writers bestowed sanctity upon them with the aim of promoting conservation of these natural resources (nath 2009). some geographical locations mentioned in the kalika purana that can be identified with present-day sites are described in table 1. the kalika purana text can also be seen from the perspective of ecofeminism. the kalika purana revolves around the magnificence and worship of the goddess kamakhya, who is referred to as a manifestation of the all-encompassing goddess mahamaya. the goddess is portrayed as the supreme deity in various portions of the book. the devi is regarded as the cause of the universe, without which creation is impossible. it is one of the few upapuranas that claim the goddess as the supreme being, as opposed to the male gods brahma, vishnu, and siva. kamakhya’s special powers are love, attraction, and sexual fulfilment. according to ecofeminism, the female body is believed to be the site where life can emerge, just as forests ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] provide a habitat for a diverse range of plants and wildlife. both forests and women’s wombs provide space for life to emerge, grow, and develop. forests offer enough nutrients for flora and fauna to stay alive and thrive, while a woman’s womb provides a safe haven for the advent of life. nature is the womb: a place and space where life begins, is born, and develops. in the same vein, the kalika purana states: sā śaktiḥ sṛṣṭirupā ca sarveṣāṁ khyātirīśvarī/ kṣamā kṣamāvatāṁ nityaṁ karuṇā sā dayāvatām// (shastri 1994, 140) (transl.: the goddess is the creative energy behind everything and is recognized as knowable. she is forgiveness for those who possess it, and kindness for those who are merciful.) ecofeminists believe that nature and women are producers of life as they give life to all creatures. according to vandana shiva, women's effort in generating food and life is a truly productive relationship with nature, since throughout human history, they did more than just gather and consume what grew there; they also created conditions for things to thrive (shiva 2016). hugh urban claims that kamakhya can be seen as a “matrix of power”, since she is both the generative mother of the universe (sanskrit matr, matrka, which is etymologically related to latin mater, matrix), and the life force (power) that permeates all of its constituent elements (urban 2011). the divine force of the goddess, known as sakti, infuses the cosmos, society, and the human form alike, and it is the source of all finite existence. sakti is the power of birth and death and production and destruction. she manifests herself in all the universes, helps them, and will eventually incorporate them back into herself (woodroffe 2014). echoing this notion of ecofeminism, the kalika purana declares: utpannamaṅkaraṁ bījād yathāpo meghasambhavāḥ/ prarohayati sā jantūstathotpannān prarohayet//(shastri 1994, 153) (transl.: the cloud’s rainwater helps the sprouts that sprung from the seeds to grow in the same way that she causes the creatures to mature once they are born.) apart from religious texts like the kalika purana, other sources such as the ahom chronicles, hagiographies, and inscriptions from early and medieval assam offer some unique insights into the different natural components of the region such as the rivers, forests, and wildlife. rivers have been a vital source of water, food, and transportation for humans and wildlife alike in almost every civilization. they have also been instrumental in the [65] borah development of human societies, providing a means of communication and trade. the brahmaputra in assam is a massive river that has influenced the region in numerous ways. according to the gauhati copperplate inscription of indrapala, it was named lauhitya because its waters were reddened by the thick blood shed by the axe of parasurama (shastri 1994). we also find several references regarding the rivers of this region in the buranji literature. the ahoms were experts in hydraulic engineering and could build intricate networks of dams and embankments to regulate river flow and stop flooding. the rivers of assam not only guaranteed a consistent supply of water of a quality that was suitable for rice cultivation, but the annual flooding also guaranteed the deposition of silt in the soil, which further enhanced the conditions needed for wet rice farming. when the varman dynasty first came into being, water management was in its infancy (lahiri 1984). references to field ridges (ksetra ali) and bunds (vrhad ali) over fields can be found as far back as in the eleventh-century copperplate grants from the western part of the valley. references to ships and boats are crucial when discussing the environmental history of a region, especially in areas that are heavily reliant on waterways for transportation, commerce, and military activities. in assam, where multiple rivers dominate the landscape, the ahoms’ high regard for the naval department facilitated the development of a highly effective military apparatus. the rivers would serve as a means for conducting offensive and defensive operations for the state. the ahoms realized this and gave their naval department considerable attention (saikia 2019). most of the ahom chronicles acknowledge the existence of khels (work groups) dedicated specifically to boat construction and related industries. the deodhai buranji mentions the assignment of highranking phukan officers to oversee these spheres of activity—these officers included pani phukan, the admiral in charge of the lower assam flotilla; naoboicha phukan, in charge of the boatmen; naoshalia phukan, in charge of the boat builders and dockyards; and choladhara phukan, who oversaw the country’s commercial and foreign affairs, and maintained tight ties with maritime issues (bhuyan 1962). the rivers also had a tremendous impact on the transition and transformation of the medieval polity. the famous battle of saraighat (1671 ad) between the ahoms and the mughals was fought on the brahmaputra, and on many occasions, the ahom army used their excellent knowledge of the river and its floodplains to chase off the mughal army (saikia 2019). the ahom kings, after losing battles against the mughals, created an artificial flood in their kingdom by funnelling the nearby rivers on to the land, which ultimately sent the enemies back home. these descriptions are available in different ahom chronicles, including the saraighat yuddhar katha, ram ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] simhar yuddhar katha, purani asamburanji, and deodhai asam buranji. water bodies like ponds, tanks, and lakes are important sources of water for human populations and wildlife, and they have been used for various purposes throughout history. there are many terms used in the inscriptions of early assam to describe ponds, tanks, and lakes. for example, the nidhanpur grant alludes to a pond called vyavaharikhasoka pusakarni and the nowgaon plate refers to sewaparyaddha pond (sharma 1978). the sualkuci grant and the guakuci grant mentions diyambara jola and strotasi jola or pond, respectively (ghosh 2014). the ahom kings also built several massive ponds for the welfare of nearby subjects in different corners of the kingdom. these ponds were well-maintained, and a layer of rah or para (mercury) was often laid on the bed of the ponds once the digging was completed. in addition to serving as a source of drinking water and to soak the kothiya (paddy shoots), these ponds were also intensely used for farming fish, nao khel (boat races), and other activities. when the pond was filled with spring water, several goldand silver-decorated fish and turtles would be released into it, as the ahoms believed this would keep the water clean (goswami 2020). the names of the ponds inferred from the buranji literature are presented in table 2, some of which can still be found in present assam. when the pond was established, a subway would be built along the main road, and trees such as aobar, ahot (peepal or strangler fig), joree, and bar (banyan tree) would be planted on both sides. people believed that the various gods living in these trees were responsible for the wellbeing of the state and the longevity of the king. special rituals would be also organized, in which mangalacharan (invocation) would be chanted by a mohan-deodhai pundit (a priest) near the tree’s foot and roots (goswami 2020). inscriptions from early assam suggest that the term “prayogvida” or medical men may have referred to physicians who used medicinal and herbal plants collected from the forest to treat diseases (nowgaon plate of balavarma) (sharma 1978). according to harjaravarma (tezpur inscription), boats and ships were common in the western part of assam. the fragmented nagarjai khanikargaon stone inscription, which dates back to the early fifth century, mentions a vatta or banyan tree. sarkara mula, a tuberous root of a class of creepers, is mentioned in the sualkuchi grant of ratnapala; archaeobotanists have identified it as a type of yam (sharma 1978). in early assam, the state promoted the donation of land to brahmans (agrahara settlements), which resulted in the expansion of large agrarian tracts. this trend continued under the medieval ahom kingdom in a more systematic and crystallized form through the paik system. the majority of the ahom chronicles talk [67] borah about the paik system and its management, but one has to minutely analyse these texts to understand its profound impact on the contemporary environment and ecology of the region. table 2: names of some ponds constructed by the ahom kings name of the pond patron king name of the buranji, page nos. kartowa pukhuri suhungmung purani asam buranji (ed. h. goswami),pg49 gorgaonor pukhuri gargaya raja assam buranji (ed. sk bhuyan), pg 25 nahor pukhuri khura raja asam buranji (ed. tamuli puhkan), pg 24 mechlow pukhuri khura raja asam buranji (ed. tamuli puhkan), pg 24 mechagarh pukhuri pratap simha assam buranji (ed. sk bhuyan), pg 51 rupahi pukhuri pratap simha assam buranji (ed. sk bhuyan), pg 56 rohdoi pukhuri gadadhar simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 60 jaysagar pukhuri rudra simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 60 sibsagar pukhuri siva simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 60 moglow pukhuri rajeshwar simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 75 rudrasagar pukhuri lakshmi simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 75 gauriballav pukhuri lakshmi simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 75 bishnusagar pukhuri chandrakanta simha asam buranji (ed. sadaramin), pg 79 source: ahom buranjis mentioned within the table the density of the forests of the region can be gauged using references from the ahom chronicles. during the advent of the ahoms in the thirteenth century, the forest cover in the brahmaputra valley was enormous. buranji literature, such as the deodhai asam buranji, maintains that sukafa, the founder of ahom kingdom in assam, travelled through the patkai mountain range where various naga tribes lived, and that the road that crossed patkai into the plains was flanked with towering forests so dense that even narrow beams of sunlight were blocked (bhuyan 1962). it took six consecutive months for momai tamuli barbarua, minister and commander-in-chief under the ahom ruler pratap simha, to clear the bamboo forests and reeds and to establish the choki barracks at the mouth of the kapili river (baruah 1995). it was for its agar wood and elephants ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] that the ahom state experienced repeated mughal invasions through the seventeenth century. it was difficult to fight battles in the brahmaputra basin due to the presence of dense trees and the lack of large open spaces. sihabuddin talish, a foreign traveller who accompanied mir jumla on his expedition to the ahom kingdom in the seventeenth century, has provided a vivid description of the obstacles the mughal army encountered as it entered assam. mir jumla, the supreme commander of the invading armies, personally supervised the battle against nature, as soldiers dedicated themselves to chopping the impenetrable trees (nath 2019). talish noted that the trees of the valley were quite large, thick, and strong: from kaliabar to gargaon, houses and orchards full of fruit trees stretch in an unbroken line, and on both sides of the road, shady bamboo groves raise their heads to the sky. many varieties of sweet-scented and garden flowers bloom here and from the rear of the bamboo groves up to the foot of the hills there are cultivated fields and garden. (sarkar 1915, 185) the ahoms exploited the forest resources in a systematic and planned manner. this notion goes, however, against the opinions of madhav gadgil, ramchandra guha, and vandana shiva, who claim that there was minimal intervention by the pre-colonial state (gadgil and guha 1993; shiva 2016). these scholars blame the british for their interventionist stance in attempting to manage and control natural resources, not for conservation purposes, but also to increase tax revenue. however, it may be misleading to assign interventionism solely to colonial and post-colonial authorities. the ahoms were skilled in exploiting the natural resources of the region, which helped them develop a prosperous and culturally rich state that lasted for several centuries. in the ahom state, many khels (organised working groups under the ahom administration) were involved in various facets of forest management and utilization. forest organization encompassed, among other things, the construction of forest paths and wooden pillars; the supply of timber, wood, and bamboo; the collection of thatch and other natural products for royal use; and the use of forest products for commercial and architectural purposes. the ahom buranjis mention different kinds of such khels—which shows that a targeted approach was taken by the ahom state in extracting natural resources. it is interesting to note that sumit guha strongly contests the notions of gadgil and guha (1993) and shiva (2016) on the prudent use of natural resources by traditional societies in his research on the khandesh region, which was controlled by the marathas (guha 2002). mayank kumar offers a similar analysis regarding rajasthan (kumar 2005). pre-colonial literature on assam also paints a similar picture of this region. the [69] borah management and appropriation of natural resources was a high priority for the medieval ahom state, as it sought to ensure stable and consistent revenue. table 3 uses the buranji literature to identify the khels engaged in targeted and specific extraction of forest products during ahom rule. table 3: resource extraction by the ahoms via specific khels nameofkhel purpose charaimaria khel bird shooters pahumaria khel deer hunters pakhimaria khel feather hunters baghamaria khel tiger hunters khari-jogania khel firewood suppliers kharicha-jogania khel suppliers of fermented bamboos kher-jogania khel thatch suppliers takaupat-joganiar khel suppliers of takau or fan palm leaves bahjogania khel bamboo suppliers kukurchungi khel game preservers for dogs pahuchungi khel game preservers for deer hatichungi khel game preservers for elephants namchungi khel lower valley game preservers charaichungi khel game preservers for birds chunibasa khel makers of forest road khutakatia khel makers of wooden pillar kharikatia khel woodcutters kathkatia khel timber cutters habichowa khel forest preservers source: ahom buranjis (g.c. barua 1930; g. barua 1972; tamuli-phukan 1906; sadaramin 1930; boruah 1992; bhuyan 1962; h. goswami 1922; bhuyan 1969, 1964) the ahom chronicles describe several extraction methods for the region’s unique natural resources. during the reign of the ahoms, the sands of numerous rivers held gold dust, and the woods were home to tusker elephants (goswami 2010). hence, the ivory carving and gold washing ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] industries characterized the pre-colonial economy of assam. the ahom chronicles of the nineteenth century provide quantitative estimates of the metals obtained from eastern assam (bhuyan 1969). gold was the most valuable metal available. historically, an entire community of gold-washers, called the sonowals, washed gold from the sands, suggesting that the operation was commercially viable. according to the ahom chronicles, every man earned one tolah(1 tolah=11.7 grams)of gold every year, which was paid to the king (goswami 2010). according to wade (1805), a sizeable amount of gold was discovered in nearly all the northern rivers. he reported that substantial quantities of gold were discovered in the sands of the brahmaputra, subansiri, dikrong, and borgang rivers. the gold found in meandering streams with the strongest currents was deemed the best (wade 1805). the ahoms were adept at cultivating silk, too, and utilized it to create exquisite textiles that were greatly coveted. the climate was conducive to the production of muga, endi, and pat silk, which constituted a cottage industry. the ahom chronicles demonstrate how the muga thread was traditionally harvested from cocoons or shells (bhuyan 1969). the grubs in the cocoons or shells containing the muga thread had to be destroyed by exposure to the sun or to fire before the thread can be extracted. in the subsequent step, they were boiled in an alkaline solution before the floss was removed and soaked in the water. silk could only be extracted from cocoons by a team of two people: one to extract the silk, and another to reel it. the first person gathers silk threads from anywhere between 7 and 20 cocoons, then passes them to the reeler, who rolls them on their own thigh using the palm of the right hand and the underside of their right forearm. the reeler uses their left hand to operate the bhangori(a reeling device) next to him. the central axle of the bhangori is pivotal to its operation. with this method, about half a seer’s (1 seer = 933.10 gram)worth of thread can be reeled off the axle at a time (basu 1970). during the ahom era, lime (a mineral) was extensively extracted from limestone. limestone was utilized in the construction of maidams or royal tombs, as well as in ramparts, bridges, temples, and burial sites. because the limestone in medieval assam was of the highest grade, buildings fashioned of it stand till today. according to the ahom chronicles, people searched for limestone in the hills during the dry season, brought it down the slopes, and collected it at a location called chunchali, where it was burnt to generate lime. chunchali (which is close to contemporary guwahati) and chunpura(which is close to contemporary sivasagar) were the two locations where limestone was burnt to create lime. limestone was discovered in [71] borah nambar, deopani, and hariyahjan under the ahoms (gohain 1999). mercury, or rah in assamese, is another element that appears frequently in the region’s written records. the ahoms used unique methods to extract juice from the leaves of the bael tree (aegle marmelos) to make para or rah. the para or rah ensured that the ahom monarchs’ tanks were always brimming with fresh and pure water (borboruah 1997). throughout their rule, the ahom monarchs dug several tanks whose water is still potable. rahdhala pathar (rah means mercury, dhala means pour, and pathar means field) still exists in the golaghat district, where rah or mercury was once generated. sihabuddin talish depicts the process used by the people of medieval assam to make a kind of alkali solution called khar or kharani (sarkar 1915). according to talish, after cutting the bananas to pieces, they dried them in the sun and burnt them at first. after that, they put the ashes on a piece of fine linen above a pot and gradually sprinkled water on the cloth. they used the extremely brackish and bitter drippings as a substitute for salt. he also noted that such a practice has not been seen anywhere else in the whole of india. while the ahoms faced periodic muslim invasions, the ahom rulers mandated that every assamese family supply the royal armoury by providing a set quantity of saltpetre (gunpowder), a naturally occurring mineral, wrapped in takau pat or fan palm leaves (handique 2005). according to the buranji literature, the populace produced saltpetre from cow urine and delivered it to the state’s arsenal through an officer named kharghoria phukan (handique 2005). according to tavernier, the assamese were the first to discover the gun and gunpowder (tavernier 1889), and the fathiyah-i-ibriyah states that the assamese employed various types of gunpowder (sarkar 1915). during the time of the ahoms, massive cowsheds were created, and cows (especially those black in colour) were held there for six months. their urine was collected, dried, and used to create saltpetre through the use of a white-coloured fungus that grew on it. the cows would then be released, and the cowsheds closed for several months (borboruah 1997). the buranji literature of medieval assam details the extreme diversity of the region’s economic goods. the ahoms engaged in trade with neighbouring kingdoms and regions, utilizing the brahmaputra river and trading routes to transport agricultural goods, forest products, metals, and minerals. cotton, indian madder (mujistha), fir trees (agar), gold, musk, ponies, mustard seed, tobacco, betelnut, lac, endi and muga silk, elephant tusks, and rhino horns were among the items exported to bengal (bhuyan 1962). natural products formed the basis of trade between the ahom state and neighbouring tribes. in addition to bengal and tibet, the tungkhungia ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] buranji indicates that the ahoms engaged in trade with the dafla, mishmi, miri, naga, and garo regions. they exchanged items such as ginger, pepper, copper, cotton, musk, cow tails, bison, and horses (bhuyan 1964). the ahoms also devised a taxation system for the many natural products within their territory. products like elephant ivory, lac, and timber (such as aloes and agarwood) generated significant revenue for the royal treasury. according to prof. m. neog’s prāchya-śāsanāvalī, medieval inscriptions reveal a systematic pattern of natural resource extraction by the ahoms (see table 4), as evidenced by the various taxes documented (neog 1974). table 4: some taxes found in the medieval inscriptions name of the tax purpose of taxation beth the responsibility of catching wild elephants, buffaloes, etc. jalkar tax for fishing in rivers, lakes, etc. yavaksāra the responsibility of supplying nitre for the preparation of gun-power dāna sales tax; tax for ferrying over rivers, etc. ghāt tax on ferry crossings phāt customs duty, imposed on marketplaces, especially on the banks of a river or lake (called pāniphāt) source: prāchya-śāsanāvalī (neog 1974) humans have co-existed with beasts and birds—some hostile and others hospitable—since the beginning of creation. there are numerous proverbs or maxims available in the buranji literature that put together different names of animals, birds, plants, herbs, etc. for example, ghora konwar, on seeing a flash flood-like situation, insisted that lachit barphukan attack the mughals. however, barphukan declined, saying “kesha borolok jukale ga sariboloi taan (it is deadly to play with a young wasp).” actually, barphukan believed in tactical attacks rather than a straightforward aggressive entry into mughal territory, and therefore was reluctant to engage with the conscious and powerful mughal force without proper planning (bhuyan 1969). the ahom king, pratap simha, on ordering the assassination of bhandari gohain’s entire family, reportedly said “tita gasar aagu tita, guriu tita (if the stem of a plant is bitter, so is the root).” there are many similar examples that are available in the buranji literature: (a) “enduror mukhat kāhāni hastidāt goje?” [73] borah (does a rat ever produce the elephant’s tusk?) (b) “endur gātot jodi hasti sumāba pare tehe tāk dhoribo pāre” (a rat can be caught only if the size of the rat hole is big enough that an elephant can enter it.) (c) “khorāi parbat bogaise, bobā catur hoise, pacā kātharo gajāli āhise” (a lame person starts climbing mountains, a mute person speaks volubly, and rotten wood begins to sprout.) (d) “piṭhi dile hasti parbatako nedekhi” (an elephant can even block the sight of a huge mountain.) (e) “pahu khedā kukure khuj jodi pāle, si pahu nāpāi māne ereneki?” (if a hunting dog tracks a deer, then it does not leave off the hunt till successful.) (f) “ji siṁha haba śṛgālar agyāye hastik nahi mare” (one who is destined to become a lion never kills an elephant obeying the order of a fox.) (g) “uttam janak vākya gajadanta tulya, situ gajadanta neki kono kāle phire?” (the words of a noble man are like the elephant’s tusks, which never retract.) source: ahom buranjis (bhuyan 1962; goswami 1922; bhuyan 1969, 1964) besides the general descriptions of elephants in baharistan-i-ghaibi, medieval assamese writer sukumar barkaith’s hasti vidyarnava described in detail 148 types of ivory, as well as 17 types of female elephants with their characteristics, training methods, and more (bagchi 2008). due to the abundance of wild elephants in assam, elephant trapping as a profession increased, and elephantry consequently became an essential component of the ahom military (guha 1982). during medieval times, the ahom empire relied heavily on elephants to transport large goods. to this end, a department was created to collect and train elephants for both household and military usage (bhuyan 1964). throughout the medieval period, assam’s elephants, tusks, and ivory products were highly prized by outsiders. in 1808, assam traded ivory products worth ₹6,500 with other countries over the checkpoint at hadira choki (hamilton 1963). according to the copperplate inscription of devottara to devahari-brahman of srihati sattra, saka 1660, tarun duvara barphukan granted puras (1 pura= 2.5 acre) of faringati (comparatively high land used for dry crops) land in sonari village under chayania pargana (a group of villages) to one devahari-brahman, a resident of the sattra (institutional centres associated with neo-vaishnavite tradition of assam), for his knowledge of the ailments and treatments of elephants, on the orders of king siva simha (neog 1974). the rock inscription of saka 1570 (discovered in situ at phatasil duar in guwahati) states that during the reign of susenpha (alias pratap simha), barphukan (the son of barbarua) captured a vast quantity of elephants, horses, and weapons after defeating the mughal army (neog 1974). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] the ahoms were proficient hunters, and the region’s abundant animal populations provided them with a steady food supply. hunting also aided the ahoms in developing their military skills, which was crucial to their growth and consolidation of power. in addition, the most important games and sports of the ahoms were elephant fighting and falcon fighting. elephant fights were held in the area in front of rong ghar, the royal sports pavilion; while falcon fights were held at several convenient locations. on 24 november 1755, a french agent named jean-baptiste chevalier entered assam near goalpara and spent two months travelling up the brahmaputra to garhgaon. this was the former capital of the ahom empire, located 13 kilometres east of sivasagar, where king rajeshwar singh was the ahom ruler (reigned 1751–1769). during his stay at the court, chevalier wrote about a hunting party the king had organized: i was invited to the king’s hunting party, a show unimaginable in europe and something that deserves curiosity… the troops make an enclosure around the area with fences made of the stakes brought by them. outside the fence, a large scaffold like a giant watchtower is built for the king and his invitees to watch the show from a vantage point. after the arrival of these dignitaries, some men step inside the fence and set fire from all sides to the long dry straws, within which the trapped animals are hiding. the rising flames excite the animals which, in their rage and fury, try to escape from every side. as they throw themselves on the fence trying to break it, their dreadful howling and roaring fill the air. but instead of freedom, it is the spears held by the people positioned outside the fence that pierce their bodies. firing guns and darting arrows thrown by the amused king and his retinue spare no animal that passes back and forth below their scaffold. at last the hunt is over in a day as the flames eat up all the ferocious animals; thousands of wild buffaloes and elephants, quantities of tigers and rhinoceros are destroyed in an instant. it is a superb horror to see and to hear. (caroline dutta-baruah 2008, 29 ) in medieval assam, social concern for the environment manifested itself in various forms. the attitude towards nature is distinctly apparent in the teachings of sankaradeva, the instigator of the bhakti movement in medieval assam. sankaradeva believed that all living things, including plants and animals, had intrinsic value and should be honoured. he advocated non-violence and urged individuals to avoid harming or killing animals. in other words, sankaradeva’s philosophy implied a spiritual connection to the natural world and was based on the belief that nature might inspire individuals to live a decent and ethical life. sankaradeva's philosophy attributed everything to god, and he believed that recognizing god's [75] borah presence in every living thing could have a wonderful effect on civilization and its ecology, and help stop anthropocentric actions responsible for ecological devastation. in his religious worldview, god was inseparable from both man and nature. this view—of nature being a manifestation of god—is evident from sankaradeva’s literature: tumi paśu pakṣī surā nara taru trna ajnānata muḏhasabe dekhe bhinna bhinna (neog 1980, 84) (transl.: god lives within the animals, birds and the plants, but, due to ignorance, fools perceive these as different) in the kirtana, sankaradeva writes: kukkura sṛgāla gardavaro ātmān rama jāniyā savāko paḍi karibā praṇāma (neog 1980, 138) (transl.: the dog, the fox and donkeys too have god within them, and, realizing this, we should respect all the creations) sankaradeva remodelled his drama harmohana (from the bhagabat purana) by incorporating different plants from his locality, which demonstrates his familiarity with the bioregion. in the text, trees are revered and regarded as if they contain god. according to sankaradeva’s urekha barnan, circumambulating the bata briksha tree bestows divine happiness and can lead to moksha or spiritual enlightenment. it should be noted that during the medieval era, hunting was common, and hence animals and birds were vulnerable to human greed. however, sankaradeva was uncomfortable with this utilitarian approach and sought refuge in the divine. he believed that animals were divine components of the natural world and condemned cruelty to them in the strongest terms. through his concept of spiritual ecology, sankaradeva attempted to conquer the guilt associated with exploiting animals for human gain. when sankaradeva discovered a deer stuck in a hunter’s net, he chose to save the deer’s life by freeing it from the net (neog 1986). his ideology is characterized by a non-violent approach to all natural species. sankaradeva’s warning against oppression in nimi-navasiddha samvada states that one who overpowers others for the sake of one’s own body goes to hell after death. carit puthis or the hagiographies of medieval assam are some of the first scriptures that make up the amazing legacy of the bhakti movement initiated by sankaradeva in assam. these books are enormous and were written over the course of decades, so they contain the characteristics of the social, economic, and cultural life of assamese society in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. one of these, the katha guru carit is a biography of 25 vaishnavite saints—including sankaradeva, madhavadeva, and their most important disciples. these texts also record various aspects of the contemporary physical environment and different instances of animal ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] hunting, elephant catching, and water resource utilization, providing a comprehensive picture of the nature–human relationship at that time. we can get a detailed understanding of the contemporary plants and animals of medieval assam from the descriptions of the carit puthis. these texts provide a list of several plants in the region such as banyan trees, jam and wood apple, bamboo, mango, fig, betel nut, jackfruit, blackberry, silk, cotton, plum, and areca nut trees. regarding fruits and vegetables, it is written in the hagiographies: ām jām leteku konṭhāl nārikal, madhuphal dālimba bela āru je triphal. ālu kocu mūlā ādā kerelā beṇgan, mug māh barkala nan bastugan. (lekharu 2002, 169) (transl.: mangoes, java plum, burmese grapes, jackfruit, coconut, papaya, pomegranate, stone apple, indian gooseberries, potatoes, taro, radish, ginger, bitter gourd, brinjal, lentils, black gram etc. are available there.) the hagiographies include mention of a number of animals, birds, and aquatic creatures. of the domestic animals, the cow is mentioned most frequently. killing of cows was prohibited in medieval assam as the cow was considered a sacred animal in society. cow products, such as milk, curd, and even cow dung, were sold for daily earnings. it is written in the bangayagiri’s sri sri harideva carit that rampala and haripala of puri-khetra provided milk to harideva: “haripala ramapala baidya duyujan, banijya koriya pasa barshe bahu dhan” (transl: “haripala and ramapala, two merchants earn a lot from different trading activities”) (giri 1931, 189). on the sale of cow dung, the carit states: “gubara bikai puwala bikai, bismai bhoiluha dekhi” (transl: “it is surprising to see selling of cow-dung along with precious gemstones like red coral”) (dwija 2014, 156). if someone mistakenly committed the sin, then they had to carry a pagha (a rope used for hobbling the cattle) and beg in the nearby villages for atonement. in this connection, the katha guru carit says: goruti māilu: ote puti thoisu jagarhe lāgil: dandu lobo: jā lar mār tur ista-mitrat koi māti āngoi ki buddhi dio sudhgoiyu (neog 1986, 247). (transl.: a cow was killed and buried and therefore the required punishment would be given. you are advised to go fast and consult with family and friends about it.) the carits mention serpents among reptiles and small creatures and insects such as scorpions, mice, and frogs. in addition, snake charming is described as a profession, as seen in the quote “sarpa nasuwai situ fure deshe deshe” (transl: “he wanders in different countries by performing snake [77] borah charming”) (thakur 2001). furthermore, horses were used as a mode of transportation, as indicated by the phrase “ghurat chariya korila gaman jahara parama nam” (transl: “he thus departed riding on the horse”). the carit puthis contain references to the meat of different animals and birds, such as duck, goat, and deer. in one instance, madhavadeva is seen mentioning the meat of deer, stating “harinar mangsho aji bhujan koribe” (transl: “today, we will eat the meat of a deer”) (thakur 1989). the carit puthis depicts a scene where a group of vaishnavite saints, after finishing a meal at barpeta, state “khasitu adhik swad maas sukumal” (transl: “the mutton was delicious while the fish was also delicate”. additionally, honey is described as being extracted and commonly used for medicinal purposes, as evinced by the quote “tumasobe mou bhujan karilahak: amiw mautoria ghusa koru” (transl: you have partaken the honey, now let us recite the holy scripture which is also as sweet as honey) (neog 1986). fish are mentioned on numerous occasions and appear to be a common article of food. we encounter various types of fish, including sal, sol, singi, chenga, barali, balichanda, darikona, rou, chital, kuhi, katol, and others, among the aquatic creatures in the carit puthis, some of which are unspecified (lekharu 2002). the carit puthis mention: dugdha dadhi ghṛta dilā jahā sāwolok, ār rou māch dilanta mogur dālik (thakur 1989, 262) (transl.: milk, curd and ghee are served with joha rice, and rohu fish is prepared with the lentil soup.) colonial ethnographical works also provide some insight into the ecological set-up that existed prior to the advent of colonization in this region. the british authorities compiled information on the history, regimes, goods, people, and the kingship of assam. the first british officer to gather data about assam was captain welsh, who worked alongside john peter wade. they wrote about assam’s geographical conditions and explained that assam was divided into different regions by the brahmaputra. rb pemberton, a british surveyor, formed certain conceptions about the people, geography, mineral resources, and commercial and trade activities of the region through his observations and investigations (pemberton 1966). john butler’s travels in assam also provides some idea of the existing ecological set-up in the region. further, christian missionary william robinson’s book, a descriptive account of assam, covers a wide range of topics, including assam’s climate, geology, geography, and history from the beginning to the early days of british occupation of the region (robinson 1841). mrs. brown’s bhugolar biwaran (geographical information) is another similar work. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] 4. conclusion humans were born in the cradle of nature. human civilization cannot exist without its surrounding environment, consisting of plants, animals, and birds. in human life, these elements have always played a vital role, and assamese society was no exception to this. the role played by the physical geography and the plant and animal kingdom in early and medieval assam is embedded in the region’s historical literature. however, a critical analysis of the physical environment, the living resources (such as the flora and fauna), and the different natural resources utilized by the state provides an eloquent picture of the contemporary geographical and ecological aspects of assam in the given period. it reflects the pragmatic approach taken by early societies towards the environment, seeking solutions in religious beliefs and everyday ritual observances. the kalika purana deified the rivers and mountains and promoted them as places of pilgrimage (tirthas), drawing people’s attention to the green world. similarly, the references contained in buranji literature and hagiographies reflect, to a great extent, the psyche of the people who were reasonably aware of the different sources of nature and environment. hence, while the existing historical literature of precolonial assam may be inimical in nature, a closer scrutiny of it would significantly compliment one’s journey back to the greener world. ethics statement: i hereby confirm that this study complies with requirements of ethical approvals from the institutional ethics committee for the conduct of this research. data availability statement: the data used to support this research is available in a repository and the hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. doi or 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and b) reduced wealth, income, and social inequalities, thereby serving the cause of distributive justice. keyword: growth-fetishism, green recovery, sustainable development goals, natural capital, human capital, degrowth, global north, global south, india. 1. introduction the insatiable human desire for economic growth in the developing world has led to lopsided development. such blind pursuit of growth, while treating it as an omnipotent ideal, has prompted inequality on the one hand and the destruction of the natural ecosystem on the other (hickel 2020). as such, the very idea that growth will automatically lead to an enhancement in various development parameters is myopic. the reduction of a multidimensional phenomenon like development to a numerical measure  director, centre for new economic diplomacy, & orf kolkata centre, observer research foundation. & president, indian society for ecological economics (2022-24). nilanjanghosh@orfonline.org copyright © ghosh 2022. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: tba mailto:nilanjanghosh@orfonline.org ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [6] conceals more than what it reveals: it successfully hides the cost of pursuing growth, with scant or almost no acknowledgement of equity and sustainability concerns (meadows et al. 1972; peet et al. 2011; dong et al. 2017). this phenomenon of pursuing a reductionist vision of economic growth without acknowledging or recognizing the costs of growth has been delineated as growth-fetishism in this essay. the larger cost of pursuing this vision of myopic growth is observed with global warming and climate change. conservation ngos, activists, and large components of civil society subscribe to the popular notion that climate change is an environmental problem (rahman 2013). on the contrary, the truth remains that climate change is a developmental problem emerging from the human penchant for unbridled development, which eventually affects various human development parameters through a feedback loop emerging from the environment–development interface (munasinghe 2010; parry 2011). unfortunately, such costs of growth remain unacknowledged in large parts of the developing world, which continue to be driven by the reductionist neoclassical economic ‘trickle-down impact’ hypothesis. this theory proposes that the trickle-down impacts of growth will further equity and distributive justice on one hand (see fan et al. 2000; ravallion and datt 2002), and environmental and conservation goals on the other, as proposed by the environmental kuznets curve hypothesis (nuroglu and kunst 2018). however, post-pandemic development priorities in the developing world have centred on promoting economic growth through large-scale capital expenditures on physical infrastructure. such a phenomenon was prevalent even before the pandemic and is now being adopted with greater vigour in south asia, the brics (brazil–russia–india–china–south africa) region, and africa (laurence et al. 2017; ghosh 2022). for example, the outlay for capital expenditure in india’s union budget was increased by 35.4% in 2022–23. the sharp increases in capex between 2019–20 and 2022–23 is reflected in the fact that the present outlay of capex in india (2.9% of the gdp) is more than 2.2 times the expenditure in 2019–20 (government of india 2022). incidentally, the net-zero climate commitments of many developing economies are contingent upon the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. however, the energy transition alone will not resolve the problems of climate change. in the course of the unbridled penchant for economic growth and urbanization, land-use change from forests, grasslands, and coastal ecosystems continue unabated, especially to create space for physical infrastructure (winkler et al. 2021). while doing so, there is hardly any recognition that such ecosystems are carbon sinks and [7] nilanjan ghosh have historically played an important role in annual carbon sequestration. when ecosystems are destroyed for the sake of economic growth, urbanization, and physical infrastructure, the stored carbon gets released and critical ecosystem services—such as regulation of carbon sequestration—are severely hampered. while such losses cannot be substituted merely through an energy transition, unrestrained land-use change for infrastructure projects could counteract the positive impacts that would otherwise have accrued from the energy transition. 2. problems with the delineation of green recovery the green recovery model hinges upon environmental, regulatory, and fiscal interventions to recover prosperity. therefore, the idea suggests that prepandemic levels of prosperity should be attained through interventions in global and national macro-economies that combat climate change through a green transition and sustainable corporate and financial practices. the green transition, in many parts of the developing world, has a reductionist definition: the transition from fossil fuel sources to renewable sources (see wef 2021; mutikani 2021). as such, unchecked land-use changes for infrastructure and connectivity projects will not only counteract the positive impacts of the energy transition but also disrupt the flow of ecosystem services that provide livelihoods for the poor in large parts of the global south (sukhdev 2009). this brings forth the contention that this reductionist delineation of the green transition or green recovery—or green growth, for that matter—is an oxymoron. the very proposition of green growth decouples natural resource destruction from growth and hypothesizes that greenness can be achieved through other means without any consideration of the ecosystem and ambient environment. is this possible at all? human progress is inextricably linked with the use of one of the most fundamental forms of capital—natural capital. green recovery is also largely contingent upon the energy transition without any concern for land-use change. ward et al. (2016), based on an analytical macro-model, infer that growth in gdp ultimately cannot plausibly be decoupled from growth in material and energy use, demonstrating categorically that gdp growth cannot be sustained indefinitely. it is therefore misleading to develop growth-oriented policy around the expectation that decoupling is possible. however, we also note that gdp has been shown to be a poor proxy for societal wellbeing, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [8] something it was never designed to measure, and gdp growth is therefore a questionable long-term societal goal in any case. the mounting costs of “uneconomic growth” suggest that the pursuit of decoupling–if it were possible–in order to sustain gdp growth would be a misguided effort. (ward 2016). 3. degrowth: a panacea or placebo? given the implausibility of green growth in the global south through a mere energy transition when land-use change continues unabated, the question posed to humanity is this: is degrowth the solution? the degrowth thesis encourages deceleration rather than growth to sustain nature, the fundamental basis of life. in that sense, degrowth entails a retraction from present ways of living through the contraction of economic activities in the global north and emancipation from the dominant reductionist occidental paradigm of development (seen through the economic growth lens). interestingly, degrowth—while discussing the extensive damage that growth has and will cause to the ecosystem—restates the decoupling of human well-being and gdp per capita. for example, richer economies like the united states have worse distribution systems than nations that have lower incomes per capita like spain, while the latter have better healthcare systems. prevailing levels of well-being can be maintained in finland even with 10% of their current gdp, with only better equity principles and practices entailing redistribution (hickel 2020). at this layer of reading, it seems as if degrowth—in its attempt to challenge ‘brown growth’ (or the outcome of growth-fetishism)—is not only akin to the convivialist manifesto (see adloff 2014), but a restatement of socialism. in other words, this can be construed as an attempt to re-establish socialism, at least in a new discourse-based avatar if not in practice! there is no harm in re-delineating and reestablishing socialism. in an article written around the outbreak of the pandemic and the lockdowns, sen (2020) contended: “a better society can emerge from the lockdowns.” sen emphasized the need for equity and better distribution in development by quoting the example of how life expectancy at birth in england and wales increased during the war decades. “the positive lessons from pursuing equity and paying greater attention to the disadvantaged helped in the emergence of what came to be known as the welfare state” (sen 2020). quite evidently, the need for an emphasis on equity and distribution in the development paradigm becomes prominent, especially during crises— economic or otherwise. in large parts of the global south, where social security is largely lacking, it is organic market forces that have provided a [9] nilanjan ghosh much-needed cushion for the survival of large populaces, thereby creating a large informal sector (ghosh 2020). however, an economic lockdown (like the ones during the initial phases of the pandemic) completely locks market forces as well. therefore, a system that is geared towards markets to take care of the concerns of the underprivileged through an organic process has to conduct a course correction: it now becomes the onus of the government to take care of the various distributional needs of society. therefore, the popular thinking that degrowth is an ideal that emanates from nations that have already grown or from activists of the global north, in reality, is a notion originating from a more equitable world. in all these nations, social security and distributive justice are highly prevalent and established, resulting in a much lower reliance on market forces. however, such occidental principles might be difficult to adopt in the context of developing nations and might even prove to be counter-productive. a prime example is sri lanka, which is undergoing a food crisis as a result of its revolutionary transformation to organic farming, which halved food production without creating adequate preparatory conditions for such a large-scale structural change in its food sector (verma 2022; bhowmick 2022). this decrease in food production was not accompanied by a counter-balancing change in consumption patterns. the situation was further aggravated by a decline in the country’s forex reserves, which slipped below us$ 50 million in may 2022, thereby inhibiting food imports (basak 2022; wignaraja 2022). as such, the initial conditions that need to be met for the adoption of degrowth principles are missing in large parts of the developing world. 4. concluding remarks: indian priorities there is no doubt that india needs to grow, though not in the business-asusual way that ignores the costs of growth discussed in this essay. india does not fall in the category of the global north in terms of its development indicators and nor has its equity concerns been met to date. decoupling growth and resource use under these circumstances will inhibit the causes of equity and distributive justice. with a per capita gdp as low as us$ 1,901 and an hdi rank of 131 (out of 189 nations), such an absolute decoupling will lead to stiff competition with limited fiscal resources between increasing the rate of technological efficiency1 and the 1 technical or technological efficiency entails a condition when the output cannot be increased without any increase in the factors of production. this also entails the speed at which the natural resources are transformed into services and goods with minimum wastage ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [10] economic growth rate. the climate and green transition questions cannot be addressed with the degrowth model here. further, the concerns of india, and the underdeveloped components of developing nations, should not be considered only through the reductionist lens of net zero that has emerged mostly as an occidental construct for and from the global north. the impacts of human interventions on ecosystem services—through land-use change and climate change—do not figure in any form in global negotiations. climate negotiations remain largely temperature-centric, without taking into consideration this critical element that should have been the foremost concern of the global south. the challenge, therefore, for a developing nation like india is to understand how and where it can position itself in this gamut of developmental paradigms that range between growth-fetishism and green recovery. there is no doubt that india needs to create its own developmental paradigm. one way to do this is to holistically embrace the four forces of capital— namely, physical, social, human, and natural—which are embedded in the sdgs. the sdgs entail not only a holistic approach to development governance, but as shown by ghosh et al. (2019), they also help promote business competitiveness in an economy. incidentally, unep (2018) argues in its inclusive wealth 2018 report that between 1990 and 2014, india’s physical capital has grown but at the cost of its natural capital. this raises questions about the sustainability of the growth process not only for india but also for large parts of the global south. therefore, indian green recovery must be based on two key elements: a) the simultaneous augmentation of healthand education-induced human and physical capital without compromising the sustainability of natural capital; and b) reduced wealth, income, and social inequalities that can hinder india’s long-term growth prospects, serving the cause of distributive justice (as argued by ghosh 2021). while better-targeted or universal transfer mechanisms and large-scale employment generation—especially in green sectors—can enable the second vision, the first requires a well-thought-out strategy beyond the energy transition. large-scale infrastructure projects need to consider losses to ecosystem services, including losses in regulating services like carbon sinks and sequestration, additional carbon emissions, and other social costs (e.g., rehabilitation costs, human-day losses, livelihoods losses, etc.) in the holistic benefit–cost matrix and the integrated impact assessment mechanisms associated with them. acknowledging these and cost. [11] nilanjan ghosh costs can either result in efforts to mitigate such costs or can make the planners realize the injustice of such projects. in other words, green recovery requires an overhaul in the development paradigm from the business-as-usual myopic and reductionist economic growth archetype to a more holistic and integrated paradigm that talks of reconciliation between contending goals. pitted against one another are economic efficiency, equity through distributive justice, and environmental sustainability through legal statutes, norms, and institutional reforms and practices. this reconciliation, acknowledged in the framework of the sdgs, has emerged as the biggest challenge in development governance for the global south. references adloff, frank. 2014. “‘wrong life can be lived rightly’ convivialism: background to a debate.” convivialist manifesto. a declaration of interdependence (global dialogues 3). duisburg 2014: käte hamburger kolleg / centre for global cooperation 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https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203842249 https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.11.1.1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-3878(02)00018-4 about:blank about:blank https://doi.org/10.1038/462277a https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/the-indian-connection-behind-sri-lankas-disastrous-environmental-wokeness-4962938.html https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/the-indian-connection-behind-sri-lankas-disastrous-environmental-wokeness-4962938.html https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/the-indian-connection-behind-sri-lankas-disastrous-environmental-wokeness-4962938.html [13] nilanjan ghosh possible?” plos one 11(10): e0164733. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164733. wignaraja, ganeshan. 2022. “five lessons from sri lanka’s debt and economic crisis.” odi, april 27, 2022. https://odi.org/en/insights/five-lessons-from-srilankas-debt-and-economic-crisis. winkler, karina, richard fuchs, mark rounsevell, and martin harold (2021). “global land use changes are four times greater than previously estimated.” nature communications 12: 2501. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-02122702-2. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0164733 https://odi.org/en/insights/five-lessons-from-sri-lankas-debt-and-economic-crisis https://odi.org/en/insights/five-lessons-from-sri-lankas-debt-and-economic-crisis about:blank about:blank ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 1 (1): 43–65, april 2018 research paper health damages from air pollution: evidence from opencast coal mining region of odisha, india tapaswini nayak  and indrani roy chowdhury  abstract: the present study examines the productive day‘s loss of local communities in the opencast coal mining region of angul (talcher) district in odisha, due to respiratory illness, by using the dose-response function model. the productive day‘s loss is estimated in terms of restricted activities or work days lost, due to severe respiratory illness (ri), induced by air pollution. health diaries are analyzed through the seasonal household survey to predict the likelihood of rirelated sickness (in terms of the restricted days) of the residents of the mining region (due to air pollution). poisson and negative binomial regression are fitted for the purpose of count data analysis. the regression result confirms that there is a positive and significant relationship between the level of air pollution (respiratory suspended particulate matter (rspm)/particulate matter less than 10 g/m3(pm10) and ri-related sick days, depicting that a reduction in air pollution level (pm10) may cause a reduction in expected number of ri-related sick days in the coal mining region. further monetary welfare gain from avoiding the ri-related sick days are estimated for the population of talcher coal mining area, odisha. keywords: air pollution; respiratory illness; health diaries; dose-response function; count data regression. 1. introduction many developing economies with abundant mineral reserves are trapped in a low-level equilibrium, with abject poverty, unemployment, ill health, and  department of economics, kendrapara autonomous college, odisha. india 754240; tapaswininayak82@gmail.com   centre for the regional development, school of social sciences, jawaharlal nehru university (jnu), new delhi, india-110067; indranirc1@gmail.com copyright © nayak and roy chowdhury 2018. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the authors. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.9 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.9 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [44] figure 1: mineral growth trend in odisha (in last 10 years) (production in million tons) source: odisha economy survey, 2014-15 poor education. this is the well-documented ‘resource curse‘ or ‗paradox of plenty‘ (sachs and warner 1997, 2001). balancing efficient utilization of mineral resources with ensuring equitable and sustainable development and safeguarding the local environment and societal well-being is often a challenge. in the post-liberalization period, many indian states are encountering a voracious appetite for energy and infrastructure. the intense interstate competitions trigger the demand for energy and infrastructure, which is needed to attract investment to boost growth. this appetite has led to the rampant extraction and utilization of mineral resources in these states. mining activities are often accompanied by a drastic jump in mineral rich pollution load (both air and water pollution), widespread soil degradation and forest cover loss (state of environment report 2008; david stuligross 1999). the state of odisha is mineral-rich. in the post-reform period, odisha and other mineral-rich states have been struggling to answer a difficult question: should they intensify their extraction of mineral resources in their quest for a high rate of growth at the cost of their environment? odisha is blessed with an abundance of mineral reserves — 24 per cent of india‘s coal reserves, 17 per cent of iron ore, 98 per cent of chromite, 51 per cent of bauxite, 35 per cent of manganese, and 92 per cent of nickel ore (odisha economic survey 2014–15). the state has the second largest reserve of coal in india. the share of mining in odisha‘s gross state domestic product (gsdp) has escalated significantly to 7 per cent of gsdp in 2014–15 (odisha economic survey 2014–15). the state ranks first in [45] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury figure 2: production of major minerals in odisha, 2013-14 (in rs. lakh) source: odisha economic survey, 2014-15 country in terms of value of coal reserves and extraction. the state has witnessed an unprecedented increase in coal production from 8 million tons in 2003–04 to 60 million tons in 2013–14. figures 1 and 2 depict the production recent growth trends of major mineral resources in odisha. coal alone accounted for 70 per cent of the mineral royalty received by the state for each of the past four years (odisha economic survey 2014–15). odisha is one of the richest biodiversity regions in south-east asia (state of the environment report odisha 2007). in terms of mineral deposits and production, the state occupies a vital position in the country (murthy and rao 2006; economic survey of odisha 2014–15). the strong performance of the mining sector in terms of both production and value has thus resulted in a significant growth of the state‘s average gsdp (economic survey of odisha 2014–15). the investment share of the mining sector in total outstanding investments makes odisha the fifteenth highest recipient of foreign direct investment (fdi) among all indian states. the mining revenue receipt has been steadily increasing over the past decade (odisha economic survey 2014–15). a report by the state of environment (2008) has declared all the coal belts of the state most unsafe for human health and living conditions. the neighbourhood of the coal belt witnesses alarmingly high concentration of suspended particulate matter (spm) and respirable particulate matter (rpm) exceeding the national standard level by several folds. moreover, who (2002) suggests that coal mining process which release toxic pollutants can adversely affect the air quality in the surrounding environment. coal is an important source of fuel and power and is therefore critically important for the growth and development of a transition economy like odisha‘s. moreover, coal has the highest forward linkage with a number of other industries. therefore, extraction of coal is an attractive option for a state for the creation of direct and indirect employment opportunities, foreign exchange earnings through fdi, generation of mineral royalties, tax revenues, etc. however, coal production is treated as ‗dirty industry‘ as it is the most polluting natural resource (elizabeth and york 2012; michelle 2014). apart from the direct impact of the occupational hazards of the coal miners, coal mining activities, particularly open cast coal mining, imposes ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [46] highly negative environmental externalities (through air pollution, water pollution, contamination and loss of fertility of land, and forest loss and degradation) and health externalities (in terms of poor quality of health among the local communities, living in the proximity of opencast coal mining region). mining and extraction activities create irreversible damages to the local environment, having long-run future consequences. from mining to combustion of coal, all the intervening processes release various toxic pollutants (such as rspm (pm10)), carbon dioxide sulfur dioxide (so2) which adversely affect the air quality in the surrounding environment (who 2002). these huge amounts of wastages and pollutants (along with fly ash, coal dust, and heat) have dangerous health impact for the human beings living in the neighbourhood. thus, from the policy perspective, or for state planning, it poses a serious challenge, in terms of a trade-off between the overall growth and development of the state vis-a-vis environmental degradation and health concerns of the local communities. given the economic importance of coal, for a state like odisha, forgoing the mineral extraction activities implies forgoing immediate opportunities for the entire state seems exorbitantly costly at the present stage of its development. as a consequence, the environment and health concerns of local communities in the mining region remain on the back burner. opencast coal mining leads to more severe air pollution than underground mining (ghose and banerjee 1995). all the mining processes, starting from drilling to transportation and screening, are the major sources of such emissions (pathak et al. 2007). air pollution in opencast coal mines is mainly due to the toxic emission of particulate matter and gases including methane, sulfur dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen. these air pollutants reduce air quality and ultimately affect people around mining areas (nanda and tiwari 2001). the major air pollutants produced by opencast coal mining are spm and rpm (sinha and banerjee 1997; cmri 1998). mine fire is also considered as a major source of air pollution in some of the coalfields. the problems may have local, regional, and global impacts. dust generated by opencast coal mining also affects agricultural productivity (mishra 2008). several research findings (gupta 2006; chowdhury and imran 2010) show high concentrations of lower atmospheric pollution, especially rspm(pm10), adversely contribute to human morbidity, increase respiratory syndromes, and reduce lung functions. longer term exposure to air pollution (pm10) may lead to irritation, asthma, high blood pressure and heart diseases (pope et al. 1995, 2007). high concentration of rspm increase respiratory diseases such as chronic bronchitis and bronchial cases, while gaseous emissions contribute towards global warming, acid rain, and ground-level ozone besides causing health hazards to the exposed [47] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury population (pathak et al. 2007). therefore, health risk and morbidity due to air pollution is high where opencast coal mining is predominant. pattanayak et al. (2011) also observe that in keonjhar, odisha, local communities are vulnerable to diseases such as acute respiratory illness (ri), gastric, tuberculosis, and skin diseases, due to high exposure to toxic elements. all these health problems no doubt have economic costs arising from the expenses incurred in treating the diseases and productive days lost (ostro 1994; banerjee 2001). traditionally, opportunity costs of human health was interpreted solely on account of the individual‘s physical well-being without considering the environmental and social backgrounds around him (rapport and mergler 2004). from the 1970s, there has been a departure from the traditional belief, and ‗health‘ is recognized as a precious asset in itself and an absolutely essential ingredient for human development and productivity (grossman 1972). good health with mental well-being is termed both a ‗resource‘ and ‗means‘ for stimulating economic development, and an outcome of economic development (brundtland 2002); the who (2005) argues that ‗quality of health‘ is related not only to freedom from diseases but also associated with a healthy and hygienic environment. therefore, this paper attempts to explore the linkages between health and the environment in the opencast coal mining area in angul district of odisha. this linkage paves the pathway for the significance of environmental quality in determining the quality of health and well-being. given the enormous economic cost involved in terms of productive days lost and treatment of ri-related diseases caused by coal-mining activity, it is critically important to estimate the health impact of air pollution in the opencast coal mining region. this paper is organized as follows. section 2 reviews the literature. section 3 explains the dose-response methodology that depicts the association between human health and air pollution. section 4 presents the household survey design. section 5 describes the econometric methodology. section 6 presents the empirical estimation of ri-related sick days and discusses the regression results. section 7 discusses the evaluation of the welfare gain of air pollution reduction. finally, section 8 presents the main findings and conclusions. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] 2. literature review the seminal work by grossman (1972) pioneered the formulation of a theoretical model of household production function. he analyses the demand for health by developing human capital model, where he suggests ‗health‘ as a durable human capital stock and medical care as an important factor in its production. cropper (1981) added pollution as a crucial ingredient and calculated the health damage reduction from the reduction in the air pollution level. ostro (1994) suggests the a three-step method of calculating the health benefits of reducing air pollution. the first is to find out the dose-response relationship that shows the health outcome of air pollution. the second is to set the target group population, who are victimized, and exposed to the specific air pollution effect. the third is to calculate the change in air pollution level by implementing a specific pollution-reducing technique. the more recent studies have attempted to explore a relationship between air pollution and the occurrence of illness by using dose-response and damage functions, while some economists have calculated the health damage cost of air pollution levels using one of three methods: cost-ofillness (coi), dose-response, and contingency valuation (alberini et al. 1997; ostro 1994; krupanik 2000). in the case of south asia, murty et al. (2003) and gupta (2008) calculated the health benefits from the reduction in urban air pollution level in the indian states. mishra (2012) estimated the damage to human health and agricultural productivity loss from pollution induced by coal-mining activities in odisha. chaulya (2003) shows that the annual average spm and rspm (pm10) concentration in the ib valley coalfield of odisha exceeds the standards set in the indian national ambient air quality standards (naaqs) protocol for both residential and industrial areas. the problem is not limited to these areas alone; air ambient quality is critical in the state‘s entire mining belt. the literature on estimating the morbidity and health impact costs are mostly confined to urban air pollution, vehicular pollution, etc. there are some studies on the health impact of air pollution in the cement industry (bogahawatte 2008) and iron mining (pattanayak et al. 2011), and of the occupational hazards (i.e., direct impact) of coal mining (sarkar et al. 2004), but there are only a few studies to the best of our knowledge on the health impact of air pollution induced by opencast coal mining in odisha (mishra 2012; singh et al. 2010; hota and mishra 2010). most studies address the health concerns from air pollution and the pollution load in coal mining areas, but they do not address many important questions. [49] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury table 1: categorisation of ambient air quality status with respect to criteria pollutants based on prescribed standard and exceedance factor pollution level residential/industrial rspm(pm10) (µg/m3) pm2.5 (µg/m3 ) low (l) 0-30 0-20 moderate (m) 30-60 20-40 high (h) 60-90 40-60 critical (c) >90 >60 source: state pollution control board, bhubaneswar therefore, this study tries to bridge the research gap by examining the association between the air pollution level and negative health outcomes (we consider ri for this study)1 in the opencast coal mining region (angultalcher) of odisha. this study also tries to analyse the economic impact of negative health effects by considering the loss of wages of productive days for the study region. we raise some unanswered questions. (1) to what extent does the coal mining activities contributed to the health-related well-being of the local community in the mining region and to their environment? (2) does the critical ambient air quality near the opencast coal belt matter to the health of the neighbouring community? (3) how do the socio-economic factors affected the health stock of the local communities in the neighbourhood of coal mining areas? (4) how many productive days are lost by the local communities due to ri related diseases on account of such negative externalities ? against this backdrop, the study area is located in a coal mining district angul of odisha, in the eastern part of india. the state has two coalfields namelytalcher coalfield (in angul district) and lb river coalfield (in jharsuguda district).the coalfield of ib valley is comparatively new compared to that of talcher coal field(directorate of mines, government of odisha, bhubaneswar). the older the coal mines project, the more is its environmental impact. the numbers of active opencast coal mine projects are also larger in talcher coal field area than the ib valley coal field. as per the latest report by central pollution control board (cpcb 2009) on comprehensive environment assessment of industrial clusters, talcher coal filed region of odisha has secured seventh position as one of the most 1 ri includes all the common acute syndromes of respiratory diseases such as: bronchial asthma, cough with mucus, and sputum production, respiration allergy to dust, allergic cough, running nose, headache, flu, and fever, chest tightness, pain, and acute bronchitis. these symptoms are identified as commonly reported respiratory illness after consulting the specialist doctors from the mahanadi coal field hospital, located in the study region. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] critically polluted industrial cluster in india.2 keeping in mind of all these perspectives we select the angul-talcher coal mining region as our study region3. table 2: ambient air quality of the study region 2015-16 month station 1 (mcl) station 2 (ttps) station 3 (nalco nagar, angul) station 4 (industrial estate, angul) average average average average rspm (pm10) pm2.5 rspm (pm10) pm2.5 rspm (pm10) pm2.5 rspm (pm10) pm2.5 january 171 130 154 122 137 98 137 94 february 186 99 165 115 117 80 108 80 march 161 87 136 76 129 65 118 74 april 177 105 91 53 108 57 92 51 may 149 93 123 79 97 80 95 50 june 140 87 71 44 78 38 84 47 july 126 72 56 34 80 47 88 53 august 100 57 61 34 79 39 65 49 september 87 39 70 51 100 49 96 57 october 133 48 95 75 91 52 98 54 november 135 75 126 68 105 57 105 54 december 134 79 164 86 107 54 105 56 average annual 140 81 111.08 69.75 102 57 99.25 60 source: cpcb (2009) 3. defining the relationship between human respiratory health and air pollution: dose response function often, the relationship between air pollution and premature mortality is studied by using time-series analysis of daily observations of number of deaths and the pollution level. these studies capture the effects of the short-term exposure to pollution on the probability of dying. but it is expected that people, who are in a weak physical state or who have a history of chronic diseases are more susceptible to contact recurring diseases due to the high concentration of pollution in the environment and are therefore supposed to be the most vulnerable. these types of exposure can be captured through the ‘dose-response function‘. if there is a cause of high 2 the concentration of pm10 in air is very high for the study region which often exceeds the prescribed level (by central pollution control board) by two folds. see the table no (1) and (2) for detail about the severity of air pollution. 3 see figure 3 for the district wise extraction and value of coal in odisha in recent year. [51] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury figure 3: district wise break-up of extraction and value of coal in odisha, 2013-14 (quantity in lakh mt and value in crore of rupees) source: odisha economy survey, 2014-15 concentration of pollutants in the surrounding environment, then it may trigger some negative health outcome (i.e., negative externalities of environmental pollution) as its effect. this association between cause and effect has been known as ‗dose-response function‘.4 this function captures a range of responses towards the respiratory illness of different individuals due to different degree of outdoor pollutants, when other confounding socio-economic factors and the level of indoor pollution are controlled. this function therefore relates the importance of a ‗dose‘ (that is the intensity of air pollution to which the local people are exposed) to the ‗responsiveness‘ of the individuals (the response may be any kind of morbidity due to the respiratory diseases, stress, and even death or mortality). the degree of impact can be captured as the proportion or the days of sickness or restricted activity days due to respiratory illness syndromes (h).this method estimates the partial derivative (or the slope of b) of ‗dose-response‘ function as given in the following equation (1). the purpose is to calculate the marginal effect of a change in occurrence of a given health outcome related to a change in air ambient quality (a) with other confounding factors. the next step by ostro (1994) is to calculate the numbers of people who are supposed to be exposed to the particular air pollution effect (i.e. popi).then how many productive days (restricted activity days or sick days), they are losing because of the exposure. finally, the last step is to 4see ostro (1983, 1987, 1994), who estimated the ‗dose-response function‘ to find out the impact of air pollution on morbidity and found that pm10, affect both the restricted activity days and work days lost. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] calculate the welfare gain due to a unit change or reduction in ambient air quality (da). thus the dose-response function can be expressed as (following ostro 1994): dapopbdh ii * * (1) where, i dh = change in individual‘s risk of health outcome i b = slope from the ‗dose-response‘ function. i pop = targeted population at risk of health impact i da = change in ambient air quality under consideration 4. survey design the present study is based on the primary survey at the household level, though pollution data are collected from the secondary sources such as state pollution control board, odisha and regional pollution control board, angul. to understand the severity of air pollution on the health outcome of the local residents we first conducted a pilot survey followed by five rounds of group discussions during september 2015. baseline information was collected from that pilot survey from some randomly selected households in the vicinity of mahanadi coal field limited. the baseline information did confirm the severity of health problem in the region. to capture the exposure of air pollution on human health (for those who are residing near the coal field area) through ‗dose-response‘ method, we required background information on the health status of individuals residing in the study region along with other environmental and socioeconomic information. the pilot survey helped us to design a wellstructured questionnaire for the final survey. we conducted the survey during september 2015 to january 2016, involving (210) households of the 10 neighbouring villages, of angul-talcher opencast coal mining region of mahanadi coal field limited (mcl). following krupanick (2000), gupta (2008), murty et al. (2003), adhikari (2012) and imran et al. (2010), the survey kept track of weekly health diary of the selected households for six weeks extended over two seasons. we followed two stage stratification, for selecting sample (following gupta 2006 and adhikari 2012). the reason for following a two stage stratification sampling procedure is to capture precisely the local people‘s exposure to air pollution and the consequent adverse health impact. in the first stage of stratification, the villages within a four-kilometre radius from the air pollution monitoring station were identified (and a total 10 villages were selected. we then randomly selected [53] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury 21 households from each village. thus a total of (21 x 10 = 210) households from 10 villages and an aggregate of 855 members were surveyed5. out of 855 household members 254 members were suffering from ri symptoms during the first round of the survey. given the seasonal differentiates in air quality levels, we collected health diary information on 254 household members repeatedly for six weeks during two different seasons (i.e. october or post-monsoon and december or winter). the health diaries covered the ri-related health status, of mitigating expenditure, chronic illness etc. therefore the survey resulted in a pooled data, containing 1524 (= 254 x 6) observations. but by using the stata software 12.0, we found only 932(restrictive sample) observations having ri diseases, sick days, and mitigating expenses over the entire 6 weeks. given that the present study is focused on the number of ri-related sick days, so a total of 932 observations on the basis of availability of full information could only be taken for empirical investigation. 5. empirical estimation of ri-related sick days our goal is to estimate the number of sick days or restricted activity days of a person suffering from respiratory diseases. this dependent variable counts the duration of sickness episode which is related to the particular respiratory syndromes (associated with air pollution) based on one week recall period6 .the dependent variable counts how many days in a week (based on one week recall period), an individual is unable to work or restricted from other activities due to respiratory illness. as our dependent variable i.e., ‗sick days‘ is finite number of non-negative integers (small discrete values, say 0 1 2, 3, 4, …) or count values, assuming 0 values in several observations, we need a probability distribution that takes care of this count data. we used the poisson and negative binomial regression to model the count outcomes i.e., the negative health impacts of air pollution (captured by the number of restricted activity days) as experienced by the respondent in a given time period. 5 the sampling framework takes into account the randomly selected households from each of the 10 villages, which are located within a stipulated area i.e., 4 km radius surrounding the station. so the selection bias is likely to be minimum and therefore can be comfortably ignored. here proximity is used to identify the neighbourhood areas which are very close within the radius of 4 km from the opencast coal mines. 6 for the primary survey we collected information regarding the prevalence of ri-related diseases and the mitigating expenditure incurred by the household and therefore we set the recall period of one week. this is deliberately done to extract correct information on the mitigating expenditure data. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] given that poisson regression is the starting point of count data analysis, we initially fitted the poisson regression to the number of sick days by using the method of pseudo maximum likelihood estimation or quasi maximum likelihood estimation. it is possible to write the probability of number of sick days(y) for a respective individual, using the poisson regression model as: prob. ....7,...23,1,0, !           it it itit it it it y y ey x y y it (2) where x i e    here it y denotes the ri-related sick days or restricted activity days (related to air pollution level) for an individual i at time period t. ‗e‘ is the exponential function of itit y  , the mean value of the number of sick days due to pollution.  is the vector of regression coefficients while itx is the vector of independent variables. and it u is the unobserved error term that may affect the individual health stock. the estimated mean value is therefore: x t e   ˆˆ  . a log transformation gives the equation: x i  ˆˆln  as the count data variance usually exceeds the mean, the poisson model has its limitation arising from the property of equi-dispersion. alternatively we also run the negative binomial model (nbm) as an alternative model which accounts for the overdispersion in count data, when the conditional variance surpasses the conditional mean. the only difference between two is that nbm has an ancillary parameter (α) to model the overdispersion. 5.1. choice variables the vector of explanatory variables comprises of daily pm10 data obtained from the nearest air pollution monitoring station from the respondents' residence. the study has narrowed down the ‗daily (pm10)‘ as the singlemost important indicator for air pollution in the coal belt, as the exposure to pm10 is considered to be most damaging impact on respiratory health (gupta 2006; chowdhury and imran 2010).7 7 several research findings show high concentrations of lower atmospheric pollution especially rspm (pm10) contribute to human morbidity, increase respiratory syndromes, and reduced lung functions (gupta 2006; chowdhury and imran 2010). the secondary data on air pollution shows that in open cast coal mining areas in odisha, the pm10 level is [55] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury table 3: example of variables and categories used coal mining externalities (due to air pollution) defining variables original questions health adult outdoor exposure and workplace information based on the questions regarding workplace location, number of working hours/day, affected by coal fumes/dust, loss of income/day if work lost due to ri related sickness children outdoor exposure based on questions regarding number of hours spent daily in school/college/other places and therefore whether exposed to coal fumes/dust or not. occurrence of respiratory illness to capture the respiratory health status different types of ri related diseases and its frequency of occurrence in daily and weekly basis, based on the recall period in the previous week and in last year were asked. health effects status of health with the level of air pollution health cost income lost due to loss of productive/restricted workdays annual income income calculated from different sources per capita income households total income from different sources divided by the number of household members indoor pollution captured by the questions on the nature of fuel use, use of chimney/exhaust fan in kitchen, disposal of solid waste? ownership status different types of assets from different sources source: author‘s own survey schedule we control for a bunch of variables 8 including pre-existing illness (from previous week), chronic diseases,9 exposure to outdoor pollution or coal alarmingly high and often exceeds the national prescribed level by central pollution board by several fold. 8 table 3 defines the main variables and its original question which were asked at the time of survey. 9 when one individual has been suffering from the diseases like asthma, blood pressure, heart diseases, and tuberculosis for more than 1 year, then that person is to be treated to have a chronic illness. the chronic disease of an individual describes his health stock. if an individual has been suffering from a chronic disease then it is expected that he is more ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] table 4: descriptive statistics of independent variables variable description obs. mean standard dev. minima maxima pm10 average weekly pm10 (ug/m3) 6 148.68 13.79 132.5 167.5 age age of household members in years 932 38.40 20.36 1 82 edu_inyears education in years of schooling (for illiterate) 932 6.58 4.08 0 15 hh_size household size 210 4.06 1.15 1 8 hh-income household income in rupees. 932 19062 12564 1500 80000 pci per capita income in rupees. (household income divided by number of household members) 932 4806 3094.07 700 20000 source: primary survey, 2015-2016 dust, 10 smoking etc., to avoid overestimation of pollution exposure on health effects of the respondents. besides these individual characteristics vulnerable to air pollution exposure and is therefore supposed to have higher number of illness related sick days. this is used as control variable in our econometric analysis, which captures the occurrence of chronic illness among the individuals. it assigns a value ‗1‘ if the respondent reports a chronic diseases (as mentioned above) otherwise it assigns a value ‗0‘. 10as discussed, coal is one of the most polluting natural resources (because it emits toxic pollutants such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, respiratory suspended particulate matters etc. to atmosphere). the brittle nature of coal creates coal dust in the coal mining activities including loading unloading, transportation etc. in the open cast coal mining neighbourhood villages, the suspended coal dusts often create haze in the atmosphere which often interrupts visibility. given these facts it is evident that regular exposure of the air borne contaminants due to coal and coal dust may trigger respiratory illness. it is anticipated that more outdoor exposure may increase the probability of illness. the exposure to coal dust is a dummy variable which assigns 1 if the representative individual is exposed to outdoor coal dust (or stay in outdoor more than 1 hour a day), otherwise it is 0 (zero). [57] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury table 5 poisson regression model dependent variable (sick days) poisson independent variables coefficient(p-value) standard error pm10 0.0059(0.001)*** 0.1907 age -0.0004(0.887) 0.0033 age square 6.2307(0.989) 0.0004 gender -0.061(0.178) 0.0454 hh size 0.021(0.191) 0.0156 exposed_coaldust -0.057(0.178) 0.0426 awar_polutnhelth -0.139(0.001)*** 0.0436 asthma_cronic 0.123(0.001)*** 0.0378 b.p -0.004(0,383) 0.0478 indiv_smoking 0.105(0.079)* 0.0604 fuel_coaldumy 0.071(0.081)* 0.0413 prevsweek_ill 0.123(0.001)*** 0.0370 prevsweek_expend. -0.052(0.146) 0.0361 exercise -0.028(0.539) 0.0466 pci 0.042(0.215) 0.0343 constant_ -3.260(0.001)*** 0.9934 log pseudo likelihood -1914.7761 wald ch2(df) (15) 95.28 prob.>chi2 0.000 pseudo r2 0.024 no of observation 932 source: authors note: ***, ** and * indicate significance at 1%, 5% and 10% level respectively. (like age, gender, education, awareness about adverse health effect of pollution, per capita income level, and exercise habits) and household characteristics (household size and medium of cooking, fuel or indoor pollution), that may affect the health outcomes are controlled in the regression analysis.11 11 we have presented the descriptive tables of independent variables in table 4, which includes only the continuous and categorized independent variable‘s descriptive statistics. we have not included some independent variables viz., gender, chronic disease, exposure to coal dust, or outdoor pollution, smoking habit, awareness regarding effect of pollution on health, coal as a fuel, exercise and previous week illness and illness related expenditure‘s descriptive statistics as these variables has taken as dummy variable in regression model. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] 6. regression analysis the regression result of the poisson and nbms are given in tables 5 and 6, which display the regression coefficients, standard errors, and probability values (z>p) for each explanatory variable. in table (5) and (6), both the regression model (poisson and nb) present approximately similar results, because the ‗α‘ value (the parameter which accounts for overdispersion) is very small (i.e., 0.0103) in nbm. the only difference is that the poisson model gives the robust standard error (as it is based on pseudo maximum likelihood method and the nbm accounts the overdispersion as it has one ancillary parameter i.e., α. the regression results confirms our hypothesis that there is a positive and significant relationship between the level of air pollution (rspm/pm10) and ri-related sick days. the coefficient of pm10 (0.0059) is positive and statistically significant at 1 per cent level of significance (p-value is 0.001 or equivalently t-value is 4.22) in the poisson model. the positive coefficient of pollution variable depicts that a reduction in air pollution level (pm10 level) will cause a reduction in expected number of ri-related sick days. the coefficient of awareness regarding pollution related health impact is negative and significant at 1 per cent level; showing a decrease in sick days due to the rise in awareness level. the coefficient of chronic diseases asthma is positive and significant at 1 per cent level, thereby presenting an increase in sick days as the chronic asthma increases. the other socioeconomic and control variables such as individual smoking habits, coalfuel12 and illness in previous week have positive coefficients as expected and are also statistically significant.13 the coal as a daily household fuel has been controlled for indoor air pollution. this variable is statistically significant and positive impact on aggravating the respiratory illness and its related sick days. the individuals who have active smoking habits are more susceptible to the exposure of air pollution and thus respiratory illness related sick days increases for them. 12 the frequency of using ‗coal‘ as a cooking fuel contributes to the level of indoor air pollution. the study assumes it as a dummy variable giving the value 1 if a representative household uses coal for their cooking regularly. here, we consider if a household uses coal as a fuel for cooking more than 20 times in a month, then we take the value 1 and it takes 0 otherwise. 13 we have checked the multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity test for the model after running the regression and found these problems among the independent variables are not a serious concern for the model. the wald chi2 (15) is 95.28 with p-value 0.000, which indicates the model is significant as a whole. [59] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury table 6 negative binomial regression result dependent variable (sick days) negative binomial independent variables coefficient(p-value) standard error pm10 0.0059 (0.000)*** 0.1942 age -0.0004(0.891) 0.0034 age square 4.5107(0.992) 0.0004 gender -0.061(0.186) 0.0463 hh size 0.021(0.200) 0.1595 exposed_coaldust -0.057(0.185) 0.4341 awar_polutnhelth 0.139(0.001)*** 0.0444 asthma_cronic 0.123(0.001)*** 0.3855 b.p -0.004(0,390) 0.4875 indiv_smoking 0.105(0.084)* 0.6159 fuel_coaldumy 0.071(0.091)* 0.0421 prevsweek_ill 0.123(0.001)*** 0.0377 prevsweek_expend. -0.052(0.151) 0.3686 exercise -0.028(0.555) 0.0475 pci 0.042(0.220) 0.0349 constant_ 3.266(0.001)*** 1.0110 lnalpha : -4.567se(1.4013) alpha: 0.0103se (0.1455) lr test of alpha=0 chibar2(01) prob.>chibar2 54.43 (0.000) log likelihood : -1914.5084 lrchi2(df): (15) 85.98 prob.>chi2 0.000 pseudo r2 0.022 no of observation 932 source: authors note: ***, ** and * indicate significance at 1%, 5% and 10% level respectively the presence of respiratory illness in the previous week among the individual increases the risk of experiencing more ri-related sick days. 7. welfare gain (in monetary terms) of the reduction in ri-related sick days to estimate the monetary benefits from the reduction in ri-related sick days, we calculate the marginal effect from the poisson regression. marginal effect defines the reduction in ri-related sick days due to the fall in pm10 levels in air. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] following gupta (2006), chowdhury and imran (2010) and adhikari (2012), monetary benefits from reduction in ri-related sick days can be expressed as: 7 365 10  pm (3) where  is the coefficient value of pm10 from poisson regression model (β = 0.0059) λ is the predicted value of (h) or ri sick days from the poisson model (λ = 0.0205) (λ= 0.0205, is the predicted value of sick days from the poisson model, which is calculated by the help of post-regression analysis command in stata-12.0) ∆pm10 is the change in the level of pm10 from the current to the safe standard prescribed level, (the average current level pm10 in two seasons is 159 µg /m3 and the prescribed standard level by odisha pollution control board (opcb) is 90.4 µg /m3 for residential area.) (β * λ) is the marginal gain from poisson estimation or (0.0059 * 0.0205 = 0.00012) the poisson regression result shows that 1 µg /m3 reduction in pm10 results in a marginal benefit of 0.00012(days) for a representative household member in a week. in order to calculate the welfare gain in sick days for a representative household member by reduction in pm10 to a safe level, we have to multiply the marginal benefit value by δpm10 i.e., 0.00012 * 68.6 = 0.00823 as gain in reduction in sick days for a representative household member. the annual benefit in monetary terms or welfare gain can be calculated by multiplying this value 0.00823 with the 7 365 i.e., 0.4292 as annual monetary benefit for reduction in sick days due to reduction in pm10 level or improvement of pm10. putting the values in equation (3) 0.0059 * 0.0205 * 68.6 * 52.14 = (0.43) days per year for a representative household member. here: β = 0.0059, λ = 0.0205, δpm10 = 159 µg /m3 90.4 µg /m3 = 68.6 µg /m3 and 14.52 7 365  . [61] tapaswini nayak and indrani roy chowdhury the calculated average wage (per monthly) of working individual is rs. 275 from working group sample from the survey data. thus the annual monetary gain for a representative household member is 0.43 * 275= rs.118.25 by avoiding the ri-related sick days due to reduction in pm10 level. by extrapolating for the total population of talcher coal mining area, the monetary welfare gain from avoiding the ri-related sick days are estimated as rs. 64, 95,51,5.66 per annum. however our study presents lower bound estimation of monetary welfare gain (of health improvement) from the reduction in air pollution in the opencast coal mining of mcl of talcher area. the study has the limitation of not capturing the averting expenditure of air pollution and the opportunity cost of time spent for seeking care. it poses a serious constraint to gather information on these variables from the survey because of the heterogeneity of the respondents (covering children, women, and old persons other than the working people). moreover the region is endowed with some active public health centres run by mcl, offering some basic health services to the local community. the out of pocket expenditure which was captured during the survey was mainly the expense incurred by the residents from the private consultation over and above the free services they can avail from primary healthcare centres (phc). the compulsion to visit the private practitioner was mainly due to congestion, long waiting time, recurrence, lack of doctor, non-availability of medicine etc., as reported in the survey. 8. conclusion for developmental processes, the economic importance of coal is undoubtedly very high, being the cheapest source of energy. however coal is the most polluting natural resource; from production to combustion it leads to the emissions of various harmful gases including methane (ch4), sulfur dioxide (so2), and nitrogen oxides (nox), carbon monoxide (co), particulate matter, various toxins, etc. besides coal dust, coal wastes, and coal particles are produced during the mining process, soot is released during the transportation of coal. it is evident from various studies that all these pollutants can cause severe and potentially deadly respiratory and lung problems, and cardiovascular diseases. thus, apart from the direct impact of the occupational hazards of the coal miners, coal mining activities (particularly opencast coal mining), imposes highly negative environmental externalities (through air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination and fertility loss and forest loss and degradation) and health externalities (in terms of poor quality of health among the local communities, living in the ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] proximity of opencast coal mining region). although there is huge economic cost involved in tackling these environmental and health externalities,14 it is seldom addressed seriously at the policy level or in the implementation stage. thus the pricing of coal involves huge crosssubsidies in india from the unaccounted environmental and health damages. even the conservative attempt of imputing these negative externalities in the pricing of coal would have increased the price of coal several folds. this primary concern of this paper has been on the impact of air pollution on respiratory health (in terms of their number of sick days or restricted days due to ri) among the residents of some coal mining regions of odisha. the attempt is to capture the partial impact of air pollution (triggered by coal production) on respiratory health damages. given that the level of pm10 is always at an alarming level in the angul-talcher coal mining region, it is natural to expect that the respiratory health outcome would be very pervasive and critical in the proximity of the coal field. it is evident from the literature that the critical air pollution level (particularly concentration of pm10 in air) affects the respiratory health status (lung and chest problems, cough, bronchial asthma, bronchitis, tb and other lung related diseases) of the residents in the proximity of the coal field. our empirical exercise predict the likelihood of ri-related sickness (in terms of their restricted days/sick days) of the residents near the open cast coal mines (due to air pollution). we find there is a strong and direct relation between acute respiratory disease related sick days or restricted activity days and the level pm10 (air pollution) in angul-talcher coal mining area. the positive value of the coefficient of pollution variable depicts that a reduction in air pollution level (pm10 level) causes a reduction in expected number of ri-related sick days. we find that a representative individual in the angul-talcher region can save 0.43 days or rs. 118. 25 by avoiding the 14 see epstein et al. (2011, 92). at the center for health and the global environment, harvard medical school, dr. paul epstein and others found that accounting for the full costs of coal would double or triple its price. the study, released in the annals of the new york academy of sciences, tallied the economic, health, and environmental costs associated with each stage in the life cycle of coal—extraction, transportation, processing, and combustion—and estimated those costs, which are borne by the public at large, at usd 175–500 billion annually. air pollutants from combustion accounted for usd 187.5 billion, mercury impacts as much as usd 29.3 billion. the report estimated the public health burden in appalachian communities at usd 74.6 billion a year, and that death, injury, and increased healthcare costs constituted much of the impact. the study discussed several other impacts that are not easily quantified: coal mining and processing releases heavy metal toxins and carcinogens into water supplies; coal miners die at work or are injured; and coal mining societies are impacted. 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https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.95103472 https://doi.org/10.3386/w5398 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0014-2921(01)00125-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1352-2310(97)00095-2 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 47–67, january 2020 research paper co-location, socioeconomic status and perceptions of environmental change in the indian sundarbans susmita dasgupta,  bansari guha  and david wheeler  abstract: research on determinants of collective action in the commons generally focuses on interest-group heterogeneity, implicitly assuming that groups perceive the same problems but have different priorities. this paper changes the focus to the role played by perceptions themselves. within localities, collective action may be easier if elite and non-elite households have similar assessments of environmental risks. regionally, collective action may be aided by common assessments among local elites who communicate across village lines. this paper uses regression analysis to explore variations in environmental risk assessments across socioeconomic classes and localities, using new survey data from the indian sundarbans. we find that assessments vary significantly across localities. at the same time, assessments among elite households vary significantly more than assessments among non-elite households. our results, therefore, favour locallyoriented collective action in the region, along with local governance that promotes non-elite participation. keywords: commons, collective action, environmental perceptions, sundarbans, india  the world bank, msn: mc-3-308, the world bank, 1818 h street, washington dc, 20008, usa; sdasgupta@worldbank.org.   sivnath sastri college, 23/49 gariahat road, kolkata 700029, india; bansari.guha@gmail.com  world resources institute; 10g street ne #800, washington dc 20002, usa; wheelrdr@gmail.com authors confirm that there is no financial or personal relationship that could cause a conflict of interest regarding this article. the findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. they do not necessarily represent the views of the international bank for reconstruction and development/world bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the executive directors of the world bank or the governments they represent. copyright © dasgupta, guha and wheeler 2020. released under creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.88 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.88 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [48] 1. introduction collective action in the commons is a complex phenomenon that has received extensive attention in the literature (wade 1987a; wade 1987b; ostrom, walker and gardner 1992; baland and platteu 1993; bardhan 1993; ostrom et al. 1999; ostrom 2003). interest group diversity plays an important role in these studies, which typically find that heterogeneity makes it harder for communities to agree on arrangements for sharing the benefits and costs of collective action (kanbur 1992; baland and platteu 1995; alesina, baqir and easterly 1999; poteete and ostrom 2004). most research attributes the adverse impact of heterogeneity to the clash of interests among groups that are differentiated by economic status, gender, culture or political affiliation, while implicitly assuming that they perceive the same environmental problems (baland and platteu 1999; bardhan and dayton-johnson 2000; poteete and ostrom 2004; somanathan, prabhakar and mehta 2007; ruttan 2008; araral 2009; marchiori 2014; kölle 2015). for example, bardhan and dayton-johnson (2000) cite two indian cases (jayaraman 1981; easter and palanisami 1986) in which wealth heterogeneity hinders collective action to develop and maintain irrigation systems, despite a common understanding that these systems would be beneficial. this paper drops that assumption and uses new survey data from the indian sundarbans to consider the role played by perceptions themselves, as revealed by residents’ assessments of the environmental risks faced by their communities. the stakes for collective action are significant: within localities, collective action may be easier if elite and non-elite households have similar assessments. regionally, collective action may be aided by common assessments of local elites who communicate across village lines. the low-lying delta region of the sundarbans is inhabited by some the poorest and most vulnerable people in india, who are also among the most affected by growing threats from climate change: increased frequency and intensity of cyclonic storms (bandyopadhyay et al. 2018); increasing fluctuations in temperature and rainfall; and rising salinity as sea level rise continues (mukhopadhyay et al. 2018). outmigration has increased as households suffer growing losses from climate-related degradation of timber stocks, livestock, fisheries, crops and water quality (dasgupta, sobhan et al. 2017; dasgupta, huq et al. 2017). in the face of these challenges, sundarbans communities would undoubtedly benefit from collective action in the environmental commons – the set of environmental problems that are shared by numerous households. effective mobilization requires cohesion, which, as previously [49] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler noted, may be affected by differences in environmental risk assessment as well as negotiations among groups with different interests. 1 to address the risk assessment question, we conducted a survey of 600 households in three dispersed localities in sundarbans. for each household, the survey collected extensive information on socioeconomic status, livelihoods, migration behaviour and perceived threats from climate-related factors. the paper’s principal objective is to determine the relationships linking co-location2 and socioeconomic status to environmental risk assessment, and the potential implications for local and regional environmental governance. the paper does not incorporate a study of inter-group negotiations, which would require an entirely different survey exercise. we acknowledge the possibility that higher average levels of assessed risks might enhance environmental governance by providing an additional incentive to negotiate. we believe that this may be a fruitful topic for future research. 2. data and methods 2.1. data the 600 households surveyed for the study are distributed across the indian sundarbans (figure 1). we surveyed three localities (mouzas), one in north 24-parganas district (dwarir jangle, sandeshkhali ii block), and two in south 24-parganas district (kumirmari, gosaba block; kankandighi, mathurapur ii block). the three mouzas were selected after village-level consultations to incorporate the range of current environmental risks and future threats identified by village residents. within mouzas, households were selected from zones at progressively-greater distances from local rivers that are subject to annual flooding. two hundred households were surveyed in each mouza from march 2016 to january 2017. 1 we draw a distinction between provision of a collective good through common effort, or mobilization, and provision of the good by an interested party. in small groups with considerable wealth inequality, olson (1965) has noted the likelihood that self-interest may dictate the provision of a public good, if it is warranted by the individual’s expected gain. in the latter case, which does not entail mobilization, cohesion is not necessary. we are indebted to a reviewer for this clarification. 2 the term co-location refers to the location of two parties in the same place. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [50] figure 1: survey mouzas in the west bengal sundarbans source: authors the survey employed maximum variation sampling (palinkas et al. 2015) to incorporate a broad range of household social, economic, demographic and geographic characteristics.3 this approach is particularly useful for econometric analyses of relatively small datasets in cases where the core model variables are specified in advance. it focuses on capturing the marginal effects of variables over their full range. random samples will tend to cluster in the mid-range with limited variation across observations, making it difficult to draw robust statistical inferences about marginal effects. even with maximum variation sampling, the generalizability of the results will depend on the degree of overlap between samples drawn in this region and the value ranges of model variables in other regions. from this perspective, the broader range afforded by maximum variation sampling may yield more common-range observations than random sampling. this paper focuses on the relationship between socioeconomic status and differences in assessment of environmental risks. to measure differences in assessment, we asked survey households to rank the importance of changes 3 sampling dimensions are tabulated in appendix a. [51] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler in variables grouped into two categories: general environmental conditions and conditions related to livelihood. the environmental risk variables were pre-determined in focus group exercises with villagers in the three mouzas. the categories were pre-designed for analytical purposes, so we did not expect survey respondents to provide any rationale for the groupings. in each category, we asked respondents to rank only those changes that they thought were significant. some chose to rank changes for all variables in each category, while others limited their selection to small subsets. we did not ask about cyclonic storms, which affect the entire region and are sufficiently rare to make trend identification difficult for individual households. for general environmental conditions, we asked respondents to identify and rank the importance of significant changes in rainfall (lower or higher annual averages; more drought conditions), temperature (higher annual averages), and increases in salinity. for livelihood-related conditions that involve local environmental variables and associated resource stocks, we asked respondents to identify and rank the importance of changes in timber stocks4, livestock, fisheries, soil fertility, insect infestation of crops, water pollution, access to drinking water, and forced outmigration of family members. using the ranks provided by a household, we computed numerical scores for variables within each change group: 5 variables for general environmental conditions and 10 for livelihood-related conditions. among ranked variables in each group, the highest-ranking is arbitrarily assigned a score of 10; the next-ranked a score of 9, etc. unranked variables were assigned scores of 0. for general environmental conditions we formed a dataset that included all pairs of households in our sample. these pairs were drawn from all mouzas to permit a robust analysis of the effect of proximity on assessments of environmental risks. we augmented the dataset for each pair of households by including their scores for the five general environmental variables. then, for each household pair, we computed the correlation coefficient for the five scores. we repeated this exercise for the ten livelihood-related conditions. the result for each household pair was a scores correlation coefficient for general environmental conditions and another scores coefficient for livelihood-related conditions. the estimated correlation coefficients provided the dependent variables in our analysis of the relationship between socioeconomic status and differences in environmental risk assessment. 4 respondents were asked to consider both the immediate village surroundings and nearby forest reserves. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [52] table 1: distribution of household asset counts wealth status asset count sample households low 0 4 1 205 2 144 medium 3 104 4 76 high 5 33 6 16 7 6 8 4 9 7 10 1 total 600 source: authors table 2: education status and reported education levels education status survey category count low pre-primary (below 1) 51 primary (1-4) 118 medium upper primary (5-8) 152 secondary (9-10) 60 high higher secondary (11-12) 24 undergraduate (b.a/b.sc./b.com.) 35 post-graduate (m.a/m.sc./m.com.) 8 post-masters (ph.d./voc./doctor/eng.) 1 total 449 source: authors we developed our socioeconomic status indicators from survey-based measures of household wealth and education. we assigned high socioeconomic status (ses) to households whose wealth and education were both in the upper range. to ensure the clearest view of socioeconomic status effects, we assigned low ses to households whose wealth and education were both in the lower range. identification of ses ranges, while analytically useful, have an unavoidably arbitrary component. we, therefore, chose break points in the data to ensure ample representation in each subgroup. we indexed wealth by counting total asset possession from a possible set of 29 assets.5 table 1 displays our selection of break points and household representation in each range. the survey reports the education level of the household head in 8 categories. table 2 displays our selection of break points and household 5 we have used an unweighted count because we do not have reliable information on asset vintages or their market values. assets queried were own car, taxi, auto-rickshaw, truck/small truck, bicycle, motor bike, gas stove, mixer, refrigerator/freezer, washing machine, iron, geyser, radio/cassette recorder, colour television, bblack and white television, dvd player, land telephone, mobile, sewing machine, power generator (kerosene), power generator (solar), electric fan, air conditioner, personal computer, motor boat, row boat or sail boat, animal drawn cart, jewelry, other building excluding dwelling. [53] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler representation in each range. the lower total representation for education (449, vs. 600 for wealth) reflects non-reporting by some survey households. 2.2 regression model specification our research strategy posits that environmental risk assessments reflect a process of consensus formation that has received extensive attention in both the theoretical literature (dyer et al. 2009; hegselmann and krause 2002; hoylst et al. 2001; deffuant et al. 2000; friedkin and johnsen 1999; lehrer and wagner 1981; wagner 1978) and empirical research (estrada and vargas-estrada 2013; aral and walker 2012; calvó-armengol et al. 2009; denrell 2008; yun et al. 2008; childers and rao 1992). in this research, individuals assign weight to both their own observations and the observations of others with whom they communicate. residential proximity generally has a significant effect, because communications decline with distance. the same holds for the ―social proximity‖ provided by common cultural identity (e.g., ethnicity). however, the role of socioeconomic status is more controversial (sun et al. 2019; phillips and zuckerman 2001; aronson 1972; goffman 1963). numerous studies find that relatively highstatus individuals conform less to majority views than middle-status individuals. the rationale is that the relative security of high-status individuals makes them more willing to demonstrate divergence. for lowerstatus individuals, however, the evidence is mixed. in some cases, lowerstatus individuals also conform less than middle-status individuals. in other cases, they exhibit more conformity. these divergent findings have given rise to two views of the relationship between status and conformity. the ―u-shaped‖ model holds that both highand low-status individuals conform less than middle-status individuals: the former because their position is secure, and the latter because they have little or nothing to lose in any case. the opposing model, which may have more relevance for developing countries, posits a monotone-increasing relationship between socioeconomic status and nonconformity. in this view, low-status individuals, who may be at the survival margin, are unlikely to risk the costs that may accompany non-conformity. our econometric modelling builds on this literature without taking explicit sides in the dispute, although our prior view was that the monotoneincreasing model seems more plausible for high-poverty areas like the indian sundarbans. we posited a model in which individuals’ assessments of environmental risks were formed from their own observations and those of individuals with whom they communicated. we indexed assessment similarity between two individuals using the correlation between their scores for the previously noted environmental change factors in our survey. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] for paired individuals from households i and j, we focused on three potential determinants of assessment similarity. the first was frequency of communication, which should be inversely related to the residential distance between the two households. given that we cannot observe actual communications between surveyed individuals, we used residential distance as an index of the likelihood that they communicate. the second factor was ―social proximity‖. ceteris paribus, we expect an individual to assign greater weight to the environmental risk assessments of individuals with the same group affiliation. for this exercise, we used a measure of common ethnicity to index social proximity. the third factor was socioeconomic status. as previously noted, social psychologists disagree that the relationship between socioeconomic status and nonconformity is u-shaped or monotone-increasing. our regression model tested the effects of four categorical variables on inter-household score correlations for environmental changes: (1) common mouza; (2) common status in the highest socioeconomic group; (3) common status in the lowest socioeconomic group; (4) common membership in the ethnic categories identified by the survey (scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, obc).6 we specified our regression model at the micro-level to capture the full range of individual variation in the sample, and estimated the following regression equation: ijijijijijij lshsel  43210 (1) prior expectations: ,;;; 0000 4321  where, ij = correlation coefficient of scores for environmental change factors by paired individuals i and j ijl = 1 if individuals i and j are located in the same mouza; 0 otherwise ije = 1 if individuals i and j have the same ethnic category; 0 otherwise ijhs = 1 if individuals i and j both have high ses, as previously defined; 0 otherwise ijls = 1 if individuals i and j both have low ses, as previously defined; 0 otherwise ij = random error term 6 obc abbreviates other backward caste, a term used by the government of india. [55] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler the ses dummy variables distinguish pairs of high-ses and low-ses individuals from others in the sample: cross-ses or middle-ses pairings. our estimation results for hs and ls should be interpreted as deviations from the constant term, which absorbs the effect of the excluded pairings. although we recognized the divergence of views in the literature, our prior expectation was that the deviation would be negative for high-ses pairs (indicating lower correlation) and positive for low-ses pairs. spatial econometric estimation was not needed in this case, since the paired household observations were drawn from all three mouzas. however, we believe that error variance may not be independent of the distance between households in each pair. accordingly, we augmented standard ols and robust estimators with a gls estimator that incorporates standard errors for 10 clusters identified by relative distance between paired individuals. distances were calculated from the latitude and longitude recorded for each household. 3. results tables 3 and 4 provide information on mean variable scores by mouza and socioeconomic status (ses) group, as well as summary cross-correlations. table 3a displays mean scores for the 10 environment-related threats to livelihood. as the table shows, there are substantial differences in mean scores across ses groups in each mouza. nevertheless, the table also suggests more agreement within mouzas than across them. these patterns also characterize the correlation coefficients in table 3b. the overall distribution of correlations (table 3c) is roughly symmetric, with one negative correlation (-0.20), first, second and third quartile points at 0.37, 0.51 and 0.64, respectively, and a maximum at 0.97. tables 4a, 4b and 4c provide the same information for five changes in general environmental conditions. here typical correlations are higher, although substantial variation is also evident. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] table 3a: livelihood-related change scores by mouza and socio-economic status mouza (1) dwarir jangle (2) kumirmari (3) kankandighi ses l m h l m h l m h households 23 61 46 3 15 3 20 43 22 change tree loss 7.2 7.4 7.7 6.0 5.2 5.0 7.8 7.2 7.4 livestock loss 4.1 5.4 5.9 7.7 7.8 9.0 8.2 7.3 8.1 crop damage 6.0 5.7 6.4 6.7 6.9 6.7 5.4 6.1 6.5 fish loss 2.1 5.2 6.9 5.3 5.3 7.3 3.8 5.2 4.5 water pollution 8.4 6.7 6.9 6.3 4.9 5.0 4.7 4.1 3.5 soil fertility loss 5.0 3.5 2.5 4.0 4.3 3.3 6.2 4.6 5.5 water loss 3.1 2.8 2.2 6.3 5.0 4.3 6.1 5.6 5.8 pests and insects 4.7 2.9 1.9 3.7 5.6 4.7 5.6 4.7 4.2 animal diseases 4.1 2.8 2.4 5.0 5.0 4.0 4.0 4.8 4.7 outmigration 1.3 2.1 1.6 4.0 4.3 5.7 3.3 5.2 4.7 notes: l indicates low; m indicates middle; h indicates high. source: authors table 3b: correlation coefficients livelihood-related change scores m o u z a ses (1) dwarir jangle (2) kumirmari (3) kankandighi l m h l m h l m h (1 ) l 1.00 m 0.72 1.00 h 0.54 0.97 1.00 (2 ) l 0.33 0.63 0.66 1.00 m 0.13 0.38 0.44 0.70 1.00 h -0.20 0.38 0.53 0.60 0.79 1.00 (3 ) l 0.41 0.44 0.32 0.50 0.52 0.20 1.00 m 0.04 0.45 0.46 0.61 0.64 0.58 0.72 1.00 h 0.09 0.35 0.33 0.60 0.64 0.45 0.82 0.94 1.00 notes: l indicates low; m indicates middle; h indicates high. source: authors table 3c: distribution of correlation coefficients min p25 p50 p75 max -0.20 0.37 0.51 0.64 0.97 source: authors [57] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler table 4a: general environmental changes scores by mouza and socioeconomic status mouza (1) dwarir jangle (2) kumirmari (3) kankandighi ses l m h l m h l m h households 23 72 70 29 124 42 29 65 31 change less rain 8.2 6.5 5.3 0.0 0.6 1.0 0.3 0.6 2.3 more saline 7.0 5.2 3.9 5.9 4.0 5.7 5.9 6.3 4.8 more rain 2.7 5.5 7.4 0.7 0.3 0.0 0.3 0.9 1.8 more frequent drought 1.7 2.6 3.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.4 1.2 higher temperature 8.4 7.8 7.8 8.1 8.8 8.9 8.9 8.3 7.9 notes: l indicates low; m indicates middle; h indicates high. source: authors table 4b: correlation coefficients general environmental change scores m o u z a ses (1) dwarir jangle (2) kumirmari (3) kankandighi l m h l m h l m h (1 ) l 1.00 m 0.82 1.00 h 0.29 0.78 1.00 (2 ) l 0.60 0.57 0.33 1.00 m 0.65 0.67 0.45 0.96 1.00 h 0.69 0.64 0.33 0.99 0.98 1.00 (3 ) l 0.59 0.53 0.28 0.99 0.98 0.99 1.00 m 0.57 0.50 0.24 0.99 0.96 0.98 1.00 1.00 h 0.71 0.71 0.45 0.97 1.00 0.99 0.97 0.96 1.00 notes: l indicates low; m indicates middle; h indicates high. source: authors table 4c: distribution of correlation coefficients min p25 p50 p75 max 0.24 0.56 0.71 0.98 1.00 source: authors ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] table 5: distribution of interpersonal correlation coefficients environmental change factors n min p10 p25 p50 p75 p90 max livelihoodrelated 23,871 -0.94 -0.30 -0.07 0.15 0.37 0.62 1.00 general 109,278 -1.00 -0.40 -0.01 0.49 0.67 1.00 1.00 source: authors table 5 presents the distributions of correlation coefficients for paired individuals. the correlations for both change groups are distributed in the range [-1,1], with thousands of positive and negative values. above the median, percentile points are substantially higher for the general environmental change factors. this is consistent with the cross-correlation patterns displayed for mean scores in tables 1c and 2c. table 6 reports our estimation results for the econometric model specified in equation (1) above. the dependent variable is the correlation coefficient of environmental change variable scores for paired individuals. the independent variables are categorical variables for common mouza; common status in the highest socioeconomic group; common status in the lowest socioeconomic group; and common ethnicity. the estimates indicate that common mouza has a highly significant positive impact on the interpersonal score correlations for both general environmental conditions and environment-related threats to livelihood. conversely, high ses has a consistently negative impact on the correlation — marginally for threats to livelihood and with high significance for general environmental conditions. low ses has a consistently positive impact that is marginally significant for threats to livelihood and highly significant for general environmental conditions. while common ethnicity has a positive impact, it is both small in size and statistically insignificant in all cases.7 7 to check the robustness of our results, we identified a separate group whose members have elite status in wealth or education, but not both. the econometric results for elite status are equally strong when a dummy variable was introduced for the group with partial elite status. these results are available from the authors on request. [59] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler table 6: regression results determinants of common environmental risk assessments (dependent variable: inter-individual correlation coefficient) environmental threats to livelihood general environmental conditions ols robust gls ols robust gls individuals have common mouza 0.136 0.136 0.137 0.089 0.089 0.094 (29.76)** (28.32)** (5.49)** (27.25)** (26.99)** (4.21)** high ses -0.002 -0.002 -0.018 -0.080 -0.080 -0.074 (0.10) (0.09) (0.54) (3.95)** (4.22)** (2.59)* low ses 0.029 0.029 0.027 0.040 0.040 0.031 (1.96) (2.08)* (1.41) (3.22)** (3.33)** (2.15)* ethnicity 0.005 0.005 0.004 0.006 0.006 0.004 (0.94) (0.91) (0.23) (1.88) (1.88) (0.13) constant 0.095 0.095 0.093 0.277 0.277 0.285 (28.86)** (33.29)** (7.84)** (123.40)** (123.36)** (9.84)** obs 23,871 23,871 20,503 109,278 109,278 96,141 r-squared 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.01 0.01 0.01 notes: 1. absolute value of t statistics in parentheses 2. * significant at 5%; ** significant at 1% source: authors tables 7 and 8 display predicted correlations from the gls regressions by mouza of residence and ses.8 middle ses is assigned to paired status for individuals who are neither high ses nor low ses. both tables display the highest correlations for paired individuals with low ses in a common mouza. conversely, paired individuals with high ses in different mouzas have the lowest correlations. typical correlations are higher for general environmental changes than for livelihood-related changes, but livelihoodrelated changes have greater relative effects. from highest to lowest case, the correlation falls by 69% for livelihood-related changes and 49% for changes in general environmental conditions. 8 ethnicity has no meaningful effect on these results; the table entries are calculated for paired individuals who do not have common ethnicity. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] table 7: livelihood-related changes: predicted interpersonal correlations by co-location and ses common locality common ses low intermediate high yes 0.26 0.23 0.21 no 0.12 0.09 0.08 source: authors table 8: general environmental changes: predicted interpersonal correlations by co-location and ses common locality common ses low intermediate high yes 0.41 0.38 0.31 no 0.32 0.29 0.21 source: authors 4. discussion cost-effective adaptation to climate-related changes will require increased public investment, but it will also depend on local support for appropriate collective action. there is extensive literature on the determinants of effective collective action at the village level, with a major focus on the problem of interest-group heterogeneity (vedeld 2000; kurian and dietz 2013). relevant factors include differences in wealth, education and patterns of resource tenure and ownership (beck and nesmith 2001; gaspart 2003). while such studies generally find that greater homogeneity is a positive factor, they have also explored important differences that are attributable to outside intervention modes, the presence of intermediating institutions, and the role of ―policy entrepreneurs‖ in forging and sustaining collective agreements among heterogeneous actors (myers 1997; kurian and dietz 2007). more generally, the policy literature on commons problems explores the implications of heterogeneity in income, education and ethnicity for support for environmental regulation (jones and dunlop 1992; wang et al. 2018; chen 2017; janmaimool 2017; chakraborty et al. 2017; liu and mu 2017). the principal focus is transactional, on the implicit assumption that agents have common assessments of the problems but different priorities for addressing them. this paper attempts to contribute by addressing another aspect of heterogeneity that has received less attention in the literature: the role played by differences in environmental risk assessments. within localities, collective action may be easier if elite and non-elite households have similar assessments of critical environmental problems. at the same time, extensive [61] susmita dasgupta, bansari guha and david wheeler research indicates that regional governance is dominated by economic and educational elites who communicate across locality lines (khan 2008; ghertner 2011; oyono 2004; lucas 2016; piabuo et al. 2018). by implication, regional environmental governance is likely to be more effective if elites in different localities have common assessments of the critical problems. several other possibilities emerge from this line of inquiry, depending on comparative conditions at the local and regional levels. in the weakest scenario, environmental governance is hindered by heterogeneity of assessments within and across localities. local governance may be strengthened, if local elite and non-elite households share common assessments; regional governance may dominate if local-level assessments differ, but elites share assessments across localities. we conducted a survey of 600 households in three mouzas of the indian sundarbans that is threatened by several environmental factors related to climate change and explored the impact of location and socioeconomic status on patterns of environmental risk assessment. our findings had three noteworthy features: for the broad middle group, we found a positive, highly-significant correlation of assessments across all mouzas;9 common mouza adds a highly-significant increment to the correlation; another increment is added for low ses households — in contrast, high ses subtracts a significant increment. given the complexity of collective actions in the commons, it is widely acknowledged that systems of governance need to be flexible to allow adaptation of management regimes to local conditions (adhikari and lovett 2006). in the literature on the environmental commons, attention focuses primarily on class-related interests that affect the prospects for local or regional action. our results suggest that socioeconomic status may also operate through assessments of environmental change that become more varied as socioeconomic status increases. while our results suggest that the strongest foundations for action in the commons are local, they also indicate that disagreements about environmental risks may undermine the leadership potential of local elites. by implication, village-level governance based on widespread participation in decision-making seems likely to promote the most effective environmental measures in the indian sundarbans. this is a key message for development partners, policy makers and practitioners working on management of environmental resources in the indian sundarbans. 9 these are the constant terms in the regressions. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] we should also note that our results may have broader geographic implications. our research methodology can be replicated in other places and, as we have noted, our findings are consistent with previous research on 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tribe obc other religion hindu muslim christian other education highest level occupation agriculture fishing forestry service other income and employment permanent seasonal migration permanent seasonal housing details housing type distance from amenities household assets appendix ecology, economy and society–the insee journal 3 (1): 69–98, january 2020 research paper adaptation measures to combat climate change impacts on agriculture: an empirical investigation in the chambal basin ganesh kawadia  and era tiwari  abstract: this study is based on the empirical investigation of the climate change adaptation measures adopted by the farmers in the chambal basin. the adaptation measures were analysed after investigating the nature and impact of climate change in the region. four representative districts were selected using control sampling. a representative sample of farmers was selected through stratified snowball sampling technique. descriptive statistics and case study methods were used for results and analysis. detailed irrigation profiles of the farmers were traced. the moisture index was calculated based on secondary data. a sampling survey method of investigation was used in the study. this paper also presents the context of maladaptation of monoculture in the region and severe groundwater depletion associated with this practice. the study directs policy to strengthen water-harvesting measures in the region to facilitate the adaptation measures for coping with the effects of climate change on agriculture. keywords: climate change, agriculture, adaptation, water harvesting, maladaptation 1. introduction a consistent shift in the weather of a region over a long period is termed as climate change. it includes many variables like temperature, rainfall, rate of  former professor and head; school of economics devi ahilya university, indore; former professor; school of data science and forecasting; devi ahilya university, indore, m.p. 452010; ganesh.kawadia@gmail.com  assistant professor (economics) in department of banking, economics and finance; bundelkhand university, jhansi, u.p. 284128; tough.era@gmail.com  copyright © kawadia and tiwari 2020. released under creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.89 https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v3i1.89 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] evaporation, wet day frequency, etc. the bruntland report states that climate change was identified as a crucial problem bearing on our survival long back (wced 1987). according to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc 2007), large scale variations in average temperatures and precipitation in the coming decades will have a significant impact on ecosystems, related livelihood options, and overall human well-being. agriculture as a managed ecosystem gets affected by climate change most significantly. productivity, crop-duration and even selection of crops to be grown in a region depend upon temperature coupled with duration and spatial distribution of rainfall. hence, changes in average climatic conditions along with the occurrence of extreme climatic events will have a significant impact on the agricultural sector, which, in turn, may have critical implications for food security. however, the effects in different regions around the globe will differ significantly. consequently, region-based research on the interactions between climate change and agricultural performance has gained momentum. climate change adaptation and mitigation, therefore, is now an important area of research in social sciences as well as physical sciences. the real challenge of climate change is to minimize its risks through adaptations, which is a process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects. in human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harmful activities and exploit beneficial opportunities. these adaptations have to take place at all levels from changes in global systems to changes at national and regional levels through adaptations made by local communities and individuals. the development of adaptation strategies needs to recognise the appropriate mix of actions at different levels. agriculture is one of the most important sectors to be severely impacted by climate change and thus an inquiry into the adaptation measures in this sector in relation to climate change is a must. it is all the more significant to be carried out on a regional basis as the regional climate has peculiarities that govern crop selection and irrigation management at the most basic level. this study is an attempt to fulfil this objective in the chambal basin, which has faced significant changes in climatic and cropping patterns in the decades following the construction of gandhi sagar dam on the chambal river. [71] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari 2. nature of climate change, its impact on agriculture, perceiving the change, and adaptations made: a review of literature 2.1. an assessment of risk and vulnerability due to climate change in some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to the expected climate and its effects (ipcc 1996). in human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harmful activities and exploit beneficial opportunities. adaptations take place at all levels from changes in global systems to changes at national and regional levels through changed practices of local communities and individuals. the development of adaptation strategies needs to recognise the appropriate mix of actions at different levels. agriculture is inherently sensitive to climatic conditions and is among the most vulnerable sectors to the risks and impacts of global climate change (parry and carter 1989; reilly and schimmelpfenning 1999). studies show that without adaptation, climate change is generally problematic for agricultural production and agricultural economies and communities; but with adaptation, the vulnerability can be reduced and there are numerous opportunities to be realised (rosenzweig and hillel 1995; mendelsohn 1998). studies on climate change trends have already shown that climate variation is a reality for india but its impact on society as well as its social and economic consequences are yet to be fully understood. also, there is neither a consensus on the definition of vulnerability to climate change nor a full, regionally nuanced mapping of impacts of variables available. it is only when we have a better understanding of what constitutes vulnerability to climate change and what are its region-specific impact, that we can determine proper adaptation strategies. in this context, one study has found that the states of bihar, rajasthan, gujarat, punjab, haryana, madhya pradesh, maharashtra, andhra pradesh, and karnataka have the lowest adaptive capacity (o'brien et al. 2004). the areas of greatest climatesensitivity are rajasthan, madhya pradesh and uttar pradesh using current climatological data. to identify and assess crop adaptation, there is a pressing requirement for more observational field studies to achieve detailed knowledge about how crops respond to climate change. in another study, it was found that a 2°c temperature rise and 7 per centages increase in rainfall would lead to an almost 8 per cent loss in farm net revenue (kumar and parikh 2001). the regional differences are significantly large with northern and central indian districts along with coastal districts bearing a relatively large impact. it has been observed that during the past 25 years, significant changes in climate are observed over different regions ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] of the country (sinha, singh and rai 1998). for example, many parts of northern india show an increase in minimum temperature by about 1°c in the rabi cropping season. however, mean temperatures are misleading as some of the individual regions could exhibit a large variation with a larger impact on rabi production. 2.2 exploring perceptions about climate change in agricultural systems as the impacts of climate change on agriculture are severe, it is important to take appropriate actions to minimise the losses. the foremost requirement for taking an action is to accurately assess the nature of change in the climatic events. in this context, existing research suggests that the formation of environmental perceptions is most of the time a local phenomenon rather than a global phenomenon (magistro and roncoli 2001). it is usually associated with personal experiences about changes in temperature, precipitation and observation of crop-responses to the environment. in developing countries ‗farm surveys‘ and ‗focus group discussions‘ are the preferred mode of research in identifying farmers‘ perceptions of climate change and the factors that shape them. a study on climate change in the western himalayas of india (vedwan and rhoades 2001) compared farmers‘ perceptions with ‗locally idealised traditional weather cycles‘. several studies indicate that socio-economic and demographic factors are most important in determining farmers‘ perceptions. in a survey-based study of the sekyedumase district in the ashanti region in ghana, 180 farmers were queried about their perceptions of changing climate in terms of changes in temperature, rainfall and area covered by vegetation in the past 20 years (fosu-mensah, vlek and maccarthy 2012). they were also queried about their major adaptations to climate change and the barriers they faced. household characteristics, years of farming experience, size of landholdings and their access to extension services along with credit services were major explanatory variables. age of the head of the farming household, which is usually a proxy for the farmer‘s experience, was found to be one of the most important factors in shaping the perceptions about climate change (diggs 1991). extensive field-based studies of african small-holding farming systems have shown that the level of formal education of farmers is positively associated with their ability to perceive correctly climate-related changes (mustapha, sanda and shehu 2012). access to banking services and information about climate change through extension-services plays an important role in enhancing farmers‘ understanding of climate change and appropriate adaptation measures (maddison 2007). farmers with a higher level of income were also found to be more perceptive of changes in climate (semenza et al. 2008). finally, a [73] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari cross-sectional analysis of farmers in kyuso district in kenya, africa, found that joint family households were less perceptive of climate change as such families are more inclined to engage in non-farm activities as well (ndambiri et al. 2012). a comprehensive strategy that seeks to improve food security in the context of climate change may include a set of coordinated measures related to agricultural extension, crop diversification, integrated water and pest management, and agricultural information services. some of these measures may have to do with climatic changes and others with economic development. indeed, studies indicate that farmers perceive that the climate is changing and also adapt to reduce the negative impacts of climate change (thomas et al. 2007; ishaya and abaje 2008; mertz et al. 2009). studies further show that the perception or awareness of climate change (semenza et al. 2008; akter and bennett 2011) and taking adaptive measures (maddison 2007; hassan and nhemachena 2008) are influenced by different socio-economic and environmental factors. adaptation to climate change is a two-step process; the first step requires the farmers to perceive a change in climate and the second step requires them to act through adaptation (maddison 2007). studies of perceptions of climate change, both in developing (vedwan and rhoades 2001; hegeback et al. 2005; thomas et al. 2007; ishaya and abaje 2008; gbetibouo 2009; mertz et al. 2009) and developed (diggs 1991; leiserowitz 2006; semenza et al. 2008; akter and bennett 2011) nations show that the majority of population have already perceived climate change and they are adapting to it in various manners (falco, veronesi and yesuf 2011). there are different ways of adapting to climate change in agriculture (bradshaw, dolan and smit 2004; kurukulasuriya et al. 2004; mertz et al. 2009) and different factors affect the use of any of these adaptation methods (deressa et al. 2009). for instance, it has been shown that better access to markets, extension and credit services, technology, farm assets (labour, land and capital) and information about adaptation to climate change, including technological and institutional methods, affect adaptation to climate change (hassan and nhemachena 2008). changing cropping calendars and pattern will be the immediate best available option with available crop varieties to adapt to the climate change impact (rathore and stigler 2007). the options like introducing new cropping sequences, late or early maturing crop varieties depending on the available growing season, conserving soil moisture through appropriate tillage practices and efficient water harvesting techniques are also important. developing heat and drought-tolerant crop varieties, by utilizing genetic resources that may be better adapted to new climatic and atmospheric conditions, should be the long-term strategy. genetic manipulation may also help to exploit the beneficial effects of ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] increased co2 on crop growth and water use (rosenzweig and hillel 1995). one of the promising approaches would be gene pyramiding to enhance the adaptation capacity of plants to climate change inputs (mangala 2007). 2.3. adaptation strategies adaptations to climate change impacts are not new phenomena. natural and socio-economic systems have been continuously and autonomously adapting to a changing environment throughout history. adaptation to climate change and variability (including extreme events) at national and local levels is regarded as a pragmatic strategy to strengthen capacity to lessen the magnitude of climate change impacts that are already occurring and could increase gradually (or suddenly) and may be irreversible. adaptation can be anticipatory, where systems adjust before the initial impacts take place, or it can be reactive, where change is introduced in response to the onset of the impacts. climate change adaptations in agricultural practices often have synergy with sustainable development policies and may explicitly influence social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. many adaptations have co-benefits (improved efficiency, reduced costs, environmental co-benefits) as well as trade-offs (e.g. increasing other forms of pollution) and balancing these effects will be necessary for successful implementation of climate change adaptation and mitigation in the agricultural sector (ipcc 2014). farmers generally adapt swiftly to avert their agricultural production losses. in india, adaptations in farm practices (changing the sowing dates, adopting different crop varieties and improving water supply) have been seen to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change (kumar and parikh 2001). adaptation measures could be simple ones like shifting planting calendars or changing crops, or more costly ones like investing in protective infrastructures such as damming rivers to provide assured water supply for irrigation. farm-level resource management innovations such as the development of irrigated drainage systems, land contouring, reservoirs and recharge areas, and alternative tillage systems are also used to minimise the impact of climate change on agriculture (easterling 1996). a comprehensive strategy that seeks to improve food security in the context of climate change may include a set of coordinated measures related to agricultural extension, crop diversification, integrated water and pest management, and agricultural information services. some of these measures may have to do with climatic changes and others with economic development. studies have indeed indicated that farmers perceive that the climate is changing and also adapt to reduce the negative impacts of climate change (thomas et al. 2007; ishaya and abaje 2008; mertz et al. 2009). from united nations framework [75] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari convention on climate change (unfcc 1992) to india‘s national communications (moef 2004) river basin specific impacts of various climate change scenarios and vulnerability to droughts and floods have been estimated at the catchment, sub-catchment and watershed levels, as well as for administrative units such as districts. while such exercises are useful given the multiple pressures that act on water resources, integrated watershed modelling might be more appropriate. a pathbreaking study examined the current adaptation strategies of stakeholders in the cauvery delta of tamil nadu and argued that the responses to climatic and non-climatic pressures have largely been ad hoc and hence could be inadequate and unsustainable in the long term (janakarajan 2010). finally, in context to efficient natural resource management, conservation agriculture offers resource-poor farmers a set of possible options to cope with and adapt to climate change (thomas et al. 2007). improved water management will represent the key adaptation strategy in both irrigated and dryland agriculture. emphasis will also be given to crop production systems located in delta regions to sustain high production potential under sea-level rise (wassmann and dobermann 2007). based on fieldwork in andhra pradesh and rajasthan, effective ways to make farmers more adaptive to climate change were suggested (mssrf 2008). the recommendations include specific changes in traditional water management practices such as harren in rajasthan, establishing small farm networks that enable farmers to share knowledge on-farm management practices, utilising weather data from simple meteorological stations operated by farmers and use of some new farming techniques such as systems of rice-intensification. 2.4. costs and limits of adaptation there is an array of factors that limit adaptations by ecosystems, communities and individuals. there are cost considerations and threshold limits that may primarily be categorised in four sets – ecological, physical, economic and technological (adger et al. 2009). a farmer may practically abandon farming due to limits to adaptation with respect to water resources. it is, thus, especially important to understand social limits to adaptation because this may put the responsibility on governance to work proactively for mitigation strategies. if the capacity to adapt is considered unlimited, a key rationale for reducing greenhouse gases is weakened (dow et al. 2013). a linked consideration, where adaptation is well within the limit, is ‗willingness to adapt‘, which is influenced by individual characteristics and perceptions about climate change impacts (pannell et al. 2006). finally, the barriers to adaptations are the obstacles which can be overcome by ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] concerted effort, creative management or changed thinking (moser and ekstrom 2010). however, adaptation is not an easy process. any failed decision in adaptation, with respect to objective, results in ‗maladaptation‘. the problem of increasing vulnerability from action taken for adaptation is termed as ‗maladaptation‘ (barnett and o‘neill 2010). maladaptation also occurs when the negative impacts caused by adaptation are as serious as the climate change adaptation being avoided (scheraga and grambsch 1998). this may put whole systems at risk and may lead to its breakdown, and thus needs to be analysed in every adaptation situation. 3. about the study area the study area considered here is the catchment area of chambal river in the state of madhya pradesh – the entire geographical area drained by the river and its tributaries and characterized by all run-off being conveyed to the same outlet. it is also known as catchment basin, drainage area or drainage basin. chambal river, a principal tributary of yamuna, originates in the vindhyan ranges near mhow in indore district of madhya pradesh. the river flows through the states of madhya pradesh, rajasthan and uttar pradesh. the basin is roughly rectangular, with a maximum length of 560 km in the northeast-southwest direction. broadly, its catchment area is termed as malwa region. it is located in the south-western part of the madhya pradesh and generally slopes towards the north. it is spread across 45,628 square km. the catchment mainly covers the districts of indore, dewas, ujjain, dhar, mandsaur, ratlam, neemuch and shajapur. rainfed farming of grains, pulses (moong, black gram and pigeon pea) and groundnut is a traditional practice. in the rabi season, wheat and gram are cultivated mostly under irrigated condition. the natural vegetation comprises of tropical dry and moist deciduous forests. however, rich farmers grow rice, wheat and gram and, sometimes cotton using irrigation facilities. the catchment area of the chambal river shows severe effects of climate change. this area was once known for its good climate and abundant food, water and employment opportunities (in the folk idiom it is defined as pag roti dag neer). it is now facing severe water shortage and extreme weather conditions (gupta and kawadia 2003). agriculture is primarily rainfed and the region does not have adequate mechanism to use surface water for agriculture. as a result, farmers are forced to exploit ground water for the domestic as well as for agricultural purposes. no proper facilities to recharge groundwater are developed. as water withdrawal from the ground is much more than the recharge (gupta, kawadia and attari 2007), it has [77] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari created conditions of deforestation and desertification in the area. the area thus presents a good case study for climate change adaptation practices. 4. objectives of the study 1) to understand the nature of climate change and its impact on agriculture in the chambal river catchment area. 2) to present an overview of the adaptation measures in the area. 3) to discuss maladaptations and its implications for the region. 4) to direct policy for strengthening specific adaptations. 5. research methodology the study has followed the sample survey method of investigation. of the eight districts in the chambal catchment, indore, dewas, mandsaur and neemuch districts were selected in controlled sampling following expert advice. these four districts provided adequate representation of different agro-climatic and farming systems in the study region. a representative sample of 470 farmers was finally selected from 28 villages of these districts through stratified snowball sampling techniques in the agricultural year 2014-2015. the farm household survey was conducted in two steps, a field pre-test and actual data collection. as indicated above, the study made use of controlled sampling — only those agricultural households were surveyed that got subsidy from the government for rainwater harvesting specifically to overcome the shortage of water due to climate change. enumerators conversant with local language and traditions in the study area were engaged to conduct the field survey. each survey schedule had 70 questions. a farm household was the unit of analysis. moisture index was calculated based on centurial data of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (india water portal 2016) to determine the ‗aridity‘ status of all the districts in the study area. a seven-year moving average was used to smoothen the fluctuations. linear regression was used to find the equation and trend line. the study also made use of descriptive statistics and case study method for analysis and presentation of results. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] 6. results and analysis 6.1. nature of climate change in the chambal basin 6.1.1. precipitation and moisture index agriculture in madhya pradesh has remained rainfed and will continue to be so for the next few decades. the state is dependent on rainfall for its water requirements. the total rainfall in the state varies from 60 cms, over the extreme north and western parts, to 120 cms over the central, eastern and southern parts of the state. therefore, significant climatic aberrations or changes will have a certain impact on the agricultural output of the state. global warming and shift in precipitation zones would cause drought, exposing the vulnerability of the countries affected. monitoring the occurrence of droughts is helpful in various disciplines like administration, planning, agriculture and hydrology to take remedial measures. drought is a period of drier than normal conditions that result in water-related problems. agricultural drought occurs when soil moisture and rainfall are inadequate during the growing season to support healthy crop maturity and cause extreme crop stress and wilt. the drylands of the world are increasingly subject to desertification due to climate change and recurrent droughts. it is thus extremely important to analyse the trend of climate change in the malwa region of madhya pradesh and to know whether it is being significantly encroached by desert from the neighbouring state of rajasthan. for this, the study makes use of moisture index/ drought index/ aridity index (thornthwaite and mather 1955). the aim is to analyse the phenomenon of drought occurrence, or gradual desertification, in the catchment area of chambal river basin, that is, the eight districts of indore, dewas, dhar, shajapur, ujjain, mandsaur, ratlam and neemuch. the study further attempts to empirically investigate whether these districts have experienced climate change over a century. then a time-series based linkage was tried to be established between climate change pattern and drought occurrence. for climate change analysis, moisture index was calculated based on the centurial data of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (india water portal 2016). computation of moisture index or mi (thornthwaite and mather 1955) was simplified using annual average data (krishnan 1992) as mi = [(p-pe)/pe]*100 where; p = precipitation; pe = potential evapotranspiration [79] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari table 2: district categorisation as per moisture index district value of average moisture index climate zone nature of trend indore -67.61 arid no change dewas -61.18 arid no change dhar -68.45 arid increasing trend* mandsaur -59.97 semi-arid no change neemuch -63.05 arid no change ratlam -61.29 arid no change shajapur -58.26 semi-arid no change ujjain -60.73 arid no change source: authors note: * denotes that results are significant at 5% level of significance table 1: moisture index value per zone value of moisture index climate zone < 66.7 arid 66.7 to 33.3 semi-arid 33.3 to 0 dry sub-humid 0 to +20 moist sub-humid + 20.1 to 99.9 humid 100 and more per-humid source: thornthwaite and mather (1955) the values of the index correspond to the humidity or aridity in an area. if value of the index is positive, it indicates humid atmospheric conditions; negative index value represents dry climate conditions. table 1 depicts corresponding moisture index and the climate zone of the eight districts. moisture is thus most inadequate in arid zones followed by semiarid and dry sub-humid regions. from moist and sub-humid zones onwards, the moisture is adequate for normal crop production. the eight districts of chambal basin have been categorised into their prevailing climate zone on the basis of average moisture index obtained from the climate data spanning almost over a century (table 2). the trend is also identified with the help of regression equation and trend line (figure 1). as per thornthwaite moisture index calculation six of the eight districts fall in the arid zone, the remaining two are semi-arid. there has been no significant change in the moisture index trend for the districts as per the centurial climate data. only the dhar district is depicting a significant increasing trend in the moisture index. this means that currently the district is under ‗arid‘ zone but gradually it will move in the ‗semi-arid‘ zone. apart from dhar, there are two more districts in the semi-arid zone, namely mandsaur and shajapur. one can conclude that no efforts have been made to shift the area from arid to semi-arid or humid zones. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [80] figure 1: moisture index of all districts dewas indore dhar mandsaur neemuch ratlam shazapur ujjain source: authors note: — moisture index; linear trend (moisture) index [81] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari 6.1.2. comment on special characteristics of dhar district as per moisture index, only dhar district has shown a significant increasing trend. this means that currently the district is under ‗arid‘ zone but gradually it will move in the ‗semi-arid‘ zone. this can be well understood in the backdrop of special focus dhar has received in the past as a droughtprone district. integrated mission for sustainable development (imsd) study was initiated in the year 1987 (rao, et al. 1995) with specific reference to find scientific and lasting solution to mitigate droughts. droughts have been a recurring feature in indian agriculture from 1991 to 2000, and also earlier. thus, some special districts were selected for systematic investigation. a specific study was carried out in the districts of jhabua and dhar, in madhya pradesh, using composite land development sites (clds) approach for forest and wasteland development and soil and water conservation in 1995 (imsd 1995). this was followed by specific suggestions and treatments. further, monitoring was done by space application centre, isro, ahmedabad (dasgupta, dhinwa and rajawat 2015). this was done through visual interpretation and analysis of temporal images of the region from 1991 to 2013. the study had revealed that there is a substantial increase in the area of irrigated agricultural land with increase in number of check dams along with the stream channels. this has helped dhar district‘s transition from arid zone towards semi-arid zone. it, thus, becomes clear that for non-arable soil conservation, rainwater harvesting and management of lands for fodder, fruit and fuel-wood production in the watershed perspective are the core strategies for fighting drought in the arid zones of india. as various water harvesting measures were adopted in dhar district, the result came out in the form increased agricultural productivity. thus, watershed development programmes were seen to have a positive impact in combating desertification. we, therefore, need to employ more of such techniques in the remaining arid zones to prevent them from getting gradually converted into deserts and to ensure food-security. 6.1.3. temperature and pattern of precipitation if sufficient water is available, then the temperature is the most important factor determining farm productivity in a region. the higher temperature eventually reduces crop yields, while encouraging weed and pest proliferation. farmers‘ responses about a general change in temperature over time were traced. this reflected the change in seasonality, distribution, amount and intensity of temperature over time. as can be seen in table 3, around 78 per cent of farmers in the survey reported an increase in temperature of the study region. changes in the precipitation patterns ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [82] table 4: the sample distribution of farmers based on their observations about changes in precipitation response about average precipitation number of farmers (i) increase 10 (2.13) (ii) decrease 50 (10.64) (iii) no change 328 (69.77) (iv) no response on temperature 82 (17.45) total 470 (100.00) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. table 3: the sample distribution of farmers based on their observations about changes in temperature response about change in temperature number of farmers (i) increase 364 (77.47) (ii) decrease 62 (13.18) (iii) no change 29 (6.17) (iv) no response on temperature 15 (3.18) total 470 (100.00) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. increase the likelihood of crop failures in the short term and production decline in the long term. agriculture will be adversely affected not only by an increase or decrease in the overall amounts of rainfall but also by shifts in the timing of rainfall. it is thus extremely important that farmers‘ reporting about the changing trends of precipitation are analysed. in the sample, close to 70 per cent of farmers did not see a major change in precipitation, however, 11 per cent observed a clear decrease (table 4). 6.1.4. extreme events with climate change, extreme weather occurrences have become more common and frequent. longer and hotter heat waves, greater incidence of droughts, intense precipitation, heavy rains and floods have now become usual occurrences. it is important to know how farmers perceive the occurrence of such events in their regions. they were asked to give their observations of whether the occurrence of a particular climateevent has increased, decreased or has remained constant in terms of its frequency and intensity in their region. the events on which their responses were gathered were drought, flood, hailstorm, heat-waves, cold-waves and frost. as can be seen in table 5, more than 70 per cent of the surveyed farmers observed that heat waves, frost and cold wave occurrences have increased. about 56 per cent surveyed farmers observed increase in hailstorms. about 47 per cent of the farmers observed increase in droughts. about 70 per cent farmers there had been no significant change in the incidence of floods. factors affecting farmers‘ perceptions were also explored. farmers with a higher educational level, a higher income level and joint family mode of living were able to perceive climatic changes more correctly (kawadia and tiwari 2017). [83] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari table 6: the sample distribution of farmers based on their observations about change in crop yield change in crop yield number of farmers (i) no change 10 (2.13) (ii) significant increase 50 (10.64) (iii) significant decrease 328 (69.78) (iv) minor variation 82 (17.45) total 470 (100.00) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. table 5: the sample distribution of farmers based on their observations about occurrence of extreme events major contingency number of farmers increased constant decreased drought 220 (46.81) 95 (20.21) 115 (32.98) flood 13 (2.77) 328 (69.78) 129 (27.45) hailstorm 264 (56.17) 178 (37.87) 28 (05.96) heat waves 350 (74.47) 109 (23.19) 11 (02.34) cold waves 330 (70.21) 117 (24.89) 23 (04.89) frost 335 (71.28) 104 (22.13) 31 (06.59) any other outbreaks 184 (39.15) 284 (60.42) 02 (00.43) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. 6.2. impact of climate change on the agricultural system of the chambal basin crop growth simulation assessments in dryland or rainfed agriculture in tropical stations indicate yield reduction of some crops even with a minimal increase in temperature. if there is also a significant decrease in rainfall, tropical crop yields would be even more adversely affected. some studies indicate that climate change would lower incomes of the vulnerable populations and increase the absolute number of people at risk of hunger. climate change, mainly through increased extremes and temporal/spatial shifts, would worsen food security in some parts of the globe. this study attempts to analyse how farmers of the malwa region respond to the change in their crop yield due to change in climatic conditions. our survey found that 70 per cent of farmers reported a significant decrease in farm yield (table 6). the greatest impact of climate change was observed in case of availability of water, which affects the entire farming community — irrigation systems are affected and so also are the crops dependent on irrigation, while at the same time global warming increases the demand for water in irrigation. as it is important to trace whether farmers have perceived the change in climate correctly or not, farmers were queried on the change in frequency of irrigation required for their crops. as can be seen in table 7, around 60 per ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [84] table 7: sample distribution of farmers based on their observations about the extent of change in their irrigation frequency extent of change in irrigation-frequency number of farmers (i) no change 55 (11.70) (ii) marginal 137 (29.14) (iii) one and a half times 78 (16.60) (iv) double 175 (37.23) (v) more than double 25 (5.32) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. table 8: sample distribution of farmers on the basis of their observations about increase in pest attack and diseases in crops response about increase in pest attack and diseases in crops number of farmers no 129 (27.45) yes 341 (72.55) total 470 (100) note: figures in the parentheses show percentages. cent of farmers reported greater than marginal increase in the irrigation frequency. close to 40 per cent farmers in the sample reported 100 per cent increase in irrigation frequency over previous values. climate change also encourages the spread of pests and invasive species and has already increased the geographical range of some diseases. in essence, it is altering the distribution pattern of animal and plant pests and diseases. the change in temperature, moisture and atmospheric gases accelerate growth rates of plants, fungi and insects, which alters the interaction between pests, their natural predators and hosts. in this regard, it is important to trace the farmers‘ response on whether there is an increase in pest attack and disease outbreak in crops in recent years. the survey found that 73 per cent of farmers confirmed the increase in pest attacks and occurrence of crop diseases due to climate change (table 8). 6.3. adaptation strategies in the chambal basin chambal basin primarily has rain-fed agriculture and groundwater level in the region has been continually on decline. as a result, climate change pressure of increased irrigation requirements on the available water resources has increased manifold. improved water management is thus one of the most important long-term adaptation as well as protection options that region must pursue. a wide range of adaptation measures have been highlighted in this regard like improving water distribution strategies; changing crop and irrigation schedules; using rainwater more effectively; water recycling and the conjunctive use of groundwater. in this respect some major strategies were identified from the literature. these are: (i) planting trees (ii) soil conservation (iii) different crop varieties (iv) early and [85] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari table 9: the sample distribution of farmers based on their adaptation strategies to fight climate change adaptation strategies number of farmers water harvesting 395(84.02) irrigation management 272(57.87) early and late planting 205(43.62) planting trees 119(25.32) different crop varieties 114(24.25) soil conservation 61(12.98) no adaptation 16(3.40) note: figures in the parentheses show per centages. late planting / changing plant dates (v) water harvesting / improved water management. the farmers were thus queried about their chosen adaptation strategy to protect crop against climate change. table 9 explains the various adaptation practices used by the farmers of the region. they are not mutually exclusive as farmers are practicing multiple adaptation techniques simultaneously as per their need and suitability. 6.3.1. water harvesting / improved water management water harvesting was found to be the most popular adaptation strategy followed by the farmers of the chambal basin. it is adopted by 84 per cent of the sampled farmers. it has specifically become popular since the launch of ambitious schemes like khet talab yojana and balram taal yojana. water harvesting can be defined as a range of techniques for collecting rainwater. water harvesting is economically beneficial for local farmers as it is the only feasible method of farming on degraded land devoid of other means of water for irrigation. it is also significant as a sustained source of irrigation for rabi crops. furthermore, it helps significantly in the recharge of groundwater resources of the region, adds greenery and in this way acts as a positive externality towards the overall ecology. 6.3.2. irrigation management improving the use of irrigation is generally perceived as an effective means of smoothing out yield volatility in rainfed systems. it has the potential to improve agricultural productivity through supplementing rainwater during dry spells and lengthening the growing season (orindi and eriksen 2005). overall, improving the use of irrigation aids in averting the crop losses in areas subjected to recurrent cycle of drought. around 58 per cent of the sample farmers used this method to fight climate change (table 9). the farmers use plastic pipes for transporting water from the reserve to the farm. they also use sprinklers for efficient use of the available water. the government subsidy for proper water management has ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [86] played a major role in the adaptation of water harvesting and conservation measures (orindi and eriksen 2005). 6.3.3. early and late planting / changing plant dates altering the length of the growing period and varying planting and harvesting dates are among the crop management practices used in agriculture (orindi and eriksen 2005). this includes early and late planting options as a strategy to fight harmful effects of changing climate. the strategy helps to protect sensitive growth stages of crops by ensuring that these critical stages do not coincide with very harsh climatic conditions such as mid-season droughts. early and late planting comes third in the sequence of importance among major adaptation strategies. this adaptation is followed by 44 per cent of the farmers surveyed (table 9). the malwa region is now strictly following soybean-wheat annual crop cycle. as soybean is a kharif crop and its growth cycle is strictly regulated by rainfall, changes in precipitation cycle certainly change its sowing and harvesting dates for the farmers. for example, many farmers have started opting now for the 95-60 soybean varieties instead of the regular variety of soybean planted earlier. wheat can be sown only after the harvesting of soybean in rabi season; therefore, wheat planting dates also change accordingly. farmers are practicing early sowing date and quicker maturing variety of soybean so that they can use soil moisture following the rainy season for the next crop like wheat, gram, mustard and other crops of rabi sessions. the monsoon season in the region normally extends up to the end of september or some time to the early october. this provides enough moisture for the cultivation of the next crop. this has not only increased the cropping intensity but made the malwa the bowl of wheat and soybean. 6.3.4. plantation planting trees or afforestation, in general, provides a particular example of a set of adaptation practices that are intended to enhance productivity in a way that often contributes to climate change mitigation through enhanced carbon sequestration. it also has a role to play in strengthening the system‘s ability to cope with adverse impacts of changing climate conditions. it also contributes to temperature stabilization in the region. the farmers of the region thus follow tree plantation, particularly along the water harvesting structures. almost 25 per cent of the sampled farmers undertake tree plantation as a method to avert climate change impact (table 9). this has increased the vegetation cover in the region. [87] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari 6.3.5. crop diversification varieties switching over to varieties that are early maturing and drought tolerant and/or resistant to temperature stresses, the farmers save their crops from rainfall fluctuations as well as add variety (orindi and eriksen 2005). there is evidence that growing different crop varieties on the same plot or on different plots reduces the risk of complete crop failure as different crops are affected differently by climate events, and this in turn gives some minimum assured returns for livelihood security. the pattern of crop diversification and its emerging trends in the malwa region have already been discussed in detail in a previous chapter. in the survey, approximately 24 per cent of the farmers favoured adoption of different crop varieties and 25 per cent support planting of trees on their fields as an essential strategy to ward-off negative impacts of climate change (table 9). nihaal singh tomar from harnawada village in dewas district succinctly mentioned that the only way to ensure sustained production in the wake of climate change was to make a pond in the field to capture rainwater and to plant trees in the field. 6.3.6. soil conservation the adoption of practices and technologies that enhance vegetative soil coverage and control soil erosion are crucial to ensuring greater resilience of production systems to increased rainfall events, extended intervals between rainfall events, and potential soil loss from extreme climate events. improving soil management and conservation techniques assist in restoring the soil while also capturing soil carbon and limiting the oxidation of organic matter in the soil. soil conservation automatically gets ensured by following all the above-mentioned strategies; however, soil conservation issue was highlighted by only around 13 per cent of the sampled farmers (table 9). only a minuscule 3 per cent of the farmers said that they were not going for any specific adaptation strategy (table 9). this makes it clear that almost all the farmers of the chambal basin are aware of the negative impact climate change has on the production trends and taking appropriate mitigative steps. 6.4. irrigation profile of the farmers the beneficial adaptation in the fight against these problems is to work on optimum irrigation and better rainwater harvesting facilities. in this study, the emphasis was laid on knowing the irrigation profile of the surveyed farmers, that is the sources used for irrigation, for example, tube-well, pond, well, etc. this has been shown in table 10. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [88] table 10: representation of irrigation profile of farmers source of irrigation tube-well pond well number of farmers 177 307 219 total number of source 347 357 317 average number of source per farmer 1.96 1.16 1.45 average investment per source (in rs.) 220288.18 263674.35 385063.09 average investment per farmer (in rs.) 441849.71 299003.27 610325 average water withdrawal/ hour per source 6.81 6.74 4.42 average water withdrawal/ hour per farmer 13.74 6.81 6.48 source: authors a majority of the farmers in the survey sample use pond as their major source of irrigation (65 per cent), followed by well (47 per cent) and tubewell (25 per cent). this shows that importance and usage of ponds has greatly accelerated in recent times and has reduced farmers‘ dependence on groundwater resources. thus, rainwater harvesting as an adaptation has lived up to the expectations of the farmer. farmers from harnawada village in dewas district emphasise that since the ponds have been constructed in the village on the fields of the farmers, it is symbolic death of the tube-well. villagers testify decline in the use of tube-wells since the adoption of rainwater harvesting techniques, which, according to the farmers, has helped them significantly in retaining the soil moisture after the rains. this indicates that rainwater harvesting is not only ecologically beneficial but also cost-effective in terms of per unit water consumption. 6.5. tracing farmers’ responses on effectiveness of varied adaptations (case studies) the farmers of indore district are the main beneficiaries of recently launched balram taal yojana. semaliya raimal and kampel villages are good examples of excellent work in water harvesting. yashwant patel from semaliya raimal underlined the importance of the yojana and its benefits to people when he said that it has helped the villagers in maintaining the stock of water in their fields, enhanced profits significantly, and fulfilled their irrigation needs. krishnapal singh daangi from the same village added that rainwater harvesting has made him self-reliant as it improved his farm production by leaps and bounds. vishnu daangi, another farmer, said that as the area sub-soil is full of stones, tubewell-recharge is not good even when the region has abundant rains. in such situations, rainwater harvesting is a blessing. dilip patel states that because of water harvesting he has stopped borrowing for agricultural needs as it has made taking two-three [89] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari crops in year possible and is thus increasing his total income. kansingh daangi, also a farmer, said water harvesting brought him an overall better life as it made it possible for him to make a pakka house and send his kids to good schools for education. in shadadev, a village adjacent to semaliya raimal, farmer pawan singh describes the advantages of water harvesting. he says that before they began water harvesting, they were compelled to do irrigation by drawing water directly from shipra. as it was an illegal practice, farmers were fined rs. 20,000 to rs. 25,000. but after farmers started rainwater harvesting, irrigation difficulties are sorted. the farmers‘ experiences from kampel village have also been on similar lines. sunil nimadia states that rainwater harvesting ensures available water is conserved and it also helps recharge water table. other villages of indore district where water harvesting has been carried out substantially are paaliya, faraspur, rawad, balodatakun, atawada, nevary, matabarodi and kadwaali bujurg. farmers responses from these villages have been on similar lines. they have also reported increased water level, tubewell recharge, less dependence on rainfall, a greater area for crop production, sustained irrigation facility for rabi crops and last but not the least enhanced socio-economic status with better educational facilities for education for their children. arjun singh from pedmi village, indore district, explains that in his area kumbi, beed are big naalas but there is no dam on them. if stop dams are made on them, wastage of water can be minimised. mahendra singh chouhan from mhowgoan village gives an overview of different adaptation measures by saying that adaptation, in essence, is a long-term process with many benefits. it includes a wide range of measures like those of plantation, construction of ponds, soil conservation, soil testing, save water campaign, etc. these contribute to farming as well as to the environment. dewas district is a pioneer in water harvesting activities in the chambal basin. tonk khurd tehseel is world-famous for the ponds being constructed here under the ambitious khet talab or rewa sagar yojana. jujhaar singh tomar from harnawada village says that there has been a great increase in the yield of wheat and gram in the area along with a substantial increase in green cover since the practice of rainwater harvesting began. he suggests more investment in water harvesting and tree plantations. forak singh tomar from the same village urges that the government increase subsidy on the construction of pond in the field from rs. 80,000 to rs. 200,000. mansingh tomar says that there has been a 200 per cent increase in production from his field due to rainwater harvesting. all the farmers say that tree plantation in their fields was the next best ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [90] adaptation measure after rainwater harvesting. sheshnarayan patel from gorwa village also stated his production got doubled. water harvesting is extremely important for water conservation and ecology. varied types of animals and plants are now noted in the village. deers are now easily visible in the area. vishnu from the same village drew attention to soil conservation as a result of water harvesting activities. uday singh khiswi, also from gorwa, said improved situation encourages him for hard work as water harvesting has made it possible to expect sure returns from farming. he further says that the government should ban deep tube-wells in the area and encourage construction of ponds instead. the districts of mandsaur and neemuch are in the vicinity of gandhi sagar dam and retam barrage. these two districts have seen substantial work in water harvesting and well-recharge activities. villages of kachnara, borkhedi and haripura were covered in mandsaur district. gobar singh from kachnara says that rainwater harvested is also used to recharge wells.. kishan singh says that well-recharge has helped him get additional income from production of fruits like mangoes, papaya and pomegranate in his fields. madho singh borona from the same village emphasises improved crop yield due to water harvesting. he suggested that water can be transferred from one dam to another by linking them with canals. earlier the region was continuously under drought. now, the farmers are prosperous, while earlier they used to work as daily wage labourers. the farmers from borkhedi also told a similar story. kamal singh shamsawat from the village says his farm production has increased to a great extent as he now gets three crops in a year. under kapildhara scheme, 28 wells have been constructed and all farmers have been provided with kisan credit cards. the construction of retam barrage in the year 2000 has benefitted the farmers. the water supply is now ensured for a fee charged based on irrigated land in hectare. he also emphasised soil conservation as a major adaptation measure in saving agriculture from the harmful impacts of climate change. hiralal ojha and deepsingh sattawat also cited the advantage of building dam; they said, they have started sugarcane farming because of it. they have also started cultivating coriander. they also supported soil conservation and plantation of trees. ramcharan rewari from haripura said that water harvesting has considerably increased his basket of production, which now includes wheat, coriander, gram, isabgol, flaxseed, mustard, fenugreek etc. he supported soil conservation and proper soil testing as the major method of adaptation apart from water harvesting and implementation of new and improved methods of irrigation. finally, concerning efficacy of various adaptation measures, this study examines the farmers‘ response in neemuch district. the villages covered [91] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari here included barlai, hatunia, and pipliya ghota. rahul patidar from barlai says that he has now an orange orchard of his own due to water harvesting. he also favoured plantation of trees as an adaptation measure. vishnu prasad patidarhas says that he could grow a variety of crops like orange, garlic, wheat, coriander and fenugreek only because of water harvesting. shambhulal patidaar said that water harvesting is giving him an annual return of at least four lakh rupees through improved farm productivity. he emphasised organic farming and plantation of trees as an adaptation measure. in the village of hatunia, there are around 280 to 300 ponds. here, tubewells and hand-pumps are not successful. farmers are engaged in agricultural activities only because of water harvesting. satyanarayan from this village supports construction of more ponds as well as plantation of trees as the main adaptation measure to sustain in the face of climate change. villagers from pipliya ghota also mainly follow water harvesting, seek enhancement of subsidy for that, plantation of trees and soil conservation as adaptation measures for changing climate. 6.6. maladaptation: soybean and wheat based monoculture a ‗maladaptation‘ is a trait that is (or has become) more harmful than helpful, in contrast to an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful. so, farming practices that though have increased farmers‘ production and income in the short run but become a severe danger in the long run, if continued unabated, can be effectively called maladaptation. one such maladaptation in the malwa region is ‗monoculture‘. monoculture is the practice of producing a single crop over a long period in a certain area. the practice of monoculture gets usually stimulated by political and economic incentives. specialisation brings obvious benefits to the economy of scale in terms of higher yields and easier mechanisation techniques; however, there are disadvantages associated with monocultures. monocultures lead to easier spread of diseases and pests, thereby decreasing resilience to climate change variability that often induces additional stress on plants. additionally, when the produced crop is negatively affected by changing weather or biophysical conditions, farm income may be severely affected. for these reasons, moving towards diversification reduces the risks of maladaptation (lin 2011). the malwa region is a classic text-book example of such kind of monoculture. the area, since 1980s, has become a specialised zone of soybean-wheat annual cycle-based production. soybean plants usually grow at ambient temperatures between 15°c and 27°c, although temperature below 21°c and above 32 °c may reduce flowering. temperatures exceeding 40°c (104°f) are detrimental to seed production. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [92] soybean is adapted to grow in a wide range of soils and climates but requires adequate soil moisture for germination and seedling establishment. soybean has flourished well in the malwa region with many growth conditions getting satisfied simultaneously. the soybean success story caught headlines not only regionally but also at the national level. the malwa has practically given up on production of crops like maize, sugarcane and especially cotton after soybean success. however, this specialisation has reduced crop-diversification in the region. also, this monoculture has been sustained by continuous groundwater exploitation. since the 1980‘s the malwa region has become increasingly tube-well dependent to sustain its crop-cycle. during the survey, it was found that villages like jalodiya-panth in depalpur tehsil of indore district had as many as 500-600 tube wells with a depth ranging from 250 to 500 feet. the whole region is sustained on irrigation from groundwater resources and in recent times hit severe water shortages, not only for irrigation but also for drinking purposes in the wake of its fast depletion. hence, such a crop-cycle suffers a serious threat. the maladaptation thus needs to be balanced by a suitable adaptation that may ensure sustained water supply for irrigation. besides, soybean-wheat crop cycle has high risks of infestation by widespread pests. many farmers from the survey corroborated to such incidences. a farmer from dhaturiya village in dewas district said that soybean crop in the district in recent times suffered from severe caterpillar attack and fungal attack. soybean crop also suffered severely due to the acute shortage of rainfall during the growing stage. this was coupled with a rise in temperatures beyond 32°c, many a time crossing 40°c, severely affecting the crop. warm temperatures and high humidity are conducive for the fungus that leads to the development of soybean rust. soybean gets totally destroyed in case of untimely torrential rains; this is known as jal jaana in the local language. thus, both extreme drought conditions with high temperatures as well as torrential excessive rains are harmful to the crop. 7. conclusions and policy implications as per moisture index, six out of eight districts in the study region lie in the arid zone, clearly indicating a movement towards desertification of the region. nature of climate change in the chambal basin was also explored through farmers‘ observations about change in temperature, precipitation and occurrence of extreme events. farmers reported an increase in temperature with a clear majority of around 73 per cent. they reported an [93] ganesh kawadia and era tiwari increase in the occurrence of heatwaves, cold waves, frost and droughts in the region. the decrease in precipitation was, however, noted by only a few farmers. there were thus indications of increasing aridity in the studyregion. the impact of the climatic change was analysed through farmers‘ responses about changes in crop-yields, the extent of change in irrigation frequency as well as the spread of pest-infestation and disease occurrence in plants. around 70 per cent of farmers reported a decrease in crop yield, while close to 60 per cent of farmers reported greater than a marginal increase in irrigation-frequency. as much as 40 per cent of the total sampled farmers reported a 100 per cent increase in irrigation frequency. about three-quarters of the total sampled farmers reported an increase in pest attack and disease occurrence in crops. from the survey responses, the study considers crop diversification, changing plant dates, soil conservation and soil testing, increasing rainwater capture, construction of stop dams on nalaas, and tree plantations as the major adaptation strategies farmers perceive as appropriate for rain-fed agriculture. water harvesting was found to be the most important adaptation measure followed by crop diversification. the case for water harvesting got established by the transition of dhar district from the arid to the semi-arid zone as per moisture index-based analysis. it also became clear from the survey of the farmers that adaptation measures to climate change cannot be considered in isolation, but relative to the impacts of other exogenous sectoral changes. the issue of ‗maladaptation‘ of soybeanwheat monoculture has accentuated the crisis in the region. this has severely resulted in groundwater depletion in the region and there has been thus overall damage to the ecosystem. therefore, there are social costs as well as ecological limits to crop-based adaptations in the region. hence, gross market and institutional failures that make farmers very vulnerable come at the forefront. in short, the key lesson to emerge is that the prioritisation of appropriate adaptation measures needs to be contextual and fit the capacity of local institutional and legal frameworks. water harvesting measures should be specially strengthened by the policy in the study region to cope with changing climate and its effects on the agricultural sector. mainstreaming adaptation strategies is thus to be considered as the most important policy intervention. acknowledgements this study is a part of a major research project entitled ―a study of climate change and agriculture in the catchment area of chambal river‖ funded by indian council of social science research (icssr), new delhi ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [94] under project director ganesh kawadia. era tiwari was involved with the project in the capacity of research associate at school of economics, devi ahilya university, indore. authors are thankful to icssr, new delhi for their financial support [grant number 02/302/2011rp]. references adger, w. n., s. dessai, m. goulden, m. hulme, i. lorenzoni, d. r. nelson, l. o. naess, j. wolf, and a. wreford. 2009. ―are there social limits to adaptation to climate change.‖ climatic change (93): 335-354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584008-9520-z akter, s., and j. bennett. 2011. ―household perceptions of climate change and 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therefore, it is hard to obtain a bigger picture of what these changes imply and distinguish the beneficial from the detrimental, where human impact is concerned. in this paper, i describe a holistic approach that allows us to obtain such a bigger picture and use it to understand how the terrestrial biosphere can be sustained in the presence of increased human activity. this approach places particular emphasis on the free energy generated by photosynthesis—energy that is required to sustain both the dissipative metabolic activity of ecosystems and human activities (with the generation rate being restricted by the physical constraints of the environment). thus, one can then identify two types of human influence on the biosphere and their resulting consequences: the detrimental effects caused by enhanced human consumption of this free energy and the beneficial effects that allow for more photosynthetic activity and, therefore, more dissipative activity within the biosphere. i use examples from the terrestrial biosphere to illustrate this view and global datasets to indicate how this can be quantified. thereafter, i discuss how certain aspects of modern technology can enhance free energy generation within the terrestrial biosphere, which can, in turn, safeguard its sustenance even as human activity increasingly shapes the functioning of the earth system. keywords: global change, sustainability, maximum power, exergy, planetary boundaries 1. sustainable energy as the core problem of the anthropocene  max-planck-institut für biogeochemie, hans-knöll-str. 10, 07745 jena, germany, akleidon@bgc-jena.mpg.de copyright © kleidon 2023. released under creative commons attribution © noncommercial 4.0 international licence (cc by-nc 4.0) by the author. published by indian society for ecological economics (insee), c/o institute of economic growth, university enclave, north campus, delhi 110007. issn: 2581–6152 (print); 2581–6101 (web). doi: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.915 mailto:akleidon@bgc-jena.mpg.de mailto:akleidon@bgc-jena.mpg.de https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i1.915 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [54] energy is at the core of many aspects of global change we currently face, including those that challenge the functioning of the biosphere. what i aim to show here is that a focus on energy and how it is variously transformed within the earth system helps us to get a clearer, bigger picture of how current human activity inevitably results in a diminished biosphere. however, using certain forms of technology, we can make informed choices that will contribute to supporting and sustaining the natural biosphere as human activities increasingly shape planetary functioning. let us first look at how current global changes are related to energy with the help of a few examples. an obvious place to start is with global climate change or global warming. the increased consumption of fossil fuels directly relates to the increased energy needs that human societies have to fuel their socioeconomic activities. the inevitable consequence of this is increased greenhouse gas concentrations within the atmosphere, which consequently causes the climate to change. thus, increased human energy consumption has a direct connection to global warming. the link is not as obvious when we look at tropical deforestation as another example. tropical deforestation is mainly caused by the conversion of natural forests into pastures and croplands. this conversion aims at producing more food, which relates to calories that human metabolism needs for sustenance. thus, an expansion of agricultural area relates to an increase in food production, which is equivalent to the energy stored in chemical compounds in food. thus, tropical deforestation can also be linked directly to increased human energy needs. the loss of biodiversity is the last example i would like to examine. while many factors are considered detrimental to biodiversity (ipbes 2019), such as land cover shifts, habitat destruction, and intensified agriculture, energy is a central factor at play. each organism needs chemical energy to sustain its metabolism, and this energy comes from photosynthesis. several hypotheses explain biodiversity patterns in terms of energy (for example, reviews by currie et al. 2004 and clarke and gaston 2006). in essence, these hypotheses start by recognizing that tropical regions have more energy available due to their higher productivity. sunlight and water are abundantly available throughout the year, resulting in high sustained rates of photosynthesis by terrestrial ecosystems. this higher rate of photosynthesis generates more free energy, allowing tropical ecosystems to sustain the metabolisms of more organisms, and, thus, higher diversity levels, which is reflected, for instance, in greater species richness. therefore, when humans convert and use land more intensively for food production, there is less energy available for the metabolic activities of the natural biosphere. hence, the loss of bio[55] kleidon diversity with increased and intensified land use also seems to be a direct consequence of greater human energy demands. these examples illustrate a general dilemma resulting from human activity. as human activity increasingly appropriates energy from the biosphere, less energy remains for the sustenance of the natural biosphere (figure 1). a key element of this dilemma is that the biosphere’s productivity has natural limits set by the environment. this, in turn, sets limits to the sustainable growth of human societies, as described in detail in the seminal work the limits to growth by meadows et al. (1972). when human societies grow and develop, and increasingly appropriate their energy from the biosphere, this inevitably results in a deteriorated energy supply for the natural biosphere, thus posing a serious threat. i propose a general approach to understand how this deterioration of the natural biosphere can be avoided by decoupling an increase in energy consumption by human societies from a proportional decrease for the rest of the biosphere. to do so, we need to evaluate how technology can be used to enhance photosynthesis beyond its natural limits, thus ensuring that a larger amount of energy would be available for use by human societies without compromising on the share available to the natural biosphere (marked in figure 1 as ‘feedback’). such technologies have been used in the past. irrigation-based agricultural techniques (using river water or manmade reservoirs) have been in use for thousands of years to enhance agricultural productivity. the river nile in egypt is a good example of this. diversion makes water available for terrestrial productivity that cannot be achieved by natural means, that is, without the technology associated with building dams and irrigation channels. in the future, technologies may be used to accomplish this task with a much greater impact, particularly, by using methods related to seawater desalination and photovoltaics. seawater desalination by membranes is a more efficient means of desalination than the natural hydrologic cycle of evaporation and subsequent precipitation. similarly, photovoltaics is much more efficient than natural photosynthesis for energy generation. these technologies can decouple the energy and water needs of human societies from natural systems and simultaneously provide an immense boost to energy availability for human societies. this would then allow for a large amount of naturally generated energy to be available to sustain the natural biosphere, potentially resulting in positive feedback (as indicated by the dotted line in figure 1). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [56] figure 1: a basic dilemma emerges from how the energy generated by photosynthesis is being used to sustain nature or human societies source: author to substantiate this approach and its implications for a more optimistic, sustainable future, it is necessary to clarify the use of the term “energy”. the focus here is on free energy—energy generated by work that can perform further work. examples of free energy include the kinetic energy of atmospheric winds and river currents as well as the chemical energy stored in the molecular bonds of carbohydrates. other examples include power generated by transforming the chemical energy in fossil fuels into electricity in power plants or transforming solar energy into electrical energy using photovoltaics. the energy that human societies need for food and various other activities, as indeed does the rest of the biosphere, is free energy. therefore, we need to understand how free energy is generated by the earth system by transforming energy received by the sun and how technological innovations can help us perform this very same task with a higher degree of efficiency. this paper is accordingly structured as follows. in the next section (section 2), i will start by describing how free energy is generated in general from solar forcing. in section 3, i then describe how photosynthesis generates [57] kleidon free energy from sunlight and provide an explanation as to why it has such a low degree of efficiency. this proposition is substantiated using maps derived from a simple physical description of this limitation, which can be used to provide first-order estimates of the magnitude of free energy generation by the natural, terrestrial biosphere. in section 4, i will use an example to illustrate how the biosphere has the means to push its physical limits to higher levels, thereby altering environmental conditions such that they are more conducive to performing photosynthesis and, thus, generating more energy to fuel greater activity. this example can substantiate the notion that natural systems have a tendency to push their physical limits, which is very likely a general feature of an evolving thermodynamic system that may also apply to human systems. in section 5, i will describe the rate of energy consumption by human societies and estimate the level of damage the terrestrial biosphere has suffered as a result of human activities. these estimates exemplify how important human activity has become as an earth system process in quantitative, physical terms. i will then provide a few examples in section 6 examining how manmade technologies can meet the demands of human energy consumption and, at the same time, sustain or enhance the activity of the natural biosphere. i will close with a summary and conclusions. 2. how to generate free energy from solar forcing before i describe how photosynthesis generates free energy, it is important to define this term briefly, to explain what makes it so different from “just” energy and to understand how earth system processes generate it. free energy is simply energy without entropy, capable of performing work, resulting in so-called dissipative dynamics. it is sometimes referred to as “exergy” (for example, in hermann 2006). the kinetic energy associated with atmospheric motion is an example of free energy, which is dissipated by friction (that is, converted into heat), as is the chemical energy stored in carbohydrates and biomass, which is dissipated by metabolisms or by combustion. free energy plays a central role in the dynamics of the earth system, driving the physical dynamics that shape climate, biospheric dynamics with their associated food chains, as well as socioeconomic dynamics. these dynamics are driven by the dissipation (or consumption) of this free energy, forming dissipative systems that are thermodynamically very different from those in thermodynamic equilibrium. to understand how free energy is generated from solar forcing, we need to look at entropy—a key aspect of energy. entropy was introduced empirically with the growing popularity of steam engines in the nineteenth century, ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [58] to describe how much work could be derived from a heat source. the concept received a physical interpretation due to the work of boltzmann in the late nineteenth century; planck subsequently extended this theory to apply it to the treatment of radiation, together with the notion that energy at the atomic scale came in discrete amounts called “quanta”. this set the foundation for the revolution of quantum physics in the early twentieth century. in modern physics, entropy plays a key role in describing many facets of the quantum world of atoms and molecules in terms of comparatively simple, macroscopic characteristics that describe how energy is stored and converted by solids, liquids, and gases. as stated, at the microscopic atomic scale, energy comes in discrete amounts called quanta. energy as radiation is in the form of photons distributed across different wavelengths, and energy in chemical bonds represents the discrete distribution of electrons across different atomic shells, while heat refers to the random motion, vibrations, or rotations of molecules. all these microscopic aspects are represented by discrete amounts of energy being distributed over a finite number of states. they can thus be counted and assigned probabilities as to certain ways of distributing these quanta of energy across states. at the macroscopic scale, however, we are typically not interested in these details. then, we can assume that a given amount of energy is distributed in the most probable way. this is measured by entropy, as expressed by boltzmann’s famous equation, s = k log w, where s represents entropy, k is a constant, and w is the number of possible ways to distribute energy. the assumption of the most probable distribution represents a maximum in entropy and is referred to as the so-called thermodynamic equilibrium. since, at the microscopic scale, energy is distributed across photons, electrons, and molecules, we have three forms of entropy that are important to earth system science: radiative, molar, and thermal entropy. systems become interesting when they are not in equilibrium, and this brings us to the concept of free energy. for disequilibrium to occur, we need to have differences in entropy. here, the second law of thermodynamics applies, requiring that whatever will happen, it needs to yield an overall increase in entropy. for the earth system, the major driver for disequilibrium is the difference in the kind of radiation that the earth receives and emits to space (figure 2). at the planetary scale, energy fluxes are roughly balanced such that about as much solar radiation enters the earth system as is reflected and emitted to space. but these energy fluxes differ vastly in their radiative entropies. solar radiation is emitted from the sun at a very high emission temperature of about 5500°c, which results in radiation with short wavelengths, mostly in the visible range, comparatively few photons [59] kleidon of high energy, and very low radiative entropy when this radiation reaches the earth’s orbit. after absorption and further transformation, the earth emits this energy as terrestrial radiation at a much lower radiative temperature of about -18°c. this radiation is represented by infrared wavelengths, many more photons of lesser energy, and thus has a much higher level of entropy. this results in a massive thermodynamic disequilibrium between the solar radiation the earth receives and the radiation the earth emits. figure 2: planetary energy conversions on earth are driven by the difference in entropy between solar and emitted radiation source: author the simplest way to destroy this disequilibrium is to absorb and re-emit radiation at a lower temperature. this increases the level of entropy yet does not drive dissipative dynamics. more relevant are the cases in which this disequilibrium is used to generate free energy. there are various mechanisms by which this can be accomplished (yellow boxes in figure 2); yet, the rules for these mechanisms are the same and are set by the laws of thermodynamics. the physical mechanism to generate free energy can be illustrated by a conventional power plant (figure 3). heat is generated by fuel combustion at a high temperature, yielding heat at a low entropy level. that it has a low enecology, economy and society–the insee journal [60] tropy level can be seen by clausius’ expression, which defines a change in entropy as ∆s = ∆q/t, with ∆q being the heat added or removed and t being the temperature (in units of kelvin) at which heat is exchanged. since combustion occurs at a high temperature, the added level of entropy to the power plant is comparatively small. the steam released by the cooling towers expels some of that heat from the power plant but at much colder temperatures, thus exporting heat with a much higher level of entropy. to fulfil the second law of thermodynamics, at least as much entropy must be released from the cooling towers as is added by combustion. when these entropy fluxes balance each other, with entropy entering the power plant at the same rate as entropy exiting through the cooling towers, this yields the upper limit on how much energy without entropy can be generated—free energy. this limit is known as the carnot limit. it limits how much work can best be performed and how much electricity—free energy in electric form—can best be generated by the power plant. the physical earth system operates much like such a power plant. the heat source is the absorption of solar radiation at the surface (as opposed to being released by combustion) and the emission of radiation from the atmosphere serves as a cooling tower that exports entropy from the earth system to space in the form of radiation. the work done is that of generating motion, whether in the form of buoyancy, driving vertical convective motions, or horizontally, in the form of regional circulations (such as a sea breeze system), even large-scale circulations (such as the hadley circulation), or mid-latitude winds. comparison to observations indicates that atmospheric motion operates at this thermodynamic limit, working as hard as it can (kleidon 2021a). this maximization of power is reflected in characteristic surface energy balance partitioning, temperature patterns, and evaporation rates that fit very well with observations (kleidon 2021b). [61] kleidon figure 3: free energy generation by a power plant and its subsequent dissipation by a dissipative system1 source: author. this motion then drives other physical processes, such as the generation of waves over the ocean, hydrologic cycling, and the production of renewable wind energy. or, it is dissipated back into heat via friction. the work involved is, however, relatively small and the conversion has low efficiency. this is because only differences in radiative heating and cooling serve as a heat source and the temperature differences are relatively smaller when compared to that of a power plant. this amounts to an overall low conversion efficiency of less than 1% of the incoming solar radiation, which is converted to free energy as kinetic energy. this low conversion efficiency for physical earth system processes is inevitable. once solar radiation is absorbed by the earth’s surface and converted into heat, most of its low entropy is already lost because the earth’s surface 1 illustration of free energy generation using a power plant as an example (as seen in the box on the left). the same thermodynamic rules also apply to energy conversions within the earth system. once free energy is generated, it drives the dynamics of dissipative systems (as seen in the box on the right). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [62] is at a much colder temperature than the emission temperature of the sun. absorption thus turns solar radiation into the heat of relatively high entropy. the temperature differences when converting this energy further are thus set by the difference between the earth’s surface temperature and the earth’s radiative temperature (for vertical motion) or the difference in temperatures between the tropics and polar regions (for horizontal motion). this difference is relatively small (about 33 k) and yields a low conversion efficiency. thus, to enhance the conversion efficiency of solar radiation into free energy, certain mechanisms are necessary to circumvent the intermediate step of conversion into heat. two such alternatives are shown in figure 2 (in the yellow boxes): photosynthesis and photovoltaics. i will now turn to photosynthesis, as this is the process by which free energy is generated from sunlight for dissipative activities within the biosphere. 3. energy generation by the natural biosphere and its physical limits to evaluate the biosphere’s capacity for converting solar energy into chemical energy using this thermodynamic approach, the key question is how and how much free energy can be generated by photosynthesis, which then constrains the level of metabolic activity within the biosphere. photosynthesis is generally described as a chemical conversion process that converts carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen, using solar radiation as the energy source. the resulting carbohydrates then contain about 40 kj of chemical free energy per gram of carbon. this energy feeds the metabolic activities of producers—known as autotrophic respiration—as well as those of living organisms—or heterotrophic respiration—which make up the biosphere (figure 4). this metabolic activity uses the chemical free energy contained in the organic carbon compounds generated by photosynthesis as well as oxygen and dissipates this free energy back as heat, thereby producing entropy. while this examination of photosynthesis does not tell us how and how many organisms are being fed by this chemical free energy, its generation nevertheless creates thermodynamic disequilibrium (in the form of reduced organic carbon compounds and atmospheric oxygen) and it sets a limit for dissipative activities within the biosphere. thus, we will first look at the energy conversions involved in photosynthesis in somewhat greater detail, estimate their conversion efficiencies, and evaluate whether these operate at their thermodynamic limit, just as atmospheric motion does in the climate system. the first step of photosynthesis involves light reactions in photosystems during which light is absorbed. here, light does not turn into heat—the [63] kleidon random motion of molecules—but instead performs photochemistry as it splits water into its compounds and further splits hydrogen into its negatively charged electron and its positively charged nucleus. in other words, the photosystems perform the work of charge separation, generating electricfree energy. photosynthesis requires about 8–10 quanta of light of wavelengths of about 700 nm to split the hydrogen atoms involved in binding one molecule of carbon, as described by the well-established concept of quantum yield efficiency (emerson 1958). these quanta carry about 1.8 ev of energy each, with 1 ev = 1.6 x 10-19 j being a unit of energy at the quantum scale and the amount calculated by h c / λ, with h ≈ 6.63 x 10-34 j being the planck constant, c ≈ 3 x 108 m s-1 the speed of light, and λ = 700 x 10-9 m being the wavelength of the photon. taken together, this yields energy from absorbed radiation of about 14.4–18 ev. for comparison, this amount is slightly more than the bare minimum of 13.6 ev, which is needed to perform the work of charge separation of the hydrogen atom. on a mol basis, photosynthesis uses at least na x 14.4 ev = 1387 kj mol-1 to split one mol of water, with na being the avogadro constant, na = 6.022 x 1023 mol-1. hence, this first step is highly efficient, with a conversion efficiency of about 76–94%. the generated electric energy is then incorporated into longer-lived chemical compounds, like nadp and atp, before these are used (as per the calvin cycle) to convert this energy further and store it in the form of carbohydrates. this requires carbon dioxide, which needs to be taken in from the surrounding air. this particular step is far less efficient. using the 1,387 kj of energy from the absorbed photons, this cycle produces one mol of carbon in the form of glucose with an energy content of merely 480 kj. this corresponds to an overall conversion efficiency (from radiative to chemical energy) of 480 kj/1387 kj = 34%. laboratory measurements in low-light conditions have found that plants operate close to this efficiency (hill and rich 1983). when we consider that photosynthesis can only utilize about 55% of the solar spectrum (photosynthetically active radiation or par), the efficiency of carbon fixation is reduced to less than 19% for converting the energy contained in sunlight into carbohydrates. however, observations from terrestrial ecosystems indicate that, in general, the efficiency of photosynthetic carbon uptake is substantially lower than this efficiency, with values typically falling under the 3% mark (monteith 1972, 1977; kleidon 2021b). this much lower efficiency can be attributed to the restrictive role of the gas exchange associated with carbon and water between the vegetation canopy and the surrounding air (kleidon 2021b). vegetation needs to take in carbon dioxide from the air, and while doing so, it inadvertently loses water vapour. this gas exchange with the atmosphere ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [64] occurs at a relatively fixed ratio of about 2 grams of carbon taken in for each kg of water evaporated—the water use efficiency (law et al. 2002). it can be inferred that when we want to identify the primary limitation for photosynthesis, and thus for the free energy generation within the biosphere, we need to understand what limits the gas exchange between the surface and the atmosphere or the closely associated rate of evaporation. figure 4: generation and dissipation of free energy by the biosphere and its relation to chemical disequilibrium source: author this brings us back to the restrictive role of thermodynamics, not in terms of the energy conversion from sunlight to carbohydrate but in terms of how motion is generated, which simultaneously sustains the gas exchange to supply vegetation with the carbon dioxide it needs to assimilate and allows vegetation to evaporate water into the atmosphere. this evaporation rate from the surface to the atmosphere is strongly controlled by thermodynamics when water is sufficiently available and this control enters twice in the process. first, when solar radiation heats the surface, it generates buoyancy [65] kleidon and vertical, convective motion. the more updrafts develop, the greater the quantity of heat and moisture taken from the surface into the atmosphere and carbon dioxide is replenished near the surface. with stronger updrafts, however, the surface is cooled more efficiently. this leads to a maximum power limit, as in the case of large–scale motion, determining the magnitude of turbulent fluxes at the surface. the second instance where thermodynamics acts as a constraint is in the partitioning of the absorbed radiation into heating and moistening the near-surface air. at thermodynamic equilibrium, this sets up a partition between the sensible and latent heat fluxes, known in micrometeorology as equilibrium partitioning. the fluxes drawn from these thermodynamic constraints fit very well with observations (kleidon et al 2014; conte et al 2019). this implies that thermodynamics imposes a major constraint on the biosphere through the gas exchange of water vapour and, thus, for carbon dioxide, limiting the rate at which the terrestrial biosphere can use the absorbed solar energy in photosynthesis to generate chemical-free energy. i illustrate this reasoning with data from continental-scale estimates of the energy balance and the water and carbon cycles (stephens et al 2012; oki and kanae 2006; beer et al 2010) and then go into greater detail using global radiation and precipitation datasets (loeb et al. 2018; kato et al 2018; adler et al 2016), as in kleidon (2021b). continental evaporation is estimated to be about 66 x 1012 m3/a (oki and kanae 2006). if we assume that the majority of evaporation takes place through the vegetative cover and apply the mean water use efficiency as 2 gc/kg h2o, we obtain a gross photosynthetic uptake of 131 x 1015 gc/a. this estimate corresponds with the estimate of 123 x 1015 gc/a by beer et al (2010). bearing in mind that each gram of carbon contains about 40 kj of energy in the form of carbohydrates, this corresponds to a power of 152 x 1012 w. when we then divide this power by the 165 w m-2 of energy absorbed as solar radiation at the surface (stephens et al 2012) and the land area (29% of 511 x 1012 m2), we obtain a mean efficiency of 0.6% of the photosynthetic land carbon uptake. this confirms the very low efficiency by which the biosphere generates free energy from sunlight, as mentioned earlier. this estimate is, of course, very rough, as it neglects, for example, variations in water availability across regions. these drawbacks can be seen when this analysis is conducted spatially using global datasets. such an analysis is represented in figure 5 using annual means, as in kleidon (2021b) and as summarized in table 1. this estimate uses the absorbed solar radiation at the surface (figure 5a) from the ceres global radiation dataset (loeb et al 2018; kato et al 2018) as the starting point, estimates evaporation from the maximum power limit without water limitation (the so-called potential ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [66] evaporation rate, as seen in figure 5b) and uses the mean precipitation rate (figure 5c) taken from the gpcp dataset (adler et al. 2016) to restrict evaporation in the presence of water availability, thus yielding the so-called actual evaporation rate (figure 5d). figure 5: maps of (a) mean annual solar radiation, (b) potential evaporation, (c) precipitation, and (d) actual evaporation estimated by the maximum power limit and water availability source: author applying the observed mean water use efficiency value to the thermodynamically–derived evaporation rate then yields an estimate for the photosynthetic carbon uptake and its associated thermodynamic conversion efficiency (figure 6). we can see that there are clear variations in efficiency among regions, with humid regions indicating a greater efficiency of up to 3%, while desert regions have no marked productivity due to the lack of water there. this supports the well–established notion that water availability is a major issue for the terrestrial biosphere, shaping the spatiotemporal [67] kleidon patterns of its productivity. what this estimate implies is that the limits set by gas exchange and water availability can clearly explain the observed patterns of carbon uptake in the terrestrial biosphere. figure 6: maps of (a) mean annual photosynthetic carbon uptake and (b) thermodynamic efficiency estimated from the evaporation rate shown in figure 5 source: see footnote2 to conclude this discussion on free energy generation by the terrestrial biosphere, it should be noted that thermodynamics does not act directly to limit energy conversions from sunlight to carbohydrates. after all, photosystems are highly efficient when it comes to the first step to converting solar energy. it would seem, then, that it is the rate of gas exchange that limits photosynthetic carbon uptake, as it provides the necessary supply of carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. this interpretation can explain the very low efficiency in observed photosynthetic carbon uptake rates within natural ecosystems. it represents an indirect thermodynamic constraint that requires an earth system view, which describes biosphere productivity as a process that is intimately linked to, and constrained by, physical transport processes within the earth’s environment. 2 after kleidon (2021b), uptake (via photosynthesis) of terrestrial vegetation is estimated from constant water use efficiency and the thermodynamically constrained evaporation rate as shown in figure 5(b). the thermodynamic efficiency with regard to converting absorbed solar radiation into chemical free energy is based on kleidon (2021b). ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [68] table 1: summary of annual mean estimates of energy-, water-, and carbon fluxes described in the text natural limits of terrestrial productivity absorbed solar radiation 141 w/m2 20,726 tw calculated directly from ceres (loeb et al 2018; kato et al 2018). shown in figure 5a. potential evaporation 2.84 mm/day 153 x 103 km3/year 12,091 tw calculated from the maximum power limit and thermodynamic equilibrium partitioning using ceres forcing. precipitation 2.18 mm/day 117 x 103 km3/year calculated directly from gpcp (adler et al 2016). evaporation 1.65 mm/day 88 x 103 km3/year 7,015 tw calculated by gauging the minimum of potential evaporation and precipitation at the annual scale. shown in figure 5d. compare to the observed estimate of 66 x 103 km3/year (oki and kanae 2006). gross primary productivity (net photosynthesis) 405 gc/m2/year 177 gtc/year 224 tw calculated by converting evaporation to carbon uptake with a fixed water use efficiency of 2 gc/kg h2o. shown in figure 6a. compare to the observed estimate of 120 gtc/year (beer et al 2010). net primary productivity (biomass production) 202 gc/m2/year 89 gtc/year 112 tw 50% dissipation by autotrophic respiration by plants. pushing the limits using seasonal soil water storage evaporation without seasonal water storage 1.47 mm/day 79 x 103 km3/year 6244 tw calculated by presupposing that monthly evaporation is the minimum of potential evaporation and precipitation (i.e., no seasonal water storage). enhancement by vegetation 0.18 mm/day +12% 9 x 103 km3/year 711 tw calculated by presupposing that evaporation is the minimum of potential evaporation and precipitation at the annual scale (i.e., seasonal water deficits are compensated by water storage variations within the rooting zone). [69] kleidon enhancement of net primary productivity 25 gc/m2/year +12% 10 gtc/year 12 tw converted with a fixed water use efficiency of 2 gc/kg h2o. human appropriation of productivity absorbed solar radiation 111 w/m2 5,449 tw the weighted average over the cropland and pastures as shown in figure 7. evaporation 1.38 mm/day 24.8 x 103 km3/year 1,963 tw the weighted average over the cropland and pastures as shown in figure 7. net primary productivity 503 gc/m2/year 25 gtc/year 31 tw calculated by converting evaporation to carbon uptake with a fixed water use efficiency of 2 gc/kg h2o. reduced by 50% dissipation via autotrophic respiration by plants. pushing limits using technology runoff potentially available for irrigation and additional evaporation 0.53 mm/day 29 x 103 km3/year +32% difference between current climatological precipitation and evaporation on land. enhancement of terrestrial net primary productivity 193 gc/m2/year 28 gtc/year 36 tw +32% calculated by converting evaporation to carbon uptake with a fixed water use efficiency of 2 gc/kg h2o. reduced by 50% dissipation via autotrophic respiration by plants. area needed for photovoltaics to generate current human primary energy demand of 18 tw 550 000 km2 calculated using the global mean absorption of solar radiation of 165 w m-2 and photovoltaic efficiency of 20%. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [70] area needed for generating as much freshwater by seawater desalination as is currently in continental runoff 177 000 km2 calculated using an energy demand of 4 kj per litre of desalination using membrane technology and energy generation by photovoltaics, using 165 w m-2 and an efficiency of 20%. source: author 4. the biosphere pushes its limits while these constraints limit the activity of the terrestrial biosphere, the latter nevertheless acts and affects the environment in such a way that pushes these limits further to achieve higher levels of activity. the means and mechanisms employed are different compared to the atmospheric heat engines described above. this relates to the effects biotic activity has on the environment and the consequences of these for the conditions required to generate and dissipate free energy. the overall dynamics surrounding the concept of “pushing the limit” appear to reflect, nevertheless, the same underlying evolutionary dynamics as the physical dynamics of the climate system: to maximize power and dissipation. to illustrate this push, i will take the example of the depths of the rooting zone of vegetation and its effects. as plants grow, they allocate some of their energy to growing rooting systems in the soil. a deeper rooting zone allows them to access a greater amount of the water stored in the soil for evaporation, particularly during dry periods. these periods are characterized by potential evaporation exceeding the rate of precipitation. water stored within the soil can be used to compensate for this lack of precipitation input, allowing vegetation to maintain evaporation during such periods. by building root systems and enhancing soil water storage, the biosphere benefits by elongating the period over which gas exchange can be maintained and productivity sustained. it thus makes the biosphere more productive. however, this enhancement is not infinite but limited by the climatological water balance. in humid regions with dry periods, vegetation needs only to store the water required to overcome the water deficit during the dry season. in arid regions, vegetation cannot store more water than the water surplus during the wet season. the required water storage volume needed for this seasonal compensation reproduces the observed rooting [71] kleidon depths in different vegetation types quite well (kleidon and heimann 1998). figure 7 illustrates these considerations, using monthly mean fields of precipitation and the thermodynamically–constrained evaporation estimate to infer the actual evaporation rate in the absence of seasonal water storage and its enhancement through soil water storage facilitated by root systems. this effect of rooting systems enhances terrestrial carbon uptake by roughly 10% (table 1), increasing the power and dissipative activity of the terrestrial biosphere. other biotic effects can act similarly to enhance terrestrial productivity. vegetated surfaces are typically darker (they have a lower surface albedo) than bare ground, enhancing surface heating as a driver for gas exchange, an aspect that has not been considered here. the highly heterogeneous canopies of forested surfaces represent a much greater leaf surface area, which facilitates a higher rate of gas exchange. stomates, small openings in the leaves which regulate gas exchange, can vary in size and number and operate to maximize the carbon gain while water is evaporated by the leaves (cowan and farquhar 1977; medlyn et al 2011). this means enhancing productivity comes with environmental consequences, such as enhanced moisture recycling on land. on longer time scales, the activity of the biosphere has profoundly altered the atmospheric composition and the strength of the greenhouse effect, changing the planetary disequilibrium state and energy fuels for the biosphere (judson 2017). these effects all influence the physical environment and provide means to maximize free energy generation further, resulting in environmental conditions that sustain the current high (possibly even maximized) levels of biotic activity on the planet. even though the means by which the biosphere would achieve this maximization are very different from physical heat engines, the outcome would be the same: to maximize free energy generation and its dissipation. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [72] figure 7: effects of deep-rooted vegetation on evaporation and associated gas exchange as an example of how the biosphere pushes its limits source: author 5. human societies as additional energy dissipation processes let us now turn to human activity as a thermodynamic earth system process. to do so, we must start with the consumption of free energy, which is at the very core of human existence as well as our socioeconomic activities. humans need energy to sustain their metabolism, just like any other living organism. this energy comes in the form of the food we eat as reflected in the calories that food contains (1 cal = 4.184 j). as this energy is consumed by metabolic activity, it converts the chemicalfree energy associated with the disequilibrium of carbohydrates and oxygen back into carbon dioxide, water, and heat. likewise, human societies consume free energy mostly in the form of chemical energy stored in fossil fuels. upon combustion, this free energy is converted into heat and subsequently into work, for example, by generating motion, electricity, or transforming materials. thus, primary energy consumption correlates strongly to economic activity (e.g., cleveland et al 1984; ayres and nair 1984). viewing human activity primarily through the lens of energy allows us to describe it as a dissipative earth system process and place it into the same thermodynamic framework we utilized above for physical and biotic earth system processes. using this framework, we will evaluate whether human activity acts to deplete or enhance the dissipative activity of the biosphere and link this to sustaining the biosphere. [73] kleidon human activity dissipates the free energy generated by the earth system, specifically the chemicalfree energy generated through photosynthesis. photosynthesis fuels the plants grown in agriculture and the resulting products feed livestock and human metabolisms. a fraction of the productivity of the biosphere is thus appropriated by agricultural activities. this share—the human appropriation of net primary productivity (vitousek et al. 1986; haberl, erb, and krausmann 2014)—is considerable, estimated to be 13– 25% of the total terrestrial productivity. the free energy associated with this productivity is thus diverted to direct or indirect human use, such as food production, feeding livestock, or biofuel production. it is no longer available to the natural biosphere, reducing its level of dissipative activity and sustaining fewer natural living organisms. to illustrate the magnitude of human appropriation using the aforementioned estimates, i used the land cover datasets provided by ramankutty et al (2008) as masks to describe where terrestrial productivity is appropriated by human use, either in croplands or rangelands (figure 8). the estimate of carbon uptake shown in figure 6a was reduced by 50% to account for the metabolic activity of the producers (the autotrophic respiration) and then summed up over the areas of human land use, yielding the estimates shown in table 1. it indicates that in these human-dominated areas, about 31 tw (or 28%) of the net primary productivity on land takes place—an estimate that is consistent with the more elaborate estimates by haberl, erb, and krausmann (2014). it must be noted, however, that at present, not all of this energy is appropriated for human use, as some of it feeds natural grazers (or “pests”) or is used in the decomposition of belowground organic carbon by soil organisms that also draw from this free energy to sustain their metabolisms. yet, with the intensification of agricultural activity, which aims at increasing yield, this will inadvertently result in a greater share of human appropriation instead of feeding the natural biosphere. we can thus anticipate that with agricultural expansion and intensification, the trend of greater appropriation will continue, depleting the likelihood of feeding the dissipative activity of the natural biosphere further. the consumption of primary energy due to socioeconomic activities represents further energy consumption by human societies. at present, this consumption amounts to about 18 tw, which is mostly consumed in the form of fossil fuels. this chemical energy was generated by photosynthesis in the earth’s geological past, followed by the subsequent burial of a fraction of the resulting biomass by geologic processes, thus creating the chemical disequilibrium of hydrocarbons in the geological reservoirs and atmospheric oxygen. using fossil fuels depletes this disequilibrium. it increases the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, enhances the associated greenecology, economy and society–the insee journal [74] house effect, and causes global warming. irrespective of these global effects, fossil fuels are a finite resource and their use (at current rates) is not sustainable. if, for simplicity’s sake, we were to assume that this use of energy was being replaced by appropriating more of the net primary productivity as an energy resource (for example, firewood or biofuels), this would draw away another substantial fraction of the free energy available to the natural biosphere. thus, this would further deplete the ability to sustain the dissipative activity of the natural biosphere. figure 8: human impact on the terrestrial biosphere as reflected by its land use in croplands and rangelands source: datasets from ramankutty et al. (2008) this description of human activity as an additional dissipative earth system process suggests that more human activity would inevitably come at the expense of diminished biospheric activity. since terrestrial productivity operates at its limit, the total consumption of the generated free energy to either sustain the dissipative activity of the natural biosphere or human activity is fixed and appears to be a zero-sum game. it seems to imply that the only way to improve and sustain the conditions of the natural biosphere would be for human societies to consume less energy. 6. technology pushes the limits to higher levels there is another route by which to sustain the biosphere and that relates to mechanisms that may “push the limit”, which is similar to how the biosphere pushes its limits. this involves certain types of manmade technolo[75] kleidon gies. examples of existing technologies include the use of river water for irrigation in arid regions or the damming of water flow to form reservoirs for irrigation during dry periods. this makes water available for enhancing plant productivity at places or times in which the precipitation input is too low to meet the potential evaporation rate. the additional water made available through the use of these technologies can act to enhance productivity by supplementing the means of storing and redistributing water that was previously unavailable to the natural biosphere. this water can then push the limit of productivity to a higher level by making more water available. a look at table 1 gives us a broad estimate of the magnitude by which such technologies could, in principle, enhance terrestrial productivity by storing or redistributing water. if we consider all of the continental river discharge (or runoff), which, in the climatological mean, balances the difference between precipitation and evaporation on land and make it available for evaporation by storing or redistributing it, this would enhance continental evaporation by 32%. utilizing the water use efficiency for conversion into a productivity increase, as was done before, would yield about three times as much productivity enhancement due to the seasonal water storage maintained by deep-rooted vegetation. what is not accounted for here are possible climate effects. the enhanced evaporation would result in more continental moisture recycling, cloud cover, and precipitation, thus altering the environmental conditions on land. nevertheless, this example is put forward simply to indicate that existing technology can provide alternative means to enhance productivity and its human appropriation that does not come at the cost of appropriating more of the natural productivity of the biosphere. when we look into the future, a far greater effect can be achieved with modern technology. photovoltaics provides technology that generates free energy directly from sunlight much more efficiently than heat engines or photosynthesis can achieve. solar radiation is directly converted into electricity, avoiding the inevitable, irreversible losses through conversion into heat. thus, photovoltaics is much more efficient than heat engines of the atmosphere. additionally, energy generation by photovoltaics is not constrained by gas exchange and water availability, as is the case for photosynthesis—because photovoltaics exports its free energy in the form of electricity—and does not require gas exchange. with photovoltaics, human societies can become producers of free energy for the earth system and thereby decouple their demand from the supply by the biosphere. in other words, human societies can sustainably grow further for some time but this does not need to come at the expense of the biosphere. ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [76] it would require relatively little area to meet the current demands for primary energy using photovoltaics. with a typical efficiency of about 20% for solar panels and a mean absorption of solar radiation of 165 w m-2, it would merely require about 550,000 km2 or less than 0.4% of the land surface to meet the current primary energy consumption. the use of photovoltaics would thus eliminate the pressure imposed due to meeting the primary energy consumption via the appropriation of energy from the biosphere, such as fossil fuels or biofuels, or via the renewable energy generated directly or indirectly by the heat engines of the atmosphere, such as wind or hydropower. this novel supply of primary energy can then be supplemented by other technologies to alleviate other natural limits of the biosphere, particularly the ones imposed by water availability. seawater desalination using membrane technologies requires a very small fraction of the energy involved in the natural desalination process using evaporation and subsequent precipitation. while it takes about 2.5 mj to evaporate and desalinate a litre of seawater—known as the latent heat of vaporization—membranes only require about 4 kj to achieve the same result (elimelech and phillip 2011). to put these numbers in a global perspective, at present, it requires 3650 tw of solar energy or 3% of the absorbed solar radiation to evaporate water to feed the net convergence of moisture transport to land of 46 x 103 km3 per year (oki and kanae 2006; estimate in table 1 is 29 x 103 km3 per year). to obtain the same freshwater production rate by seawater desalination using membrane technology, it would require 6 tw of energy, which could be achieved by photovoltaics installed over 177,000 km2 of area (using global means). these are, of course, rough estimates that do not take into account the many practical challenges that must be overcome to make this a reality. changing the terrestrial hydrologic cycle at this magnitude would result in climatological changes, likely enhancing continental precipitation. yet, the observation i wish to put forward with these estimates is that there are manmade technologies already available that can achieve the outcome of natural processes with much greater efficiency. this, in turn, could decouple the growth in food and energy needs of human societies from their natural sources, decreasing the magnitude of appropriation while potentially resulting in positive feedback on photosynthetic carbon fixation (cf. figure 1). this decoupling could reduce the impact on the natural biosphere by allowing it to use its free energy to feed the dissipative activity of its natural food webs and thus sustain the activity of the natural biosphere at higher levels. [77] kleidon 7. a sustainable future for the terrestrial biosphere i used a thermodynamic earth system perspective to evaluate how the activity of the natural biosphere could be sustained in the presence of increasing human activities. i first reviewed the application of thermodynamics to indicate to what extent it restricts the physical functioning of the climate system and, thereby, the activity of the terrestrial biosphere. this results in a basic trade-off: increased human appropriation of energy seems to come at the cost of reducing the dissipative activity of the natural biosphere. the solution to this dilemma is by using novel technology, particularly photovoltaics. this allows human societies to generate free energy from sunlight more efficiently than we do by using natural means, particularly unproductive areas that are currently not generating free energy, such as deserts. the use of this energy can then decouple human energy needs from the supply by the natural biosphere. it is through this decoupling that human activity could, in principle, grow sustainably to some extent, with this growth coming not at the expense of shrinking the natural biosphere further but by providing a possibility to sustain and even enlarge the natural biosphere in the anthropocene. such a trajectory of sustainable growth would likely lead to quite a different physical environment. when this energy is used to generate more resources, such as freshwater, to extend agriculture into arid regions instead of further deforesting humid regions, it would simultaneously strengthen hydrologic cycling and alter the physical climate system. yet, human activities consume energy at rates of a similar magnitude to natural processes. it is hard to imagine that this consumption could voluntarily be drastically reduced in the future. with this impediment, it would seem inevitable that to preserve the natural biosphere, the only option left to human societies would be to “enlarge” the biosphere into areas that are not currently productive, such as desert regions, to sustain the dissipative activity of the natural biosphere at current levels. i hope that this energy-oriented view of the biosphere and sustainability of human activity at the very large planetary scale can serve as a useful model for practical applications to evaluate human interactions and how detrimental or beneficial these may be for the natural biosphere to persist in times of greater human influences. data availability the datasets used to create the figures and to make the estimates shown in table 1 are available at https://doi.org/10.17617/3.f0q6x2 . https://doi.org/10.17617/3.f0q6x2 ecology, economy and society–the insee journal [78] references adler, robert, jian-jian wang, matthew sapiano, george huffman, long chiu, ping-ping xie, ralph ferraro, et al. 2016. “global precipitation climatology project (gpcp) climate data record (cdr), version 2.3 (monthly).” noaa national centers for environmental information. 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