




































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 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). 



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 one-
size-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 
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Eberhard, D., G. Simons, and C. Fenning, eds.2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the 
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Goldman-Benner, R. L., S. Benitez, T. Boucher, A. Calvache, G. Daily, P. Kareiva, 
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services: practice learns from theory and theory can learn from practice.” Oryx 46 
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Gordon, T., K. Balakrishnan, S. Dey, S. Rajagopalan, J. Thornburg, G. Thurston, 
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Mittermeier, R. A. and C.G. Mittermeier.1997. Megadiversity: Earth’s Biologically 
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Pandis, S. N., K. Skyllakou, K. Florou, E. Kostenidou, C. Kaltsonoudis, E. Hasa, 
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