India has about 18 per cent of the world’s human population on only 2.14 per cent of its land area with 4 per cent of fresh water. It is also a living tapestry of life with over 1,000 species each of birds, fish and reptiles and over 50,000 plant species, besides 400-odd mammals. How can we keep the environment habitable, safe, livable, and productive? Is it possible to rethink our relationship with nature in democratic and socially sensitive ways?

Nature Contested brings together a set of essays on environment use, ecology, and related questions of social justice, given the persistent social inequalities that shape our experience of ecological change. From changing social patterns among fishing communities along the Indian coast, to the shrinking of urban commons in Bengaluru and Chennai, to land and forest rights movements of Dalit groups in Uttar Pradesh, to the urgent need for clean air in Delhi, the essays offer nuanced, well-researched perspectives on diverse politico-ecological contexts.

Significantly, the chapters also trace the histories of human–nature interaction in different parts of India, including changing perceptions of recurrent floods in Assam, and community attitudes towards the Indian wild pig.

Taken together, the book challenges the idea of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ paradigm of environmental conservation, and reflects on varied imaginations of nature and the environment in India. Interdisciplinary, wide-ranging, and rigorous in its scholarship, this volume is essential reading for scholars of environmental history and political ecology, and for anyone interested in our planetary present and futures.

Mahesh Rangarajan is Professor of History and Environmental Studies and Chair of the Archives of Contemporary India, Ashoka University, Haryana.

Ravi Agarwal is the Founder and Director of Toxics Link, a Delhi-based environmental NGO, and a photographer, writer, and art curator.

Rinki Sarkar is an educator and independent researcher of urban and environment studies based in Delhi.

List of Maps and Tables
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations

Introduction, by Mahesh Rangarajan, Ravi Agarwal and Rinki Sarkar     1

1. Marine (In)Justice: A Long View of Nature, by Aarthi Sridhar     28
2. Fluid Boundaries: Fisheries and Migration on India’s Coasts, by Divya Karnad     53
3. Changes in Availability and Access to Ecosystem Services: Urban Commons in Bengaluru, India, by Hita Unnikrishnan, Harini Nagendra, and Manjunatha B.     73
4. Developing towards Disaster? Chennai’s Growth Dilemma, by Nityanand Jayaraman     95
5. An Ever Changing Present: Assam and Her Fluvial Landscapes, by Arupjyoti Saikia     118
6. ‘The Forest Belongs to Us’: Caste and the Forest Rights Movement, by Anand Vaidya     144
7. Conflict, Coexistence, and Conservation: Cultural and Material Entanglements between People and Pigs in India, by Meera Anna Oommen     159
8. Relating with Contested Nature: Meanings, Scales, and Mediations of Delhi’s Air, by Rohit Negi and Prerna Srigyan     187

Notes on the Editors and Contributors

Index