Environmental Issues in India

INTRODUCTION

Over a decade ago, two leading scholars of environmental movements in India stepped back to suggest a vision that was more holistic in terms of alternatives. A movement, they argued, needed, ‘a vision of what it should be fighting against; and what is perhaps more important still, with a vision of what it should be fighting for. A truer picture then of the India that is and the India that should be’ (Gadgil and Guha 1995: 6).

In July 2005, the great coastal city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) not only experienced unprecedented high rainfall, it also witnessed the havoc of floods for days. The transformation of flood plain and riverside into a built environment exposed many to the threat of floods. Revi's account of the Mithi river ...