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Western GhatsSubscribe to Western Ghats

Reading Ecology, Reinventing Democracy

Vol. 57, Issue No. 36, 03 Sep, 2022
Shiv Visvanathan, Chandrika Parmar

The Gadgil report on the Western Ghats is a major ecological tract and a significant reflection on the politics of ecology. It illustrates how a theory of nature, lives, livelihood combined with local knowledge, decentralisation, and diversity add to the dynamism of democracy. In contrast, the Kasturirangan report is an antidote to such therapeutic ecology and shows how development creates the asymmetries of injustice and representation. The article explores the implications of these two different ways of reading ecology.

Extreme Flooding Events and Land Cover Change

Vol. 57, Issue No. 10, 05 Mar, 2022
P N A Vaishnavi, M Dinesh Kumar

This discussion is a response to Aniket Navalkar’s article “Extreme Flooding Events and Land Cover Change: An Empirical Assessment of Western India” (EPW, 16 October 2021).

 

Tribal Rights and Heritage Conservation in the Western Ghats of Karnataka

Vol. 55, Issue No. 41, 10 Oct, 2020
Madhusudan Bandi

In the context of Karnataka, the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in the heritage sites of the Western Ghats makes for an important case study of how the concerns of tribals and indigenous people are often marginalised in the debates around conservation. Analysing the process of assigning heritage status to the sites located in the state, reports of government committees on the conservation and global studies show that conservation models that vouched for exclusion of human habitants in ecologically sensitive areas failed to conserve biodiversity. Hence, the adoption of an inclusive and participatory approach is the need of the hour.

Comparing Floods in Kerala and the Himalaya

Vol. 55, Issue No. 5, 01 Feb, 2020
Shekhar Pathak

There are important similarities and differences between the Kerala floods in 2018 and 2019 and the Himalayan floods of Uttarakhand and Kashmir in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Most importantly, floods in Kerala are likely to affect the local ecology in some parts of the Western Ghats, whereas floods in the Himalayan regions will affect North India as a whole. However, both the regions have a fragile ecology that is threatened by ecological destruction and industrial development. Thus, the Central Water Commission and other government agencies should take a holistic view towards addressing floods and dam management in these regions.

Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme

Vol. 53, Issue No. 31, 04 Aug, 2018
Anshu Ogra

This paper is part of the author's PhD work  submitted to the Centre for Studies in Science Policy Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.  The author would like to thank the reviewers for their comments, Rohan D’Souza, Saradindu Bhaduri and Ambuj Sagar as also the Centre for Social Markets, Coffee Board of India, Karnataka Growers’ Federation, Hassan District Planters’ Association, United Planters’ Association of Southern India and Karnataka Planters’ Association for their help in the field.  

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