Environment in India: Sociological Perspectives

1

• Environment in India Sociological
  Perspectives

2
Voices of many in India Focus of Environment

• Natural Resource conflicts, Pollution,
• Environmental movements ,
• Nature based Conflicts on
• Forest, Water, Wetlands, Mineral sectors/Mines
  and Wild life.

3
Forest For Whom and for What? Chipko Movement,
1973

• Ecology is Permanent Economy- it epitomizes its
  chief concern to save forest resources from
  commercial exploitation by outside contractors
  for international markets.

4
Water Dam and the Damned Struggle against big
dams 1980s

• Tehri in the north,
• Silent Valley in the South,
• Koel Karo in the east
• Sardar Sarovar in the West

5
Critics of multipurpose river valley projects
(NVP)

• From an economic perspective
• the cost-benefit ratios derived by the govt. to
  justify various dams invariably overvalue
  benefits and undervalue costs.
• From an ecological perspective
• the high incidence of water logging and the
  submergence of forests and wildlife have been
  presented an exp of the unacceptable costs of dam
  building.

6
Struggles in the Sea

• Artisanal fisher-folk in the Southern Kerala,
  Tamil Nadu, Andhra , Coastal Orisa

7
Mines and Misery

• Jharkhand Movement 1990s onwards, Jharkhand
  mines and tribal displacement
• BALCO (Orissa) 1986 (Aluminum Mines) ,
  Gandhamardhan hills and tribal displacement ,
  Movement
• POSCO, Orissa 2007/8 (Iron ore mines)

8
Biotechnology as an Environmental Problem

• Biotechnology and Sociology--
• Environmental Focus Agriculture
• The nature of Biotechnology as perceived by
  farmers and the public

9
The office of Technology Assessment (1986)
provides the definition on Biotechnology

• Biotechnology includes any technique that uses
  living organisms or processes to make or modify
  products, to improve plants or animals, or to
  develop microorganisms for specific purposes
  such knowledge and skills will give scientists
  much greater control over biological systems,
  leading to significant improvements in the
  production of plants and animals. ..

10
Opposition to Biotechnology in IndiaBt cotton
in India Its adverse impact on agriculture

• Monsanto, quit India" campaign in Karnataka (the
  purchase of MAHYCO )

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what makes crop biotechnology find its roots in
India? Bt cotton

• Whether biotechnology and genetic engineering has
  become a site for democratic imagination in India
  or
• Whether it has entailed social environmental
  risk, impact on human health, eradication of
  hunger poverty monopolization of scientific
  technological knowledge

12
Technological culture of genetically modified
crop Bio-technology and the agency of global

• Cotton in Indian context
• How Bt cotton came to India
• Opposition to Bt Cotton

13
Technology involved

• BT (Baillus Thuringiensis)- developed by the US
  based MNCs- Monsanto to combat the American
  ballworm attack,
• Refers to a toxin which contains a protein gene
  which is toxic to the American ballworm,
• GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee)
  approved the commercial cultivation in India in 6
  states-

14
Opposition to Bt Cotton

• Regions A.P. Vidarva district of Maharashtra
  
• (Farmers lack of information on growing
  conditions, pesticide use, the importance of
  planting proper seeds and the earnings to be
  expected from using this technology),

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The major arguments

• The possibility of resistance developed by the
  pest to the Bt cotton,
• The high cost of compliance of technology
• The rapid spread of illegal variants of certified
  Bt cotton seeds
• Whether the objectives are achieved through
  adoption of the technology- i.e., bio-safety and
  economic viability for the small farmers.

16
Biotechnology constructs its discourse around the
seeds which it destroys in two ways

• It robs the seed of its regenerative capacity
  through technology and law
• Hybridization disenables the seed from
  reproducing itself and forces the farmer to
  return to the breeder for further stock.
• It decemanticises the seed by breaking the link
  between seed as food grain and seed as a means of
  production.