Advancing Environmental Justice For Marginalized Communities In India

This interdisciplinary collection examines social equity and environmental justice in India. It assesses the effectiveness of environmental policies and institutions in rendering justice for marginalized communities while ensuring protection of the environment. It also analyses the influence of the neoliberal state and its political economies on the development and outcomes of these policies and institutions. The book provides a unique perspective on environmental justice because of its consistent emphasis on social justice, rather than the prevailing predominant analyses from legal or environmental perspectives. It explores the themes of effectiveness and equity as they pertain to public policy instruments, such as environmental impact assessment, environmental licensing and enforcement, public hearings, and environmental activism strategies. The four interlinked dimensions of environmental justice, namely recognitional justice, procedural justice, distributive justice, and restorative justice, provide the core of the book’s conceptual framework. The contributions draw on ideas and methods from development studies, environmental geography, environmental law and policy, natural resource management, public administration, and political economy The book concludes by considering planning, policy and institutional reforms and community-based initiatives that are needed to promote and protect environmental justice in India. Offering an important reference for researchers and scholars, this book will appeal to those in law, geography, environmental studies, natural resource management, development studies, sociology, and political science. It will also be of interest to community-based researchers, environmentalists and other civil society activists, natural resource managers, and policy makers.

This interdisciplinary collection examines social equity and environmental justice in India. It assesses the effectiveness of environmental policies and institutions in rendering justice for marginalized communities while ensuring protection of the environment. It also analyses the influence of the neoliberal state and its political economies on the development and outcomes of these policies and institutions. The book provides a unique perspective on environmental justice because of its consistent emphasis on social justice, rather than the prevailing predominant analyses from legal or environmental perspectives. It explores the themes of effectiveness and equity as they pertain to public policy instruments, such as environmental impact assessment, environmental licensing and enforcement, public hearings, and environmental activism strategies. The four interlinked dimensions of environmental justice, namely recognitional justice, procedural justice, distributive justice, and restorative justice, provide the core of the book’s conceptual framework. The contributions draw on ideas and methods from development studies, environmental geography, environmental law and policy, natural resource management, public administration, and political economy The book concludes by considering planning, policy and institutional reforms and community-based initiatives that are needed to promote and protect environmental justice in India. Offering an important reference for researchers and scholars, this book will appeal to those in law, geography, environmental studies, natural resource management, development studies, sociology, and political science. It will also be of interest to community-based researchers, environmentalists and other civil society activists, natural resource managers, and policy makers.

Modern environmental regulation and its complex intersection with international law has led many jurisdictions to develop environmental courts or tribunals. Strikingly, the list of jurisdictions that have chosen to do this include numerous developing countries, including Bangladesh, Kenya and Malawi. Indeed, it seems that developing nations have taken the task of capacity-building in environmental law more seriously than many developed nations. Environmental Justice in India explores the genesis, operation and effectiveness of the Indian National Green Tribunal (NGT). The book has four key objectives. First, to examine the importance of access to justice in environmental matters promoting sustainability and good governance Second, to provide an analytical and critical account of the judicial structures that offer access to environmental justice in India. Third, to analyse the establishment, working practice and effectiveness of the NGT in advancing a distinctively Indian green jurisprudence. Finally, to present and review the success and external challenges faced and overcome by the NGT resulting in growing usage and public respect for the NGT’s commitment to environmental protection and the welfare of the most affected people. Providing an informative analysis of a growing judicial development in India, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental justice, environmental law, development studies and sustainable development.

Contributed articles.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Environmental law is a broad discipline covering issues such as nature conservation, the prevention or abatement of pollution, and waste management. It also encompasses concerns related to natural resources, such as forests, minerals, and fisheries, and the balance between their use and conservation. India has been at the forefront of jurisprudential developments among countries with similar environmental, geographical, socio-economic, and cultural conditions. Concurrently, the country has been receptive to ideas and principles arising from other parts of the world or from international law. The growth of environmental and natural resources law in India has been sustained in equal measure by growing environmental awareness and the increasingly dire nature of the problems associated with the environment and natural resources, ranging from local issues to the global climate crisis. At the same time, the continuous push for development has not abated, leading to recurrent pressure to weaken existing standards for environmental protection and the management and use of natural resources. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers the most comprehensive coverage of the diverse and complex discipline of environmental and natural resources law in India over the past fifty years. With forty-two contributions from law and non-law scholars, the Handbook presents diverse perspectives on several areas including biodiversity, climate change, water, forests, agriculture, health, resource extraction, and industrial development. By departing from the existing approach that examines natural resources law and environmental law separately, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India offers a much-needed integrated analysis of the development of domestic jurisprudence vis-à-vis the environment and natural resources.

To be poor, working-class, or a person of color in the United States often means bearing a disproportionate share of the country’s environmental problems. Starting with the premise that all Americans have a basic right to live in a healthy environment, Dumping in Dixie chronicles the efforts of five African American communities, empowered by the civil rights movement, to link environmentalism with issues of social justice. In the third edition, Bullard speaks to us from the front lines of the environmental justice movement about new developments in environmental racism, different organizing strategies, and success stories in the struggle for environmental equity.

Prosopis (Prosopis juliflora) is a xerophyte which, in its native habitats has been a desert plant. As long as it was confined to that habitat, P. juliflora was a great resource, improving the region’s micrometeorology, binding its sandy soil, and providing shelter, fuel, feed, food, medicines, and cosmetics to the people of such regions. In particular, for the economically weaker inhabitants, P.juliflora was a lifeline.But when P. juliflora was indiscriminately introduced in other regions of the world in a hope to derive similar benefits from it, things began to go awry. Indeed, among the invasive species of plants which are spreading at an alarming rate in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, P.juliflora is arguably the most hardy and resilient. It is growing so explosively that it even enters roads and homes, driving humans out of their dwellings. The resulting damage to biodiversity is enormous. This book highlights the dual role played so far by P. juliflora and itemizes the facets that make it a blessing in some contexts and a bane in other contexts.Authored by leading experts in the field, Prosopis juliflora: Attributes, Impact, Utilization is the first title of its kind to comprehensively discuss this hardy plant species. It will be an essential read for students, researchers and governmental agencies interested in plant biology, forestry, plant ecology, invasive plant species and environmental science. Summarizes all the key information available on P. juliflora, from its origin and systematics to its future prospects Discusses colonization, utilization and eradication Authored by leading experts in the field with over 40 years of experience

Despite the global endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals, environmental justice struggles are growing all over the world. These struggles are not isolated injustices, but symptoms of interlocking forms of oppression that privilege the few while inflicting misery on the many and threatening ecological collapse. This handbook offers critical perspectives on the multi-dimensional, intersectional nature of environmental injustice and the cross-cutting forms of oppression that unite and divide these struggles, including gender, race, poverty, and indigeneity. The work sheds new light on the often-neglected social dimension of sustainability and its relationship to human rights and environmental justice. Using a variety of legal frameworks and case studies from around the world, this volume illustrates the importance of overcoming the fragmentation of these legal frameworks and social movements in order to develop holistic solutions that promote justice and protect the planet's ecosystems at a time of intensifying economic and ecological crisis.

Climate Change and Cities bridges science-to-action for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in cities around the world.