3 Review(s)

"North East India is called nature’s gift to India. It is mountainous, thickly forested, nourished by abundant rainfall, has massive rivers, a diverse wildlife, inhabited by a number of forest dwellers called tribes who cherished environmentalist ethos. The region has been experiencing environmental depletion which was a result of colonial policies, exploitation of its ecological and mineral resources, large scale trans-border immigration and settlement of people, establishment of plantation industry through deforestation, dependence of dairy industry on grazing and so on. Yet people of the region did not realize the dangerous stage the state of its environment had reached. There was no environmental activism, state turned a deaf ear to the little protests that emerged. Violating the traditional tribal ethics favouring environment, certain individuals and cartels have over the years ruthlessly exploited and devastated the environment of the region. In such a crisis situation environmental history can no more remain an academic discipline. It has to make an intervention and generate a movement. With this aim in view the present collection of essays depicts the precariousness of the environmental situation and traces the history and politics of such degeneration with a view to raise the consciousness of the people of the region towards their environment and save it from further aggravation. "