This book examines the nuances of the relationship between development and environmental
conservation policy in India over the last three decades. While India is taken as the focal
point the study extends to an analysis of global aspects and other developing countries as and
when the situation demands. Understanding that development always has to take environmental
issues into consideration the book undertakes critical reviews of the different ways in which
this has been done. The review is based on a grasp of the simultaneous developments in the
theoretical understanding of the environment and ecosystems and provides pointers towards
directions for possible change. The motivation for the book lies in the continuing distance
between theoretical knowledge of the role of the environment in particular the underlying
long-term links between human wellbeing and wise use of nature and its application in public
policy. The book also proposes that whichever theoretical cornerstone is taken as the starting
point it is the ethical undertones that drive the analysis in directions that acquire meaning
in terms of the quality and legitimacy of decision-making. It explores the relevance to policy
of a variety of radical conceptual development and policy directions such as dematerialising
growth the social metabolism approach and the degrowth movement. Further the dilemma facing
environmental policy continues to be how to simultaneously borrow from developments in and
across disciplines while at the same time and at a more practical level dealing with a
diversity of stakeholders.
