Environmental History of India

Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasizing the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. The book explores how the definition and management of boundaries between wildness and civility in Indian society and the relation of ideas of nature to different aspects of social life. The book explain interconnected historical processes between labour, aesthetics, politics, commerce, or agriculture that inform environmental history. Environmental history, like all historical studies, shares the hope that through an examination of past events it may be possible to forge a more considered future. In particular a greater depth of historical knowledge can inform environmental controversies and guide policy decisions.

Amrendra Verma (born on 28th July, 1973 at Allahabad) graduated from Allahabad University, Allahabad with First Class Honours with Distinction in History. He did his M.A. in History from Allahabad University, Allahabad securing First Class Second position. He holds Ph.D. degree in History from Allahabad university, Allahabad. He is a good teacher and a researcher. He has taught in different colleges under different universities for a decade. He has written about four books on History and Political Science. He has contributed more than ten papers to leading Journals as well as to different books and newspapers.

The Term Environment means surroundings and is generally used as an abstract concept. The surroundings may be natural, man-made, physical, chemical or biotic. The environment is thus, a complex of many things encompassing an organism that interact not only with the organisms but also among themselves. As a result of this it is difficult to isolate or alter any one of them without affecting the other components. The growth, behaviour and life history of an organism, are therefore, influenced by the environment in which they live.

The preferred environment of an organism is usually referred to as habitat. The term, habitat denotes a more specific meaning of the surrounding than environment. On our planet earth, we find two major types of habitats, terrestrial (174 million per square km) and aquatic (40 million per square km) with different environmental complexes. Both of these habitats support innumerable forms of life, the nature and concentration of which vary considerably, although certain forms (amphibians) are dependent on both of them for completing their life cycle.

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Environmental history is the study of human interaction with the natural world over time, emphasising the active role nature plays in influencing human affairs and vice versa. Environmental history emerged in the United States out of the environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and much of its impetus still stems from present-day global environmental concerns. The field was founded on conservation issues but has broadened in scope to include more general social and scientific history and may deal with cities, population or sustainable development. As all history occurs in the natural world, environmental history tends to focus on particular time-scales, geographic regions, or key themes. It is also a strongly multidisciplinary subject that draws widely on both the humanities and natural science.

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