Nature Contested

India has about 18 per cent of the world’s human population on only 2.14 per cent of its land area with 4 per cent of fresh water. It is also a living tapestry of life with over 1,000 species each of birds, fish and reptiles and over 50,000 plant species, besides 400-odd mammals. How can we keep the environment habitable, safe, livable, and productive? Is it possible to rethink our relationship with nature in democratic and socially sensitive ways? Nature Contested brings together a set of essays on environment use, ecology, and related questions of social justice, given the persistent social inequalities that shape our experience of ecological change.