Environment and Society

Why this chapter matters for UPSC: Sociology's lens on the environment reveals something economics and biology miss — environmental problems are also social problems. Who pollutes? Who suffers? Whose knowledge counts? How do communities mobilise? These questions connect GS1 (social movements), GS3 (environment, disasters), and GS4 (ethics of environmental justice). The Chipko and Silent Valley movements appear regularly in UPSC questions.

Contemporary hook: India's climate vulnerability is not just ecological — it is social. The 2023 Sikkim flash floods, Kerala's repeated landslides, and increasing heat-wave deaths disproportionately affect the poor, tribals, farmers, and fisherfolk. This chapter's core argument — that environmental harm is socially distributed unequally — is the sociological lens UPSC increasingly expects in Mains answers.

PART 1 — Quick Reference Tables

Social Construction of Environment

Major Indian Environmental Movements

Environmental Problems and Social Inequality

PART 2 — Detailed Notes

Sociology and the Environment

Sociology asks three questions about the environment:

1. Who caused the environmental problem? (Industrial capitalism? Colonial extraction? Consumerism?)
2. Who suffers? (Unequal distribution of environmental harms)
3. Who acts? (Environmental movements, indigenous knowledge, policy responses)

Social Construction of "Nature"

What counts as "nature" is partly a social and cultural construction:

• Sacred nature: For India's tribal communities and many Hindu traditions, forests, rivers, and mountains are divine. The Ganga is not just water — she is a goddess. This shapes how people relate to (and protect) the environment.
• Resource vs. sacred: Colonial and development discourse turned forests into "resources" to be extracted. Adivasis saw the same forests as sacred homelands. This clash is at the heart of forest conflicts.
• Wilderness construct: The idea of "pristine wilderness" separate from human habitation is itself a Western construct. India's biodiversity hotspots have been shaped by millennia of human use and management.

Who defines environmental "problems"?

• Industrial discharge as "waste management challenge" vs "poisoning the river" — framing depends on power
• Subsistence farming as "backward" vs "traditional ecological knowledge" — depends on perspective
• Dam displacement as "acceptable cost of progress" vs "human rights violation" — depends on who is speaking

Environmental Movements as Social Movements

Environmental movements in India are distinctive because they are often simultaneously:

• Environmental (protecting nature)
• Social (protecting livelihoods of poor, tribal, women)
• Political (challenging state and corporate power)

Chipko Movement (1973):

Sociological significance:

• Women's leadership: The movement's most famous act (Reni village) was led by women when men were away. Women's dependence on forests (fuel, fodder, water) was more immediate than men's.
• Subsistence vs commerce: The conflict was between village subsistence (local use of forest products) and commercial timber extraction (state revenue, contractor profit)
• Ecological knowledge: Villagers' knowledge of local ecology — that deforestation causes floods, landslides, stream drying — preceded formal scientific understanding in the region

Silent Valley Movement (1973–1985):

• Silent Valley (Kerala) was one of India's last undisturbed tropical rainforests, home to lion-tailed macaque (endangered) and extraordinary biodiversity
• Kerala State Electricity Board planned a hydroelectric project that would have submerged the valley
• A coalition of scientists, writers, activists, and students opposed it
• M. Krishnan (naturalist) and Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP — science popularisation organisation) led the campaign
• National campaign grew; Indira Gandhi commissioned a study; ultimately cancelled the project (1983/1984)
• Silent Valley National Park declared 1984

Sociological significance:

• First major success of environmental advocacy using scientific evidence and public mobilisation
• Alliance between scientists and a popular science movement (KSSP) was unusual
• Showed that the state (government) is not a monolith — different wings (electricity board vs environment ministry) can be played against each other

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA):

• Coalition of displaced communities (Adivasis, farmers, fisherfolk), activists, and supporters opposing Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada
• Led by Medha Patkar — sociologist turned activist
• Raised fundamental questions: Who benefits from large dams? Who pays the cost? Are poor Adivasi communities' rights less important than urban consumers' water and electricity needs?
• Tactics: Padyatras, hunger strikes, jal satyagraha (standing in rising dam waters), international advocacy (World Bank withdrawal of funding after Morse Commission report, 1992)

Urban Ecology

India is rapidly urbanising (2011: 31.1% urban; likely ~38% by 2026). Urban environments create distinctive ecological and social patterns:

Urban heat islands: Cities are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to:

• Concrete and asphalt absorbing heat
• Loss of tree cover
• Waste heat from buildings, vehicles, industry
• Impact: Higher energy demand (AC), heat mortality among the poor and elderly

Urban water issues:

• Groundwater depletion from over-extraction
• River and lake pollution from sewage and industrial effluents
• Wetland encroachment — Mumbai's Mithi River flooded (2005 floods) partly because mangroves and wetlands that would have absorbed floodwater were built over
• Chennai's 2019 water crisis: Extreme urban water stress despite annual rainfall — poor water management

Urban air pollution:

• Delhi consistently among world's most polluted cities
• PM2.5 levels in winter regularly 10–15x WHO safe limits
• Unequal exposure: Low-income areas near highways and industrial zones have highest pollution
• Health burden: Lower-income groups (outdoor workers, slum dwellers) bear greatest health costs

Environmental Justice

Examples of environmental injustice in India:

• Hazardous waste facilities located near Dalit or Adivasi settlements (e.g., Kodaikanal mercury plant — Unilever subsidiary dumped mercury waste; workers were local women)
• Industrial zones in areas with poor and politically marginalised populations
• Displacement disproportionately affecting Adivasis (40–50% of displaced despite being 8–9% of population)
• Climate change vulnerability: India's poorest are most exposed to heat stress, flood, drought, and agricultural disruption

Indigenous Ecological Knowledge

Tribal and rural communities possess detailed knowledge of local ecosystems — plant properties, seasonal patterns, soil management, water conservation — built over generations. This knowledge is:

• Practical: Van panchayats, johads, sacred groves (devavans/orans) maintained biodiversity before modern conservation
• Threatened: "Scientific" forest management often dismissed local knowledge; colonial Forest Acts criminalised traditional uses
• Being recognised: Forest Rights Act 2006, Biological Diversity Act 2002 (bioprospecting protection), FAO recognition of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

PART 3 — Frameworks & Analysis

Environmental Sociology Framework (for Mains answers)

Three-part analysis:

1. Causes (Who produces the harm?) → Industrial capitalism, state development projects, global consumption patterns
2. Distribution (Who bears the burden?) → Poor, tribal, women, coastal communities — environmental injustice
3. Responses (What happens?) → State policy, civil society movements, indigenous knowledge systems, international agreements

Ecological Footprint and Social Class

• High-income countries and high-income individuals have the highest ecological footprints (consumption of resources)
• Low-income communities are often the most exposed to environmental damage from others' consumption
• This global inequality (wealthy nations pollute most; poor nations suffer most from climate change) is the central tension in climate negotiations (UNFCCC, COP)

India's position: Historically low per capita emissions; vulnerable to climate impacts; argues for equity principle in climate negotiations ("Common But Differentiated Responsibilities")

Exam Strategy

Prelims traps:

• Silent Valley is in Kerala (not Uttarakhand)
• Chipko is 1973 (not Silent Valley's year — both 1970s, but distinct)
• Narmada Bachao Andolan = Medha Patkar (not Sunderlal Bahuguna — he was Chipko)
• Bhopal Gas Tragedy = 1984, Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical), methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas
• Sacred groves in Rajasthan called Orans (not Van or Devara)

Mains frameworks:

• On environmental movements: Issue → Social groups affected → Tactics → Outcome → Larger significance (connect to governance, rights, policy)
• On environmental justice: Who causes harm? Who suffers? What policy response? What gaps remain?
• On urban ecology: Urbanisation → Environmental costs → Unequal distribution → Policy responses (urban greening, wetland protection, pollution regulation)

Previous Year Questions

Prelims:

1. The "Silent Valley Movement" was related to: (a) Deforestation in Uttarakhand (b) Saving a tropical rainforest in Kerala from a hydroelectric project (c) Opposing coal mining in Jharkhand (d) Protecting Olive Ridley turtles in Odisha

2. "Risk Society" is a concept developed by: (a) Anthony Giddens (b) Amartya Sen (c) Ulrich Beck (d) Michel Foucault

Mains:

3. "Environmental problems in India are essentially social and political problems." Critically examine this statement with reference to at least two environmental movements. (GS1/GS3, 15 marks)

4. What is environmental justice? Using examples from India, examine how environmental harms are unequally distributed across social groups. (GS3, 10 marks)