Environment and Social Issues – NICKELED AND DIMED

Rivers, Rights, and Resistance: The Narmada Bachao Andolan and India’s Development Paradigm

By — Sumedha Abstract This paper critically examines the Narmada Valley Development Project, with particular focus on the Sardar Sarovar Dam, to assess its ecological impacts, social displacement, and the role of judicial intervention. Drawing on environmental assessments, tribunal reports, and court decisions, the study highlights extensive forest submergence, disruption of riverine ecosystems, and the…
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Natural Disasters: The Burden of Inequality Upon Relief Operations

By — Sumedha Abstract: Earthquakes are often described as natural disasters, yet their human consequences are profoundly shaped by social, economic, and political structures. This article undertakes a comparative case analysis of Japan’s 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and Afghanistan’s 2023 Herat earthquakes to examine how inequality determines disaster outcomes. Despite comparable seismic hazards, recovery trajectories diverged…
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CLIMATE TRANSITION- A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY OR AN UNEQUAL BURDEN?

By — Sumedha Abstract: Climate change, as a raging phenomenon accompanied by deteriorating infrastructure and living warrants change. Be it rampagnt floods in Punjab and Mumbai with drownig infrastucture and human toll or rising extremity of heatwaves in India, countries and the world together as a whole must take on this responsibility of protecting the…
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The Unfair Burden of Climate Change: How the Global South Pays for a Crisis It Didn’t Create

Abstract Climate change is a global issue, but the causes and consequences of this problem can be understood as extremely unequal. In this article, we will explore climate change in the Global South and how this region is disproportionately affected by climate change, despite its least contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. By relating climate…
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GUARANI-KAIOWÁ LAND RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION IN BRAZIL

By — Shreya Parameshwaran Abstract: Guarani-Kaiowá confront existential challenges due to agribusiness in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, especially in regard to land loss and the conversion of their tekoha to monocultures of soy, sugarcane, and cattle.Marcos Veron’s murder exemplifies “Kaiowcide”, violence, evictions, and the world’s highest youth suicide rates amid malnutrition on overcrowded reserves. …
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Trading the Sky: How Climate Governance Recycles Imperial Power

By – Siddarth Poola Abstract: Global climate governance is frequently framed as a cooperative, forward-looking project aimed at managing a shared planetary crisis. Yet beneath the language of sustainability, innovation, and market efficiency lies a set of arrangements that closely resemble older systems of domination. By tracing how environmental governance inherits colonial patterns of resource…
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The Environmental Exploitation of Congo and the Genocide It Fuelled

By – Siddarth Poola AbstractThe story of the Democratic Republic of Congo is rarely discussed, but it is a tale as old as colonial times. One that lets the real culprits off the hook. This article will talk about how the violence in the Congo has been manufactured and amplified by an extractive global political…
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Ladakh’s Fight: Autonomy, Ecology, and Indigenous Rights

By — Varsha M Abstract: The separation of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 was initially welcomed by the local people. However, Ladakh’s indigenous majority population was left without any significant legislative authority and essential ecological protections, leaving its fragile Himalayan ecosystem vulnerable to the escalations in unsustainable tourism, militarisation, and climate change. The…
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Why “Natural” Disasters in India Are Increasingly Man-Made

By – Varsha M Introduction In the past month, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana have faced severe flooding after the heavy monsoon rains drove the Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, and Ghaggar rivers to overflow. As a result, over 1,900 villages were submerged, nearly half a million acres of crops were destroyed, and atleast 48 lives were…
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E-Waste Recycling: The Hidden Cost of Our Digital Lives

By – Varsha M Abstract E-waste is now surpassing 62 million tonnes annually, and is often recognised as part of our circular economy. However, the reality of informal e-waste recycling shifts toxic burdens onto poorer communities in the Global South. Women and children are especially vulnerable to exposure to poisons like lead and mercury that…
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Thailand’s Draft Climate Change Act and the Future of its Luxury Hospitality Industry

By – Arpita Sondhi Abstract The luxury hospitality industry has long been celebrated for its blend of comfort, opulence, and first-rate services. However, it now confronts an ironic dilemma: how to sustain the quality of luxury while also addressing the urgent call for sustainability. This tension challenges the industry to meet the expectations for high-end…
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GUARDIANS OF THE FOREST, BEARERS OF THE SCARS

By – Akshita Abstract: This piece delves deep into the world of Adivasi displacement, a crisis they endure in silence, hidden from the illusion of normalcy we have carved out for ourselves. This article examines how those who have become the fierce protectors of the forest are not only pushed out from their homeland by…
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