INDIA AT THE CROSSROADS IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL-POLICY

The debate on environmental protection within India shows striking parallels to the larger debate between North and South. An ecologically based causal paradigm, stressing overpopulation and non-sustainable resource use, is in conflict with a moral paradigm that attributes environmental degradation to the consumption patterns of the rich. Adherents of both causal models agree that sustainable development is the answer to India's environmental problems, but they interpret the concept in different ways. This article examines the legal, political, and bureaucratic means through which Indian environmental policy is made and asks why competing views of environment and development have been more successfully negotiated with respect to some issues than others.