Department of Environmental Studies

Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014.&nbsp;It is guided by an academic council of academics and scholars from around the world. The council sets the university&#39;s academic standard, advising on matters of curriculum, faculty hiring and research.&nbsp;

Ashoka University offers a full-time 3 (+ 1) year undergraduate programme. The University comprises of&nbsp;2500 plus students, with a mix of both national and international students.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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Ashoka University

In the context of marine species declines in data-limited regions, local ecological knowledge (LEK) is a valuable source of information on species ecology and historical trends. LEK can also help understand how threatened species exist within a local culture, in terms of their uses and values, and reveal attitudes towards their conservation. Rhino rays (guitarfish and wedgefish) are highly threatened by overfishing with most species critically endangered, yet poorly studied in countries like India that fish them the most. We drew on LEK to understand the socio-ecological status of rhino rays in Goa, on the west coast of India. We investigated their habitat use and seasonality, interaction with fisheries, socio-economic uses and relational values. We also explored attitudes of fishers towards rhino rays and their conservation. A combination of semistructured interviews and key informant interviews (88 in total) was conducted with fishers at multiple sites. Local knowledge suggests that nearshore habitats around river mouths form important nursery grounds for some rhino rays, and provided insights on their seasonality and breeding. Rhino rays appeared to be targeted historically but are entirely bycaught at present, with highest catches in gillnets and in the South Goa district, during September and October. LEK indicated that taxa like sawfish (Pristis spp.) and wedgefish (Rhynchobatus spp.) have severely declined or disappeared from this region. We coded different relational values, from recreation (rhino rays are consumed and enjoyed with alcohol) to symbolic values (rhino rays are considered lucky). All key informants expressed positive attitudes towards rhino ray conservation and stated that a ban on landing these species would have little to no impact on fisher earnings. The usefulness of LEK suggests it should be brought into the scientific mainstream to support development of more equitable and socially appropriate management plans. Fostering relational values can reinforce fishers' positive attitudes, thereby enhancing rhino ray conservation. Their low commercial value and potentially high post-capture survival suggest that using norm-based approaches to promote live release may be successful. Further research on rhino ray ecology and human dimensions can support the development of appropriate conservation interventions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. © 2023 The Authors. People and Nature published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.

World University root node

People and Nature

Drawing on local knowledge and attitudes for the conservation of critically endangered rhino rays in Goa, India

Ecological restoration is crucial to mitigate climate change and conserve biodiversity, and accurately monitoring responses to restoration is imperative to guide current and future efforts. This study examines the impact of ecological restoration of a tropical dry forest in Central India. Here, the state forest department and a nongovernmental organization work with local communities to remove an invasive shrub, Lantana camara, in the forest, to assist natural regeneration, primarily for the purpose of improving access to forest resources for forest-dependent people. We used acoustic technology to examine the bird community composition and the acoustic space used (ASU) across comparable restored, unrestored (with L. camara), and naturally low L. camara density (LLD) sites. We found no significant difference in the cumulative number of bird species detected between the site types (median in restored and LLD = 38, unrestored = 41). We found a significant difference in bird community composition across sites (r2 = 0.049, p ≤ 0.001). ASU differs between site types (r2 = 0.023, p ≤ 0.10), with restored sites positively associated with ASU compared to unrestored and LLD sites, which could represent a temporary increase in ASU as animal communities are reorganized after the complete removal of L. camara. Our results suggest that small-scale restoration efforts that aim to help meet livelihood needs have the potential to contribute to ecological goals in this landscape. However, it is necessary to continue to monitor the regeneration trajectory in restored sites and the possible changes in the ASU. © 2023 The Authors. Restoration Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Ecological Restoration.

Restoration Ecology

Listening for change: quantifying the impact of ecological restoration on soundscapes in a tropical dry forest

&nbsp;This book presents a fascinating, ethnographic account of the challenges faced by communities living in Majuli, India, one of the largest river islands in the world, which has experienced immense socio-environmental transformations over the years, processes that are emblematic of the Brahmaputra Valley as a whole.Written in an engaging style, full of the author's insider perspectives, this insightful volume explores the processes of flooding and riverbank erosion in Majuli, including re-configuration of the island’s geographies, loss of local livelihoods, and large-scale displacement of the population. The book begins with an examination of the physical geography of Majuli and its ecological complexities, leading to discussion on the role of the state in water governance and hazard management, as well as popular resistance by the rural communities on the island. The book focuses on livelihoods as a way of offering economic context to living in challenging environmental conditions and examines the interactions between the state and a whole host of non-state actors, and the everyday, arbitrary functioning of the bureaucracy in a hazardscape.This volume is an invaluable resource for scholars interested in political ecology of hazards and vulnerability, water and hydraulic infrastructure, rural livelihoods and agrarian questions, state theorizations, island studies, and resistance and social movements, as well as those with an interest in northeast India more generally across various disciplines.

Slow Disaster

Slow Disaster : political ecology of hazards and everyday life in the Brahmaputra valley, Assam

This paper examines the unintended consequences of a policy aimed at improving the groundwater level on crop residue burning in India. The Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 implemented in two Indian states bans the transplantation of paddy before mid-June to preserve groundwater. Theoretically, this leaves a short window of time for clearing the field before the next crop and thus increases the likelihood of farmers adopting time-saving methods like crop residue burning. Using a difference-in-difference framework we find that the ban results in both delay and an increase in crop residue burning in the winter months.

Department of Economics

Economics Letters

Unintended consequences of Indian groundwater preservation law on crop residue burning

Sacred groves are widely recognised for their religious, cultural, and ecological value. They are an intrinsic part of traditional and indigenous practices of forest governance. However, the contemporary sacred forest system is not an autonomous world. Its sociopolitical landscape is not confined only to the village either. Based on extensive fieldwork in Jharkhand, this paper argues that sacred groves have evolved to be dynamic spaces of multilevel institutional interactions and contestations. Their conservation is contingent on the intersectional dynamics of indigenous, state, and institutional processes. Classical approaches of sacrality of the nature and forms of forest worship need to be combined with the concerns of the local environment, democracy, gender, caste, conservation, and culture.&nbsp;

Economic and Political Weekly

Governing Sacred Groves Religion, State, and Institutions in Indigenous Jharkhand

Local ecological knowledge provides novel, detailed and context-specific information about human and non-human use of marine ecosystems, therefore incorporating this knowledge into marine conservation planning is crucial. Participatory mapping offers an opportunity to include local knowledge in spatial planning for natural resource management. However, local knowledge presents certain challenges in the form of data inconsistencies, fuzziness and inability to disaggregate different types and formats of knowledge. Using the case of fisheries in southern Maharashtra state, India, I demonstrate how local ecological knowledge may be used to improve the understanding of data-poor fisheries. In the context of fisheries that are globally recognised as lacking management, I examine how local ecological and spatial knowledge about species and fishing practices can be used to fill fine-scale management gaps that do not account for context-specific habitat use. I also explore how fishers'spatial knowledge is intertwined with other forms of local knowledge. The participatory mapping exercise demonstrates that although fishing communities do not profess to be interested in threatened marine species conservation, their spatial and customary fishing practices potentially align with conservation goals. Clear synergies between livelihoods and marine conservation emerge when using local ecological knowledge along with participatory mapping. This research demonstrates that successful fisheries management and marine conservation planning is possible using existing social, cultural practices, translated through geographic tools.

Marine Policy

Incorporating local ecological knowledge aids participatory mapping for marine conservation and customary fishing management

Sacred Forests of Asia: Spiritual Ecology and the Politics of Nature Conservation

“Come Let Us All Play”: Sacred Groves, Sarna, and “Green” Politics in Jharkhand, India

This essay introduces and invites contributions to a new Journal of Peasant Studies Forum on ‘climate change and critical agrarian studies'. Climate change is inextricably entwined with contemporary capitalism, but how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world requires deeper analysis. In particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change is a vital focus for both thinking and action. In this essay, we make the connections between climate change and critical agrarian studies and identify competing, although overlapping, narratives. These narratives frame climate change debates and the way that the dynamics of climate change shape and are shaped by the rural world, whether through state policies, international governance, corporate influence, or agrarian struggles. We use a simple framework to examine different logics and strategies for anti-capitalist struggles that might connect climate change and agrarian mobilisations. We conclude with some overall reflections and suggestions for broad, guiding questions for future inquiry as part of the JPS Forum.

Fulltext

Journal of Peasant Studies

Climate change and agrarian struggles: an invitation to contribute to a JPS Forum

With global biodiversity currently facing unprecedented losses, it is critical that resources are allocated and used effectively to mitigate these threats, especially in resource-limited tropical countries of the global south. Chondrichthyans (sharks, rays and chimaeras) are particularly threatened by overexploitation, with India being amongst the top fishing nations for these species and a priority region for their conservation. We conducted a scoping review of chondrichthyan literature in India to assess the relevance of this research to the conservation of these threatened species. Between March and April 2021, we searched for peer reviewed and grey literature across national and international databases and found 482 chondrichthyan publications. While the number of publications exponentially increased with time, the literature is dominated by short-term fisheries studies, biological records and observations, with less than 10% of studies addressing socio-economic and management themes. Research was biased towards specific states, particularly Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and towards charismatic species like the whale shark, leading to under-representation of potentially important regions and taxa. Overall, our study found low relevance and applicability of India's research literature to chondrichthyan conservation. There is a need for more directed and applied research explicitly aimed at informing conservation. We highlight specific data gaps, such as the need for improved understanding of the socio-economic aspects of chondrichthyan fisheries, species risk assessments at the regional level, data on critical habitats, and the evaluation of existing policies. Addressing these gaps can help ensure that effort is allocated to the regions, species and topics that need it the most, for improved conservation outcomes. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

Ocean \& Coastal Management

Shark and ray research in India has low relevance to their conservation

Caste and race, Dalits and Black people, and the common ground between them have been analyzed in many areas, but their conjunction in the environmental fi eld has been neglected. Th is article locates Dalit ecologies by examining the close connection between caste and nature. Drawing from a plural framework of environmental justice and histories of environmental struggles among African Americans, it focuses on historical and contemporary ecological struggles of Dalits. It contemplates how their initial articulations under the rubric of civil rights developed into signifi cant struggles over issues of Dalit access, ownership, rights, and partnership regarding natural resources, where themes of environmental and social justice appeared at the forefront. Th e intersections between Dalit and Black ecologies, the rich legacies of Black Panthers and Dalit Panthers, and their overlaps in environmental struggles open for us a new historical archive, where Dalit and Black power can talk to each other in the environmental present.