Gender, forests, exclusion and degradation

Environmental change is never experienced equally: who collects fuelwood, who owns forest land, who is displaced by a dam and who gets clean water are questions of gender, caste, tribe and class. In many Indian villages women walk further for fuel and water as forests degrade, while forest laws and conservation projects have historically treated adivasi residents as encroachers. This chapter traces gender and environment, forest policy, adivasi exclusion, ecological degradation and migration, displacement and rehabilitation, and water and social exclusion.