With reference to the Dule Bagdis, cultivating and fishing caste in West Bengal.

TERI Energy & Environment Data Diary and Yearbook (TEDDY) is an annual publication brought out by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) since 1986. It is the only comprehensive energy and environment yearbook in India that provides updated information on the energy supply sectors (coal and lignite, petroleum and natural gas, power, and renewable energy sources), energy demand sectors (agriculture, industry, transport, household), and local and global environment sectors (environment and climate change). The publication also provides a review of the government policies that have implications for the sectors of the Indian economy. In TEDDY, an account of India’s commercial energy balances is given, which provide comprehensive information on energy flows within different sectors of the economy and how they have been changing over time. These energy balances and conversion factors are a valuable ready reckoner for researchers, scholars, and organizations working in the energy sector. After the introductory chapters, for the ease of readers, TEDDY has been divided into sections on energy supply, energy demand, and local and global environment. Interactive graphs, figures, maps, and tables have been used throughout the chapters to explain facts, which make the book an interesting read. In addition, detailed tables at the end of each chapter represent statistical data on each of the above-mentioned sectors. The publication is accompanied by a complimentary CD containing full text. The publication has more than 15,000 readers across the globe and is often cited in international peer-reviewed journals and policy documents.

Arsenic is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic elements in the environment. This book brings together the current knowledge on arsenic contamination worldwide, reviewing the field, highlighting common themes and pointing to key areas needing future research. Contributions discuss methods for accurate identification and quantification of individual arsenic species in a range of environmental and biological matrices and give an overview of the environmental chemistry of arsenic. Next, chapters deal with the dynamics of arsenic in groundwater and aspects of arsenic in soils and plants, including plant uptake studies, effects on crop quality and yield, and the corresponding food chain and human health issues associated with these exposure pathways. These concerns are coupled with the challenge to develop efficient, cost effective risk management and remediation strategies: recent technological advances are described and assessed, including the use of adsorbants, photo-oxidation, bioremediation and electrokinetic remediation. The book concludes with eleven detailed regional perspectives of the extent and severity of arsenic contamination from around the world. It will be invaluable for arsenic researchers as well as environmental scientists and environmental chemists, toxicologists, medical scientists, and statutory authorities seeking an in-depth view of the issues surrounding this toxin.

Environment and Development: Views on Sustainability delves into the intricate relationship between human development and environmental conservation, explaining pathways towards achieving a sustainable future. Environment and development are two sides of the same coin, and sustainability needs to be addressed intimately. Through comprehensive analysis with case studies, this book investigates the complexities of balancing economic growth and ecological integrity. It highlights holistic approaches considering the social, economic, and environmental dimensions, addressing local and global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and appropriate policy needs. With the above focus, this book may serve as a vital resource for policymakers, researchers, academics, and common valued readers striving for a sustainable and equitable world. We gratefully acknowledge the support and funding provided by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the publication of this book.

Winner, 2014 Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences Despite Mumbai's position as India's financial, economic, and cultural capital, water is chronically unavailable for rich and poor alike. Mumbai's dry taps are puzzling, given that the city does not lack for either water or financial resources. In Pipe Politics, Contested Waters, Lisa Björkman shows how an elite dream to transform Mumbai into a "world class" business center has wreaked havoc on the city’s water pipes. In rich ethnographic detail, Pipe Politics explores how the everyday work of getting water animates and inhabits a penumbra of infrastructural activity—of business, brokerage, secondary markets, and sociopolitical networks—whose workings are reconfiguring and rescaling political authority in the city. Mumbai’s increasingly illegible and volatile hydrologies, Björkman argues, are lending infrastructures increasing political salience just as actual control over pipes and flows becomes contingent on dispersed and intimate assemblages of knowledge, power, and material authority. These new arenas of contestation reveal the illusory and precarious nature of the project to remake Mumbai in the image of Shanghai or Singapore and gesture instead toward the highly contested futures and democratic possibilities of the actually existing city.