INDIA is a country of vast dimensions and presents a rare diversity of situations – people, flora, and fauna. Indian settlements, their psychocutural and biophysical conditions bear a strong imprint of their history. The historical past has a direct bearing on the current access to and control over its resources. Currently, abysmal levels of poverty, the near total break-down in the governance structures, an intense pressure to liberalize the access to her wealth and enable global interests, and the threatening pace of degradation of natural resources provide for a state of flux as she enters the new millennia. Read More