Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Themes and Issues in the Environmental History of South Asia / David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha -- I. Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society in Mughal India / Chetan Singh -- II. Pastoralists in a Colonial World / Neeladri Bhattacharya -- III. Whose Trees? Forest Practices and Local Communities in Andhra, 1600-1922 / Atluri Murali -- IV. British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation in Colonial South India: A Case Study of South Canara District 1800-1920 / Jacques Pouchepadass -- V. Maps as Markers of Ecological Change: A Case Study of the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India / R. Prabhakar and Madhav Gadgil -- VI. Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris /David Hardiman -- VII. Models of the Hydraulic Environment: Colonial Irrigation, State Power and Community in the Indus Basin / David Gilmartin --VIII. The Environmental Costs of Irrigation in British India: Waterlogging, Salinity and Malaria / Elizabeth Whitcombe.

IX. Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries: Some Issues of Control, Access and Conservation in Colonial India / Peter Reeves -- X. The Conquest of Smoke: Legislation and Pollution in Colonial Calcutta / M.R. Anderson -- XI. The Resurgence of Community Forest Management in the Jungle Mahals of West Bengal / Mark Poffenberger.