Environmental Pollution and Environmental Injustices in India
Dr. Jayajit Chakraborty and Dr. Pratyusha Basu are conducting collaborative research on social inequalities in the distribution of environmental hazards and pollution in India. This work has utilized data on air pollution, industrial hazardous waste generation, major accident hazard units, urban heat islands, and greenspaces, and linked these to Census of India variables on social and economic disadvantage pertinent to India, including caste (SC) and tribal (ST) status, literacy, and housing conditions. Research on environmental injustices in India has usually focused on social struggles in rural areas (e.g. Chipko and Narmada movements) or on extreme pollution events (e.g. 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy), and the study of chronic exposure to air pollution, industrial hazards, and urban heat thus expands the scope of environmental injustice analyses in India. This research has resulted in the following publications:
- Chakraborty J, and Basu P, 2022 Environmental Justice and Hazards: Case Studies from the US and India. In McGee TK and Penning-Rowsell EC (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Environmental Hazards and Society. Routledge: London.
- Basu P, and Chakraborty J, 2021. Hazardous Industries and Distributive Environmental Injustice in Ahmedabad, India. Asian Geographer, DOI: 10.1080/10225706.2021.1930078.
- Mitchell, B, Chakraborty J, and Basu P, 2021. Social Inequities in Urban Heat and Greenspace: Analyzing Climate Justice in Delhi, India. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 400. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18094800.
- Chakraborty J, and Basu P, 2021. Air Quality and Environmental Injustice in India: Connecting Particulate Pollution to Social Disadvantages. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), 301. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18010304.
- Chakraborty J, and Basu P. 2019. Linking Industrial Hazards and Social Inequalities: Environmental Injustice in Gujarat, India. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, 42; DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16010042.
- Basu P, and Chakraborty J. 2016. Environmental Justice Implications of Industrial Hazardous Waste Generation in India: A National Scale Analysis. Environmental Research Letters 11, 125001. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/125001.
- Basu, P. 2018. Environmental Justice in South and Southeast Asia: Inequalities and Struggles in Rural and Urban Contexts, In Holifield R, Chakraborty J, and Walker G, (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice. Routledge: New York; 603-614.