This report remains one of the few chronicles of the ecological change taking place in the Indo-Gangetic plains - India's most densely populated area. Focussing on the recurrent problem of floods in this region and describes the nature of challenge posed by ecologically sound development and suggests new ways of looking at policies.

The idea that developing countries like India and China must share the blame for heating up the earth and destablising its climate, as espoused in a recent study published in the United States by the WRI in collaboration with the UN, is an excellent example of environmental colonialism. The report of the WRI is based less on science and more on politically motivated and mathematical jugglery.

In India, recent micro-experiments clearly show that environmental regeneration is possible if native wisdom and local decision-making is respected. Towards Green Villages sets out an environmental improvement strategy that is based on real life experiences of grassroots work in which people have improved their environment together with their economy. Three initial steps are essential. First, the decline in overall biomass production must be reversed. Second, economic growth and rural development programmes must focus on how to increase biomass in an equitable and sustainable manner.

This report analyses the little understood relationship between development and environment, the impact of environmental degradation on individual, social groups, tribals and nomads. In many ways, this voluntary report on the state of the environment in India is a unique document. It is the product of an enormous participatory effort. A range of voluntary agencies and individuals interested in environmental issues have contributed their best efforts towards making this report.