The fast and furious route to riding roughshod over forests

Why read this story?

Editor's note: Twenty-eight states, eight union territories and the most pressing environmental conflict in each. Thirty-six is a weekly newsletter by our Chaos team on countless ecosystems in flux across India. You’re reading the second issue. I want to start this edition of 36 with a question. Do you remember some of the environment-related headlines that often popped up almost a decade ago? If not, let me quickly remind you about one of the most controversial articles, which is representative of the general tone and narrative of media coverage at the time. “Green Terror” screamed a headline on the cover of India Today magazine in October 2012, referring to the slow speed at which clearances were being granted by the environment ministry to industrial projects and, in the process, single-handedly slowing down India’s economic growth. Many other publications advanced this dubious claim without any corroborative evidence and, on most occasions, by relying on cherry-picked data and assertions by prominent businessmen. This narrative continued for a few more years. That was close to a decade ago, but the effects of that successful media-led …