The Centre for Science and Environment brings out a substantive report on the state of India’s environment every year. These reports have all been highly appreciated in the past, and have been used extensively as reference publications by those interested in the environment. These Citizens’ Reports take a detailed stock of issues, events, policies and practices related to environment in India. A nationwide research effort allows contemporary and authentic information to be compiled. But a Citizens’ Report is not a mere compendium. It is a hard analysis of how India’s natural resources are being managed. And how Indian citizens, whose lives depend on these resources, are faring.

State of India’s Environment
The First Citizens’ Report (1982)
This book received accolades worldwide in papers like Le Monde, Paris and magazines like The Economist, London. New Scientist of the UK did a cover story on it. It woke people across the world to the importance of protecting the environment in developing countries and various groups produced similar reportsin USA, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nigeria.

State of India’s Environment
The Second Citizen’s Report (1984-85)
This book had impressed the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, so much that he asked CSE to make a presentation on it to the Union Council of Ministers, and subsequently to all Parliamentary committees. No book has ever had such an impact in India. In fact, Business India has chosen it as one of the few books of the last 50 years of India’s Independence, which have made a difference. 

State of India’s Environment
The Third Citizens’ Report (1991)
This book kicked up a furious controversy on the role of deforestation in floods in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. It still remains one of the few books on the changing ecology of the highly populated and intensely poor, lower Indo-Gangetic Plains, extending from eastern Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal.

State of India’s Environment:
Fourth Citizen’s Report
Dying Wisdom: Rise, fall and potential of India’s traditional water harvesting system (1997)
One of the biggest efforts in India in recent decades to document indigenous wisdom in water management – was released at 11 different places in India to take the message far and wide – from Leh in Ladakh to Kochi in Kerala. In Delhi, the book was released by Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.
Click here for detail information on Dying Wisdom.

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