Contemporary Environmental Concerns in Ancient Indian History (From Beginning till Mauryas)

Environmental concern has largely gained its momentum through the debates between the developed and the developing nations in the last two decades. The developed nations have been clever enough to shift the blame on the developing nations for consuming and putting a vast burden on natural resources because of their increasing populations. It has also been said against the developing nations that population pressure on natural resources and some policies in the developing nations are resulting in increasing carbon dioxide emissions and thus aggravating the green house effect. In this essay my emphasis would be to largely bring into focus how we as a nation have been concerned about our environment since the beginning of our civilization. It's not that now only through various international platforms like Kyoto protocol, Montreal protocol or other biodiversity preservation forums environment has taken a centre stage of discussion. We do have ample literary and archaeological evidences that clearly show that Indian people do had a history of preserving and conserving their natural resources. People from pre-history till the time the Mauryas is very apparently seen in taking care of their mother earth. Therefore, in my essay I have endeavoured to cite through some well known examples both from the archaeological and literary sources to present my point of view.