Inventing Global Ecology: Tracking the Biodiversity Ideal in India 1945-1997

This book is many things in one: the story of an American researcher's experiences in India and his country; a thoroughly researched and documented study of the policies, prospects, and pragmatics of ecological and ethical decisions that ought to determine our future. It casts the US in roles seldom seen - as partner an proprietor of global environmental projects. The book carries amply relevant and analytical data besides a fairly detailed chapter on an Indo-US initiative that has borne excellent results - the special relationship in human and scientific terms that developed through the 1950s and 60s between Dillon Ripley (of the Smithsonian Institution) and Salim Ali (of the Bombay Natural History Society).