This course is an overview and analysis of the conceptual approaches to the environment. Environment-oriented institutions have a recent history in Independent India, and are shaped by interactions between customary law, western traditions, and global discourses. Examining environmental sustainability through the lens of inclusion and justice, we will look at how the environment as a sphere of governance in India has had to confront issues of gender, development and indigenous rights. We will discuss questions of rights and redistribution of natural resources in terms of institutional and community governance and social movements.