Budhaditya Das

Budhaditya is an environmental social scientist working on questions of land, labour and nature in central India. He works with qualitative and archival research methods to understand the past and present of human-environment relations in rural and forest landscapes. His research is guided by the desire to understand power in different contexts and contribute towards justice and sustainability in society.

Before joining Azim Premji University, Budhaditya taught at the School of Human Ecology, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi from 2017 to 2026. He taught courses on environmental history, environmental law, policy and governance, gender and environment, and social impact assessment to MA and PhD students. He was also in charge of the Social Impact Assessment Unit and carried out social impact assessment studies for the Government of NCT of Delhi for infrastructure projects involving land acquisition. He has taught previously at the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi from 2011 to 2013.

Budhaditya obtained his doctoral degree from Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (2016), MA (2008) and MPhil (2011) degrees from the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi. His doctoral research focused on the social and ecological changes in Satpura hills, Madhya Pradesh from the 19^th to the 21^st century, emphasising how Gond and Korku residents negotiated with the colonial and postcolonial state.

Publications

Research articles

Kabra, A., Das, B. & Bathla, C. (2023). Indigenous tree tenure in the times of charismatic carnivore conservation: Territoriality and property in the forests of central India, Political Geography, 101, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.102841
Das, B. (2022). Incarcerated imaginaries? Discourses of indigeneity and Adivasi transformations in the Satpura Hills, Central Indian Tribal Belt, Summerhill: IIAS Review, 23(1), 47 – 57. http://14.139.58.200/ojs/index.php/summerhill/article/view/1459
Kabra, A. & Das, B. (2022). Aye for the tiger: Hegemony, authority and volition in India’s regime of dispossession for conservation, Oxford Development Studies, 1 – 18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2022.2028134
Kabra, A. & Das, B. (2022). Using regulation to drive improvement in SIA, Impact Assessment Outlook Journal, 13, 18 – 19. https://www.iema.net/media/ejgbmf1g/j37444_iema_impact_assessment_outlook_journal_v13_v4.pdf.

Book chapters and reports

Kabra, A. & Das, B. (2026). Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement, in D. Cantor, M. Bradley, W. Ekezie, U. Pape and N. Baal (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Internal Displacement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 121 – 130. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198928805.003.0009
Das, B. (2025). Territorialization and Interlocking Environmentalities: Political Ecology of Forest Governance in Satpura Hills, 1990 – 2015, in Sudha Vasan (Ed.), Environmental Studies from India: Engaging with the Planetary Ecological Crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 163 – 182. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198984115.003.0012
Das, B. (2025). Natural Calamities, in M. Kumar (Ed.) Environmental Histories of the Indian Subcontinent. New Delhi: IGNOU, School of Social Sciences, 420 – 431. http://egyankosh.ac.in//handle/123456789/111065.
Kabra, A. & Das, B. (2019). Global or local safeguards? Social impact assessment insights from an urban Indian land acquisition, in Price, S. & Singer, J. (Eds.), Country Frameworks for Development, Displacement and Resettlement. London & NY: Routledge, 195 – 218. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351031820 – 12/global-local-safeguards-asmita-kabra-budhaditya-das
Saxena, S., Agnihotri, R. K., Das, B., Saxena, S., (2010). Girls’ Education in Madhya Pradesh: A Sociological Perspective. Bhopal: UNICEF & Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Book reviews and popular articles

Das, B., & Samarnath, N. (2025, July 12). Inclusions and exclusions in India’s forest governance. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/inclusions-and-exclusions-in-india-s-forest-governance-101752246580790.html
Das, B. (2023). Political Economy of Farming in India: Chronicling 50 Years of Scholarship and Transformation, Ecology, Economy and Society – the INSEE Journal, 6(2), 281 – 284. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.1017.
Das, B. (2023). Book review: Aditya Pratap Deo, Kings, Spirits and Memory in Central India: Enchanting the State, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 60(3), pp. 365 — 367. https://doi.org/10.1177/00194646231185997.
Das, B. (2021). Review of Tribals and Dalits in Orissa, by Biswamoy Pati, Seminar Magazine, (740), 102 – 103, https://www.indiaseminar.com/2021/740/740_books.htm
Das, B. (2020). The Other Voices from Odisha, The Telegraph, https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/reviewresisting-dispossession-the-odisha-story-by-ranjana-padhi-and-nigamananda-sadangi/cid/1799444
Das, B. (2018). Adivasi Identity and Livelihoods in Contemporary India, Economic and Political Weekly, 53(30), pp. 31 — 34, https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/30/bookreviews/adivasi-identity-and-livelihoods.html.
Das, B. (2016). Reversing the Gaze, Summerhill: IIAS Review, 22 (2), 55 – 56. http://14.139.58.199:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/5217.
Das, B. (2012). Resisting development, theorising resistance. Economic and Political Weekly, 47(33), 33 – 37. https://www.epw.in/journal/2012/33/book-reviews/resisting-development-theorising-resistance.html
Das, B. & Bora, M. (2009). The Lalgarh Movement, Economic and Political Weekly, XLIV, Nos. 26 & 27, pp. 15 — 17, https://www.epw.in/journal/2009/26 – 27/commentary/movement-lalgarh.html.