Semester research: The (de)evolution of Hindu environmental ethics
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
Pollution
I spent the semester tracing the evolution of Hindu orthodoxy and orthopraxy as it pertains to conservation, resource consumption and environmental stewardship from Vedic times to modern days through several key texts. Of course, the Hindu canon is much too large for any definitive conclusions, but these texts were selected by my professor as representative of the larger (vastly larger) body of texts.
You can read the full draft paper here. The academic abstract would go something like:
This paper examines Hinduism’s evolving attitudes toward nature and prescriptions of ethical environmental practice during the history of the religion. The paper critically considers eight texts that represent major trends in Hindu philosophy and practice, through the Vedic, classical, medieval and modern periods. In early times, Hindu society associated divinity and worship with natural processes. This was soon challenged by a renunciation theology that rejected the material/natural world entirely. Yet as polities and kingdoms swelled and expanded, social organization and material well-being became chief concerns of philosophers; the natural, wild world took on a negative connotation. Hinduism’s complex and changing cosmology further muddied the waters for questions of right action in environmental dilemmas. Nonetheless, there have been various counter trends with religious roots that may serve as a starting point for a Hindu-centric discussion of environmental protection.
Tags: american university, conservation, ecology, environmental ethics, gandhi, graduate school, hind swaraj, hinduism, india, laws of manu, mahabharata, puranas, religion, rig veda, satya pir, stewardship, upanishad, veda
Semester research: The effects of agriculture on India’s forest cover
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
One giant poster
I spent the semester conducting a statistical analysis to explain variation across Indian states in forest cover change from 2000 to 2009. After a preliminary literature review, looking at deforestation across the world, I compiled a database of more than 200 relevant variables. From that I computed and tested more than 100 variables (averages, percentage change, raw change, etc.) before narrowing my regression to several key indicators of an individual Indian state’s economic reliance on agriculture and the presence of alternative lifestyles and livelihoods.
This culminated in a series of univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses; I presented the research in a spring quantitative analysis symposium at American University. The poster is viewable here.
The ultimate conclusion from the research: Agricultural output value is strongly and negatively associated with forest expansion, coinciding with slow forest cover growth or even powering forest cover loss. In the alternative, a number other variables — all of which represent diversity in economic opportunity, livelihoods and lifestyles — have positive associations with forest cover growth. This all appears in several models of an OLS regression.
I’ve written a draft paper of the analysis that needs to be refined, edited and combined with an introduction, abstract and the results of my literature review — a summer project to be sure.
Anyone who wants some heavier reading can read that draft here. I’d welcome any and all feedback, even from complete strangers. (Forgive the writing. This was done in pieces and certainly is repetitive in phrasing.)
Tags: agriculture, american university, deforestation, fishing, forest cover change, forest survey india, india, multivariate regression, NREGA, ols regression, statistics, washington d.c.
Qutub’s towering past and my Dilli pigeons
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Kabutar!
The blog has been on a month-long hiatus, the result of my end-of-semester workload and then a rapid departure from D.C. We’re back in action, though probably less frequently, as I’m on the move for the summer, working and researching overseas.
The above picture dates to my trip to India in December-January. My favorite Delhi flocks over my favorite Delhi landmark.
Tags: delhi, history, india, kabutar, monument, photography, qutub minar
Big, bad barracuda
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Swarming at Dixon's Pinnacle
The last of my divemaster training series from the Andaman Islands. It’s about time, as I finished DM more than a year ago. *sniff*
Tags: andaman and nicobar, barracuda, divemaster training, dixon's pinnacle, fish, great barracuda, india, ocean, photography, scuba diving, wildlife
Reading about foreign investment in India and seeing Victoria’s Secret?
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under united states
WTF
I’m in the middle of a giant research project on India’s engagement with the international economy and what it means for sustainable development. So it’s particularly weird when, as I read news stories from the Times of India about foreign institutional investor outflows, I am treated to Victoria’s Secret ads.
I get that Web advertising senses where I am and delivers me local advertising. But VS ads seem a bit of stretch.
I suppose it does add humorous new meaning to portfolio investment’s derogatory moniker: hot money.
Tags: advertising, economics, foreign institutional investor, india, internet, newspaper, portfolio investment, victoria's secret, washington d.c., wictoria's secret
Heads up, barracudas
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Hundreds of them riding the current
Great barracuda, hovering above Dixon’s pinnacle…
Tags: andaman and nicobar, barracuda, divemaster training, dixon's pinnacle, fish, india, ocean, photography, scuba diving, wildlife
Clownfish giving me the stink-eye…
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Waiving in the current
A tiny clownfish stares down a giant diver.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, anemone, clownfish, divemaster training, dixon's pinnacle, india, ocean, photography, scuba diving, wildlife
Teaming with and fighting for life
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Soft coral at Dixon's Pinnacle
Soft coral at Dixon’s Pinnacle, though protected by its depth and temperature, remains under serious threat like much of the world’s coral as seas warm and acidify. This is a picture of what mankind may very well be pushing out of existence.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, coral, divemaster training, fish, india, ocean, photograph, reef, scuba diving, soft coral
Healthy coral in the deep blue
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Undisturbed...
I spent several days diving recently off Panama’s Isla Colon, where the water is cloudy with sediment, corals are sometimes covered in sand, mud and dirt and large schools of fish are hard to come by. This is likely due, at least in part, to the runoff from all the plantation activity in the surrounding country.
I can’t help but contrast that with photo, from Dixon’s Pinnacle in the Andamans, of remote, relatively untouched coral that is clean, free of disease, blue shifting from the depth and unbleached.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, coral, divemaster training, dixon's pinnacle, fish, india, ocean, photography, scuba diving, wildlife
Ohhhh… barracudaaaa
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
A large swarm of teeth
Majestic if also a bit unnerving in a school. I’ve seen the cloud of exploded fish after a hunting great barracuda went in for the kill. They could easily dispatch me if they were so inclined.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, barracuda, divemaster training, dixon's pinnacle, fish, india, ocean, photography, scuba diving
