Between 1960 and 1990, India developed the world’s second largest area of Eucalyptus cover. Today, however, multiple states have banned its planting and state forest departments even uproot mature trees from the roots and replant with native species. Meanwhile, in other countries, this natively Australian genus of trees is considered to be a benign part of the landscape and even of national identity.

How and why did India plant so much eucalyptus, and why did this U-turn occur? In approaching this question, it critiques certain established characterizations by scholars of expertise and the high modernist state, and “the environmentalism of the poor.” It sketches a history of economic development as a history of environmental (mis)management.

About the speaker

Aditya Balasubramanian is a Senior Lecturer in the School of History at the Australian National University.

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Image credit: Ragihalli State Forest, Karnataka, April 2024, photograph by Aditya Balasubramanian