Environmental Security, Land Restoration, and the Military: A Case Study of the Ecological Task Forces in India

Land restoration and its military dimensions, as part of the environmental security discourse, have not received as much attention as they should in mainstream environmental security studies and policy discussions. This section attempts to fill this crucial gap by providing insight into the relationships between these concepts using theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. The successes achieved by the Ecological Task Forces (ETFs) in land restoration in India, particularly the Bhatti mining area of Delhi, are used as case studies to elucidate the role of the armed forces in environmental security, commonly not considered to be a security issue. The text argues that there is a dire need to incorporate environmental security (of which land restoration forms an integral part) within military strategy and, as a corollary, that the military should become a pivotal element of the nation's environmental security policy.