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 characterisations 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. 
 

Aditya Balasubramanian is a Senior Lecturer in History. His research focuses on various aspects of the history of political economy and environment in modern South Asia.