Representing Crisis: The Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation and the Project of Development in Post-Rana Nepal

Erik Eckholm is attributed with having popularized a theory of environmental crisis in the Nepal Himalaya. In his treatise Losing Ground (1976), he links population growth to contemporary upland deforestation and soil erosion, which are presumed to cause downstream flooding and silting. Since the 1980s, this theory has come under intense criticism on empirical, theoretical and ideological grounds, although it remains a sacred cow in the popular press. A historiography of the theory reveals that representations of and discourses on the nature and extent of environmental degradation have been an important dimension of three distinct aid regimes that shaped the post-World War II development project in Nepal. As such, within specific historical and institutional constellations, some conclusions have seemed more tenable than others, and certain interventions have become more legitimate. Moreover, the production of environmental interventions is intimately connected to the production of environmental knowledge, both of which are intrinsically bound up with power relations. Therefore, the facts about environmental deterioration have become subordinate to the broader debates on the politics of resource use and sustainable development.