The Great Nicobar Project: Growth, Consent and the Cost of Change

As early as in 1968, M.S. Swaminathan—popularly known as the Father of the Green Revolution—made an ominous speech in Varanasi. He warned that exploitative, high-yield agriculture could deplete groundwater, poison the soil and cause widespread cancer. In the decades since, each of his prophecies has unfortunately come true. While the Green Revolution fed a billion people, it has also destroyed Punjab’s ecology and health in all the ways Swaminathan feared.