The Indian military and environmental affairs: an analysis through the lens of military change

ABSTRACT

In India, issues related to environmental governance have not been aligned to the military’s objectives except in a few cases. Since environmental change has not been recognised as a critical 'security' issue yet in India, there is a reluctance on the part of the security establishment, including the military, to deal with it on an urgent basis. The question of why the armed forces should be trained to undertake environmental activities when their primary duty is to defend the country against external aggression assumes significance as it is largely believed that if they are trained for the former, their primary functions could suffer and territorial integrity of the nation could be threatened. Other impediments to institutionalisation include the complex relations between the civil and military establishments; constitutional and legal status of the Indian armed forces that is not uniformly enshrined or recognised; and their societal status that still comes under constant scrutiny, leading to a wedge between the military and civilian domains. In this context, the article attempts to identify the doctrinal and policy dimensions of the Indian military’s role in environmental affairs as well as the factors that influence formal institutionalisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian military
• military change
• environmental security
• civil military relations
• military doctrine

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) for providing T. M. A. Pai Scholarship to conduct research on this study as well as Dr. Nanda Kishor, Associate Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, MAHE for supervising it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Indian Constitution can be found at https://www.india.gov.in/sites/upload_files/npi/files/coi_part_full.pdf.

2 The details of this project were obtained in response to a request sent to Director General, Project Seabird (Karwar), New Delhi on 11 November 2016.

3 Information gathered through review of several reports and interviews with Kent Butts, former Distinguished Fellow and Full Professor of Political Military Strategy; Director, National Security Issues Group, Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College, Carlisle (on 11 March 2013).

4 These documents are available at: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a276995.pdf and http://infohouse.p2ric.org/ref/23/22931.pdf.

5 More information about these networks can be found at http://gmaccc.org/ and https://imccs.org/.

6 Information gathered through interviews with serving and former military officers of the Indian armed forces.

7 At the time of this article's submission, India had not instituted the position of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). However, on 1 January 2020, General Bipin Rawat took charge as India's first CDS. The CDS is also in charge of the newly created Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under the MoD, consisting of both military personnel and bureaucrats.

8 Securitisation here refers to the recognition of environmental change as a critical security concern through formally institutionalised policies such as security strategies or acknowledgment by institutions such as the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB).

9 Views gathered through interviews with former military officials in Centre for Law and Warfare Studies (CLAWS) and United Services Institute (USI), New Delhi.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dhanasree Jayaram

Dhanasree Jayaram is Assistant Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations and Co-Coordinator, Centre for Climate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. She is also Research Fellow, Earth System Governance Project and Project Associate, Manipal Advanced Research Group (MARG).