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Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies, Ashoka University
Ph.D. Jawaharlal Nehru University
Asmita Kabra is an Associate Researcher at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi and former Professor and Dean of the School of Human Ecology at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi. Prior to that, she taught at the Department of Economics, Ramjas College, University of Delhi during 1995 to 2010. A development economist by training, her areas of interest include biodiversity conservation and rural livelihoods; involuntary displacement policy and practice; agrarian change and rural transformations; social impact assessment; and the political economy of natural resource governance. Her doctoral research in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi focused on the impact of conservation induced displacement on the livelihoods of the Sahariya Adivasi community in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh.
Dr. Kabra has published widely in reputed international journals like Development and Change, Political Geography, Oxford Development Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Biological Conservation, Forest Trees & Livelihoods, Development in Practice, and Land Use Policy. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Conservation & Society, and former Managing Editor of the journal Ecology, Economy and Society, established by the Indian Society for Ecological Economics. She served as a member of the Advisory Board of India Just Transition Centre. She founded and served as Principal Investigator for the Social Impact Assessment Unit of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. Since 1999, she has been the founding head of two NGOs working with forest-fringe rural communities of central India for education, sustainable livelihoods, soil and water conservation, health, and integrated rural development.
Journal Articles
Montgomery, Robert A., Asmita Kabra, Thembela Kepe, Stephen Garnett, and Roger Merino (2024). “Re-Centering Social Justice in Conservation Science: Progressive Policies, Methods, and Practices.” Biological Conservation 294: 110600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110600.
Mahalwal, Sonam, and Asmita Kabra (2023). “The Slow Violence of Fortress Conservation Creates Conditions for Socially Unjust ‘Voluntary’ Relocation.” Biological Conservation 286: 110264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110264.
Srivastwa, Amit Kumar, and Asmita Kabra. “Socio-Spatial Infrastructures: Drinking Water Supply and Formation of Unequal Socio-Technological Relations in Rural Southern Bihar” (2023), Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 6, no. 2: 205–36. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v6i2.990.
Milgroom, Jessica, Asmita Kabra and Brooke Wilmsen. “Saying No to development-forced displacement and resettlement: Myths and alternatives” (2023). CAWR Policy Brief. https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/agroecology-water-resilience/cawr-policy-briefs/
Kabra, Asmita, Budhaditya Das, and Chhavi Bathla (2023). “Indigenous Tree Tenure in the Times of Charismatic Carnivore Conservation: Territoriality and Property in the Forests of Central India.” Political Geography 101: 102841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.102841.
Mahalwal, Sonam, and Asmita Kabra (2023). “Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability Concerns in an Era of Climate Change: The Sahariya Adivasi and Salai Trees (Boswellia Serrata) in Central India.” Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 32, no. 1: 26–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2022.2164360.
Kabra, Asmita and Budhaditya Das (2022). Using regulation to drive improvement in SIA, Impact Assessment Outlook Journal, Volume 13, pp. 18-19. URL: https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/iema.net/documents/knowledge/policy/impact-assessment/ia-outlook/J37444_IEMA_Impact_Assessment_Outlook_Journal_V13_V4.pdf
Kabra, Asmita, and Budhaditya Das (2022). “Aye for the Tiger: Hegemony, Authority, and Volition in India’s Regime of Dispossession for Conservation.” Oxford Development Studies 50, no. 1: 44–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2022.2028134.
Price, Susanna, Warren A. Van Wicklin, Dolores Koenig, John Owen, Chris de Wet, and Asmita Kabra (2020). “Risk and Value in Benefit-Sharing with Displaced People: Looking Back 40 Years, Anticipating the Future.” Social Change 50, no. 3: 447–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049085720953409.
Kabra, Asmita (2019). “Caste in Stone? Exploring Caste and Class Dimensions of Conservation Displacement in Central India”. Journal of Contemporary Asia 50(5): 785-805. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1696877
Kabra Asmita (2019). Ecological Critiques of Exclusionary Conservation. Ecology, Economy and Society-the INSEE Journal 2: 9–26. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.51
Kabra, Asmita, & Sonam Mahalwal. (2018). “The Micropolitics of Dispossession and Resistance: Case Study of a Proposed Dam in Central India”. Development and Change, 50(6): 1509–1530 https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12447
Kabra, Asmita (2018). “Revisiting Canons and Dogmas in the Conservation-versus-Human Rights Debate”. Ecology, Economy and Society Vol.1, Issue 1: 84-87. https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i1.20
Kabra, Asmita (2018). “Displacement, resettlement, and livelihood restoration: safeguard standards in practice”. Development in Practice, 28(2): 269-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1418296
Kabra, Asmita (2016), “Assessing economic impacts of forced land acquisition and displacement: a qualitative rapid research framework”. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 34(1), 24–32. http://doi.org/10.1080/14615517.2015.1096037
Kabra, Asmita, and Sonam Mahalwal (2014). “Impact of Conservation-Induced Displacement on Host Community Livelihoods: Complicating the DIDR Narratives.” Land Use Policy 41 (November): 217–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.05.010.
Kabra, Asmita (2013). “Conservation-induced displacement: Anatomy of a win-win solution”. Social Change 43(4), 533-550. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0049085713502592.
Kabra, Asmita (2009). “Conservation-induced Displacement: A Comparative Study of two Indian Protected Areas”. Conservation and Society 7(4): 249-267. DOI: 10.4103/0972-4923.65172.
Kabra, Asmita (2006). “Wildlife Protection: Reintroduction and Relocation.” Economic and Political Weekly Vol 41, no. 14.
Kabra, Asmita (2003). “Displacement and Rehabilitation of an Adivasi Settlement: the case of Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh”. Economic and Political Weekly Vol.38, No.29, 3073-3078.
Book Chapters
Kabra, Asmita, and Budhaditya Das. 2026. “Development-Induced Displacement and Resettlement.” P. 0 in The Oxford Handbook of Internal Displacement, edited by D. Cantor, M. Bradley, W. Ekezie, U. Pape, and N. Baal. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198928805.003.0009
Kabra, Asmita. 2026. “Fortress Conservation of Charismatic Carnivores in a Political Forest of Central India.” P. 0 in Environmental Studies from India: Engaging with the Planetary Ecological Crisis, edited by S. Vasan. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198984115.003.0015.
Kabra, Asmita and Arnab Mukherji (2024). “Ensuring Equitable Livelihood Outcomes for Land-based Compensation in the Context of Heterogeneous Land Quality at the Relocation Site”. In Mathur, Hari Mohan (ed.) Good Practices in Resettlement: An Approach to Improving Development Outcomes, Lexington Books, Maryland.
Kabra A. & Das B. (2019). “Global or local safeguards? Social impact assessment insights from an urban Indian land acquisition”. In: Price S, Singer J, eds. Country Frameworks for Development Displacement and Resettlement: Reducing Risk, Building Resilience. Routledge.
Kabra, A. (2018). “Dilemmas of Conservation Displacement from Protected Areas”. In M. M. Cernea & J. Maldonado (Eds.), Challenging the Prevailing Paradigm of Displacement and Resettlement: Risks, Impoverishment, Legacies, Solutions. Routledge.
Kabra, A., & Drydyk, J. (2018). “Displacement”. In J. Drydyk & L. Keleher (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics (pp. 200–206). Taylor & Francis.
Kabra, Asmita (2007). “Displacement as a Conservation Tool: Lessons from Kuno wildlife sanctuary” (co-author Arpan Sharma). in Shahabuddin, Ghazala and Mahesh Rangarajan (eds.) Making Conservation Work. Permanent Black, New Delhi.
Kabra, Asmita (2006). “Wildlife Protection: Reintroduction and Relocation”. Economic and Political Weekly Vol.41 No.14.
Kabra, Asmita (2006). “Impact of Involuntary Displacement on a Tribal Community (A Case Study of the Sahariya Adivasi Displaced from Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh” in Mehta, Aasha Kapoor and Andrew Shepherd (eds.) Chronic Poverty and Development Policy in India: 197-221. New Delhi, Sage Publications.
Kabra, Asmita (2002). Environmental and Social Impact of Large Dams in India. Co-authors: Shekhar Singh, Raman Mehta, Vishaish Uppal, Bansuri Taneja and Prabhakar Rao) in Singh, Shekhar and Pranab Banerji (eds.) Large Dams in India: Environmental, Social and Economic Impacts. New Delhi, Indian Institute of Public Administration.
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