Breaking down the question
The question asks you to discuss the various forms of environmental movements in India. The plural "forms" is the cue: the examiner wants a classification of these movements by their underlying concern and social base, illustrated with well-known cases, not a single narrative of one struggle.
Environmental movements are collective mobilisations organised around the protection of nature and natural resources. In India they are distinctive because they are so often bound up with livelihood and survival, giving rise to what has been called the environmentalism of the poor. Your answer should sort the movements into types while bringing out this livelihood-centred character.
How to approach it
Begin with a one-line definition and the key insight that Indian environmentalism is largely rooted in livelihood rather than post-material sentiment. Then classify the movements — forest-based, anti-dam and displacement, anti-pollution and industrial-hazard, and those against destructive resource extraction — with a signature example for each. Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil's account of ecological conflict and Vandana Shiva's ecofeminism supply the theoretical frame.
Model answer
Environmental movements are organised collective actions aimed at protecting the environment and securing communities' access to natural resources. In India these movements are marked by their close link to livelihood and survival — what Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil describe as the environmentalism of the poor, in which ecology and the material needs of dependent communities are inseparable. They have taken several distinct forms.
Forest-based movements defend community rights over forests against commercial felling and state control. The Chipko movement in the Himalayan foothills, in which villagers embraced trees to prevent their felling, is the classic instance; the later Appiko movement in the Western Ghats carried the same logic southward. These struggles fused conservation with the subsistence rights of hill communities, and women were central to them, a feature Vandana Shiva reads through an ecofeminist lens.
Anti-dam and anti-displacement movements resist large development projects that submerge land and uproot communities. The Narmada Bachao Andolan, opposing large dams on the Narmada and championing the rights of displaced tribal and peasant families, is the outstanding example, dramatising the conflict between a certain model of development and the survival of the poor.
Anti-pollution and industrial-hazard movements arise against the contamination of air, water and land and against unsafe industry. Mobilisations following industrial disaster and against polluting factories and mines exemplify this form, foregrounding health and environmental justice.
Movements against destructive resource extraction contest mining, quarrying and the diversion of common lands, as tribal and forest-dwelling communities resist the loss of the resources on which they depend.
In sum, Indian environmental movements take forest-based, anti-dam, anti-pollution and anti-extraction forms, but share a common thread: the defence of nature is at once a defence of livelihood. This fusion of ecology and survival is what gives Indian environmentalism its distinctive character.
Examiner's perspective
For a 10-mark answer the examiner values a clear typology anchored in concrete cases — Chipko for forests, the Narmada Bachao Andolan for displacement — rather than a vague celebration of green activism. Naming distinct forms and matching each to an example demonstrates command.
The analytical edge comes from the environmentalism-of-the-poor argument of Guha and Gadgil, and a reference to Shiva's ecofeminism where women's participation is discussed. Note that Indian environmentalism is livelihood-centred rather than purely conservationist. Weak scripts list movements without classifying them; strong ones organise the material by form, keep it concise and use British spelling.