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Abstract
This paper presents a detailed ecocritical reading of select works by R. K. Narayan, Mahashweta Devi, and Amitav Ghosh, analyzing how their narratives reveal the evolving relationship between humans and the natural world in Indian literature. R.K. Narayan’s novels (The Guide, Swami and Friends, The Man-Eater of Malgudi) explore nature as an intimate cultural presence, embedded in everyday rhythms. Devi’s Mother of 1084 and Breast Stories expose the social and political violence underlying environmental degradation, foregrounding how the exploitation of land parallels the exploitation of marginalized people. Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and The Ibis Trilogy extend ecological thinking to global scales, connecting colonial histories, oceanic environments, and contemporary climate challenges. Through detailed analysis grounded in deep ecology, ecofeminism, environmental justice, postcolonial ecocriticism, and anthropocene studies, the paper presents that these authors illuminate intertwined ecological, ethical, and political concerns. Their works collectively reveal that ecological crises arise not merely from environmental mismanagement but from deeper structures of inequality, historical violence, and global capitalism. In its extended form, this study demonstrates that Indian literature offers profound insights into ecological consciousness by portraying nature as intertwined with cultural ethics, social struggles, and planetary transformations.