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The Importance Of Ecocriticism

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Ecocide is the most predominant concern of ecocritics. It forms a major concern of ecocriticism that brings forth the ecological destruction caused by the human world to nature and human beings alike. Ecocriticism plays an important role in the study of human association with nature. Cheryll Glotfelty, one of the pioneers of Ecocriticism defines Ecocriticism as, “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (xviii). Glen A. Love a major ecocritic identifies various modes of ecological disaster that take place in the physical environment. Love in Practical Ecocriticism maintains:
The disquieting fact is that we have grown inured to the bad news of human and natural disasters. . . .Actual instances of radiation poisoning, chemical or germ warfare, all rendered more threatening by the rise of terrorism. Industrial accidents like that in Bhopal, India, where the death toll lies between 20,000 and 30,000. Destruction of the planet’s protective ozone layer. The overcutting of the world’s remaining great forests. An accelerating rate of extinction of plants and animals, estimated at 74 species per day and 27,000 each year. The critical loss of arable land and groundwater through desertification, contamination, and the spread of human settlement. Overfishing and toxic poisoning of the world’s oceans. (14-15)
The environmental devastation consequent upon the colonization involving social and cultural transformations has altered representations of

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