Eco Poetic Imagination and Environmental Consciousness in Tishani Doshi's A God at the Door and Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods

The paper explores the ecopoetic sensibility and environmental awareness inherent in Tishani Doshi’s poetry collections A God at the Door (2021) and Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods (2017). Set in the modern context of the Anthropocene, an era marked by increasing ecological deterioration, climatic emergency, and species endangerment—Doshi's art provides a poetic intervention that highlights both the resilience and vulnerability of the natural environment. By closely examining a few chosen poems, this research paper looks at how Doshi uses the lyrical style to express the connections between planetary pain, human complicity, and environmental injustice. Doshi’s poetry portrays nature not only as a passive backdrop but as a dynamic entity, capable of both resistance and resilience. Her vocabulary, which alternates between being personal, eerie, and respectful, betrays a profound ecological consciousness that goes beyond sentimental nature writing. Her verses challenge the reader to confront the ramifications of human exploitation, the colonial legacies of ecological cruelty, and the muted anguish of disadvantaged ecosystems. This dissertation contends that Doshi's oeuvre presents a unique ecopoetic perspective that interweaves the personal with the global, examining the reflection of environmental degradation in gendered bodies, cultural obliterations, and existential concerns. The paper incorporates theoretical frameworks from ecocriticism, namely Vandana Shiva’s ecofeminism and Rob Nixon’s notion of slow violence, to examine Doshi’s poetic depictions of ecological mourning, environmental resilience, and the ethical imperative for planetary kinship. Through the exploration of desert landscapes, oceanic vistas, decay, and fauna, Doshi formulates a poetic narrative of grief and resilience that challenges the commercialisation of nature while honouring its diversity and sacred unpredictability. Her lyrical landscapes serve as transitional spaces where human and non-human elements converge, questioning anthropocentric perspectives and encouraging a redefinition of belonging in a threatened planet. This paper will enhance the field of South Asian ecopoetry by establishing Tishani Doshi as a pivotal voice in expressing decolonial environmental awareness. Through her lyrical re-enchantment of the planet, Doshi urges readers to heed the subtle violences of ecological degradation and to envision, despite the bleakness, avenues for ecological restoration and creative defiance.