By Swati Thapa In India, the majority of the population resides in rural areas, and the concept of development is often associated with urbanization. However, in environmentalist Ravi Chopra’s mind, rural development must be intricately tied to an area’s natural resources. “In the rural areas, the lives of people depend very critically on their immediate surroundings,” Chopra says. Families get their water from a nearby well or pond, farmers get fertilizer from animal dung, villagers get firewood from nearby forests. “So if you change anything in the rural environment, you affect the lives of …