A Living and Breathing Story

With his green thumb and clear words, Madhav Gadgil has managed to pin the catastrophe of environmental degradation on the top of our collective consciousness. In his works, there is dread but also hope for what all we can achieve together; if only, we listen to the earth.

Scholar of the Earth- Madhav Gadgil; Source: Outlook India

History invokes the images of palaces long forgotten, battles fought and dusty grand narratives. We don’t really think of it being related to something that binds us all together, something that makes the present the way it is, something that is necessary for our existence- the environment.

In the year 1992, historian Ramachandra Guha published This Fissured Land, a path-breaking book that redefined Indian history. What made this book special was its other author, ecologist Madhav Gadgil. Together, these two scholars produced a brilliant work that rolled in Indian history, anthropology, resource use pattern and environmental studies into one.

This book isn’t the only time that Gadgil brought our attention to environmental issues, his entire life and academic acumen is dedicated to the cause.

Madhav was born on 24 May 1942 in Pune, amidst the Sahyadris. No wonder, the Western Ghats feature as the main point of his studies. A successful student with great academic skills, he made a leap from India to the US and landed at Harvard.

When we returned to India, he first joined the Agharkar Research Institute and then the Indian Institute of Science, which proved to be his foundation for success.

Gadgil rose to be its chairman and contributed greatly to the development of ecological studies as an academic field in the country. This rookie turned master established the Centre of Theoretical Studies and Centre for Ecological Studies.

After changing the landscape of academia, Madhav then used his skills to help form laws and policies directed towards protecting the environment. He even helped in establishing India’s first biosphere reserve in nature’s treasure trove Nilgiri.

If NCERT today has chapters that make little kids aware of their surroundings and turns us into kids who scold elders when they try to throw wrappers out from windows, he deserves credit for it.

For these impeccable feats, he was given the Padma Shri, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, and fellowship of the most prestigious institutions of the world.

It isn’t an easy task to make people realize the importance of a thing which they have been taking for granted. Madhav Gadgil is doing that - combining theory and praxis - one tree at a time.