Page 308 - EW September 2024

Books

Ecology A WALK UP THE HILL: LIVING of equitable distribution of
resources and sustainable
conservation WITH PEOPLE & NATURE livelihoods. It has made
Madhav Gadgil
him sceptical of bureau-
primer Penguin Random House cracy and reckless govern-
Rs.582 ment policies imposed on
Pages 424 people without consulta-
NE OF INDIA’S tion. Gadgil is critical of
pioneer ecologists, the “urban upper-class
Oauthor, academic culture of conservation-
and founder of the Centre have facilitated his entry This autobiography ists” that is utterly igno-
for Ecological Sciences, as a biology student at is not restricted rant of ground realities,
a research forum of the the blue-chip Harvard U, to environment short-sighted and geared
top-ranked (NIRF 2024) but he was critical of the degradation. It also towards commercialisation
Indian Institute of Sci- rigidness of the university addresses equitable in tandem with the powers
ence, Bangalore, Madhav syllabus and the imitative resources distribution that be. On the other hand,
Gadgil is invested with mould of research disserta- & sustainable he mingles with tribals and
a rare combination of a tions in India. He pursued livelihoods fisherfolk, farmers and
field researcher’s curiosity excellence and wanted herders, and communities
mixed with intuition and a to genuinely understand dependent upon a particu-
deep philosophical insight how centres of first-rate lecular biology. As a first, lar resource in their region.
into environmental issues. research in North Amer- he incorporated math- They have a larger stake
In this compelling ica and Europe applied ematical modelling in ecol- in long-term conservation
autobiography, Gadgil advanced technologies to ogy, experimented with and their voices need to be
shares vivid memories as scientific exploration. His ideas of genetic variability, heard and their knowl-
a young boy exploring the eagerness to acquire these developed the concepts edge of local ecology and
slopes of the Vetal Hills of skills and lessons and to of ecological niche and conservation should be
Pune with his father, learn- implement them in newly prudence. utilised, writes Gadgil.
ing to identify birds and independent India were In particular, the het- More than half-a-
becoming “passionately foremost in his mind when erogeneous environment century ago, the Minamata
interested in the diversity he and his wife decided to of the hills of the Western disaster in Japan, the Bho-
of the natural world, of return to India after being Ghats in India interested pal gas leak nearer home
the landscapes and the life awarded their research Gadgil who believed that and Rachael Carson’s
they supported”. degrees. indigenous tribal people Silent Spring made the
The importance of non- Post-independent India and their traditional world aware of the threat
institutionalised learning was confronted with a knowledge systems were posed to biodiversity by
through close interaction development dilemma and primary preservers of eco- soil degradation and water
with scholars and re- Gadgil soon became aware logical balance. He became pollution. The author pro-
searchers such as ornithol- of the environment and critical of white Europeans vides a trove of statistics
ogist Salim Ali and social development conundrum. and North Americans who to show how depleted bird
anthropologist Irawati As a student in Harvard, “discovered the charms populations and menacing
Karve, is highlighted in he was intrigued that ecol- of the wilderness… after monkey-infested areas are
this engaging memoir. His ogy courses were focused destroying it” and the all connected to man-made
father, Dhananjaya Ram- on living organisms and World Wildlife Fund (now ecological imbalance. The
chandra Gadgil’s guidance their natural environment, Worldwide Fund for Na- outcome of ecology dam-
and his compassionate, while neglecting the role ture) “for preaching Nature age is reckless ‘develop-
non-traditional mother and interference of human conservation to Asians and ment’ for the peasantry.
who overruled religion, beings in ecosystems. Africans”. “Political decision-makers
ritual and caste demarca- The complexities Yet this scholar-seer’s and the bureaucracy come
tions, remained a lifelong of homo sapiens as a concern about environ- from the same social strata
inspiration. significant constituent of ment degradation is as those who benefit from
Gadgil’s formal educa- ecosystems convinced him not restricted to forest their policies,” observes
tion at Fergusson College, that experimental research conservation and deplet- Gadgil. The displaced
Pune and the Institute of needed to be expanded ing biodiversity, it is also and disempowered suffer
Science in Mumbai may beyond conventional mo- about the human concern destroyed habitats without

308 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2024