'EVEN WITHOUT CLIMATE CHANGE, India would be an environmental disaster: Guha

NT Bengaluru

“Air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, groundwater depletion, and biodiversity loss are not aesthetic concerns of the elite. They affect the health, livelihood, and employment opportunities of hundreds of millions of Indians, especially the poor and working class,” strongly noted author and historian Ramachandra Guha at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Saturday. In his talk, Environmentalism Before Climate Change, Guha argued that "full-stomach environmentalism" is the wrong approach.

He quoted renowned environmentalist Anil Agarwal: “It is more than just pretty trees and tigers. Affluent people in the city get to drive their fancy cars to a tiger reserve, shoot their first tiger, and come back feeling virtuous, all while living a resource-intensive life. Environmentalism is about livelihood and access.” Although climate change is widely acknowledged as a real issue and has shown its perils, Guha maintained that, even without climate change, India continues to suffer from natural calamities. “The growth model is devastating to nature. Climate change makes it worse.

The landslide in Wayanad was primarily caused by mining, real estate development, and deforestation. Climate change exacerbated the situation, and people suffered,” he stated. Guha outlined several steps to prioritise sustainability, including high-quality science, civic decency, and political decentralisation. Earlier in his talk, Guha credited the Chipko movement in the 1970s in the Himalayas against paper and plywood factories for inspiring his involvement in environmentalism.

“Had it not happened, I would not have become an environmental scholar,” he said, adding that his doctoral thesis and subsequent collaboration with Madhav Gadgil had significantly influenced the perception of India’s environmental movement. Guha also provided insights into his latest book, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism, where he discusses four individuals: polymath Rabindranath Tagore, author Mirabehn (who spent 20 years with Mahatma Gandhi during India’s freedom struggle), Scottish town planner Patrick Geddes, and photographer- naturalist M. Krishnan.