Tucked away in Sirsi forest in Karnataka, a man toils away to introduce fuel-efficient driers to reduce firewood usage in the Western Ghats through his organisation Prakruti. Not just this, for the last 15 years from March to May, Prakruti has been conducting honey festivals in which “beekeepers harvest honey with students and others, educating them about bees and their conservation,” says environmental activist Panduranga Hegde.
“Prakruti was formed in 1991. Not felling trees is fine, but forest dwellers need income, so we have put to use non-timber produce from forests, like making high quality baskets from natural fibres.” Prakruti also uses the rich traditional knowledge of the Siddi tribe that live in Sirsi forest.
Hegde is not new to forests. His conservation work goes back to the time when Sunderlal Bahuguna’s Chipko movement (where people hugged trees to prevent their felling) in the 70s. The movement produced a doppelganger in south India. It was the Appiko (‘to hug’ in Kannada) movement, pioneered by Hegde in 1983 in Sirsi. The movement resulted in Karnataka becoming the first Indian state to ban cutting trees in forests. In 2005, when the movement was celebrating its 25th year, Bahuguna told Hegde to henceforth celebrate Appiko’s anniversary as Sahyadri (Western Ghats) Day. Hegde welcomed the christening and went on to become a leading voice for Sahyadris.
In the 70s, Hegde gave up his accounting career for a post-graduate degree from the Delhi School of Social Work. He then joined Bahuguna’s Chipko movement. When Bahuguna asked Hegde about his future plans, he replied that he would be looking for a job. “You’ve come to the wrong place then. We want activists, spokesmen for the mute rivers, mountains, nature,” the towering Gandhian told Hegde.
That became the turning point in Hegde’s life where he embraced activism for good. Some years later, he organised the Appiko movement in his hometown Sirsi. “The movement involving grassroots action spread rapidly from Karnataka to other states within the Western Ghats, to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa. Thousands of hectares of tropical forests were saved, resulting in a change in forest policy,” says Hegde.
Seen as a watershed in environmental activism, Appiko is in its 32nd year. “All our demands were met; no green trees can be felled in the forest. But still we need to keep vigil, whether the trees ferried are live trees or dead ones. Appiko has diversified region-wise and issue-wise. This year we celebrated Sahyadri Day at Tiptur (Tumkur district),” says the 59-year-old.
That’s the good news. The downside is that all the gains made over the last three decades have faded away in the present context of development. “We fought for protection of the Western Ghats, one of the eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. For the first time in the history of environment in India that a whole ecosystem like the Ghats was looked at holistically, resulting in the Gagdil report, which said that 66 per cent forest cover is the minimum requirement for ecological security. Today, just 10 per cent of the original natural growth remains,” he says.
He is not pleased with the apathy towards forests. “Everybody is concerned about the melting of glaciers, but not about the change in the nature of the forest with mining and dam projects coming up everywhere,” says Hegde, who is the convener for ‘Save the Western Ghats’ campaign.
Hegde is also a farmer who roots for sustainable farming. “Sirsi’s spice gardens represent a rich diversified cropping pattern that goes back 1,500 years. It is one of the most sustainable farming systems in the world. We want to help farmers here with scientific inputs. From pepper queen, Sirsi has become timber queen. We want to reverse that,” he says.
What awaits him now? “My main task is developing new activists,” says Hegde. Seems like Bahuguna’s counsel is for all time.
