INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

It’s a Wonderful World

BY BITTU SAHGAL

I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself what a wonderful world. —Louis Armstrong (George Weiss/Bob Thiele)

Imbewu Program “Want to learn about Ishmail, the game ranger, led us through his South African managing waste in the city? forest as a priest might show us his temple. “Here you can Just look at the dung beetle. It see where a hyena rested a while. Look! In the droppings turns shit to life,” said Anish is a hoof of an impala. Walk silently and the forest will Andheria, naturalist with speak to you.” Sanctuary, a photographer, and Just before we reached the river, home of Nile croco- a passionate believer in kids. diles and hippos, the ever-smiling Isaac, also a game “Close your eyes. Allow ranger, a friend and guide, gently pointed to the ground: the Earth and its spirit to seep “Imbewu! The seed. See it sprout from the dung of the into you. You are safe and you hippo? And this is the ‘wait-a-while tree’ that has caught belong.” That was Noel de Sa, Bittu Sahgal speaking at the 8th World my shirt in its thorns.” mentor and guide to us all, Wilderness Congress, Alaska, USA. We rose early after sleeping out in the cold of the bush besides being the national at the Imbewu camp in the Kruger National Park, a facility coordinator for Kids for Tigers, the Sanctuary Tiger dedicated to providing previously disadvantaged African Programme, which encouraged 1 million Indian children children with wildlife experiences. With us on a daybreak to pause a while and contemplate their place in a world trail were four young Kids for Tigers’ ambassadors from still populated by tigers. : Prithvi from , Shruti from Chennai, Varsha from Earlier, at the Botanical Gardens in Pretoria the charis- Dehradun, and Nishant from . All under 13, they matic Murphy Morobe—ex-chair of SANPARK’S board, were like fresh blotting papers, sponges soaking up infor- chair of the 7th World Wilderness Congress (2001), and our mation, experiences, and purpose. Keeping them company host—welcomed the Indian kids to Africa, saying: “We are were some of the brightest young children on the planet bonded … this is the nation that shaped Mahatma Gandhi. who lived in Soweto and were part of the youth program very special to us and so are you young tiger ambas- christened Imbewu, founded by the Wilderness Foundation sadors. If you work together with these bright young (South Africa) and run in partnership with South African children of Africa, you will be able to save the wildlife of National Parks (SANPARKS). These children were the both our countries and the human cultures that have future of South Africa. They were the future of the world. evolved from our wildernesses.” He spoke with passion Ever so softly Nishant whispered to me: “When I walk about the Imbewu program and the hopes that the elders, in wild places I feel alive. It’s exactly what I want to do all including Nelson Mandela, had for young South Africa. my life.” All the young naturalists on whom my hopes and Imbewu … the seed. What a perfectly wonderful term those of hundreds of wildlife defenders are being pinned to describe everything I have strived to achieve all my life … echoed his feelings. to seed future generations with the love and respect for the

AUGUST 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 International Journal of Wilderness 39 effective means to counter a powerful foe—satyagraha, or nonviolent civil disobedience. He calculated, correctly, that the South African government of the day would be unable to respond to the power of peaceful resistance and got them to agree to repeal anti-Hindu discrimination. He returned to India in 1915 and joined the freedom movement. During World War I, Gandhi the tac- tician supported the British ... in the hope that this might help convince them to free India. But this was not to be. A retinue of broken promises and massacres saw hundreds of innocents butchered, forcing him to launch a The future of the world—young naturalists from both the Kids For Tigers (India) and Imbewu (South Africa) groups. Photo series of nonviolent protests against by Anish Andheria. British rule. Earth, vital to their survival and that of The Environmental Prophet A phenomenal motivator, millions of species, including the tiger. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was Gandhi was eventually able to weld a While an ignorant, arrogant genera- born 138 years ago, on October 2, disparate country together in joint tion of short-sighted adults stampeded 1869. Educated in India and London, purpose. He led India to freedom. over Earth’s fragile beauty, we had to he pursued a career at the bar, where When he died, the politicians of somehow protect it and change the acute shyness almost ruined his India’s government swore to uphold ambitions of those destined to inherit chances of success in the earliest his ideals. the planet. And we had to sow seeds of stages. By the time he was 30, he was That promise was soon forgotten. hope, which I did by gently reassuring well established in South Africa, but It is still forgotten. the children: “You are children of found it difficult to stomach the way In 1947 Mahatma Gandhi told Mother Nature. Like the cut on your colored people were being treated by that India should elbow or knee, she can magically heal the government of the day. In not chase the illusion of Western wounds inflicted on the Earth. The protest, he gave up his law practice “development” because such dreams turtles and crocodiles will purify your around 1900 to fight against the were built on the presumption that rivers. The elephants, rhinos, and biased legislation. Within five years, cheap resources to fuel material leopards will help your forests to he saw that the system could not be ambitions would come from other regenerate. Anemones and polyps will fought from within, so he opted out, countries. He pointed out that if all restore bleached corals to health. And gave up the Western way of life, and Indians were to aspire to such a the birds will cast fruit seeds all forsook material possessions to lead lifestyle, several planets would be around to re-green your lands. But, by example. needed to feed their demands. His naturally, if you keep worrying and He fought valiantly for the well- kernel of advice is even more relevant scraping the wounds, neither your being of his people in South Africa for today in a world on a self-destruct elbow, nor the Earth will be healed.” years, using the simplest and most mission: Stay independent. Keep your consumption and demands low. Ask Were Gandhi alive he would surely have pointed first if your plans will benefit the out that even more serious than the erosion of our poorest, weakest Indian before you implement them. Let the villages soils is the erosion of our value systems. determine their own destiny for they are the womb of India.

40 International Journal of Wilderness AUGUST 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 Unfortunately Prime Minister Nehru—though he loved Gandhi deeply—felt this was impractical. He, therefore, created a system that encouraged educated or well-con- nected Indians to step neatly into the British jackboot. The process of stripping India bare of its natural wealth, which the British had begun centuries ago, con- tinues apace, with rich and powerful urban Indians usurping the resources of the rural poor. Today, for instance, water for 15 million citizens in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, comes from distant forests, and the clamor to drown still more forest to feed Dr. Manimohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, with the children from Kids For Tigers, the Sanctuary Tiger insatiable demands rises. Our elec- Programme. The banner quotes an Indian saying: “The forest is the mother of the river.” tricity comes from dams built on the properties of villagers who were Intergenerational Colonization this. But if they go on deceiving us, never compensated for their lands or I am an Indian and proud to be one there will be such a tremendous houses. Mines and timber operation because I live in a land whose ances- upheaval that the golden history of eat into their forests from the tors respected the Earth. The vast our cherished freedom, won Himalaya to the Andaman. Our toxic majority of Indians still venerate the without shedding a drop of blood, wastes poison the aquifers that sup- Earth and its myriad life-forms. But will be tarnished … ply their wells. we have been infiltrated. Instead of Because their homes, forests, and exporting our Earth-loving attitudes, Had the lines been written yes- fields were systematically stolen or we continue to import false ambi- terday they could not more degraded, millions of Indians began tions broadcast from world bankers. accurately describe the betrayal of to stream into cities. Many still popu- And the agents of the destruction of tomorrow at the hands of the likes of late slums where they must take our subcontinent are the very politi- present-day leaders who are in denial difficult, underpaid jobs. The over- cians in whose hands Gandhi of climate change and are moving the crowding of urban India is a direct trustingly placed the mantle of free- planet closer to the precipice. result of the fracturing of rural India. dom. British colonial ambitions were It is all too obvious that the And the resultant pollution and envi- immoral. But what the leaders of teachings of Gandhi have been for- ronmental degradation robs both rich today are doing is far more immoral gotten in the land of Gandhi’s birth. and poor of the quality of life guaran- than that. They are colonizing the Decades after his death, the virus of teed by India’s Constitution. hopes, aspirations, and security of the self-interest contrives to destroy An environmental prophet, unborn. India’s fabled wealth that conquerors Gandhi was probably wasted on This is what Gandhi wrote soon and colonial forces were unable to India’s freedom. His teachings and his after India gained her independence, exhaust. leadership could have delivered us as he watched in horror how a dream To put it simply, India has from the environmental nemesis had gone sour: decided to sell its family jewels to toward which Homo sapiens seems so some of the most predatory financial resolutely headed. Were Gandhi alive I have a few letters describing forces in the world. Thus Orissa’s he would surely have pointed out some of the dishonest means water-stocked forests and turtle-pop- that even more serious than the ero- Congressmen are resorting to in ulated seas are hostage to iron ore sion of our soils is the erosion of our order to further their selfish interest companies, ’s pristine coast- value systems. ... I do not want to live to see all line is being pillaged by petroleum

AUGUST 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 International Journal of Wilderness 41 Reserve. He would have opposed the Those of us who value and are prepared to defend World Bank–funded Sardar Saroval Project, part of the infamous Narmada wildernesses, anywhere in the world, are Project that, like China’s Three Gorges confronted by crucial and complicated questions Dam, eventually plans to displace 1 that have not, thus far, been adequately addressed. million humans. I am not by any means a “Gandhian,”, because my lifestyle is interests, Andhra Pradesh’s thick Court judgments by dismantling the not nearly austere enough. But the forests are being mined for uranium, protective laws that prevent the pow- more I read his works, the more I ’s Western Ghats are under erful from trading in wilderness real become convinced that the “Father of assault by dam builders, Madhya estate for cash and votes. the Indian Nation” was not born to Pradesh’s tigers are being forced to deliver India from the yoke of the retreat before invading industrialists, If Tomorrow Comes British, but rather to deliver the Earth and fragile Himalayan glaciers, Today in India (and across the itself from foul human ambition. together with Earth ice everywhere, world), forests, estuaries, mangroves, He would surely have insisted are in advanced stages of melt. wetlands, grasslands, mountains, and that it should become the purpose of India has some of the finest envi- even deserts—ecosystems that all development to restore health to ronmental laws in the world. It is also should be jealously protected to our ravaged land, restore quality to a democracy. This is why the Supreme sequester carbon in the decades the water we drink, and productivity Court of India has consistently ahead—are being set upon by com- to our soils. But this miracle is upheld environmental appeals against mercial forces that have historically unlikely to unfold until the conse- the destruction of our forests, often snatched land from the poor and quences that nature delivers force us castigating the most powerful leaders unempowered (in whose name the to act to survive. in the country for their shortsighted lands have now been transferred). With our water and food security ambition. Such politicians have not Ironically, these were the very on the verge of collapse, we will ulti- seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, assets that Gandhi wished to save mately be coerced to turn away from but they epitomize the despair con- from the clutches of the British … for present industrial goals of develop- tained in the quote of Winston the security of the children of the ment. We will be forced to improve Churchill that Gore used to such Ganges. It saddens me to see how far generation and transmission capaci- telling advantage: “The era of procras- India has drifted from the teachings ties of existing power infrastructures, tination, of half-measures, of of Gandhi, who reminded us that “a rather than build new projects. We soothing, and baffling expedience of worthy heir always adds to the legacy will have to resurface roads, repair delays is coming to a close. In its that he receives.” culverts, and strengthen shoulders place, we are coming to a period of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi rather than build new highways. We consequences.” Had Indian politi- will have died in vain if we do not will have to reline canals and improve cians seen Gore’s film, they might wake to the realization that the ero- the condition of the catchment have realized that in an era of sion of our soils is a direct result of forests of existing dams before build- advanced climate change it was suici- the erosion of our value systems. ing new ones. And we will perforce dal to castrate India’s Forest “The demands of equality supersede move to alternate energy options (Conservation) Act, 1980, and its the letter of the law,” he chided the from our druglike dependence on Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, by British, when they attempted to take carbon fuels. passing the new and lethal the shelter behind one-sided legislation. The truth is such options make Scheduled Tribes and Other Would that he were alive to repeat good long-term economic sense as Traditional Forest Dwellers the advice for the benefit of those who well, so the sooner we start the long (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, continue to push to build nuclear climb back to environmental sanity 2006, which (ostensibly to benefit reactors right next to the the better. forest dwellers) is a thinly disguised Tiger Reserve, the Nagarjunasagar ploy of politicians to counter Supreme Tiger Reserve, and the Kanha Tiger Continued on page 48

42 International Journal of Wilderness AUGUST 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 starvation, and living off the land; (9) education and ethics; and (13) the reference book that covers diverse top- marine medicine regarding safety and wilderness environment and wilder- ics, problems, and situations that are survival, submersion incidents, emer- ness management and preservation. about health and medicine. If you only gency oxygen administration, and The book is for health care have one reference book on your shelf, diving medicine; (10) travel, environ- professionals, wilderness emergency in your emergency vehicle, or in your mental hazards, and disaster medical technicians, wilderness first respon- classroom, this is a must own, read, and information and risk management; ders, search-and-rescue workers, practice book that will save lives and (11) special knowledge on wilderness wilderness program leaders, field help you stay healthy while you and preparation, equipment, clothing, researchers, field scientists, backcoun- others enjoy nature on the wild side. navigation, and medical supplies; try recreationists, and international (12) special populations and consid- travelers using remote areas of the Reviewed by CHAD P. DAWSON, erations for children, women, elders, world. This is not a first aid manual for managing editor of IJW; email: cpdawson persons with special needs and dis- beginners; it is a serious, comprehen- @esf.edu. abilities, and wilderness medicine sive, and well-documented educational

Continued from IT’S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD, page 42

Those of us who value and are quately addressed. In which direction our heroes so that protectors, not prepared to defend wildernesses, any- does our development destiny lie? marauders, occupy our pedestals? where in the world, are confronted by How should we balance the needs of Trekking through the mountain- crucial and complicated questions people with the imperatives of pro- ous Western Ghats forests of Bhimgad that have not, thus far, been ade- tecting nature? How can we change in Karnataka, I paused to take in the wilderness vista before me. I was high up and thick forests stretched to the SPREAD horizon all around me. I had just vis- ited the only recorded site in the the word! world of the endangered Wroughton’s About your organization, product, or service. freetailed bat Otomops wroughtoni, and the walk back was hot and Advertise strenuous. A rushing crystal pool in the International Journal of Wilderness. beckoned, and in no time at all the The International Journal of Wilderness accepts display ads that are appropriate to cool waters had washed away dust, the wilderness topics and issues typically reported in the Journal and that would sweat, and tiredness. As I bathed, I be of interest to the readership of the Journal. The printed copy in an article must be drank the sweet water and thought to submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word file and any artwork or illustrations must be submitted in hard copy as a black and white image, or as a high resolu- myself how blessed we were. This was tion PDF. the land that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had fought to free from the Advertising Rates (Black & White) Contact: clutches of colonial rule. This was the Space Size Rate Chad P. Dawson land that had originally attracted con- Full Page 7 x 91/2 $800 Managing Editor International Journal of Wilderness querors from afar. This was the land I 1/2 Page 7 x 43/4 $450 SUNY College of was born to protect. IJW 1/4 Page 33/8 x 43/4 $300 Environmental Science and Forestry 320 Bray Hall • One Forestry Drive 1/6 Page 21/8 x 43/4 $200 Syracuse, NY 13210 BITTU SAHGAL is the editor of Sanctuary Telephone: 315-470-6567 Make check payable to Fax: 315-470-6535 magazine in India; contact: 145/146, International Journal of Wilderness [email protected] Pragati Industrial Estate, N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai—400 011.

48 International Journal of Wilderness AUGUST 2007 • VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2