The green spirit

DR. ANIL Agarwal, the-science-correspondent-turned- environmentalist and chairperson of the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, works with a passion rare today. The UNEP Global 500 Award or the Padma Shri fails to levitate him away from reality. He espouses environmental causes with an informed sincerity and conviction that could motivate his listeners - to disagree vociferously or nod quietly. But not one of the 50 or so present recently at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Adyar, to hear him elaborate the "Challenges of Environment in the 21st Century...." walked out of the auditorium.

"Down to Earth has a three-fold aim. To inform the readers about the state of our environment, to find out and inspire those who are doing good work in the traditional world, and to pose the challenges before us by discussing existing problems as well as problems likely in the future and to look for their solutions," Anil said on the occasion to release of the 200th issue of the magazine that Anil said had more patrons in the North-East than elsewhere.

Slicing through the deep frozen silence, he declared in his inimitable high-pitched voice that sometimes drifted from the cordless microphone he held in his hand (a clip-on mike would have been more appropriate), "The most polluted hill station in our country is Dehradun..." The bomb shell sparked the quiescent audience to gasp, and waves of murmur flowed across the floor. He went on to explain why he believed it was so.

"The fundamental weakness of our curriculum is we are never taught environmental history," he said. Despite being an alumnus of IIT, Kanpur, Anil tore apart the IIT syllabi, saying, "Despite our excellent traditional engineering, the IITs do not have any course to study it."

With facts and figures at his fingertips (though he never turned to them for prompts), Anil's approach to the issue of pollution was invincible. "We are just trying to industrialise but our pollution levels are already very high. Even though the West invests 25 per cent of the budget on environmental research and development, we spare hardly one per cent," he said. If his figures were wrong, the battery of MIDS economists or those from the Media Development Foundation (MDF) who sponsored the lecture seminar, would have been up in arms. "And we follow the highly- polluting, outdated industrial paradigm of the West to industrialise," he declared.

His solution - of using fiscal measures to coerce the industries to fall in line with environment-friendly targets - was convincing but one was left wondering if it was politically feasible, given our democratic traditions of an unwarpable industry-politician nexus.

"The Stone Age did not end because of shortage of stones," he declared, which predictably tickled the audience.

Much later, after checking in for his flight to Delhi, Anil said, "We can make our system work. What we need is village-level democracy. We can elect the policy makers at the national and the State levels, but as far as a village's welfare is concerned, we can follow any of the many recorded instances of complete success around the country."

What makes Dr. Anil Agarwal outstanding is his simplicity and his passion. Despite his disability (he has survived cancer and has been an asthmatic; I was reminded of the Rabindra sangeet exponent, Debabrata Biswas, who depended on salbutamol sprays), his spirit remains unfettered. He works not for publicity, but because he cannot help doing what he does. And needless to say, he does it well.

GOUTAM GHOSH

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Seafood special
Next     : Time to sing along