Opinion Madhav Gadgil, the people’s ecologist
He was a rare scholar whose work is seen as synonymous with the discipline.
Gadgil was a public intellectual in the most expansive sense of the term. In his memoir, A Walk Up The Hill, Madhav Gadgil recounts a conversation with his father, the economist D R Gadgil, who had just returned from a deliberation on the Koyna Hydroelectric Project. “Baba was normally a cheerful person. But when we had dinner together after the meeting on Koyna, he was distraught. He said, I do believe that we need electricity to drive industrial progress, but surely, we should not be paying environmental and social costs.” This was 1956. To the planners of a young nation, the often-contradictory pulls of ecology and economic development were not always apparent. His father’s remarks left a deep impression on 14-year-old Madhav. Gadgil, who died on Thursday, built a career that stands as a testament to his commitment to balancing economic well-being with the protection of forests, wildlife, and aquifers. He was a rare scholar whose work is seen as synonymous with the discipline.
Born in 1942 into a family steeped in public service, he was deeply influenced by the reformist traditions of Maharashtra. His parents counted B R Ambedkar and Irawati Karve as their friends and they inspired young Madhav to be argumentative. A stint as a research scholar in the US led to lively conversations with the greats of biological sciences, such as E O Wilson. Gadgil, however, gave up on an academic career in the US to join the Indian Institute of Science, then headed by one of the country’s finest institution-builders, Satish Dhawan. The Centre for Ecological Sciences, which he founded at the IISc, continues to set benchmarks in environmental studies.
Gadgil was a public intellectual in the most expansive sense of the term. One of his most influential contributions was the idea that the country’s forests are not “pristine wildernesses” but cultural landscapes, shaped over millennia by human management. He argued that ecological degradation disproportionately harms the poor. The report of an environment ministry committee he headed on the Western Ghats made a powerful case for demarcating parts of the ecologically fragile area that needed to be protected against unregulated mining and tourism. He advocated greater participation of local bodies in the management of these areas. The report was vehemently opposed and remains mostly on paper, even after calamities have underscored its prescience. At a time when ecological challenges are raising questions about India’s developmental trajectory, Gadgil’s scholarship is a reminder that inconvenient voices need to be heard and heeded.
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