an earthly journey

8/8/2019 An Earthly Journey

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Annual Report 200020022

I have never been worried about the Earth.

Im worried about human beings. I was trying

to understand what India is all about, what

Indias people are all about. And that is how

I stumbled upon the Earth. I realised that they

have a deep relationship with the Earth, and

that is why Earth became important to me.


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Annual Report 20002002 3

On January 2, 2002, Ani l Agarwalpassed away after a long and painfulbattle against cancer. He left all of us

at CSE orphaned, but left us with little time tomourn him. And he left behind the hugeresponsibility of walking in his footsteps tofulfil the mandate he had chalked out forCSE. But he also left us the means to carry outthe tasks he had set for us a rich legacy of

his thoughts, ideals, passion, commitment,strength and anger. As we look back on whathe was, and what he meant to all of us here,we also look forward in hope and confidencethat we will fight the battles that he hadfought, and we have the determination to winthese battles.

Early influences

"For me, understanding the subject ofenvironment has been a long journeyinto an understanding of my own culture.I wanted to search for and understand myIndia. It was a very internal drive which

became a life-long passion."

Anil Agarwal graduated as a mechanicalengineer from the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kanpur, in 1970. He grew upwithin the ambience of that great idea of themodern world: the idea of science andtechnology. Towards the end of his formaleducation, he began to wonder how he wasgoing to put to use all what he had learnt atthis prestigious institute in order to solve theproblems of his country. Realising how littlehe knew of India or of its problems, hedecided that he first needed to explore andlearn what the country was all about. He read

many books in an effort to understand Indiaand its problems, those by Mahatma Gandhiand Gunnar Myrdal, among others.

The uppermost question in his mindwas, how can India best use science andtechnology to meet the needs of its people?He found the answer in Gandhiji s writings.He learnt that the nature of science andtechnology needed by developing countries isnot the same as prevalent in the West.Gandhijis science policies, which advocatedsocially appropriate and traditional techno-logies, were key to solving many of theproblems of urban India.

Anil s encounter with the Chipko

movement as a budding journalist once againbrought home the relevance of Gandhi ji s

philosophy. He saw in the movement thespiri t of non-violent protest, the spiri t of caringand sharing, and the spirit of self-reliance,among many other things espoused byGandhi. He acknowledged his debt when hedelivered the 1987 Gandhi Peace Foundationlecture: In many ways, Gandhiji has been myguru in helping me to understand my countryand my people.

At this point, Anil also read GunnarMyrdal, who had just published his volumi-nous work, the Asian Drama. Anil met Myrdalat the Stockholm Conference on the HumanEnvironment in 1972, when he was justbeginning his journalistic career. Myrdal saidto Anil: Books are like time bombs. If theideas contained in them are of value, theywill explode one day. And if they dont, theywill be consigned to the dustbin of history.These words stayed with Anil throughout hislife and moved him to produce the State ofIndias Environment series, books thatprofoundly influenced Indian developmentalpolicies. Business India listed The State of

Indias Environment: The Second CitizensReport (1984-85) as one of the 15 mostinfluential books of the post-Independenceperiod in India.

Later, when Anil became impatient forresults, he used the same idea to develop hisknowledge-based advocacy. His successfulcampaigns on clean air for Delhi, andempowering people to manage their waterresources, were borne out of his ingeniousidea of shortening the fuse of literary timebombs, so that they would explode soonerand lead to action.

Myrdal also said to him, You have thebiggest strength in your country it is a

democracy. If you think there is somethingthat you want to change, you have the powerto change it. Democracy allows you to dothat. Anil took this advice very seriously andused the power of democracy to drive hiscampaigns. He allowed no one to come in hi sway, however powerful. To achieve his aims,he reached out to all sections of the societythe media, concerned citizens, students, civilsociety institutions, industry, governmentofficials and politicians. He often describedCSE as, a product of Indias democracy builtwi th 20 years of persistence .

Another major influence in Anil s life wasBarbara Ward, whose passionate speech at

the Stockholm Conference led him to walk onthe environment path. Her beliefs and works,

ANIL AGARWAL 1947~2002

Gandhiji was an ordinary

man, but exemplified

three qualities anger,

perseverance and

humility. I have tried to

live by Gandhiji's

principles, but these

are very tough things

to live by and I have a

long way to go


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The State of Indias Environment reports

"Sustainable development will never bepossible unless we know more about the

true nature of relationships betweenchanging nature and changing society.The most interesting thing about thesereports is the information they provide onthese linkages."

One of the fi rst tasks that the Centre for Scienceand Environment undertook was publishingthe first and second citizens reports on theState of Indias Environment (SOE). This wasthe first time a citizens report was produced onthe state of a countrys environment. Thesereports were not about the declining numbersof tigers or about forestry programmes, butabout how environmental change impacted on

the lives of the people. The SOE reportspainted an accurate picture of the extent ofenvironmental degradation and how thismirrored the human misery of India.

The SOE reports highlighted the impor-tance of the environment to a poor countrybecause of the extreme dependence that thecountrys poor have on their local naturalresources. In other words, if a country focusesonly on its Gross National Product and in theprocess destroys its Gross Nature Product,it will only lead to more poverty, loss oflivelihoods and greater unemployment.Therefore, protecting the environment is not aluxury meant only for rich countries like

America, but rather a necessity for poor coun-tries like India. This went directly against theprevail ing pol iti cal opinion that stated thateconomic development alone is the solutionto environmental problems. Mrs Gandhi is

still remembered for her oft-quoted statement,Poverty is the biggest pol luter.

The SOE reports got extensive mediacoverage, both at home and internationally.

They were reviewed by The Economist, TheNew Scientist, the Asahi Shimbun, Le Monde,and The Guardian, among many others. Theyinspired many similar reports, both in Indiaand abroad, and influenced political actionwithin several developing countries. FredPearce, reviewing these two books in NewScientistsaid, Reading reports from greengroups describing real or imagined environ-mental perils can be a grind. But for passioncombined wi th forensic rigour nothing touchesthe work of the Delhi-based Centre forScience and Environment, inspired by itsfounder and director Anil Agarwal .

During the making of these two reports,

Anil closely interacted with numerousvoluntary groups working at the grassroots inthe country. In fact, the SOE reports weredeliberately termed citizens reports, whichimplied collaboration with a wide spectrumof individuals, voluntary organisations,grassroots activists and others. These groupshad diverse interests within India and abroadalso helped sell these reports and spread themessage. In the process of col laborating onthe SOE reports, they soon realised thatconflicts in the developmental processes arein fact conflicts for control over naturalresources. The SOE reports were thus able toembed environmental concern within

the larger development and social justicedimensions. This, over time, encouragedmany movements against deforestation,destructive mining, and construction of largedams, among other civi l society initiatives.

The Chipko movement

summoned our attention

and energies and showed

us how the poor relate to

the issue of environment.

In many ways, the

Chipko movement gave a

voice to many of us

belonging to the first

generation of Indian

environmentalists

Chamoli, 1985


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The success of the SOE reports alsochanged the nature of CSEs work. Theyresulted in the creation of a network ofpeople interested and committed to change.

As CSEs interaction with various groupsgrew, so did our consciousness of the impactof environmental destruction on the livesof the poor and the inter-relationshipsbetween environment, economy and society.Slowly, CSEs activities and focus becamecentred on the environment, while retainingthe scientific dimension of environment as acentral issue.

In 1986, the arguments contained inthese two State of Indias Environment reportsattracted the attention of Prime Minister RajivGandhi. He asked Anil to address his Councilof Ministers, and later all the 27 ParliamentaryConsultative Committees an unprecedented

gesture on the part of an Indian Prime Mini ster because he felt that his ministerialcolleagues did not understand the importanceof integrating environment wi th developmentalconcerns. At the end of these lectures, RajivGandhi told Anil, My government is spend-ing thousands of crores of rupees everyyear on flood and drought relief. I believe ifthe money went in good environmentand natural resource management it wouldhelp us deal with future floods and droughtsbetter. Can you explain this to the membersof parliament?

Ani l sent this request on a journeyacross the country, gathering information on

the relationship between floods and droughts.He eventually gave the lecture to theParliamentarians but continued work onunderstanding the nature of environmentalproblems in India, the nature of relationshipsbetween changing nature and changingsociety.

The environment beyond pretty treesand tigers

"For the poor people in this country who livewith the environment on a daily basis,the environment is something thatwe have to use and yet use in a very

sustainable manner. And, therefore, theconcept of util itarian conservationismand not the protectionist conserva-tionism becomes very important"

In the early eighties, Anil travelled extensivelyto different parts of the country, to l ook at howpeople live in and manage their diverseenvironments. As early as the mid-80s, he wasalready crafting a conceptual framework tobring about growth, equity and sustainabili ty,based on his learning from his travels and hisinteraction with people across the country.These very concepts are today celebrated assustainable development . He constantly

pointed out that paradigms of development,which create production systems that destroy

natural resources are the root cause ofpoverty and environmental distruction. TheIndian government had newly created aMinistry of Environment and Forests. Anil was

concerned that its manifesto was not basedon a holistic understanding of the relationshipbetween environment and development. Theenvironmental consciousness that he helpedcreate added a third dimension, sustainabilityto the biggest issues of the day growth andequity. He posed this question in every forumhe addressed, how can our country get morefrom our natural resource base and at thesame time conserve the natural resources?

The Gross Nature Product

"Poverty, for a majority of the rural poor of theworld, is defined by the shortage of

biomass resources to meet basic needslike food, fuel, fodder, manure etc; inother words, the Gross Nature Product"

In his travels across India, Anil examinedgrassroots experiences in villages, fromPondicherry to Ladakh, Gujarat to Nagaland.These experiences confirmed to him that therural poor depend largely on biomass for theirsurvival. Whether it is food, fuel (cowdung,timber or crop residues), building materials(timber, thatch), medicinal herbs, or fertili serslike leaf litter, the environment provides thepoor with all their survival needs. When theenvironment degrades, and the Gross Nature

Product shrinks, economic and social povertyrears its head. Anil believed the biggestchallenge that faces Indias policymakers isnot only to conserve the natural resources, butalso to revive degraded lands. Anil concludedthat the problem of rural poverty in large partsof the developing world is not one ofeconomic poverty but of ecological poverty the poverty of natural resources needed tobuild up the rural economy.

Learning from tradition

"Traditional lifestyles in India were based onits extraordinary diversity of ecological

systems and were inspired by sustainableuse of the natural resource base"

During this period, Anil also discoveredthe extraordinary ecological diversity in thecountry. He was amazed to see how thepeople of India had developed diversesystems to manage their diverse environmentsfrom the arid deserts of Rajasthan to the wetNortheast to the cold Himalayan regionsthat produced the unique culture of eachregion. He was astonished to discoverhow centuries ago, people had developedeconomic systems and lifestyles that makebest use of their natural resources.

The people of Rajasthan had developed anomadic lifestyle and animal care-based

It is the so-called

educated people who

need environmental

education more than

anyone else. The more

educated you are today

in the Third World, the

more alienated you are

Awarded Padma Shri, 1986


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occupations to suit their fragile land; thepeople of Mizoram had developed shiftingcultivation because they had to live on theslopes; and those living in the floodplains of

central India developed agrarian economies.These traditional systems, whether in landuse, water use, agriculture or health care,became entwined with the cultural systemsand were passed down the generationsas cultural and traditional knowledge.

He developed a deep sense of respect forthe traditional knowledge of the peoplewhich, he found was ingenious andinnovative in making the best of the naturalecosystem in the gentlest and the mostsustainable ways. He constantly advocatednot only respect for this knowledge but alsocommercial rewards for the use made of it inthe modern world.

Ecosystem-specific development

"High productivity on a sustainable basis ispossible only by observing the lawsof nature, not by contravening them.In other words, we have to developecosystem-specific development plans"

As Anil learnt more about how traditionalsystems had managed natural resourcesby building on the unique strengths ofeach ecosystem, he began to understandthat need for ecosystem-specifi c developmentparadigms. Anil realised that a centralised

and uniform planning methodology forplateaus, hill ranges, riverine deltas andother ecosystems of India that ignoredtheir diversity and uniqueness, would notwork. He pushed for ecosystem-specificdevelopment, a development paradigm that isuniquely tailored to each ecosystem toincrease Indias biomass.

The third citizens report on the State ofIndias Environment, Floods, Floodplainsand Environmental Myths, published in 1991focussed on the vast Indo-Gangetic Plainsecosystem. SOE-3 studied the ecology ofthe worlds most flood-prone plains, andraised questions about the specific nature of

sustainable development needed for Indiasmost economically and environmentallydegraded regions. Anil questioned thescientific basis of the prevailing assumptionsof the linkages between deforestation andfloods. He instead proposed that ecologicalchanges in the floodplains, and not environ-ment degradation upstream, were the keycause of the growing flood menace.

Village ecosystem planning

"Indian villages are highly integratedagrisylvopastoral systems and whatIndia desperately needs today is the

holistic enrichment of each of its villageecosystems."

Interacting closely with the villagers ofSukhomajri, Ralegan Siddhi, Knonoma, Seedand other villages, Anil learnt that peopleview their natural resource base as anintegrated system and, from this learningintroduced the concept of the villageecosystem. Anil found that the Indian villageis actually a complex and integratedecosystem consisting of croplands,grazing lands and forest lands, surface andgroundwater, the energy system and thelivestock system. All these componentsinteract with each other to maintain the

delicately balanced village ecosystem.Therefore, the first step in planning forsustainable development has to start from thevillage and has to be for each village.

Implementing village-level planningrequires a lot of discipline discipline toensure that animals do not graze in protectedcommons; that catchments are not pollutedand properly maintained; that the resourcesand products are equitably shared anddistributed. Anil understood therefore that themanagement of natural resources in vi ll ages isnot possible without the willing and activeinvolvement of the villagers, and thereforeany ecological management system for the

villagers must be participatory.Anil put down these concepts in 1989 in

a publication titled, Towards Green Villages:A macro-strategy for participatory andenvironmentally-sound rural development.Based on Anil s travels and his learningfrom peoples initiatives, the book was aneffort to conceive a macro-strategy forenvironmentally-sound rural development. Itwas a landmark publication that, for the firsttime, presented an operational framework forsustainable development. The book wastranslated into many regional languages andused by grassroots groups across the countryand has helped Indian decision-makers to

understand the importance of involvingpeople in natural resource management.

The most sophisticated

decision-making will

begin only when village

people will start sitting

under banyan trees as a

group to discuss their

problems and find

common solutions.

Only such decentralised

decision-making can

match the enormous

ecological and

cultural diversity of

Indian villages

Dehradun, 1997


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Women and environment

"Rural women are most affected by environ-mental destruction in India and therefore,

women are most willing to participate inenvironmental regeneration efforts."

Anil was one of the first to document theadverse impact of environmental destructionon the lives of poor, rural women in develop-ing countries. His paper on environment andwomen, published as a chapter of the secondcitizens report on the State of IndiasEnvironment, (SOE-2) received mediaattention worldwide, especially in feminist,NGO and academic circles. During histravels, he found that in the vast majorityof rural households, the women usuallyventured out to collect fuel, water or fodder.

Therefore, environmental degradation causesa disproportionate share of the burden to fallon the shoulders of village women who haveto walk longer distances to collect dailyessentials. This is hard on the village womenwho are expected to also perform a variety ofother activities including cooking, caring forthe livestock and working in the fields. Aniltherefore found the women to be moreinterested in nurturing the environment.Whil e Gandhiji had said, Think of the lastman , when asked who we should keep inmind when we plan, Anil argued, the lastman is invariably a woman, and therefore,think of the last person .

Urban environmental problems

"Urban development in the developingworld is a total copy of the Westerntechnological paradigm. But the Westerntechnological model is an inherentlytoxic model because of its extraordinarymaterial and energy-intensity."

Anil became aware of the urgent and criticalstate of the urban environment when hestarted work on air pol lution issues in Delhi i n1994. Less than a decade before, he hadadvised the countrys leaders, in a lecture to

the members of the Parliament that ruralenvironmental problems were among themost pressing problems of India. But by 1995,he was alarmed at the speed with whichpollution grows; the air pollution in Delhi hadmade it among the most polluted cities in theworld. Directing the Campaign on Clean Airprovided Anil the opportunity to study theseissues in detail. He found that the globalisa-tion process resulted in the rapid spread ofWestern pattern of development a highlytoxic pattern that is energy-intensive, capital-intensive, resource intensive and extremelypolluting. Anil often cited the fact that the EastAsian countries and the Southeast Asian

countries have achieved a near economicmiracle in which some of them doubled their

GDP in just about 10-15 years. At the sametime, a World Bank study found that even asThailand doubled its GDP, its pollution load,which is a total amount of toxins that it

produced and released into the environmentfrom industries, had mul tipl ied ten times.

The success of the Clean Air campaignin Delhi gave Anil the confidence thatthe problem of urban pollution can be metby harnessing science and technologywisely. This campaign was a model toshow that public pressure can bring aboutpolicy change.

Anil used the experience of the Clean AirCampaign to fashion strategies to counterurban environmental problems. Firstly, civilsociety organisations must improve theirskills and competence in science andtechnology to break through the conspiracy of

sil ence hatched by vested i nterests li ke theindustry, the government and the scientificestabli shments. Secondly, they must push notonly for technologies to leapfrog to advancednon-polluting systems, but also for small scaledecentralised, and traditional technologiesthat are attuned the local culture. But most ofall, civil society institutions must constantlyfight for improved governance to ensureaccountability and transparency in dealingwi th environmental problems.

Science, technology and environment

"If as Gandhiji said, India lives in its villages,

something will have to be done aboutpromoting development right in thevillages. This poses the greatest challengeto Indias scientifically and technicallytrained people the proud legacy ofNehrus India."

Anil was an environmentalist who neverstrayed from his science and technologymoorings. The first thing he wanted to find outafter his graduation as a mechanical engineerwas how to harness his skills and knowledgeof science and technology to improve thequality of life for the poor people of India. Asa journalist working with the International

Institute for Environment and Development,Anil shared the first A H Boerma Award,presented by the Food and AgriculturalOrganisation to journalists for focussing worldattention on problems of hunger and poverty.Anils first task when he established CSE in1980 was to begin a feature service on the useof science and technology for development.Within the first two years it produced nearly200 reports on science and society-relatedissues, which were then published in morethan 100 major newspapers, magazines andvoluntary organisations.

Anil was different from many environ-mentalists of his day because he believed

that nature lends itself to deep scientificanalysis, and therefore the impact of human

Every Indian wants to

live like an American.

But few realise that the

Western economic

dream is a highly toxic

dream. America has

650 million cars and

we have 30 million and

we are choking

ourselves to death

Vietnam, 1996


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intervention in any form, be it agriculture,industry, or the impact of population growthon the environment, must be scientificallyanalysed. This Science for Ecological

Security , he believed, was extremelyimportant for the poor countries to constantlymonitor the impact of technological changeson the environment and then to take quick,remedial, regulatory and technologicalmeasures to address the problem. Anil arguedthat the answer to the 21st centurys myriadenvironmental problems lay in traditional,small and decentralised technologies.

In the global environmental arena

"The 1980s saw several global environmentalissues come to the fore. But the answersfound to these issues in the form of

international treaties have not providedequitable entitlements to the environ-ment or globally valid judicial systemsthat can bring even the most powerfulnations to book"

During the eighties Anil believed that theenvironmental problems confronting thepeople of India were critical and urgent andtherefore, he focussed his attention and effortson national environmental issues. His entryinto global environmental issues was achance coincidence.

The climate change campaign

One night, Anil heard a news item onDoordarshan that claimed India was the fifthlargest emitter of carbon dioxide and was amajor contributor to global warming. Thenews item was based on a UN-supportedstudy by the World Resources Institute (WRI)in Washington DC.

Anil was taken aback to hear this; afterall, he had been instrumental in creating asocial legitimacy for environmental concernby arguing environmental degradation affectsthe poor the most. But here was a theory thatthe poor of the world were responsible forone of the worlds major environmental

problems. He was also outraged at Indiasgreen ministers who endorsed this theory byproposing that the people in India must stopeating rice and keeping cows.

Anil studied the Washington reportcarefully. What he found was that the reportwas polit ics masquerading as science. Anilbelieved that science consists of facts, whileallocating responsibi li ty is a matter of pol iti cs.He suspected that the developed countrieswere trying to rope in the developing coun-tries to share part of the blame for globalwarming that the rich countries had created.

Anil took the same mathematical data ofemissions, but changed just one assumption

that produced dramatically different results.That assumption was that the global sinks,

which absorbed the carbon dioxide andreduced the total emissions, is a globalresource and thus all citizens of the worldhave equal rights to these resources. The

Washington study, on the other hand, hadarrogated the maximum resources to theworst polluter.

This study, Global Warming in anUnequal World, kicked off CSEs campaignfor Equal Rights to the Atmosphere. This bookgenerated considerable global debate andhad significant impact on the G-77 position inthe negotiations leading up to the FrameworkConvention on Climate Change. Althoughinitially Anils concept of equitable sharing ofatmospheric resources met with a lot of resis-tance, the idea has gained ground even in theWest. Today, the concept of equity has beenaccepted and embedded as a benchmark for

all actions in the cl imate change convention.Anil continued to take very active interest

in this issue and called for strategies thatwould address issues of ecology, economy,social justice and equity. He stronglyadvocated that the world must move from afossil fuel-based economy to one basedon renewable energy and that this can bedone if the market systems make renewableenergies competitive with fossil fuels. As thisrequires all countries to cooperate, Anilbelieved the framework must be made just,fair and equitable.

Global environmental governance

The Rio meeting and the WRI study catalyzedAnils entry into international environmentalissues. He laid down CSEs mandate inthis area to articulate Southern priorities,and argue on behalf of the poor and thedisempowered in the global arena.

Just before Rio Ani l wrote a book,Towards a Green World, which argued thatwhile global environmental governance was

People who have already

created a stock of carbon

dioxide that is causing

global warming are not

being held accountable.

We are asked to change

our codes of behaviour

today for something we

might do 40 years later.

In other words, those

who have already

committed murder are

preaching to us that we

should not commit

murder 40 years later

Release function

of Green Politics,

2000


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essential to avoid global disasters, itsprinciples should be based on democracy,

justice and equality among all world citizens the key principles of good governance.

This book received worldwide attention byjournalists, TV commentators, academics andpoli cy researchers. It greatly infl uenced thenegotiations leading up to the Rio Conferenceon environment in 1992.

In 1994, Anil was nominated asEnvironmentalist of the Year by Les Realitiesde lEcologie, a leading French environmentmagazine. Dominique Voynet, then leaderof the French Green Party said, two yearsafter Rio, at a time when the GATT agreementhas dealt a severe blow to the planet, it isnecessary that the environmentalist of theyear should be the messenger with a visionanchored in sustainabili ty and soli darity for

the future generations. Who can represent theessential synthesis between environment anddevelopment better than Anil Agarwal .

As a participant in many global environ-mental negotiations, Anil found that Northerninterests largely dominated these meetings.He repeatedly argued that the managementof global resources must be based on theconcept of equal environmental rights for allhuman beings. His angry reaction to thedifferent mechanisms being developed to dealwith global environmental problems,including conventions, aid, trade and debt,was, these are Northern instruments and notinternational instruments because they can

never be used by poor countries and insteadwill be misused by rich countries to safeguardtheir interests .

While Anil was critical of the attitude ofthe West towards global environmentalproblems, he was equally critical of the

Southern governments and leaders, who,in his view did not participate in thesenegotiations with any seriousness or fromlong-term perspectives. He repeatedly urged

the Indian and other Southern politicalleaders to take proactive positions in allglobal environmental negotiations, positionsthat would safeguard the interests of theirpoor and the marginalised.

He recognised the urgent need todemystify the politics and processes of globalenvironmental negotiations, especially toSouthern civil society groups and govern-ments. The State of Global EnvironmentalNegotiations (GEN) reports were startedkeeping this in mind. Anil wanted to informthe actors in global environmental negotia-tions, particularly those from the South, aboutthe politics involved in these negotiations.

The GEN reports analysed the process andoutcomes in negotiations, and articulatedSouthern priorities and concerns. CSEpublished two GEN reports, Green Politicsand Poles Apart in 1999 and 2001, whichwere extremely well received across theworld. The GEN reports are used as resourcematerial by NGOs working on these issuesand are mandatory reading materials inseveral US university courses.

The challenge of ecological globalisation

Anil believed that the economic globalisationprocess leading to growing wealth,

production and consumption would lead to acorresponding ecological globalisation as theenvironmental problems created by onecountry will increasingly cross over nationalborders and affect the people, economies andecologies of other countries. However, evenas he constantly argued for democracy and

justice in global environmental governance,Anil looked at this process of ecologicalglobalisation w ith optimism and hope.

He believed that the 21st century wouldusher in a range of more efficient small-scaletechnologies and pluralistic governancesystems in which a large number of peoplewould be invol ved. He was also confident

that the growth of civil society movementsin many parts of the world, would giverise to effective leaders who are able toharness the globalisation process for growthand prosperity.

Anil was therefore optimistic thatthe environmental and technologicalchallenges of the 21st century can be met.Southern civi l society instituti ons can guidetheir citizens to make better choices toachieve a healthy and sustainable world byimproving their technical competencies,ushering in particiatory forms of governanceand creating a serious and committedleadership that can make use of the opportu-

nities provided by economic and ecologicalglobalisation.

I often differ from

my wonderful

environmentalist friends

in the Western world

when they say that

consumption is growing,

population is growing and,

therefore, we are facing

a major environmental

catastrophe. I would

rather say that as a result

of both these factors, we

are facing a major

environmental challenge.

A challenge that can be

met successfully

Sudan, 1986


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Down To Earth

"This country is held up by its people and notits leaders. Is it not time that you got to

know more about what people like youand me are doing?"

This is how Anil first spread wordabout Down To Earth, the fortnightlynewsmagazine on science and environmentthat he launched in 1992. Anil had beennurturing the idea of starting such a magazinefor many years. He was convinced thatthere was a critical information gap, andDown To Earth, modelled on the NewScientistand brought out from the developingworld, would be a powerful tool to influencepolicymakers and to create awareness incivil society.

Anil had been deeply impressed by theability of the people, especially the poor, togenerate sustainable wealth through theregeneration of their environment. Hewas also aware that there were severalpeople-based efforts across India that themedia ignored, innovative responses by thepeople to the slow degradation of theirsurvival base. As he learnt more about therelevance of these efforts for sustainabledevelopment, he became convinced of theneed to create wide awareness about thesegrassroots initiatives so that they couldinfluence macro-policy development. At thesame time, he believed that the technological

changes occurring worldwide would i mpactthe environment of India. He was concernedabout the need for public awareness anddebate on these technological options togenerate pressure on the government to makethe correct choices.

Thus was born Down To Earth, aunique newsmagazine on science andenvironment that would cover humanaspirations, endeavours and struggles, globaltechnologies, the pol itics behind national andinternational policies and developments.

Anil received invaluable supportfrom friends and supporters across the world.Even before the first copy of the magazine

was printed, Anil had sold over 5000subscriptions and raised the seed moneyrequired to start the magazine. At thefirst anniversary of the magazine, letters ofappreciation poured in. Anil was greatlythrilled when Gro Harlem Brundtland saidof Down To Earth, Reading Down To Earthis cost-effective.... The issues have beenclearly defined and pinpoi nted. The style,not unl ike that of The Economist, wi ll ensurea stable, influential readership aroundthe world.

Under Anils leadership, Down To Earthbecame an influential magazine that informs,challenges, inspires and provokes people to

act for the environment. Most of all, it hasbecome a symbol of change. Its articles have

resulted in court actions, NGO campaigns,and poli cy and lifestyle changes. Anil used themagazine to get decision-makers from diversegroups to pay attention to environmental

problems, community-initiated solutions, thepolitics behind policies and governance inenvironmental decision-making.

Down To Earthreaches every nook andcorner of India. Its diverse readers includeconcerned citizens, NGOs, lawyers, teachers,students, industry leaders, governmentofficials, researchers and othersthe kind ofpeople capable of leading change in India inthe future. Readers volunteer their time andefforts to conduct surveys and studies and tohelp spread the word about Down To Earth.The publics heart-warming response tothe magazine keep us motivated to maintainthe high standards Anil had set under his

stewardship.

Knowledge-based advocacy

"All of us want to see the results of our actions.CSEs strengths have been in producingpublications. So, what could CSE do tochange the society? "

By the mid-1990s, Anil had honed andrefined CSEs communication skills andthe organisation had come to set standardsin environmental communications. Anilhad by this time produced three Stateof Indias Environment reports, started a

newsmagazine, published numerous smallpublications, produced several videofilms and exhibitions, started specialisedpublications for children that createdawareness about environmental problems.However, Anil was no longer content tocreate awareness and wait for people to pushthe government to take action.

In 1994, Anil was diagnosed for a rareform of cancer of the Central Nervous System(CNS lymphoma), for which he took treatmentat the National Institutes of Health in the US.Rather then let his grim prognosis get himdown, he typically set about examining thecauses of cancer. He found that changing

environmental conditions, lifestyle andconsumption patterns are the cause of amajority of the new breed of deadly diseaseslike cancer. He threw himself into the task ofcreating awareness about these issues and tobring policy change. The onset of cancer onlyspurred him to climb greater heights in orderto achieve results.

From his hospital bed in the US, Anildirected his colleagues in Delhi to continuework on two publications, one on Delhi svehicular pollution and the other oncommunity-based traditional systems of watermanagement in India. He decided to makefull use of the social capital that CSE had built

over the years within the civil society, thepolitical world, and the media.

I am 53 and this disease

has given me a sense of

mortality, which most

people my age dont

have. This drives me

to work harder,

with greater zeal

and enthusiasm

Mizoram, 1988


11/12


Right to Clean Air campaign

When Slow murder, the book on vehicularpollution was ready, Anil approached Dr K R

Narayanan, then the vice-President of India,to release the book at his official residence.Anil knew the prestigious address wouldattract heads of auto companies and manygovernment ministers to the release function.The book immediately attracted the attentionof the media, pollution control officialsand, importantly, the Supreme Court. Thecampaign made full use of the media support,and by focusing on the health impacts ofpollution, garnered public support.

The extensive media coverage resulted ina suo motonotice given to the governmentof Delhi by the Supreme Court judge, JusticeKuldip Singh. Anil was pleased with the

judiciary taking an active role in learningmore about the role that the city s numerousoutdated vehicles and dirty fuel playedin endangering the citys publi c health. H ehit out strongly against the government forcoll uding wi th the auto industry and othervested interests for their support of pollutingtechnologies.

In 1998, following widespread publicconcern generated as a result of the CSEcampaign, the Supreme Court ordered thegovernment of India to establish a powerfulauthority to manage pollution problems inNew Delhi. Ani l was nominated a member ofthis authority and wielded considerable

influence in pollution control matters throughthis committee.

CSEs Clean Air campaign has grownconsiderably from its initial days of creatingawareness about the impacts of vehicular airpollution. It used the power of both media,and the judiciary, to counter vested interestsand slowly bring in measures to ensure cleanair quality in Delhi. The campaign has sincethen been instrumental in improving Delhi sfuel and air quality. Today, CSE conductsstudies to develop safety and emission normsfor Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and todevelop emission factors for scooters andother two-wheelers in an effort to move

towards zero emissions. The Clean Air cam-paign has become a trendsetter for similarcampaigns across the world and has won

world praise for bringing about the world slargest CNG city bus fleet. CSEs challengetoday is to take this success to the rest ofIndias polluted ci ties.

Make water everybodys business

In early 1997, Anil completed Dying Wisdom,an influential book on the traditional wisdomof rural India in conserving rainwater.

Anil s interest in traditional waterharvesting systems had been kindled yearsback, in Rajasthan. While travelling throughthe Churu district in the Thar Desert, he sawseveral structures that looked l ike Buddhiststupas placed over a flying saucer. Thevil lagers told him that this structure, called thekundi, provided them with rainwater collectedin the catchment. The dome ensured no water

was lost through evaporation.Anil was amazed at the ingenuity and

simplicity of this structure devised by the localpeople centuries ago to collect and storeprecious water available in the arid Thar. Theengineer in him made a quick calculation ifthe region receives only 100 millimetres ofrainfall and if one is able to collect this in onehectare of land, one can collect as much as 1million litres of water. He marvelled at the tra-ditional wisdom and technology that couldcreate these amazing structures and initiatedan in-depth study of the traditional systems thatexisted to manage water resources. After sevenyears Dying Wisdom was published. The

central message contained in the book was thatthe management of water resources should bewrested from the government and insteadplaced in the hands of local communities.

Anil launched the campaign simultane-ously in different cities of India, once againmaking use of the social capital and goodwillof powerful leaders CSE had built up over theyears, to ensure that the message of the bookwas propagated by such leaders in theirregions.

The success of Anil s campaign cam-paign surpassed his greatest expectations.Water harvesting is today the new mantra forthe people, politicians, NGOs, donors and

even bureaucrats. Anil often said, There isno village in India that cannot meet itsbasic drinking and cooking water needsthrough rainwater harvesting . But rainwaterharvesting demands a new approach togovernance participatory rather thantop-down. Therefore, Anil initiated acampaign within the campaign called jalswaraj (a term he coined for peoplesmanagement of water resources).

This campaign has changed the mindsetsof bureaucrats and politicians, and provokedseveral state governments and the centralgovernment to sponsor community rainwaterharvesting efforts. However, we still have a

long way to go to realise Anil s dream of truejal swaraj.

What does water

harvesting mean in

human terms?

It means making water

everybodys business.

It means re-establishing

the relationship between

people and their

environment. It means

catching water

where it falls

Release ofDying Wisdom, 1997


12/12


The Green Rating Project

The Green Rating Project is yet another ofAnils innovative initiatives to evoke a response

from industry, a sector with whom environ-mentalists usually establish an adversarialrelationship. While on a visit to the US, Anilhad come across information on a programmethat rated companies on their social andenvironmental performance. He was struck bythe idea that such a process could be used tomotivate and pressure industry to improve itsenvironmental performance, and started theGreen Rating Project (GRP).

GRP had to overcome several problems.Obtaining environmental data of companieswas a huge challenge, as Indian governmentagencies do not maintain environment data;what little information available is either

unreliable or inaccessible. Detailed environ-mental information on each industrial sectorwould have to be painstakingly collected,requiring a huge amount of financial andhuman resources. Anil, in his typical fashion,found an imaginative solution tap into thecommitted readership of Down To Earth. Headvertised in the magazine for volunteers andreaped a rich haul of over 400 applicationsmany from highly educated professionals.These Green Inspectors, as he called them,willingly collected detailed data on eachcompany at no cost to the organisation.

The Green Rating Projects first assign-ment was to rate the environmental

performance of the paper and pulp sector.The companies, initially unwilling, laterbecame voluntary participants when told theratings would be widely publicised, and thattransparency made good business sense. Anilrealised industry would stop at nothing todiscredit such an effort. He put together aProject Advisory Committee that consisted ofeminent leaders from civil society, industryand government. A technical steeringcommittee that included leading technicalexperts was created.

GRP is today recognised as a modelprogramme that promotes voluntary improve-ments in the environmental performance of

industry by using market mechanisms andcorporate reputation as its chief incentive.

Educating future leaders

In the early nineties, Anil wanted schoolchildren to be exposed to environmentaleducation that was holi stic in approach. In the1980s, due to increased publ ic awareness andinterest in environmental issues, environmenthad become a compulsory subject in schools,and in addition, there were a number ofvoluntary organisations involved in providingenvironment education. But these effortsprojected a conservation or nature-oriented

perspective on environment. Having been astrong advocate of an anthropocentric

perspective of environment, Anil was keento initiate a programme of environmenteducation that would inculcate a holisticunderstanding of the environment includingits social and cultural dimensions.

Anil initiated CSEs environment educa-tion programme as a unique programmethat teaches children about the linkages andcontinuities between nature and society; howenvironment is not solely about conserving

trees and animals; and, its importance as thesurvival base for the poor. The programmealso educates children about traditionalvalues and practices that ensure the frugal andsustainable use of natural resources.

Recognition and awards

Ani l was made chairperson of the wor ld slargest network of environmental NGOsbased in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1983 to 1987.He was also awarded the Fifth VikramSarabhai Memorial Award by the IndianCouncil of Social Science Research, NewDelhi in 1984, and the Padma Shri by the

Government of India in 1986. In 1987, theUnited Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) elected Ani l to i ts Global 500 HonourRoll for his work in the national and interna-tional arena. The Hawaii-based WatumullFoundation awarded him the HonourSummus Award.

These were just the beginning of a longlist of awards that he won for his dedication,courage and commitment to the causeof environment. In later years, he wasawarded the Padma Bhushan by theGovernment of India, the Norman BorlaugAward by the Coromandel Fertilisers Ltdand the Global Environment Leadership

Award by the Global Environment Facility,Washington DC.

50th birthday celebrations, 1997

an earthly journey

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