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Tech transforming lives of people in tribal areas: Madhav Gadgil
Senior environmentalist Madhav Gadgil, on the eve of the release of his book ‘A Walk up the Hill: Living with People and Nature’, said technology is playing a big role in transforming the lives of people living in tribal areas
Pune: Technology is playing a big role when it comes to transforming the lives of people living in tribal areas. Today, they are not only maintaining good communication within the community but also sharing scientific information about their experiential and traditional knowledge of Nature,” said senior environmentalist, Madhav Gadgil.
Gadgil was speaking on the eve of the publication of his latest book “A Walk up the Hill: Living with People and Nature”. The book will be released on Friday, September 1, by eminent writer-historian, Ramchandra Guha, at a programme organised in Pune. For the first time, Gadgil’s book will be published in eight Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Konkani, Bengali, Malayali, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu apart from English.
The book is an autobiography which mainly focuses on scientific and policy work for conservation purposes, and Gadgil’s personal experiences in the course of his work. It covers different subjects on which Gadgil worked, including mining and its impact on Goa and other areas, Biodiversity Act, and The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP).
About the role of technology in transforming the tribals’ lives, Gadgil said, “Technology has made significant changes in the people’s lives. Earlier, the tribal community was scattered but with communication technology, they are now well-connected and united.” Technology has also resulted in knowledge sharing among the tribals. Gadgil went on to share an example. “In Gadchiroli, a Naxal-prone area, the Gond tribal community lives in different villages. They run gram sabhas and their livelihood comes from wood, flowers and fruits collected from the forest. However, they know only the Gond names of these items and are unaware of the market for them,” he said.
“A group of youngsters in one of the gram sabhas always shares pictures of local flowers and plants on a WhatsApp group. They had also approached me to find any botanist who could help them get the scientific names of the flora. Following no response, a boy in that group named Saduram Madhave came up with this Google Lens technology and started gathering information with the help of photos. While Saduram was unable to clear his Class 10 exam, a botanist from Gadchiroli College came forward after seeing the photographs online and helped him prepare a scientific paper on a rare orchid in the area. This truly remarkable transformation was brought about by technology,” Gadgil said.
Gadgil recalled his experience of the Bhopal gas tragedy which occurred on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
“When the tragedy occurred, I was a fellow at the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, and was staying at a guesthouse of the academy. There was this director of India’s biggest toxicology institute at the time. On the morning of December 3, we were having breakfast and talking about something. At that time, a senior technologist arrived and narrated the Bhopal incident to the director, which he said was very disturbing,” Gadgil remembered.
“He said things have to be kept secret as far as possible otherwise some spiteful people in the country would put an end to their developmental work. Many truths have been discussed about that tragedy, and the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Indian Council of Industrial Research were part of it. I witnessed how it started and how the authorities tried to suppress the truth,” Gadgil recollected.
Sharing an incident in which he had a narrow escape from elephants in the Nilgiri Hills, Gadgil said, “In the Western Ghats, the UNESCO established a biosphere project in 1986 which is now known as the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. At that time, I was tasked with preparing the proposal. For this, I scouted the area extensively. One evening, a student of mine, a local guide and three of us went to an area in Nilgiri called Mukurti. We thought that the elephants could not come there as it was a drop of around 1,500 metres.”
“After covering some distance, both my student and the local guide were tired and stopped at a hut even as I continued to climb up. As I climbed up higher, the place was enveloped by a dense fog. So much so that on my way down, I could not locate the hut where my companions had taken a halt. Suddenly, I saw a group of elephants marching towards me. Not knowing what to do, I climbed up the first tree I saw to protect myself from being attacked by the elephants. I spent one long and cold night on that tree. It was only when the fog began dissipating the next day that I dared to climb down the tree and made good my escape from there. Meanwhile, my student and guide had returned to the nearest base and informed the villagers about the incident. While they had given up any real hope of finding me, they still launched a search operation. However, I returned in one piece and their joy knew no bounds…” Gadgil shared.
