Tribute | Gadgil: Gandhian who moved mountains to save hills for future

Ecologist Madhav Gadgil's wiry frame clothed in baggy kurtas belied a steely resilience which sometimes bordered on nagging stubbornness. As the head of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), he would let other members debate and reason at the meetings over certain decisions. He sat intently, his bony fingers scribbling notes in his diary.

As everyone stopped talking, Gadgil would slowly have his way, speaking in a soft, measured voice and ripping through counterarguments with sound scientific statements. His acumen for numbers, fine-tuned by his background in statistics, often came in handy. "His reasoning was rooted in scientific truths. It wasn't easy to counter them. He was a combination of a trained ecologist with years of field experience and someone with a good grasp of numbers. He was a Gandhian who kept his cool no matter what," R V Varma, a long-time friend of Gadgil, who was one of the members of the WGEEP, told Onmanorama.

The panel members deliberated over 14 meetings after gathering insights from field visits across the Western Ghats in one-and-a-half years. It was a mix of people from diverse backgrounds and Gadgil always gave space for everyone. "He never ran a one-man show. Even when he was convinced about certain strict regulations, he would listen to other members," recalled Varma.

The panel enjoyed great support from the then Union minister for environment Jairam Ramesh. However, following a reshuffle, Jairam Ramesh was replaced by Jayanti Natarajan. When the report was almost ready, Gadgil wanted it to be known to the people, he wanted them to discuss and understand why control measures were necessary in ecologically sensitive zones. The Union government sensed trouble and dragged its feet on going public with the report. Gadgil was not the one to give up. He would pester the staff to arrange meeting with the environment minister, but that wouldn't happen. Eventually, a direction was passed to share the copies of the report with the respective states. In Kerala, there were still no signs of the report being published.

Gadgil, who seldom broke his calm, was growing slightly impatient. "He would tell me that some foul play was brewing. Once I walked straight into the chamber of the Kerala Chief Minister and asked if a report has been received. Oommen Chandy, then CM, said there was no such report. Finally, we had to make the officials at the Centre resend the report," said Varma.

In 2012, when Gadgil came to know that the Union Government had submitted the report in a sealed cover to the Mumbai High Court and pleaded that it should not be made public since it will hurt nation's developmental, environmental and scientific interests, he was aghast. He shot off a mail to an official with the ministry asking if it was true and sought clarification from the government asking on what grounds the Centre concluded that the report hurt the nation's interest.

The blanket ban on development in ecologically sensitive zones in Kerala triggered unprecedented backlash. Gadgil remained calm. V S Vijayan, another member of the panel, recounted the risks they took. "We thought of arranging meetings so that we could convince people. We planned one such meeting in Thodupuzha in Idukki district. There were threats if Gadgil arrived at the venue, they would break his leg. Gadgil was insistent. I had to seek police protection. When he arrived, he was surprised at the presence of cops. He made his way to the venue surrounded by policemen. He would not return until he had answered all the queries," said Vijayan.

He banked on a razor-sharp memory. During public meetings, he would be bombarded with questions. "He didn't keep a notepad. He had every question recorded in his memory, and one by one, he would answer them. Once, he went to a village in Maharashtra, camped there and took classes on the panel report. Within a month, the local government there wanted to implement the panel's recommendations. Such was his power of persuasion," he said.

Gadgil deeply felt for the environment. The Aranmula Heritage Protection Council had invited him as part of protests against the airport project. He arrived at the Aranmula Satram guest house overlooking the Pamba River. Gadgil walked towards the steps leading to the river and marvelled at the shimmering expanse ringed by trees. Later that day, he would travel to Chempanmudi in Ranni where a protest was raging against large-scale quarrying. The sheer depth of the quarries and the scars it left on the landscape shattered him. "He gasped in disbelief, looking at the huge craters and cuts across the hills. He spent a lot of time with the people there. He was genuinely moved," said K Haridas, who was the president of the Paithrika Samrakshana Karma Samithi.

Radhakrishnan Kuttoor, a former journalist in Pathanamthittta, said Gadgil had a way to connect with people. "There was a simplicity and clarity about him, which made people trust him," he said.

Noted environmentalist C Jayakumar, who had worked with Gadgil and researched at the Indian Institute of Science when Gadgil was the head of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, likened Gadgil to a lighthouse. "He was our guiding light in these turbulent times. He believed in the democratisation of ecological policies and knew that ecosystems cannot be confined by political boundaries. He didn't say anything unconstitutional in his report, but he was criticised. Even when we disagreed with his comments on hunting animals, he would simply nod. He had a great sense of clarity and conviction," said Jayakumar.