A conversation on conservation

It is not often that someone strikes you as being different and original these days. Rarer still when you not only carry this impression beyond a longish conversation but are set thinking. I share part of the conservation with this thin, sharp eyed, bespectacled uncle below; one that focuses on conservation.

On being asked by a colleague if he did attend a, larger than usual, meeting organized at the village he said no. The enthusiastic colleague then brought in a couple of references to bring in clarity on the event. Oh yes, he said, but there was too much lecturing and so I just walked off. Then added that the meeting was doomed from the beginning itself. The colleague, now sporting a bewildered look, was then told that 3 people were given shawls as a token of respect and wherever this is done there is a group of people, usually few times the number of those receiving the shawls, wondering why they were not amongst those receiving! They often felt neglected and wondered what those who ended up getting the shawls had done. Most minds, as a corollary, were not attentive to the topic being discussed!

When I asked him about interest levels of people in the village on biodiversity values occurring in and around their lands he said all were interested but none was willing to do anything about it. This reminded me of a conversation with a meditation facilitator. Everyone wants to meditate but no one actually does it; it is somewhat like yoga, she had added. Ok, but would people be interested if we put in efforts? I continued. Every winter we have well-known names coming to give religious sermons (katha or pravachan); people come for these talks, appreciate, agree and have good food. The thoughts remain in their system only as long as the food does. The same may happen in your wildlife related talks; he clarified, just in case I had missed the point.

The conversation veered on to tea and he got offended when I offered to get it. Fuelled by tea, which he then got, the conversation moved on. I often wonder what would happen to so many of our conversations if tea suddenly went missing from our lives. As we enjoyed the tea on that late winter morning I caressed the banyan tree with my free hand and moved randomly but slowly within the endearing circle it created. I was, once again, reminded of how Vadodara once had enough of these to have got its name from them: vad (banyan). Today, sadly only a few remain.

How much the forest department is co-operating, I continued, hoping for the tone to turn towards the positive. Digging pits and not even bothering to plant saplings in pits other than the few touching the road and a result visible to superiors during their driving visits was the answer! What about other institutions in the village? Will they join hands? The micro-finance groups are too focused on money and, he added with winking eyes, they may ask money to plant and save trees! They have, in other words, all learnt to talk in the language that the people from outside want to hear of them.

He moved on to how people were in a rush to get and accumulate more and more, without knowing why? Farmers, for example, stretched their fields taking away – in the process – areas smaller species could have made use of. However, unlike others I have interacted, he was not hyper critical of today’s youth. The previous generation is to be equally blamed he said! I wondered if it was all, at the crux, about being in THE race. Can we blame them for not doing enough for ecology when we keep using multiple forms of energy in our race for more projects, more publications, more proposals, more meetings and more reports I wondered.

Later during the day I asked 3 people of the uncle and each of them stated that he was one of the few who spoke truth even when it was unpleasant, credited him for what little biodiversity remained in the village and added that after him the trees and birds may not survive long!