By Aashika Ravi
At 72, he considers himself “a card-carrying member of the budda party”, but Bittu Sahgal’s love for nature remains evergreen. With a prolific career as an activist, a writer, and most prominently the founder and editor of Sanctuary Asia, one of India’s pioneering wildlife and ecology magazines, Sahgal has contributed immensely to wildlife conservation in India. His initiatives to promote grassroots conservationists, engage the youth in conservation, and work with policymakers, scientists and ecologists have seen great success, transforming the conservation space for the better.
We spoke to Sahgal about how environmentalism has aged, why it's time for older generations to yield their space to the ‘bacha party’, and why we all collectively need to submit to nature’s indomitable forces.
Photo courtesy: Abir Jain
Sanctuary Asia is coming up on 40 years now. How would you say media reportage of climate change, conservation and the environment has changed in this time? What does it still lack today?
When we started we were openly called anti-nationals, the favorite was "You are CIA spies!" This is because our desire to protect the biosphere was perceived as coming in the way of projects that prevented India's GDP from rising. Today every child knows that protecting the environment ends up making India more healthy, more able to deal with climate extremes including floods, droughts and cyclones. But this is still not something that the parents and grandparents of most kids accept. What is lacking is the humility to accept that economists, bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians are not more powerful than the forces of nature. Call it ignorance. Call it arrogance. Call it avarice. Call it anything, but what is needed is the humility to accept that flowing against nature's tide is a war lost before it's started.
Photo courtesy: Sanctuary Asia
What would you say are the biggest threats to India’s wildlife today? Are we looking at potentially losing any habitats and landscapes?
The most serious threat is the belief that Homo sapiens has magical powers to escape the consequences of surviving alone, despite the loss of the myriad species we are purposefully wiping out. This is why we rationalize the destruction of valley forests, coasts, corals, grasslands, wetlands -- with all the wild species they have sustained down the millennia. Also the belief that protecting wildlife is the job of wildlife conservationists alone. The Indian subcontinent is in an extinction freefall right now. The species we are losing are in fact the 'maintenance engineers' of the ecosystems that keep us alive. Put another way, we are behaving like passengers on a plane demanding control of the cockpit because we paid money for the tickets.
Photo courtesy: Sanctuary Asia
Citizens are increasingly coming together to protect India’s biodiversity. What are your thoughts on the future of citizen movements? How can they influence policy effectively?
We are a planet in transition. Young people are aware of the dangers of declaring war on the biosphere that protects us. Remember the Vietnam War? Thinkers, philosophers, writers, journalists listened to the young and stood by the singers, dancers, musicians, poets, performers. This collective stopped the war. A similar collective of young women and men will soon replace their elders for whom business as usual is taken to be a birthright. Future citizen's movements will be led by young women, supported by young men... all working on nature-based solutions to repair our wounded biosphere.
You have been a big advocate for engaging the youth in conservation. What can young people in particular do to be heard, both at an individual and collective level? Has digital media empowered them?
I believe there are only two de facto political parties in the world today -- the 'Bachha (young) Party' and the 'Budda (elders) Party'. At 72 I'm a card carrying member of the Budda Party, but I'm unashamedly on the side of the young and am serving as part of the Resistance Movement fighting to prevent the greatest misadventure of all time — "Intergenerational Colonisation."
Photo courtesy: Sanctuary Asia
What are your biggest highlights from your career in conservation? In what ways do you feel the conservation space has changed in the years since you started out?
I realize my own insignificance. I do what I do because it gives me a sense of joy and purpose to work for the miracle that is life on Earth. I'm a communicator. I'm helping to change the human attitudes towards the biosphere. The average age of my constituency is 20 or thereabouts. They are being treated as ignoramuses by my generation, when in truth they are the reason we breathe. Yes the conservation space has changed, it's just that my generation is too ignorant to recognise that they are in the departure lounge.
This year has been a grim reminder of the consequences of our destructive ways — bushfires, COVID-19, cyclones, locust swarms. How can we tide this moment of reckoning to ensure we don’t go back to the way things were?
None of this was surprising. It's all meticulously documented. The development machines are being run by people drunk on their own power and imagined invulnerability. Business as usual, even slightly tweaked business as usual, is like an alcoholic with cirrhosis piously agreeing not to drink whisky anymore by switching to vodka. His liver is going to collapse, but he does not believe that.
We know that climate change will disproportionately affect low-income groups, women and marginalized communities. How can we ensure climate action is equitable and just?
It's a grave error to believe that climate change will disproportionately affect low-income groups. In the short run, yes, that will be true. But, eventually, the rich and pampered will be less able to survive in a climate-wounded world simply because they will not know how to survive with less. Meanwhile, those already low on the consumption train, will adapt better to circumstances where the rich have less power over their resources. I think happiness and safety will be experienced by those who learn to consume less. We should expect a lot of pain during the transition.
Finally, are there any new initiatives, or even existing ones that you are looking forward to? What Sanctuary Asia or personal initiatives should we keep an eye out for?
I'm looking forward to blue skies, clean rivers, lakes, seas and wetlands. More equitable distribution of resources. More humility and gratitude, less arrogance and ignorance on the part of Homo sapiens.
Photo courtesy: Sanctuary Asia
The Sanctuary Nature Foundation has one straightforward mission — to convince humans that the technosphere is subservient to the biosphere. That is the only truth that has any survival relevance, for the rich or poor, the god-fearing or atheists, for black or white, North or South. As initiatives go, we are working now to empower the young with knowledge, hope and trust in nature. From our Kids for Tigers educational initiative to our Mud on Boots campaign (see www.sanctuarynaturefoundation), we not only wish to leave our children a better planet... we wish to leave better children for our planet too.