by Dr Suheel Rasool Mir
A tribute to Madhav Gadgil, celebrating his people-driven ecological vision, lifelong conservation work, ethical courage, and enduring influence on India’s environmental thought and practice.
Prominent people-oriented conservationist and field naturalist-ecologist Madhav Gadgil passed away on 7 January 2026, leaving his legacy and wisdom for generations to come. Gadgil, a humble scholar deeply immersed in the conservation of the environment and communities, always spoke his mind and heart for community-driven conservation. His approach to the conservation of nature and ecology hinged on the locale of socio-cultural and environmental milieu. He vehemently opposed the elite, capitalistic approach to conservation, which has evidently been wreaking havoc across environmental and societal configurations.
In reality, he constantly stressed balancing ecological protection with livelihoods, while rejecting top-down approaches to conservation and insisting on the involvement of people. He criticised development models that benefited a small chunk of people while degrading the environment at large and displacing indigenous communities, who are the true saviours of the environment. He worked closely with local communities and utilised their practical, experiential knowledge in the Western Ghats for over four decades. He also worked in the north-eastern states to highlight the biological diversity of those regions.
Given his close association with forests, rivers, and the earth, Gadgil played a key role in proposing India’s first Biosphere Reserve Project in 1986 and contributed significantly to the Biological Diversity Act, 2003, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Gadgil authored or co-authored seven books and over 225 scientific papers. His major works include This Fissured Land (co-authored with Ramachandra Guha), Ecology and Equity, and his autobiography A Walk Up the Hill.
Born on May 24, 1942, Madhav Gadgil has the credit of being the founding father of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, established in 1983. Under his auspicious leadership, the centre evolved into one of India’s finest institutions for research in ecology and environment.
He was against the thrusting of parochial and misaligned models of development and infrastructure upon communities without their involvement and consent, be it unplanned mining or polluting industries. He opposed development projects that strengthened the corporate sector, modern industries, bureaucracy, professionals, and rich farmers, often at the cost of the environment and local communities. From Silent Valley to the Western Ghats, from Goa to the North-East, Gadgil’s journey was relentless and deeply engaged with ecological realities.
Gadgil, the architect of modern Indian ecology, played a significant role in shaping India’s environmental policy over the last few decades. Throughout his work, one can easily understand “who we are” and what our duty and moral responsibility towards the environment is. Whenever the words ecology and environment come to mind, the name Gadgil is always there. His work was distinguished with prestigious awards and national and international recognition, including the Padma Shri (1981), Padma Bhushan (2006), Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (2015), and the Volvo Environment Prize. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2024) named him one of its Champions of the Earth, describing him as a “people’s scientist”.
Gadgil is known for his novel and creative approach to synchronising science with local wisdom, an attribute very few scholars possess. India, being a diverse nation, requires an equilibrium model of conservation, i.e., coexistence of scientific knowledge and indigenous wisdom, which is precisely what Gadgil left for us.
During my research in the Kashmir Himalayas, I always followed the Gadgilian approach of making peace with nature. For me, Gadgil is a ray of hope amid the ecological crisis we are facing, not only at the national level but globally as well. In 2015, I had a chance to meet Gadgil on the sidelines of a conference in Thrissur, Kerala. When I introduced myself to him, he smiled and replied, “Oh! You are from the real Himalayas, a truly organic mind.” We had a productive conversation, during which he wholeheartedly suggested ways to preserve the indigenous and ecological ethos of the Kashmir Himalayas. His intellect opened new windows in my mind and deepened my interest in working further on conservation.
India needs more Gadgilian minds when it comes to the conservation of ecology and environment. For me, Gadgil was a subaltern ecologist, developing his ideas from the ground. Apart from his magnum opus work on ecology and environment, he is also known for his contributions to democracy, human rights, and the Gandhian model of decentralisation. He was deeply concerned about the empowerment of local communities and was vocal in vehemently criticising government failures in disaster risk reduction.
Dr Gadgil’s insights into ecology were profound. His work on the Western Ghats remains a keystone for environmentalists. He is widely known for presiding over the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which developed a conservation model placing local communities at the core of ecological protection and sustainable resource management. As part of these efforts, Gadgil carried out extensive ecological surveys across three Western Ghats states. He walked through forests, developed close networks with local communities, and conducted intensive ethnography and participatory research with forest dwellers in sacred groves to gain a deep understanding of traditional ecological knowledge. He is also known for conceptualising People’s Biodiversity Registers, empowering grassroots local self-governing bodies such as gram panchayats.
He envisioned and highlighted inclusive democracy and governance not only for people but also for the preservation and promotion of a healthy environment and ecology. Gadgil was a true futurist, deeply concerned about impending ecological shocks and crises, many of which his predictions foresaw and continue to echo today. His intellectual courage, ethical precision, and intimate connection with nature and local communities shaped the environmental discourse of modern India.
PS: Dr Gadgil was a visionary ecologist, and his legacy will live on through his immense contributions to ecological science. This is a huge loss for the fraternity working on the environment and ecology, and for the entire country. Dr Gadgil’s work has inspired many young environmentalists like me. India needs honest conservationists and environmentalists like Gadgil to manage and study the ecological threats confronting us.
hazāroñ saal nargis apnī be-nūrī pe rotī hai
baḌī mushkil se hotā hai chaman meñ dīda-var paidā
“For a thousand years the narcissus has been lamenting its blindness; with great difficulty, one with true vision is born in the garden.”
May his soul rest in peace.
(Author of Cultural Encyclopedia of the Dard Tribe, Suhail is a trained sociologist. Views expressed are personal.)
