Picture this: There was this society. It was clearing
forests for urbanization. Trees were being cut down for exports,
building and other commercial use. Lush green wooded areas became barren
lands in a matter of a decade or two. Winds and rain were causing severe land
erosion in the absence of ground cover. Modernization was considered important.
Losing trees was thought of a price paid towards that goal. It was a society
indiscriminately slashing its way to devastation.
No, I’m not talking about modern India or Mexico. This was
Ontario 100 years ago. It took a forest official
to wake the rest of the community to dangers of loss of forests and inspire
them to a goal of reforestation. And the
forester was Edmund Zavitz. He traveled and documented the effects of
uncontrolled deforestation. He picked the tree species that should have the
best chance to thrive and would redress the environmental balance. He lobbied his
countrymen that the future lay in tripling the forest cover by an ambitious
replanting program. His work checked a seemingly endless cycle of floods,
drought, forest fires and loss of ground cover.
A century later, Ontario is a lot greener than anyone would
have thought possible. It is mind boggling to picture the efforts it must have
taken a lowly forest official with a blue collar background to lobby the
officials and succeed. I’m sure many would have called him crazy in his times.
You can see their arguments – “with modern inventions, trains, ships,
automobiles why is this madman trying to protect trees? Who cares if some parts
of the country are barren? There is plenty of land to farm!”. Zavitz was a true visionary.
In his book Collapse, Jared Diamond argues that some civilizations have been better than others in spotting a decline in the factors (including environmental ones) that sustained the society and take appropriate responses. Those societies thrive, the rest face rapid declines.
Coming to the Indian context, here are my questions to my
friends, many of whom live in India, have a career related to geographical
sciences or have degrees in environmental sciences.
What will it take for us to acquire a ‘craziness’
such as Zavitz's and similar motivation levels? Are we using population and poverty as excuses to avoid
thinking about conservation? What will it take for conservation to be a
grassroots movement? What do you think of the conservation efforts in India in general?
References
- This post was motivated by a book, Two billion trees and counting. The book instantly got on my reading list.
- The iconic photograph of Zavitz on the skeleton of a tree from the same book.
- Mark Cullen’s article in The Toronto Star.
- Walnut Diary: The legacy of Edmund Zavitz.
