Women presenting ‘green’ solutions
Sonal Aggarwal | Panjim
The Draft, in continuance of the International Women's Day celebrations held on 8 March 2021, profiles superwomen of sorts, from all walks of life, for a full week on till 15 March 2021
(Read all the Women's Week stories here)
For centuries, women have been playing an important role in social transformation and community development. An educated woman forms the basis of an educated family and an educated community. Like most countries across the world, India too has been facing the scourge of man-made environmental degradation. Rising pollution levels in the air, dipping water quality and soil contamination are affecting quality of life in urban areas.
These new challenges need innovative solutions and a grassroots approach. Women have, over the years, contributed immensely in eradicating social evils and preserving the environment. In traditional communities, especially among tribals, nature and its elements are worshiped. Women of the household have been the caretakers of the environment through such rituals and ceremonies.
In modern society, women are using ‘modern’ tools and skills to create environmental awareness. So, women from all walks of lives are not only advocating though legal and administrative processes to create change in law and policy, women scientists are designing ‘green’ products and technology and developing ‘sustainable’ processes and enterprises for a greener planet.
Unassuming green warriors
Karnataka’s 107-year-old Saalumarada Thimmakka is an Indian environmentalist who never planned to be one. She became an environmentalist by chance and received a Padma Shri for her contribution. The environmentalist could not have children, so she and her husband started spending their evenings planting trees and taking care of the saplings.
‘Saalumarada’ means rows of trees in Kannada. She has planted more than 8,000 trees including 400 banyan trees that were easily available in her village and protecting them on a four km stretch between Hulikal and Kudur. Thimmakka, with her husband, began grafting saplings from these trees and started planting them along the roads. In November 2020, she was awarded a doctorate by the Central University of Karnataka (CUK).
Indian poet and environmentalist, Kerala’s Sugathakumari has been leading the feminist and environmental movements in Kerala and was a prominent figure in the Silent Valley protest – one of the first environmental movements in Kerala in the 1970s. It was a crusade to protect the Silent Valley forest in Palakkad district of Kerala from a proposed dam over Kunthipuzha, a tributary of the Bharathapuzha.
She was the founder secretary of the Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation for the protection of nature. She was also very close to the tribals and worked closely with them to take their issues with the government. Highlighting the important of keeping the biodiversity intact for human survival, Sugathakumari would regularly talk to children to teach them about environmental biodiversity, rivers, ponds, groves, forests, etc.
Tackling the menace of waste
In Assam, in the villages surrounding the Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, plastic waste was a big problem. A native of the area, Rupjyoti Saikia Gogoi, devised a creative solution to the plastic waste problem by weaving it in traditional handlooms and creating daily use and home products such as table mats, handbags, door mats, etc.
Through her enterprising venture, Rupjyoti also trained women of nearby villages in the plastic weaving technique. Rupjyoti’s initiative has not only helped tackle the plastic waste problem but has also helped thousands of women earn a livelihood.
As an Assamese woman, she was trained in handloom weaving since childhood, a skill she used to upcycle plastic waste. She used the same weaving technique used in weaving bamboo by integrating plastic with cotton threads to weave on a traditional handloom.
Disturbed by the sight of waste lying around in her village, she thought of doing something. Trained in handloom weaving, a skill known to Assamese women since childhood, Rupjyoti uses the same technique used in weaving bamboo and integrates plastic with cotton threads to weave on a traditional handloom.
Annuradha Bhatt is an active member of Project Waste Management in Goa’s Assagao. An initiative by a local NGO, the project aims to tackle the problem of waste management. Owing to it being a tourist destination, solid waste management is a big problem in Goa due to lack of awareness and waste collection and disposal facilities.
Through this initiative, Annuradha generates awareness among the locals about waste segregation and proper and environmental-friendly waste disposal. She has been actively working to make the locals understand the importance of waste management.
Preserving biological biodiversity
A leading conservation scientist and environmentalist, Dr Krithi Karanth’s focus areas include researching on ways in which humans and wildlife can peacefully coexist. She has been working for more than 20 years in the area of wildlife conservation and studying the impact of human activity on the environment.
Dr Purnima Devi Barman from Assam is one of the most prominent environmentalists in India. Popularly known as Hargila baido, she has been awarded the Nari Shakti Purashkar by the President of India which is the highest civilian award for Indian women for her work as a conservation biologist.
Leading from the front
Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi and publisher of Down To Earth magazine, Sunita Narain is an Indian environmentalist and political activist. She’s also a major proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development. Starting her career in the 1980s, Sunita has been awarded the Padma Shri for her work.
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| Saalumarada Thimmakka |
In modern society, women are using ‘modern’ tools and skills to create environmental awareness. So, women from all walks of lives are not only advocating though legal and administrative processes to create change in law and policy, women scientists are designing ‘green’ products and technology and developing ‘sustainable’ processes and enterprises for a greener planet.
Unassuming green warriors
Karnataka’s 107-year-old Saalumarada Thimmakka is an Indian environmentalist who never planned to be one. She became an environmentalist by chance and received a Padma Shri for her contribution. The environmentalist could not have children, so she and her husband started spending their evenings planting trees and taking care of the saplings.
‘Saalumarada’ means rows of trees in Kannada. She has planted more than 8,000 trees including 400 banyan trees that were easily available in her village and protecting them on a four km stretch between Hulikal and Kudur. Thimmakka, with her husband, began grafting saplings from these trees and started planting them along the roads. In November 2020, she was awarded a doctorate by the Central University of Karnataka (CUK).
 |
| Sugathakumari |
She was the founder secretary of the Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation for the protection of nature. She was also very close to the tribals and worked closely with them to take their issues with the government. Highlighting the important of keeping the biodiversity intact for human survival, Sugathakumari would regularly talk to children to teach them about environmental biodiversity, rivers, ponds, groves, forests, etc.
Tackling the menace of waste
In Assam, in the villages surrounding the Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, plastic waste was a big problem. A native of the area, Rupjyoti Saikia Gogoi, devised a creative solution to the plastic waste problem by weaving it in traditional handlooms and creating daily use and home products such as table mats, handbags, door mats, etc.
 |
| Rupjyoti Saikia Gogoi |
As an Assamese woman, she was trained in handloom weaving since childhood, a skill she used to upcycle plastic waste. She used the same weaving technique used in weaving bamboo by integrating plastic with cotton threads to weave on a traditional handloom.
Disturbed by the sight of waste lying around in her village, she thought of doing something. Trained in handloom weaving, a skill known to Assamese women since childhood, Rupjyoti uses the same technique used in weaving bamboo and integrates plastic with cotton threads to weave on a traditional handloom.
Annuradha Bhatt is an active member of Project Waste Management in Goa’s Assagao. An initiative by a local NGO, the project aims to tackle the problem of waste management. Owing to it being a tourist destination, solid waste management is a big problem in Goa due to lack of awareness and waste collection and disposal facilities.
Through this initiative, Annuradha generates awareness among the locals about waste segregation and proper and environmental-friendly waste disposal. She has been actively working to make the locals understand the importance of waste management.
Preserving biological biodiversity
A leading conservation scientist and environmentalist, Dr Krithi Karanth’s focus areas include researching on ways in which humans and wildlife can peacefully coexist. She has been working for more than 20 years in the area of wildlife conservation and studying the impact of human activity on the environment.
Dr Purnima Devi Barman from Assam is one of the most prominent environmentalists in India. Popularly known as Hargila baido, she has been awarded the Nari Shakti Purashkar by the President of India which is the highest civilian award for Indian women for her work as a conservation biologist.
Leading from the front
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| Sunita Narain |
She has chaired the Tiger Task Force for conservation in 2005 and is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Climate Change and National Ganga River Basin Authority (which employ practices to clean the river). In 2005, 2008 and 2009 she was featured on the world’s 100 public intellectuals list generated by US journal Foreign Policy. Her focus areas include climate change, water conservation and resource management.
Eco feminist and Delhi-based environmentalist Vandana Shiva is known the world over for her efforts to protect forests. A Gandhian, she has organised women networks to conserve local biodiversity. The TIME Magazine identified her as an environmental hero in 2003. She is the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in Dehradun.
Eco feminist and Delhi-based environmentalist Vandana Shiva is known the world over for her efforts to protect forests. A Gandhian, she has organised women networks to conserve local biodiversity. The TIME Magazine identified her as an environmental hero in 2003. She is the director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in Dehradun.
She created Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity of living resources in 1991 through which more than 2000 varieties of rice have been conserved and 34 seed banks have been established in 13 states nationwide.
Maneka Gandhi is one of the most prominent and popular environmentalist in India. A politician and Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, Maneka has been a champion for animal rights. In 1994, she founded People for Animals, the largest organisation for animal welfare in India. She was appointed chairwoman of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) in 1995. She has filed Public Interest Litigations in the area of animal rights. Her PILs have achieved the replacement of the municipal killing of homeless dogs with a sterilisation programme (Animal Birth Control programs, commonly abbreviated as ABCs), the unregulated sale of airguns and a ban on mobile or travelling zoos. For her revolutionary work, she has received several prestigious awards globally.
Grassroots activist trigger change
A native of Chamoli in Uttarakhand, Gaura Devi came to prominence in 1974 when she organised the women to hug trees to prevent their cutting. She and 27 other women confronted the local loggers who were cutting the trees. The men of the village were hoodwinked and sent out of the village.
Gaura Devi was the head of the Mahila Mangal Dal at the Reni village. She and her women guarded the trees all night until the loggers surrendered and left. News of the movement soon spread to neighbouring villages and people joined in.
Women are leading from the front to fight the menace of pollution, preserve biodiversity and generate sustainable living alternatives.
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Maneka Gandhi is one of the most prominent and popular environmentalist in India. A politician and Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, Maneka has been a champion for animal rights. In 1994, she founded People for Animals, the largest organisation for animal welfare in India. She was appointed chairwoman of the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) in 1995. She has filed Public Interest Litigations in the area of animal rights. Her PILs have achieved the replacement of the municipal killing of homeless dogs with a sterilisation programme (Animal Birth Control programs, commonly abbreviated as ABCs), the unregulated sale of airguns and a ban on mobile or travelling zoos. For her revolutionary work, she has received several prestigious awards globally.
Grassroots activist trigger change
A native of Chamoli in Uttarakhand, Gaura Devi came to prominence in 1974 when she organised the women to hug trees to prevent their cutting. She and 27 other women confronted the local loggers who were cutting the trees. The men of the village were hoodwinked and sent out of the village.
Gaura Devi was the head of the Mahila Mangal Dal at the Reni village. She and her women guarded the trees all night until the loggers surrendered and left. News of the movement soon spread to neighbouring villages and people joined in.
Women are leading from the front to fight the menace of pollution, preserve biodiversity and generate sustainable living alternatives.
Support The Draft by sharing this story:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
