NEW DELHI: Indian ecologist, Madhav Gadgil, has been named as one of the six ‘champions of earth’ from across the globe by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the year 2024. This is the UN’s highest environmental honour.
Renowned for his seminal work in the ecologically fragile Western Ghats region of India, Gadgil has been honoured in the lifetime achievement category for inspiring Indian communities to “exercise their rights and protect their ecosystems”.
“I have the satisfaction that as a scientist, empathetic to the people, I have been able to do various things which have helped in changing the direction of what is happening. I am a durable optimist – and hopeful that this progress will continue to gather pace,” Gadgil was quoted as saying by the UNEP.
The UN body, while announcing the list of champions of earth on Tuesday, said Gadgil has spent decades protecting people and the planet through research and community engagement, and his work has greatly influenced public opinion and official policies on the protection of natural resources.
Of the seven books and at least 225 scientific papers Gadgil has written, his landmark work, dubbed the Gadgil report, called for the protection of India’s ecologically fragile Western Ghats in the face of growing threats from industry and the climate crisis. The report raised the alarm in 2011 about the negative impacts of unchecked development in the ecologically fragile region. His suggestions have, however, not come to fruition due to resistance from states.
Six draft notifications over the issue of earmarking eco-sensitive areas within Western Ghats - spread over Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - have, so far, failed to notify the zones where environmentally hazardous activities can be banned.
“Science can help us find solutions to the devastating loss of nature our world is experiencing. Gadgil has demonstrated this for decades,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP.
She said, “His work has advanced conservation while demonstrating a deep respect for people and community knowledge, bringing to the fore lasting solutions for some of India’s most-pressing environmental challenges.”
Apart from Gadgil, this year’s laureates include Brazil's minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara; and others such as environmental leaders from the US (Amy Bowers Cordalis), Romania (Gabriel Paun), China (Lu Qi), and an Egyptian organisation, SEKEM, for sustainable agriculture initiative.
UNEP's Champions of the Earth honours individuals, groups and organizations whose actions have a transformative impact on the environment. The annual award has recognized 122 laureates for outstanding and inspirational environmental leadership since 2005.