EVERYTHING I NEED TO

KNOW I LEARNED IN
FOREST
VANDANA SHIVA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
 Born November 5,
1952 in Dehradun (now
in Uttarakhand)
 Scholar,
environmentalist, food
sovereignty advocate,
ecofeminist, and anti-
globalisation author.
 Gandhi of Grain.
Deforestation and its effects…

Deforestatio Landslide
n

Floods
Water
The greatest impact was on
women…
 The women knew the value of
forests…

strea
ms
Food
for Fuel for
cattle
 Chipko Movement

SUNDERLAL
BAHUGUNA
“Chipko” was a non-violent movement…

The women declared to hug the trees…

the loggers will have to kill them
before killing the trees
In the Himalayan
village of
Adwani, 1977,
the resistance was
led by Bachni
Devi against her
own husband
who had got a
contract to cut
trees…
 When the forest officials
visited…

The women showed lantern to them

saying, “we have come here to teach you
According to forest officials… the forests
bear

Timber

Resin
The women sang back… the forests bear

Soil

Wate
r
Pure Air
“Sustain the Earth…and all She
bears !”
Beyond Monocultures…
“My Life’s
Mission Bio-diversity
Protecti
on of

Bio-diversity
based
economies
Monoculture : cultivation of a single crop in a given
field / area.
 Navdanya Farm
 Started in 1994 in the Doon
Valley
 A farm for demonstration and
training
 630 varieties of rice, 150
varieties of wheat & hundreds of
other species
 Promotes a biodiversity-
Navdanya Farm
 i o n o f
se r v a t
Co n i s t h e
ve r s i t y
bi od i f o o d
t o t h e
w e r
ans u t r i ti o n
an d n
cri s i s…
 Navdanya Movement
 Started in 1987, movement for biodiversity
conservation and organic farming
 Worked with farmers to set up more than
100 community seed banks across India.
 Saved more than 3000 varieties of rice
 Helped farmers make transition from
fossil-fuel based and chemical based
monocultures to bio-diversity ecological
systems nourished by the sun & the soil
 An agricultural process that uses biological
fertilizers and pest control acquired from animal
or plant waste
 Rights of Nature on Global
Stage
Rights of
Nature :
recognized by
Ecuador in
its
Constitution.
Universal Declaration of Rights of
Mother Earth

Intiated
by
Bolivi
 EARTH DAY - 2011

In April 2011, the United Nations General

Assembly (UNGA), inspired by Ecuador &
Bolivia’s resolutions on Mother Earth,
organized a conference on
“Harmony with Nature”
 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

The U.N. Secretary

General’s report ,
‘Harmony With
Nature’ elaborates on
the importance of
reconnecting with
“Ultimately, environmentally destructive behaviour is
Nature
the result of a failure to recognize that human beings
are an inseparable part of nature and that we cannot
damage it without severely damaging ourselves.”
 Eco - Apartheid
“Apartheid means
separateness. Colour based
apartheid of people in South
Africa has been put behind.
Today, we need to overcome
the wider and deeper
apartheid – an eco-apartheid
based on the illusion of
separateness of humans from
Cormac nature in our minds and
Cullinan, lives.”
 The Dead-Earth World View
• The war against Earth began with
the idea of separateness of humans
from Nature.
• Living & vibrant Earth was
transformed into dead matter that
only provides ‘raw materials’
• Monocultures replaced diversity.
• Terra Nullius replaced the idea of
 Terra Nullius vs Terra Madre

Terra Nullius: means Terra Madre: means

‘land belonging to no ‘Mother Earth’.
one’.
The Earth is not just
the empty land, a living entity but a
ready for occupation Mother who nurtures
regardless of the and nourishes life .
Origin of the idea of ‘Dead Earth’…

“Science and the

inventions that result
do not merely exert a
gentle guidance over
nature’s course; they
have the power to
conquer and subdue
her, to shake her to
Francis her foundations..”
 A Shift in perspective…

“This shift in perspective -

from nature as a living,
nurturing mother to inert,
dead and manipulable
matter – was well suited to
activities that would lead to
capitalism…. One does not
Carolyn readily slay a mother, dig
into her entrails for gold, or
Merchant
Philosopher & mutilate her body…”
Anthropocentricism vs Ecocentricism
 What Nature Teaches
 Need to shift
from the
paradigm of
nature as dead
matter to an
ecological
paradigm.

 The best teacher

is Nature herself.
 The Earth University

Earth Democracy:
freedom for all
species to evolve
within the web of
life.
Freedom & responsibility of humans, as
members of the Earth family, to
recognize, protect and respect the rights
of other species.
 The Earth University

Earth
Democracy:
translates into
human rights
to food and
water; to
freedom from
 The Earth University

Earth Democracy: a shift from

Anthropocentricism to
 The Earth University
Two of the most popular courses at
Earth University:
A-Z of Organic Farming
& Agro-ecology

Gandhi & Globalization

 The Earth University
The participants in courses at
Earth University:

farmers

children

People from across the

world…
The Poetry of The Forest…

The Earth University is

inspired by Rabindranath
Tagore’s Shantiniketan
which was started as a
forest school in West
Bengal and later became a
TAPOVAN (Forest of Purity)
In Tagore’s writings, forest was not just the
source of knowledge and freedom; it was the
source of joy, of art and aesthetics, of
harmony and perfection. It symbolized the
universe. The forest teaches us union and
compassion.
 Forest…
No species in the forest
appropriates the share of
another species; they
sustain in co-operation
with others.

The end of consumerism

and accumulation is the
beginning of joy of
living.

It is the forest that can

PREVIOUS YEARS’ QUESTIONS
1. Write a note on Navdanya Farm and Navdanya
Movement.

2. Bring out the importance of Earth Democracy as

Vandana Shiva states.

3. Write a note on the dramatic Chipko action

which held in Himalayan village of Adwani.

4. Write a note on Earth University mentioned in

Vandana Shiva’s essay.
 Compiled & Presented by
Dhananjay Kulkarni, M.A. B. Ed.
Lecturer, Govt. Pre-University College, Nirna [FF0105]
Tq. Chitaguppa, Dist.: Bidar