FORCES OF NATURE

S’well bottle, bamboo toothbrush, cloth tote? Check. But being a true ecowarrior goes beyond the VSCO girl starter kit. It takes science, empathy, hardwork and perseverance to be a change-maker. Meet the women showing us how it’s done.

- Neeti Mehra and Shalini Shah

PAMELA MALHOTRA, 67
FORESTER AND CO-FOUNDER OF SAI SANCTUARY, KODAGU DISTRICT, INDIA

In 1991, Pamela Malhotra and her husband AK Malhotra acquired 55 acres of land in the South Kodagu district of Karnataka to set up the SAI (Save Animals Initiative) Sanctuary, one of India’s first private reserves. Now, spread over 300 acres, it is teeming with flora, fauna and endangered species like the Malabar giant squirrel, king cobra, and the Bengal tiger. She has now created a multipronged strategy that has, at its core, an ecosystems services programme, where instead of paying the locals cash, they barter services that provide them with training in organic farming, supply them with honeybee boxes and promote native tree nurseries. “Organic farming makes more economic sense and it’s better for the soil, for water conservation and for promoting native trees,” she explains. “The bee boxes prevent crop-raiding by animals, especially elephants, who are terrified of bees, ultimately preventing man-animal conflict while providing an income from honey and pollinators for crops. By raising saplings of local trees, they can sell them to the forest department, government, individual landholders and businesses, who can then plant them to bring back denuded forests.” It’s a chain of interconnected activities. – Shalini Shah

SUNITA NARAIN, 58
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT (CSE) AND EDITOR OF DOWN TO EARTH, DELHI, INDIA