Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Forest

Questions and Answers

I. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.

Answer: Vandana Shiva learnt about ecology and ecosystems from the forests of the Himalayas.

Answer: A nonviolent response to large scale deforestation.

Answer: Landslides, floods, scarcity of water, fodder and fuel.

Answer: An evergreen shrub with leathery leaves and bell-shaped flowers.

Answer: Vandana Shiva spent her vacation doing pad yatras, documenting the deforestation and work of the forest activists and spreading the message of Chipko.

Answer: Village of Adwani.

Answer: Profit, resin and timber

Answer: Soil, water and pure air.

Answer: Navadanya.

Answer: Ecuador.

Answer: Bolivia.

Answer: Cormac Cullinan.

Answer: The empty land.

Answer: Raw materials and dead matter

Answer: Mother Earth.

Answer: Francis Bacon

Answer: Ecocentrism

Answer: Farmers, school children and people from across the world.

Answer: The A-Z of Organic farming and Gandhi and Globalization.

Answer: Tapovan.

Answer: Contest.

Answer: Compassion.

Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

Answer: At Navadanya Farm / Doon Valley

Answer: Earth Democracy.

Answer: Chipko Movement.

II. Answer the following questions in a paragraph of 80 – 100 words each.

Answer: Bachini Devi, along with other women-led a resistance against her own husband, who was a forest contractor. To show that these men were blind to the destruction of nature, they held lighted lanterns in broad daylight to open their eyes to make them realize that in destroying forests they were destroying themselves. Yes, they were successful in agitation and made the authorities realize their folly.

Answer: The author Vandana Shiva learnt about Biodiversity in the Himalayan forests. She used this knowledge to protect the biodiversity of farms. She started saving seeds. To promote biodiversity she started the ‘Navadhanya Farm’ in 1994 at Doon Valley Uttarakhand.

Through their efforts, they have conserved 630 varieties of rice, 150 varieties of wheat and hundreds of other species. She also promoted organic farming in 1987. They trained farmers at the farm and used it for the demonstration and cultivation of more than 3000 varieties of rice.

Biodiversity has helped in growing more quantity and nutritious food. It has helped in achieving food security. Because of biodiversity hunger, starvation and malnutrition have been reduced and as a result, human has improved and many diseases caused by malnutrition are reduced.

Answer: The earth University, Navadhanya conveys a democracy, which is the freedom for all species to evolve with the web of life, and the freedom and responsibility of humans, as members of the earth family, to recognize, protect and respect the rights of their species.

Since we all depend on the earth, earth democracy promotes the human right to food and water. The Earth University stands apart from other universities because teaching does not take place in a concrete building but in the natural surroundings of the ‘Navadhanya’ where participants work with seeds, soil and the web of life. The students are farmers, school children and other interested people. The two most popular courses are ‘A to Z of organic farming and Argo-Ecology’ and ‘Gandhi and Globalization’.

Answer: “Conservation of diversity “is the answer to the food and nutrition crisis”. Biodiversity conservation is very important to sustain our growing population. By conserving diversity, we can ensure the continuous supply of basic needs of living beings like food, water, shelter etc. If it is not conserved, a chain reaction of natural calamities will occur. If we go on destroying our forest, soil erosion will have happened and it can cause great damage to humans, wild life and their properties. Lack of forest cover will lead wild animals to the cities searching for food and lead to man-animal conflict. Forest cover is important for causing range. rains bring water to nurture forest and living beings. With enough water, we can grow enough food for our growing population.

Organic farming is a method to conserve biodiversity and for organic farming we need natural manure like cow dung, decomposed vegetation etc. So to get these we have to protect our cattle and the forests.

Organic farming promotes and increases the number of livestock and free manure. By organic farming there will be less wastage of raw materials, less pollution and more nutritious food can be grown and this will increase the health of human beings and conserve our natural resources. It will promote cooperation and peaceful coexistence of human beings and all other creatures.

Answer: Science and Technology and agricultural knowledge of ancient and modern times are being effectively used to conserve biodiversity. And biodiversity provides enough foods and fossils for our teeming population. To conserve nature, every nation of this world has to start cooperating with each other and should take drastic steps to prevent curbing and destruction of natural resources like forests, wild animals and human health.

Answer: Tagore says that India's best ideas have come from the forests where the man was in communion with trees and rivers and lakes, away from the crowds. The peace of the forest has helped the intellectual evolution of man and the culture of the forest has fueled the culture of Indian society. The culture that has arisen from the forest has been influenced by the diverse processes of renewal of life, which are always at play in the forest, varying from species to species, from season to season, insight and sound and smell. The unifying principle of life in diversity, of democratic pluralism, thus became the principle of Indian civilization.

Answer: Vandana Shiva’s involvement in the contemporary ecology movement began with the Chipko movement which was a nonviolent response to the large-scale deforestation that was taking place in the Himalayan region in the 1970s. During this period, the peasant women from the Garhwal Himalaya, having realized that the forests were the real source of springs and streams, fodder and fuel, declared that they would hug the trees, and the loggers would have to kill them before cutting the trees. In 1973, when Vandana Shiva went to the Himalaya to visit her favourite forests and swim in her favourite stream, the forests were not there and the stream had become a trickle. It was at this moment that she decided to become a volunteer. the Chipko movement. She spent every vacation doing Padayatras, documenting the deforestation, the work of the forest activists and spreading the message of Chipko.

Answer: Yes. The conservation of biodiversity is the right step to help the people overcome the nutrition crisis because bio-diversity works on the paradigm of Earth Democracy and democratic pluralism wherein there is freedom for all species to evolve within the web of life. As members of the Earth family, it is the freedom and responsibility of humans to recognize, protect and respect the rights of other species. This way we bring into play the principle of equity. No species in such an ecosystem appropriates the share of another species and every species sustains itself in co-operation with others.

Secondly, bio-diversity sustains democratic pluralism because there are diverse renewal processes of life always at play in natural ecosystems.T. T. They vary from species to species and from season to season in sight, sound,,, and smell. All the species live in perfect harmony. Thus bio-diversity paves the way for enrichment of the web of life leading to abundance.

Answer: Chipko Movement is a non-violent movement against cutting down trees in the Himalayan region. Vandana Shiva was inspired by the songs about forests taught by her mother in her childhood. She became a Chipko volunteer and took part in a 'Padayatras' to make people understand the importance of trees and forests. She was happy when the village women hugged the trees to stop the loggers from cutting them. She wrote articles on ecology in newspapers and magazines to spread the message of the Chipko movement. Indiscriminate cutting of trees led to landslides, floods and scarcity of water, fodder and fuel. Vandana Shiva wanted people to understand the value of forests and stop-cutting trees. Many women from the Himalayan villages joined her movement and became activists of the Chipko Movement.

Answer: Vandana Shiva says that she learned her first lesson in ecology and eco-system in the Himalayan forests which she later put to practice in her farms. Her ideas about bio-diversity and bio diversity based living economies prompted her to begin the Navadanya movement for biodiversity conservation and organic farming which she started in 1987. Later, in 1994, she set up the Navadanya farm in the Doon Valley where she claims to have conserved and grown 630 varieties of rice, 150 varieties of wheat and hundreds of other species. Based on these practices she tells the reader that the forests teach us union and compassion, principle of equity, and how to enjoy the gifts of nature without exploitation and accumulation and mutual co-operation.