Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary
Rainforest Etiquette in a World Gone Mad
This is a talk offered by Suprabha Seshan.
Rainforest Etiquette in a World Gone Mad is based on two premises: that nature is primary and that the planet is in peril.
Suprabha draws on stories from her 20 years of experience in the forests of southern India, and the lives of plants, animals and humans she shares her mountain home with, as well as the environmental biography of their locality, the Wayanad. She invites an exploration of a life in community with non-humans and the two contrasting aspects of nature that ecosystem gardeners work with: resilience and fragility. The whole forest and its myriad beings can indeed return, but only when certain conditions are met and only with the right kind of help. This is critical: with the right kind of help, the whole forest, and all its beings, grows outwards again.
The awful truth is that 93% of the Western Ghats are already destroyed. The remaining habitats are fragmented badly. Her talk will call attention to the vital beauty of these mountain forests and their precarious toehold in an India that annihilates the environment as its technocrats push for economic might.
The questions that drive the Sanctuary's work echo through her presentation: What must we do to bring the forests back? What is it to listen to the natural world? What do the plants have to say? Whom do we love?
This talk is given free of cost to underprivileged groups and activists who work directly for nature. Interested universities and large institutions are required to pay travel and a bursary. On occasion the talk also raises support for the Sanctuary, as it did with KT Tunstall's musical event in London. For educators in Kerala, a double language version in English and Malayalam is offered.
If you would like to host this talk, please drop Suprabha a line.
Email: suprabha.seshan@gmail.com
Rainforest Etiquette in a World Gone Mad is based on two premises: that nature is primary and that the planet is in peril.
Suprabha draws on stories from her 20 years of experience in the forests of southern India, and the lives of plants, animals and humans she shares her mountain home with, as well as the environmental biography of their locality, the Wayanad. She invites an exploration of a life in community with non-humans and the two contrasting aspects of nature that ecosystem gardeners work with: resilience and fragility. The whole forest and its myriad beings can indeed return, but only when certain conditions are met and only with the right kind of help. This is critical: with the right kind of help, the whole forest, and all its beings, grows outwards again.
The awful truth is that 93% of the Western Ghats are already destroyed. The remaining habitats are fragmented badly. Her talk will call attention to the vital beauty of these mountain forests and their precarious toehold in an India that annihilates the environment as its technocrats push for economic might.
The questions that drive the Sanctuary's work echo through her presentation: What must we do to bring the forests back? What is it to listen to the natural world? What do the plants have to say? Whom do we love?
This talk is given free of cost to underprivileged groups and activists who work directly for nature. Interested universities and large institutions are required to pay travel and a bursary. On occasion the talk also raises support for the Sanctuary, as it did with KT Tunstall's musical event in London. For educators in Kerala, a double language version in English and Malayalam is offered.
If you would like to host this talk, please drop Suprabha a line.
Email: suprabha.seshan@gmail.com