Recalling Indira the 'environmentalist' on her birthday

India's first and only woman Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi, lives on in history for a plethora of reasons -- the 1975 Emergency, the 'garibi hatao' (remove poverty) election campaign, Operation Blue Star, the 1971 Indo-Pak war, and so on. However, a lesser-known attribute about India's Iron Lady is that she was bit of an environmentalist too. On her birth anniversary, let us a look at the conservationist in her.

At a time when India and the world are increasingly understanding climate change and carrying out public demonstrations to safeguard the planet, Indira Gandhi initiated several pro-environment and wildlife programmes during her tenure as Prime Minister. She was talking about the environment politically at a time when it was a budding concern for only academics and activists.

In 1972, she delivered a speech at the first UN Conference on 'human environment' in Stockholm. In it, she famously mentioned how poverty in developing countries is a dangerous form of 'pollution' too and needs to be eradicated by uplifting those in need without perpetuating further harm to the environment.

In the following year, she launched 'Project Tiger'. The programme was launched with a particular focus on protecting Bengal Tigers from extinction, preventing poaching on the endangered animal, and preserving their natural habitat.

An ally of the Chipko Movement of the 70s, she barred deforestation in the Himalayas for 15 years in 1980 with the Forest Conservation Act, until the forest cover was restored completely. She was also responsible for declaring Kerala's Silent Valley a 'national park' after it was threatened by the construction of a dam on its river, Kunthi. She also propelled the Wildlife Conservation Act of 1970 which banned hunting wildlife in India and propagated the creation of numerous sanctuaries in the country.

While her policies were not completely free of controversy such as the question of forest dweller's rights clashing with the interests of 'Project Tiger', her involvement in spearheading the issue of environment conservation in the political domain when it was not in vogue is undebatable.