In relation to conservation messaging, two distinct approaches usually emerge. The primary is a celebration — showcasing the planet’s wonders, just like the comforting hen songs at daybreak or the life-giving shade of an historic forest. It gently reminds us of what stands to be misplaced. The second method, stark and pressing, holds up a mirror to humanity’s ecological footprint. It confronts us with polluted rivers, vanishing species, and the smog-filled skies of our personal making.
The Nilgiris Earth Pageant takes the primary method. It’s a celebration of the wildlife, meals, tradition, and group that the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve affords, balanced with the understanding that it comes with a duty to guard it.
Spanning over 5,000 sq. kilometres throughout Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala, the biosphere reserve is dwelling to a community of 5 nationwide parks and 4 wildlife sanctuaries teeming with numerous wildlife.
Organised by The Nilgiris Basis, an offshoot of Keystone Basis with three a long time of expertise in sustainable residing, the pageant has grown into an area the place ecology meets tradition. Now in its third 12 months, this four-day celebration (from December 19 to 22) is as a lot concerning the Nilgiris’ meals and heritage as it’s about sustainability and local weather motion conversations.
Nature stroll on the pageant
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Recent from the farm
On the third afternoon of the Nilgiris Earth Pageant, we arrive at Kikui Farms in Ooty to expertise the flavours of high-elevation natural produce and farm-to-table cooking with natural farmer and chef Vishanth Kumar. He greets us with a fermented Rhubarb Soda kombucha — salmon pink, fizzy, and frothing because it’s poured. Misty mountains body the scene, mingling with smoke from barbecue grills manned by Vishanth’s chef mates.
The unfold is unforgettable: sourdough pizza made with 90% complete grain wheat, dwell tacos, and a Badaga buffet with kale greens poriyal, gaasu gose (cabbage mashed with potatoes and peas), crimson rice, thupadhittu (lentil fritters), and berry tarts — all made with produce from Vishanth’s farm.
A Badaga farmer by heritage, Vishanth’s household has owned a 150-year-old tea property for the reason that Thirties. After working as a chef within the UK, he returned to India to advertise natural farming however struggled to vary native mindsets. He started rising greens commercially, creating veggie packing containers, and processing surplus into jams and scorching sauces. At present, he has a steadily growing provide community in Bengaluru.
“The natural motion isn’t simply non-chemical farming,” he explains. “It’s about creating residing ecosystems, buzzing with bugs, critters, and life varieties.”
Vishanth is one in every of many changemakers celebrated by the Nilgiris Earth Pageant. By highlighting tales like his, the pageant shines a light-weight on people redefining sustainable residing.
The Badaga thali on the pageant’s last day
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Closing-day celebrations
The ultimate day of the Nilgiris Earth Pageant seems like a end result, a celebration of concepts, group, and the land itself. Talks by Bablu Ganguly of Timbaktu Collective, Arshiya Bose of the Bengaluru-based Black Baza Espresso, and G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal contact on matters near the guts of this area: local weather activism, meals sovereignty, and biodiversity.
Bablu displays on his 45 years working in rural Andhra Pradesh. “The margins create the entire. With out the margins, there’s no centre,” he says. Arshiya speaks about her work within the espresso landscapes of the Western Ghats, the place she companions with smallholder farmers to advertise biodiversity-friendly practices. In the meantime, Sundarrajan shares his experiences of grassroots activism, together with his struggle towards ecologically dangerous tasks.
Sandesh Kadur after the screening of ‘Nilgiris: A Shared Wilderness’
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
A screening of Nilgiris: A Shared Wilderness, directed by Sandesh Kadur, transports us into the guts of the biosphere. The movie captures how animals like gaur and leopards, and even folks, navigate the delicate steadiness between nature and human encroachment.
Stalls dot the venue, providing a glimpse into the area’s essence. There’s wild fig honey from Keystone’s Aadhimalai, handwoven Toda shawls, and natural spices and greens from native farmers. Lunch incorporates a Badaga thali, a feast of crimson rice, fish curry, Kuthiravali rice venpongal, varaghu biriyani, keerai vadai, and kambu laddoos, served amid blooming yellow flowers.
Later, a standard Badaga dance invitations folks right into a circle that retains rising, a residing metaphor for inclusion and group.
Pratim Roy, co-founder of the Keystone Basis and director of the pageant, displays on its evolution. “The Nilgiris Earth Pageant began as a Wild Meals Pageant, and now it connects folks to the panorama and its challenges. It’s an consciousness motion rooted locally,” he says. He seems at a future the place the pageant deepens its ties to the land whereas inviting broader views throughout India.
As we drive again to Coimbatore, our cab driver shares tales of the wilderness. He recounts how wild animals — bison, elephants, and even a tiger — have sometimes blocked his automobile. Intrigued, we ask, “Don’t they assault?” He smiles and responds with quiet knowledge, “They by no means do something. It’s us who’ve encroached on their area. So long as we respect that, they allow us to be. And we must always allow them to be.”
His phrases are a poignant reminder that coexistence isn’t just an idea however a necessity.
Revealed – December 26, 2024 05:22 pm IST
