Political Causes for Environmental Problems: S Theodore Baskaran

NSoJ Bureau

“The root of all [environmental problems] is in politics,” film historian and wildlife conservationist, S. Theodore Baskaran said at the National School of Journalism.

According to Mr. Baskaran, politics and nature writing are intrinsic. “When a writer talks about nature, they must also talk about politics,” he said, while talking about how certain environmental changes are the effects of political decisions. For instance, forests and wildlife are often submerged and lost to make way for the construction of dams and other developmental projects.

“A writer is a writer even when [they are] not writing,” he said, “[they] experience things intensely, always observing, hearing, seeing, and smelling. This is also true for nature writing.”

Mr. Baskaran spoke to students about nature writing and its various dimensions. When a writer focuses on one aspect, their concerns are bound to expand, he said. “If you focus on a bird, you will soon be concerned about where it lives, and so on. In this way, the physical world will soon become your concern,” he went on to explain.

He also spoke about the various types of nature writing and how it is imperative for writers to be specific and detail-oriented. He told students to ‘kindle enthusiasm on behalf of the reader’ by using both scientific fact and imagination.

Mr. Baskaran believes ‘green literature’ plays a key role in turning one to the idea of conservationism. He also stressed the importance of writing about the environment in local languages in order to transform conservation into a people’s movement. “Not many of us know the Indian name of the dolphin, but remember, before the white man came to India, dolphins existed on our coasts.”

Staying true to the theme, he ended the talk with a haiku by the famous Japanese poet Matsuo Basho:

‘among the grasses

a flower blooms white

its name unknown.’