When news broke of the passing of veteran ecologist Madhav Gadgil, it felt like the loss of someone many urban Indians may not have met, but whose ideas quietly shape the air we breathe, the lakes we walk around, and the green spaces we hope our children will inherit. 

Gadgil’s work was never about distant forests alone. It was about people and the belief that nature can only survive if communities are trusted to protect it.

At a time when sustainability often feels wrapped in jargon and policy reports, Gadgil’s legacy offers something far more relatable: the idea that environmental care begins locally, with everyday participation.

Two of his most enduring contributions, helping establish India’s first biosphere reserve in the Nilgiris, and championing People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs), show why his thinking remains deeply relevant today.

In the 1980s, conservation in India was largely driven by exclusion. Protect forests, keep people out, that was the dominant thinking. 

Gadgil challenged this approach while playing a key role in shaping the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India’s first such reserve, which spanned Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and........

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