Banabai Kumre The agriculture department official told Banabai Kumre that nothing would come of her complaint of corruption, because he had already paid hush money to the district collector and the chief minister. So the septuagenarian did what she thought was best: She went to Mumbai and asked Maharashtra’s chief minister if he had received…
Category: True Story
017. Iqbal Masih: Child activist against bonded labour
Iqbal Masih Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, near Lahore, Pakistan. His family was poor and had borrowed 600 Rupees (less than US$5) from a local owner of a carpet weaving business. Iqbal, just four, became a bonded labour and was required to work for the weaver until the debt was paid off….
016. Rachel Carson and ‘Silent Spring’: The launch of the environmental movement
Rachel Carson If you have any interest in environmental issues, you would have read or heard about Rachel Carson (1907-1964). Her book Silent Spring helped launch the environmental movement in the US and elsewhere. She was a marine scientist, ecologist, and also an extraordinary science writer. Researcher and writer Growing up in the rural river…
014. Abdul Kareem: The man who created a forest
Abdul Kareem A mad idea? The story began in Kasargode District, Kerala, India, in the early 1970s. Abdul Kareem spent his savings for a piece of wasteland on a rocky laterite hill. The barren region had hardly ever seen water and was barely habitable. His family and friends thought he was out of his mind….
012. Wangari Maathai: Nobel Prize for Nature Conservation
Wangari Maathai started a movement that planted 30 million trees in 20 countries. She campaigned for women’s rights and greater democracy in her country. She defied a corrupt regime, was vilified and forced to leave her country for some time and even assaulted by the police once. Green Belt Movement Wangari Maathai studied in the…
010. Sadako Sasaki and the thousand paper cranes
Two-year-old Sadako Sasaki was living in Hiroshima, Japan, when the atom bomb fell on the city. Her house, which was about a mile from the epicentre of the blast, was destroyed. Her brother Masahiro and their grandmother were injured but, miraculously, Sadako and her mother remained unharmed. They escaped from the collapsed house and fled…
008. Bishnois: Protecting animals, conserving nature
The Bishnois of Rajasthan have been known for their concern for trees, birds, and animals. There is a legend behind this environmental sensitivity. In 1731, Abhay Singh, the King of Jodhpur, wanted large quantities of wood for burning bricks to build his new palace. He sent his Minister, Giridhardas, with woodcutters to cut the trees…
006. Peace Pilgrim: 28 years of walking for peace
For 28 years, Peace Pilgrim walked across the US and Canada, covering thousands of miles, carrying the message of peace. All through those years, she never used money. She wore the same navy blue slacks and shirt, tennis shoes and a self-designed navy blue tunic with pockets all around the bottom in which she carried…
004. Chico Mendes: Giving one’s life for the trees
The world knows him as a martyr, who died while preventing the destruction of the Amazon forests. Born in 1944 in the Brazilian Amazon, Chico Mendes earned his living as a rubber tapper. Besides extracting latex from rubber trees, the tappers also collected and sold minor forest produce like nuts, fruits and native medicines. As…
003. Julia Butterfly Hill: The woman who wouldn’t come down
The coastal redwood trees of California in the US are some of the tallest and oldest trees on the planet. They are also unique: they grow nowhere else. Yet they continue to be cut by timber companies. In the early 1990s, members of an environmental group called Earth First! erected a small platform and began…