Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Lounge The purpose of the book is to stimulate conversations about ecology between communities between communities. (Getty Images) Summary of Martin Goodman’s new book ‘My Head for A Tree’, Chronicle The Fight of the Bishnoi Community, especially their crusade to save the environment we live in times of a polycrisis. Around us, newspaper headlines speak of changes in global geopolitical configurations, while global stock markets and investors strive for a rocky ride. The other environmental threats were discussed much less that threatened the horizon. We hear about climate change, although these discussions are certainly insufficient relative to the extent of the problem we confront. But it is surprising – even shocking – to see how little we are talking about the global biodiversity collapses that are going on around us. The world is in the midst of the sixth great extinction. A landmark 2024 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), written by 150 experts representing more than 130 countries, offers some sober statistics. More than 1 million plant and animal species are threatened by extinction-including 25% of well-studied animal and plant groups such as mammals and birds. Biodiversity received a short time during the pandemic locking period, when Nilgai entered Noida, Pauwes took over the streets of Coimbatore, and wild pigs ran the streets of Barcelona. For a short time, the Yamuna River stopped foaming in Delhi, and the waters of Bellandur in Bengaluru, who are notorious for the onset of his pollution due to contamination, turned blue after decades. But it was a temporary rest time. After the restrictions of the pandemic were lifted, society generally returned to business as usual, and our appetite for the driving force of economic growth in previously unexplored corners of the world has led to an accelerated impact on our ecosystems and ecologies. Also read: Book Review: Zahid Rafiq’s debut catches Kashmir’s invisible trauma -India is about 2.4% of the land surface of the planet, but contains almost 8% of the world’s species and four of the world’s 34 biodiversity hot spots. The human population of the country has been fourfold since the independence, from about 400 million in the 1940s, to 1.3 billion (and growth), with a parallel growth in the economy. How can we maintain room for more than 91,000 animal species and 45,000 plant species in a country where every inch of soil is valued and skipped? The IPBES warns us that “deep, fundamental shifts in the way people regard with the natural world and interact with the natural world are urgently needed to stop the loss of biodiversity and reverse and protect life on earth.” It is in this context that my head to a tree: the extraordinary story of the Bishnoi, the world’s first eco-warriors, becomes so important for us to read and think. Look at the full image of the cover of Martin Goodman’s ‘My Head for a Tree’. The book is the result of an extraordinary journey by author Martin Goodman with the Bishnoi communities, mostly based in Rajasthan, on a search for the learning and part of their inspirational approach to life and caring for nature. During a visit to Jaipur for a literature festival, Goodman – who taught creative writing at the University of Hull in England and wrote various books on the environment – with the Bishnoi community. On the visit, he was asked by the community to write about them during a meeting. Goodman was a well-known writer and university professor who wrote previous books on the relationship between people and the environmental perhaps, he speculated was why they chose him. The Bishnoi community asked him to share their story with the world outside, so that people could learn from their example and perhaps adopt some of their practices to make the world a better, friendly place for wildlife. Goodman does this with humility, aware that he is not a Bishnoi, but indeed a Westerner, an outsider. Through his travels, he is careful to put the voice of the Bishnoi people on stage, and to describe what he sees, but also let the community speak to themselves to the extent that is possible, given the limitations of distance – and the inevitable challenges that come from the perspective of an outsider. The book begins with the remarkable story of the Bishnoi wife Amrita Devi, who, along with her daughters Asu, Ratni and Bhagu and 359 other Bishnois, sacrificed their lives on September 11, 1730 to protect the trees of the Khejarli town in Jodhpur from the man of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. In another incident in 1604, Karma and Gora – two women from the village of Ramsari at Nagaur district Rajasthan – were beheaded when they emerged to protect the trees in their town. Goodman asks himself strikingly: Would I die to save a child? I hope so. Do I like trees? Yes. Would I die for one? Not yet. But who are the people who would? This is the story that wants to expose this book. In his travels through the desert, Goodman describes a fascinating complex of livelihoods, businesses and conservation -bishnoi schools that as animal rescue centers double, highway restaurants where members of the Bishnoi Tiger Force and their families hold a vigilance for Poache, Temples and the Woes of the Community, The All India Wildlife protection works for voluntary groups such as the Tiger Force, founded in 1999, which patrol the desert to identify and chase poachers. Also read: Manu Gandhi’s diaries shine a light on the deepest battle of Gandhi of famous actors allegedly caught poaching on professional hunters, the Tiger Force caught over 400 poachers and registered cases against them. In the process, more than two dozen members of the task force were killed. Yet the community continues its work. As Goodman describes, even Pushpa, the widow of Shaitanaram Singh Bishnoi, a young man who was killed by a poacher’s gun in 2016, is still actively doing what she considers to be her duty by the environment. Pushpa -back orphan Chinkara, with two young children to raise and remain just as dedicated to conservation as her husband. The book is indeed filled with inspiring stories of the determined women who participate as fiercely in the preservation as the men. The narratives are illustrated by a series of remarkable photos of Franck Vogel, making the landscape and its people alive. The Bishnoi was relatively successful in combating poaching, but greater factors of economic growth threaten their environment. Sand mining is ominous, backed by powerful political and economic interests that are difficult to fight. The Khejri tree, a locally -stupid species characteristic of the Thar — Desert and an important role in providing shade and feed, as well as helping groundwater recharge, is cut across the region for solar plants and other types of infrastructure. Electric power lines that span the dessert kill as much as 10% of the endangered large Indian bustard each year. And packs of wild dogs, fed by trash dumped by cities and tourists, attack vulnerable chinkaras and other wildlife. The Bishnoi cannot save the world alone – they need help. The purpose of this book is to inspire conversations between wider communities about what each of us can do in our own parts of the world, to start conversations and to stimulate changes in the mind. It is important to admit that it is not a scientific book on conservation, or a book that detects the bishnoi from an anthropological or sociological perspective. The author aims to talk to the Bishnoi vote and tells the story of their protection from a Bishnoi perspective. Goodman becomes more complicated and disturbing themes of child marriage, issues in the cupboards and vigilance, but has clearly made a decision not to delve into a depth-this is not the focus of this narrative, and it should not be judged on this basis. The purpose of the book is to bring us to this critical realization – we only have one earth, and we cannot give up on it. Not for ourselves, our children and grandchildren – or the birds, butterflies, tigers, rhinos, ants, spiders and other magnificent creatures that call this planet, our ordinary planet at home. Harini Nagendra is an ecologist and author, and director of the School of Climate Change at Azim Premji University. Also read: Rohit Chawla’s latest book deals with Goa, isolation and the company of dogs catching all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live mint. 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Book Review: Behind the Bishnoi’s Fight for Wildlife and Nature
