Indian ecologist Madhav Gadgil learned from a young age the importance of respecting the rights of the least fortunate.

One of Gadgil’s most formative early memories was accompanying his father – an economist and statesman – on a visit to a hydroelectric project in India’s Maharashtra state. Deforestation was rampant in the surrounding areas and Gadgil’s father often questioned the trade-offs India was making.

“My father said to me: ‘We need this electricity, and we need India to progress industrially. But should we be paying the price, which is environmental destruction and suffering for local people?’” recalls Gadgil.

“This empathy for people, along with a love of nature, was imbued in me at a very young age.”

Such experiences shaped Gadgil’s approach to ecology. In a scientific career that has spanned six decades – taking him from the halls of Harvard University to the upper echelons of India’s government – Gadgil has always considered himself a “people’s scientist”.

His research has helped to protect marginalized people, promote the community-driven conservation of ecosystems, from forests to wetlands, and influence policymaking at the highest level.

Of the seven books and at least 225 scientific papers he has written, Gadgil’s landmark work, dubbed the Gadgil Report , called for the protection of India’s ecologically fragile Western Ghats mountain range in the face of growing threats from industry and the climate crisis.

For his vast contributions, Gadgil has been named a 2024 Champion of the Earth – the United Nations’ highest environmental honour – in the Lifetime Achievement category. He is one of six laureates in the2024 cohort.

“Science can help us find solutions to the devastating loss of nature our world is experiencing. Madhav Gadgil has demonstrated this for decades,” says Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. “His work has advanced conservation while demonstrating a deep respect for people and community knowledge, bringing to the fore lasting solutions for some of India’s most-pressing environmental challenges.”

Land degradation and disasters

Nearly a third of India’s land is degraded, leaving communities dangerously exposed to disasters. Landslides in the southern state of Kerala in 2024 killed more than 200 people in one of the region’s worst disasters in years. The rainfall that triggered the landslides was made more intense by human-caused climate change, while quarrying and deforestation may have weakened the affected slopes, according to a recent report by a global network of scientists.

The Gadgil report raised the alarm in 2011 about the negative impacts of unchecked development on the area. Commissioned by India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Gadgil and other scientists recommended categorizing ecologically sensitive areas across the Western Ghats and ensuring development is “environment-friendly and people-oriented”. The report has gathered significant media attention over the years, making a strong push for ecological protection in the region. The World Heritage Committee and the International Union for Conservation of Nature also reviewed the report’s findings when considering the Western Ghats’ nomination as a World Heritage Site.

While the area remains under pressure, Gadgil believes he has helped reframe the discourse around ecological protection and restoration efforts across India.

“Communities are exercising their rights to their land and natural resources. They are getting organized, and we must work with them,” he says. “We must continue along the path of inclusive development and conservation.”

That’s a well-trodden path for Gadgil.

Throughout his decades-long tenure at the Indian Institute of Science, where he founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences Gadgil has worked closely with forest dwellers, farmers and fishing communities , not to mention activists and policymakers.

One of his biggest achievements through the centre was the establishment of India’s first biosphere reserve in 1986. Gadgil carried out ecological reconnaissance in three states in the Western Ghats and recalls how he spoke and trekked with, and even lived among the forest communities in sacred groves.

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is now the largest protected area in India, and Gadgil’s championing of community-led conservation efforts and resource management has proved vital in preserving land and biodiversity in a region where habitat degradation and forest fragmentation have long been rife.

As a member of several government agencies and committees, including the Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Counci l, Gadgil was one of the architects of India’s Biological Diversity Act and involved in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 

With these laws, Gadgil has helped forest communities establish register to monitor biodiversity in local ecosystems. These also enable communities to take stock of and make best use of forest products such as bamboo, fruits, fish and plants.

In one village in Maharashtra, local conservationists found toxic chemicals discharged into a river were hurting fish populations, according to Gadgil. Several nearby villages agreed to ban the chemicals and the river’s biodiversity has since improved, he explained.

Some villages have also used the biodiversity registers to document the environmental fallout of quarrying and fight against the practice in court, the ecologist added.

“Positive things are happening in many villages, and it is heartening to see,” Gadgil says.

Inspiring India’s youth

Gadgil’s wide-ranging contributions throughout the years have earned him some of India’s highest civilian honours – including the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards – as well as the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Volvo Environment Prize .

Despite his storied career, Gadgil is not one to rest on his laurels.

Looking to the future, Gadgil has been mentoring village youths about their community forest rights while helping them to better understand their surrounding ecosystems.

He proudly cites the example of one boy, who was trained to take photos of plants and identify species with his smartphone. Local botanists saw an unusual flower he had posted online, identified it as a rare ground orchid, and published a scientific paper that featured the boy as a co-author, according to Gadgil.

Ultimately, the ecologist believes that technological advances and the increase in publicly available scientific information will inspire more communities to fight for their rights. That is critical, he believes, with India facing the worsening effects of the climate crisis.

In his early 80s now, Gadgil plans to keep pushing for the conservation of India’s most fragile ecosystems.

“I have the satisfaction that as a scientist, empathetic to the people, I have been able to do various things which have helped in changing the direction of what is happening,” Gadgil says. “I'm a durable optimist – and hopeful that this progress will continue to gather pace.”