November 19 is India’s only woman prime minister Indira Gandhi’s birth anniversary. Born in 1917, she became the country’s first woman prime minister in 1966 (1966-1977), and second time from 1980 till her death in 1984.
She is often referred to as the Iron Lady but had a soft corner for the wildlife and the environment. She took some landmark policy decisions to pave the path for nature conservation in the country, including the launch of Project Tiger and a series of laws for environmental protection.
Did you know that the Union environment ministry is housed in a building called Indira Paryavaran Bhawan in New Delhi?
This was because of her love for nature and her commitment to preserving wildlife.
After she became prime minister the first time, India hosted the IUCN (International Conservation Union) in 1969 where the tiger crisis was brought to the fore. This led to an immediate ban on tiger shooting.
Even as early as the 1970s, Gandhi gave a lot of weight to green matters.
In 1972, the Wildlife Protection Act was enacted which led to the formation of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks across India to strictly protect wildlife species.
She is often referred to as the Iron Lady but had a soft corner for the wildlife and the environment.
One of her greatest contributions to the cause of wildlife was the tiger conservation programme, Project Tiger, that she launched in 1973. She also batted for the protection of crocodiles, lions, cranes, bustards, flamingos and deer.
Project Tiger pulled the big cat from the brink of extinction (there were only 1,800 tigers left in the country). And thanks to that initiative, the population of tigers has doubled and there are now 3,682 tigers in the forests of India.
It was also when she was Prime Minister that the Indian Crocodile Conservation Project was established in 1975 to improve the habitat and encourage captive breeding of the reptiles. There was a 15-fold increase in the numbers of Saltwater crocodiles that went from under a hundred in 1976 to over 1,600 by 2012. The Marsh crocodile population has nearly tripled since 1989.
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 were also passed during her tenure.
In 1980, the landmark Forest Conservation Act was also passed. She also facilitated the establishment of the Union Environment Ministry in 1985.
Gandhi used her political authority to protect ecologically sensitive areas such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the entire Northeast and the forests in the Western Ghats.
Amongst her diverse environmental achievements was also the protection of the Silent Valley area in Kerala and its evolution into a national park.
The Chipko Movement which was launched in the 1970s to check deforestation earned considerable traction during her tenure.
The movement’s major success came in 1980, when an appeal from Sundar Lal Bahuguna to Gandhi resulted in a 15-year ban on commercial felling of the trees in the Uttarakhand forests. Similar bans were enacted in Himachal Pradesh as well.
