“Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest: Question and Answers” is a powerful and inspiring essay that continues to resonate with audiences today. It is an essay that can help us to think about our relationship with nature and our responsibility to protect the environment. Read More Plus Two English Question and Answers.
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Forest Question and Answers
Question 1.
How has the Navdanya movement helped the farmers?
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Write a note on Navdanya Movement
Answer:
The Navdanya movement is a movement for biodiversity conservation and organic farming which was started in 1987. They have been able to conserve and grow 630 varieties of rice, 150 varieties of wheat, and hundreds of other species. They have also worked with farmers to set up more than 100 community seed banks across India. They have also been able to save more than 3000 rice varieties. They also help farmers make a transition from fossil-fuel and chemical-based monocultures to bio-diverse ecological systems nourished by the sun and the soil.
Question 2.
Explain the idea of separateness as perceived by Vandana Shiva.
Answer:
The idea of separateness refers to the illusion that human beings and nature are different entities. Secondly, the Earth/nature is dead matter and human beings have the capacity to conquer nature, subdue her, and shake her to her foundations. This idea was popularized by Francis Bacon and other leaders of the scientific revolution. Further, it triggered many scientific experiments which culminated in new inventions and discoveries. These scientific inventions and discoveries served as the basis for the industrial revolution. Cormac Cullinan, a South African environmentalist, calls it ‘eco-apartheid’ and urges us to overcome it just like the apartheid in South Africa.
Question 3.
How does Vandana Shiva bring out the importance of ‘The Earth Democracy’?
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‘Earth University teaches Earth Democracy.’ Explain with reference to Vandana Shiva’s essay ‘Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Forest’.
Answer:
Vandana Shiva borrows the model of the Earth University from Shantiniketan, the forest school, which later became a university. It was established by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921. According to the writer, Earth University teaches Earth Democracy, which ensures freedom for all species to evolve within the web of life. It also confers freedom and responsibility on humans, as members of the Earth family, to recognize, protect, and respect the rights of other species. Earth Democracy is a shift from anthropocentrism to eco-centrism. Earth Democracy translates into human rights to food and water, to freedom from hunger and thirst.
Question 4.
How does Rabindranath Tagore highlight the importance of forests, according to Vandana Shiva?
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How, according to Vandana Shiva, has Tagore brought out the role of forests in Indian civilisation?
Answer:
Vandana Shiva opines that Rabindranath Tagore started Shantiniketan, a forest school, with a view to getting inspiration from nature and to create an Indian cultural renaissance. His views on the importance of forests are expressed in his essay ‘Tapovan’ (Forest of Purity). Tagore asserts that Indian civilization has been distinctive in locating its source of regeneration – both material and intellectual – in the forest, and not in the city. He states that India’s best ideas have come from the place where the man was in communion with trees and rivers and lakes, away from the crowd. He remarks that the peace of the forest has helped the intellectual evolution of man.
Next, he states that the culture of the forest has fueled the culture of Indian society. This forest culture has been influenced by the diverse processes of renewal of life, which are always at play in the forest, varying from species to species, from season to season, in sight and sound and smell. Finally, forest culture is a symbol of life in diversity. This unifying principle of life in diversity, of democratic pluralism, thus became the principle of Indian civilization.
Question 5.
How does Vandana Shiva describe the Navdanya farm?
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Write a short note on the Navdanya farm.
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Explain Vandana Shiva’s efforts to conserve biodiversity in the Navdanya farm.
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Write a note on the activities of the Navdanya farm.
Answer:
Vandana Shiva describes ‘Navdanya’ as a movement for biodiversity conservation and organic farming which she started in 1987. Later, when she realized that they needed a farm for demonstration and training, she set up the Navdanya Farm in 1994 in the Doon Valley in the lower elevation Himalayan region of Uttarakhand province. She states that they have conserved and grown 630 varieties of rice, 150 varieties of wheat and hundreds of other species. She also says that they have set up more than 100 community seed banks across India. She also claims to help farmers make a transition from fossil-fuel and chemical-based monocultures to bio-diverse ecological systems nourished by the sun and the soil.
Question 6.
Bring out the significance of the rights of nature as explained by Vandana Shiva in her essay.
Answer:
The United Nations General Assembly organised a conference on harmony with nature as part of Earth Day celebrations in 2011. This conference was inspired by the recognition given to ‘rights of nature’ by Ecuador in her Constitution. Much of the discussion in the conference centred on ways to transform systems based on the domination of people over nature, men over women, and rich over poor into new systems based on partnership.
The U.N. Secretary-General issued a report titled ‘Harmony with Nature’ in conjunction with the conference, in which he elaborated on the importance of reconnecting with nature.
Vandana Shiva suggests that at a time of multiple crises intensified by globalisation, we need to move to an ecological paradigm for which the best teacher is nature herself. The earth teaches earth democracy which means freedom for all species to evolve within the web of life and the freedom and responsibility of humans, as members of the Earth family to recognize, protect and respect the rights of other species. Vandana Shiva argues that since we all depend on the Earth, Earth Democracy translates into human rights to food and water, to freedom from hunger and thirst. It can be inferred that all forms of life existing on this Earth have the right to life and hence we should protect the rights of nature so as to sustain our life on the Earth.
Question 7.
Write a note on Vandana Shiva’s involvement in the Chipko movement
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Write a brief note on the Chipko movement that took place in the Himalayan region.
Answer:
Vandana Shiva’s involvement in the contemporary ecology movement began with the Chipko movement which was a non-violent response to the large-scale deforestation that was taking place in the Himalayan region in the 1970s. During this period, the peasant women from the Garhwal Himalaya, having realised that the forests were the real source of springs and streams, fodder, and fuel, declared that they would hug the trees, and the loggers would have to kill them before cutting the trees.
In 1973, when Vandana Shiva went to the Himalaya to visit her favorite forests and swim in her favourite stream, the forests were not there and the stream had become a trickle. It was at this moment that she decided to become a volunteer for the Chipko movement. She spent every vacation doing padayatra, documenting the deforestation, the work of the forest activists, and spreading the message of Chipko.
Question 8.
Trace Vandana Shiva’s childhood experiences that ted to her interest in Ecology.
Answer:
Vandana Shiva’s father was a conservator of forests in the Himalayan region. Naturally, Vandana Shiva lived and was brought up in forest surroundings. That is why she declares that whatever she knows about ecology was learned from the Himalayan forests and eco-systems. Her mother was a farmer and she used to compose songs and poems about trees, forests, and India’s forest civilizations. Thus, her parents and their profession undoubtedly shaped Vandana Shiva’s interest in ecology.
Question 9.
What are Cormac Cullinan’s views on eco-apartheid mentioned by Vandana Shiva in her essay?
Answer:
Vandana Shiva opines that separation is indeed at the root of disharmony with nature and violence against nature and people. She mentions Cormac Cullinan’s views on eco-apartheid in this context.
Cormac Cullinan is a prominent South African environmentalist. He points out that apartheid means separateness. He declares that the world joined the anti-apartheid movement to end the violent separation of people on the basis of colour and so they were able to end apartheid in South Africa. Cullinan suggests that we need to overcome the wider and deeper apartheid – an eco-apartheid based on the illusion of separateness of humans from nature – in our minds and lives.