Prakruti

Prakruti, is a civil society organisation formed in 1991 by supporters of Appiko/Chipko , a movement to
protect the forests by hugging the trees. The main objective of Prakruti is to work with forest dwelling
communities to evolve strategies to conserve the forests and securing the livelihood of forest based
communities.

Over past four decades Prakruti has launched several grass roots movements, including Save Western
Ghats, spanning six states across south India. These have been with the aim to conserve natural
resources and have resulted in change in policies.

One of the major achievements of Prakruti is of making the central government to work towards a
comprehensive policy on Western Ghats. Known as Gadgil Committee report, it calls for conservation of
Western Ghats as it is an ecologically sensitive area. The policy envisaged future action based on the
inputs from ground level Panchyat Institutions, a bottom up approach instead of top down model of
development. Unfortunately, these recommendations were rejected with appointment of another
committee led by Kasturirangan, which came up with a diluted version of the report to appease vested
interests and politicians.

The recent disasters of landslides across Western Ghats during monsoons are a result of the non-
compliance of the scientific guidelines for managememnt of the fragile areas of the Western Ghats; this

has cost hundreds of lives and damaged much properties and livelihoods. Despite these setbacks
Prakruti is committed to carry forward the work begun to initiate actions towards the protection of the
Western Ghats.

Under the banner of Save Western Ghats Movement Prakruti has been able to bring diverse
stakeholders under one umbrella to share their experiences and evolve strategies for conservation.

Prakruti also works with NTFPs, helping the forest communities like the Siddi, Halakki Vokkal, and Kunbi
to add value to forest produce, and building their skills towards sustainable harvesting of NTFPS. Prakruti
works to highlight the policies that lead to unsustainable harvesting of NTFPs and supports the
government to change these destructive policies.

Prakruti supports grass roots movements by providing skills and strategies to address the issues related
to natural resources management. The diversion of rivers, the building of mini dams, various
infrastructure projects that destroy forests are some of the issues that Prakruti takes up with the support
of local people who are adversely impacted by these projects.

The Save Honey Bees Campaigns launched in 1992 by Prakruti is one of the most successful
movements to conserve indigenous honey bees in tropical forest regions. In response to the call of
beekeepers from the Western Ghats, worried about introduction of exotic Apis mellifera into this region,
led Prakruti to emphasise the importance of local bees and build a strong base of young beekeepers.
These youth have shown a commitment to bee keeping across the region. An important milestone of this
campaign are the Honey Festivals organised over the last 22 years to celebrate the importance of bees
and their role in conserving biodiversity. Prakruti also concerns itself with the negative impact of
pesticides on honey bees, and the impact of climate change on bees.