CANOPY

  A lady working in her agricultural field, Sirmour, HP Women have always been an intricate part of traditional forest conservation practices in India. Apart from the feminine deities and Goddesses venerated in relation to nature and sacred groves dedicated to Goddesses, women have always lead the path of conservation. The ever-respected Amrita Devi led the villagers to save khejri trees from axe in a village of Rajasthan about three centuries ago. The Chipko movement in Western Himalayas saw momentum only with the participation of women in large numbers. There are numerous occasions when women exemplified the theory that forests are better protected by them. The feminine gender is always associated with compassion, care, love and benevolence. It is this very character of women that prompted communities to attribute feminine values to earth as Mother Earth and nature as Mother Nature. The definite connection between forests and women though conspicuous, is still less understood. ...

The DFO's coccoon Forests exist beyond the files. Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, yearly......mention it....all kinds of reports are sent to the seats higher up in the hierarchy and that too punctually. And these reports cover everything but forestry. Files – thin and fat – come in and go out. The DFO studies some of them and just brushes across the others before he creates an abstract sketch usually with a Pilot pen held between his weary fingers – the sketch is called as Signature. He is well aware that no one higher in the hierarchy would ever bother to go through the reports he sends so religiously. The higher offices are definitely large warehouses or sinks that can store or absorb all the A4 and letter sized papers produced in the Universe. But still he doesn’t depart from his meticulous paper works. Thanks to the ball bearing fitted extra large chair, he rotates and turns around – many times without a reason and at other times to give a glance at the compu...