Ruth Padel

Your talk was titled Writing the Forest. 

When I first went into a tiger forest, it was like going into a poem. The forest is the image of biodiversity and the unique interrelatedness of every living form to another.

Poetry and science belong to two different worlds. How do you bring them together?

I don’t see them belonging to different worlds. Precision is what they have in common.

How do you see nature writing in the context of global warming?

Climate change is an important issue. As a writer, I can describe the forest and bear witness to it and thereby be useful to the conservationists who are fighting to preserve the forest.

Few poets today dwell on nature.

The trend is changing and there are very good poets writing about their local issues.

You’ve worked on tiger conservation. How do you rate conservation efforts in India?

There are good wildlife reserves and keen naturalists, the problem is with the implementation of laws and the structure of the forest service.

Do you see any solution to this?

The people living in the vicinity of tiger reserves are poor. It will require local solutions.

How should school curricula work towards sensitising children on nature?

India has a good environmental story. School curricula should include more nature literature.

What do you think of Indian nature writing?

I like the classic writings by Jim Corbett.

We know of your great-great-grandfather as an evolutionist. How was he as a person?

He was such a humane person. He was very funny and conscientious.

Nature writing has taken you around the world. Your most exciting destination?

There was a wonderful moment in Sumatra on a mountain top when we realised a tiger was around. She left a footprint over my footprint.