Two of a kind

India has lost two environmental crusaders who embodied the spirit of conservation

- K A SHAJI and MANOJ MISRA

‘The poet who spoke up for Silent Valley’ K A SHAJI

WHEN ASKED for her last wish, Sugathakumari told her followers to plant a banyan tree in her memory, but without anything written on or near it. “Do not even keep my ashes there. Let birds come and eat the fruits; that is all I want.” Such was her passion for conservation, that even critics found merit in her arguments for the environment. The poet-turned-activist was a leading light in Kerala’s environmental history.

At the age of 86, Sugathakumari succumbed to coronavirus (covid-19)-related complications on December 23, 2020, in Thiruvananthapuram, leaving behind a life of crusade and literary gems. Poetry and activism had become two inseparable forces that drove her work—the foremost example of this being the Save Silent Valley movement.

Second of three daughters, she was born to activist Bodheswaran and scholar VK Karthiyayani on January 22, 1934. She was already an established poet by the time the Silent Valley movement began in the 1970s—her contribution to the efforts to save the valley from being flooded by a hydroelectric project was a poem called Marathinu Stuthi (Hymn to a Tree). It soon became the anthem for the movement. Her commitment to the cause was such that a living memorial in her name has been constructed at Attappadi, near Silent Valley.

The environment often formed a major theme in Sugathakumari’s work. Here is one such poem, Rathrimazha (Night Rain), for which she won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award:

Night rain