I do not remember how I received India's first State of Environment Report published by the Centre for Science and Environment. Going through the content of the report, which went deep into the environmental crisis overtaking the continent-sized mass of India, it was obviously important to find out, "Who is Anil Agarwal?" Stereotype would have him as a trader, but here was a scientist, communicating complex ideas in a simple and effective style. Then. came CSE's second report, which covered many aspects of water development that engineers and social scientists alike were not sensitive to.
Anil visited Kathmandu before the 1992 Rio Summit to deliver a talk on global climate change, and he ferociously. questioned the iniquitous nature of the debate and the processes of negotiations. He knew his subject well. He ended his talk saying, "I sound angry, because I am angry." His forceful style and commitment did not diminish even as he battled a cancer he knew was bringing life to an end. After watching him berate Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair regarding their position on global climate change in Star TV early this year, knowing people in the far corners of South Asia would have said, "This is our Anil!"
Besides floods and forests and ground water and rural selfhelp, once he got hit by cancer Anil typically turned his personal tragedy to a learning experience for the rest. He homed in on the carcinogens in our modern lives, and provided seminal research on pollution, pesticides and fertilisers. Internationally, he was a strident voice on equity on global environmental issues. It was he and the CSE that introduced the concept of per capita pollution allowance in the climate change debate, stating famously, "Every human being has an equal right to the atmosphere. Industrialised countries have used up more than they have the right to, by pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution."
As someone dedicated to science, people and environment, Anil Agarwal was not just an Indian. He was the quintessential South Asian or Subcontinental, who thought not of nationalism but the quality of people's lives. His work was relevant to people everywhere, across India's expanse but also in the neighbouring countries. This was the reason why, even as the SAARC summit met to discuss the most narrow-focused, state-centric agendas in Kathmandu in early January, some of us got together to put out a condolence announcement in the Kathmandu Post, saying, "Once there was a South Asian…"