Travel Notes: John Bonine in India

John Bonine has worked to protect the environment through law for 30 years, first at the U.S. Senate, then at the U.S. EPA, and now as a law professor at the University of Oregon where he founded the Environmental Law Clinic. He is an E-LAW co-founder and a member of the E-LAW U.S. Board of Directors.

M.C. Mehta at his cabin at the eco-ashram. (Photo: John Bonine)

In February, Svitlana Kravchenko (E-LAW Ukraine) and I visited M.C. Mehta — perhaps the world`s most famous public interest environmental lawyer. Like every visit with M.C., it was exhilarating.

M.C. is building an "eco-ashram" in the foothills of the Himalayas. Svitlana and I were eager to see his progress and see where the sacred Ganga emerges from the mountains. We met M.C. in Delhi and headed north by car for six hours.

M.C. has long believed in educating as well as litigating, from his early "Green Walks" through Indian villages to the new eco-ashram where ancient methods of meditation are combined with hard-headed discussions and mutual enlightenment about what is needed to turn India away from environmental destruction and degradation.

Evening had fallen by the time we reached Haridwar, a Hindu pilgrim town with temples, hermitages and dharmshalas along the banks of the Ganga. We had dinner, then pressed onward, turning onto smaller and smaller roads in the moonlight, until our car lurched to a halt at the eco-ashram.

The staff took us down a trail to a guest cabin. M.C. cautioned that a previous visitor had seen a leopard and that we should be cautious. We awoke the next morning to the sound of ringing bells and chanting. We joined a ceremony at the Shiva Temple and gave thanks. After breakfast, M.C. invited us to plant our own trees. M.C. has planted more than 6,000 trees in reclamation efforts on his land.

The first eco-ashram training had recently come to a close. Mid-level business executives participated in a two-week program. "There is a great hunger for environmental education," said M.C. "We will continue to use legal tools to enforce environmental law. But after we get people`s attention, we can educate them."

M.C. has promoted environmental education for many years. In 1991, he won a case in the Supreme Court ruling that all schools in India must offer environmental education.

In the afternoon, M.C. took us to the town of Rishikesh, where the Ganga River emerges from the Himalayas onto the plains. M.C. has collaborated with E-LAW U.S. for many years in his efforts to clean up the river. A long-running case demands cleanup plans from every industry and municipality along the river. The Supreme Court has issued numerous orders and progress is being made, although slowly.

Pollution aside, M.C. said "Mother Ganga will wash away your sins." At sunset, we took a dip. We were upstream from industrial pollution but still kept our heads above water.

Later, in the center of Haridwar, we joined a ceremony where temple priests blessed small leaf boats filled with marigolds and oil lamps and set them afloat. "I have been working to get people to refuse the use of plastic here," remarked M.C. As the sun disappeared, a mighty clanging filled the air, priests swung buckets filled with flames, and people chanted.

As we looked around, we could see the rich and the poor, the mighty and the weak, all united in their devotion to Mother Ganga. "We must make environmental consciousness a part of our religious beliefs," said M.C. "The Ganga is at the center of our religion. What could be worse than defiling Mother Ganga by throwing pollution into her currents?"