(Mar 23, 1952 – May 03, 2006)
Shrikant was born and lived his early years in the pristine town of Almora in Kumaon (then in north-western UP, now in Uttaranchal). After completing his high school, he came to Delhi University (Hansraj College, North Campus) to pursue his B. Sc. (1976) and then M.Sc. in Zoology (1978). His early exposure to life in the hills, and training in Zoology (entomology being a special interest), was to catapult him to a life of search to do things, and help and inspire others to make human conditions better. That was to set him to a life of travelling and work, across different parts of India (yes, Japan, Africa and UK too in all this) – not just different parts but deep into the lives of people in remote areas where governments would not tread, only NGOs reached out.
He chose to work in the areas of land and water management, in mountain environments and in tribal areas, on forest issues, environmental education, mining, tribal agriculture, vermiculture, eco-friendly livelihoods and income generation, traditional health-care… an endless list. Trained as a professional, he believed that working with people required human values, not a professional tool-kit only; and thus he was to work on building capacities to document, to train, to research, to network and create linkages, to market – and get people to make significant things happen, while being there somewhere in the background.
He worked with the Academy of Development Science, Karjat, Maharashtra, on a social and traditional medicine research centre for Raigarh District (1979-81), and other groups working out of Pune; contributed to the establishment of the Uttarakhand Biosphere Reserve, now Uttaranchal (1983-84); before leaving for Bastar (Madhya Pradesh, now Chattisgarh) to work with indigenous communities there on a socio-economic and natural resource management project for Sustainable Management (1984-89).
He worked on setting up of school and community environment education resource centre and action programme for mountain regions of Himalayan hill districts with Uttarakhand Sewa Nidhi, Almora, (1988-93); while helping Kassar Trust, Almora, with community-development and environmental awareness generation using hill handpumps and rain water harvesting in mountain environments (1989-95). He helped in setting the human and natural resources and information network on natural resource management and environmental organizations with ECONET based in Pune (1992-94); and was involved in helping Navarachana, a network federation of NGOs, community level formal and non-formal groups spread across Himachal Pradesh, in operationalizing natural resource management-based livelihood alternatives (1993 onwards).
He stayed and left like a migratory bird which comes back to its spawning and nesting site year after year…building many futures in many places.
Palamu District in Bihar (now Jharkhand) found in him an avid pragmatist helping develop a resource inventory for drought mitigation with TARU (1993-94); and soon after he was helping Samriddhi, a natural resource based economic initiative of women in Changar region of Himachal Pradesh (1995 onwards). By the early 1990s, Kachch discovered him when he went to assist Jan Vikas, Kachch, in building capacities of their staff and organization development, and in helping set up a resource and documentation centre for sustainable drought-proofing initiatives in Kachch region (1992-96).
His association with TARU saw him take up role of a promoter/shareholder and he served as director in the NRM and community development area since 1996 until 2005. His work included helping develop and assess water and sanitation, forestry and watershed and livelihoods programs in Gangtok, Madhya Pradesh, HP, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal, while providing crucial back-up in human management, training and organizational development support. At Keystone Foundation, he was almost an honorary founder member and promoter in 1993, and thereafter he was a source of continuing support – a frequent visitor (shifted base once there too for a few months), a colleague and friend to all staff, while helping growing flowers, fruits and worms; crafting water and land management strategies; rolling up sleeves to do projects, training and building staff capacity, and being … there.
His vast experience and network in the Development field since 1970s has been a nursery ground for us to imbibe, learn and draw inspiration from. He was a rare resource person in this field, a great colleague for us and our staff, and a friend in many of our personal and professional journeys.
Here was a man who lives in our words and deeds, reminding us of some of the core values that he cherished and lived out in his life time:
- Primacy of human values and relationships as a core of any organizational or societal existence and development
- Deep humility, search for knowledge and awareness of others and their sensitivities – unpretentious to the world; silently stubborn, uncompromising but no confrontation, deeply human
- Organic, natural and ecological basis for life
- Importance of small actions and experiments in demonstrating and igniting wide-ranging and pervasive changes (in contrast to large scale initiatives and large-fund programmes)
- Meticulousness, and attention to details on quality of thought, work and processes
- Personal Integrity, commitment and character
- Service of the under-privileged – “seva bhaav”
A rare meshwork that his life was, weaved by the finest of tastes, humblest of virtues, deepest of human concerns, and tallest of principles – inspires to imbue our work and life endeavours with his humane and people-centric spirit. A life so pristine that some fondly called him Shola-ji – after Shola, the pristine natural mixed forests of South India, no less after the Shola Fellowship of which he was one of the pillars.
One more thing and many faulted him for this: speak not loud, hurt no one, smile and infect others with a playful glee in your eyes. Time has flown by and it has been some years since Shrikant left us, on 3rd May, 2006. The last few years have seen so much happen that it has even left all of us wondering, at times, the impact of a person on so many friends. The decision to start a Shrikant Joshi Endowment Fund was spontaneous and the enthusiastic response has been a great positive forward.