The offroaders
If you ever thought that careers in environment were only about wearing lab coats, clockwork routines and 'petri dish' jobs, then consider to reconsider. Meet three dynamic personalities, who have taken up seemingly usual fields and turned them on upside down to prove that green jobs can also be a fun-filled enthralling experience.



ARTI GUPTA
English Scholar turned Wilderness Explorer

I work in a venture called Mountain Cruize. For the last sixteen years I've also been into environmental education and was a resource person for organizations like TERI and WWF. I quit my job with UNDP in Delhi and returned to Himachal Pradesh.

Initially after graduating in English literature I was going to be a teacher, but my love for adventure and wilderness led me to do this and I never looked back ever since.

What activities are included in your camps?
We organize various types of camps. We also do something called 'Leave No Trace' activities in our camps, which run on the principle of leaving minimum impact behind on the environment. We give teams rations of food and other camping essentials which they have to make do with till they trek to the destination. These camps give a firsthand kind of learning experience, and teach team-building over even simple exercises like building a campfire. What's been the highest point of your career so far?

I've been able to give my son and the rest of the family time and also focus on my work. Gradually we dream of making this venture into an adventure institute in the future. That, in my opinion will be a high point for sure.

What's your advice to other budding aspirants?
Firstly, choose the specific area of interest and then learn more about it. Another thing that helps is to explore the place where you finally want to be based in future.



GAURAV SHOREY
The Sustainability Guru

I work with an NGO called 5waraj (Swaraj) whose aim is passing on traditional knowledge and sustainable living in the Indian context. The five components that we absolutely need for sustainability that we work on are Bhasha (Dialect), Vesh (Dress), Bhajan (Dance & Music), Bhojan (Diet) and Bhavan (Dwellings).

What were you doing before you came up with this project?
I am by qualification, an architect.

I was working as a green buildings consultant in an organization called The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The idea for 5waraj came up when I was doing my research in Delhi on national level policies on how to make buildings green in India. It lead me to realize that the answer is not only in addressing only water, or only buildings independently; the answer lies in addressing all these five components simultaneously.

We needed to look within instead of outside, we want to blindly ape developed nations to catch up with them, but is it logically possible? It's important that we don't disconnect with our traditional knowledge in the process.

What are the activities that you carry out?
For now, we do workshops in schools and colleges and even for working professionals in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. Our aim is to make people realize that the language that they have been brought up speaking, the clothes that they wear, and the food that they have been brought up eating is what makes them what they are. One fun activity we do in our workshops for instance, is giving participants a three meter long cloth and telling them to design attire for another climate zone of the country without cutting the cloth but using knots and pleats.

In the long run, 5waraj can

ARISTO MENDIS & JESSICA LUIS
If you ever thought that careers in environment were only about wearing lab coats, clockwork routines and 'petri dish' jobs, then consider to reconsider. Meet three dynamic personalities, who have taken up seemingly usual fields and turned them on upside down to prove that green jobs can also be a fun-filled enthralling experience.

"The satisfaction you get from working in smaller areas and seeing the change is far more greater than working for the sole reason of money."

ARTI GUPTA only thrive by us going into the heartland of rural India and collecting information from them. Our long term aim is to reverse the trend of people leaving their villages and coming to cities by making them realize that what they are sitting on is a goldmine.

How do you link these goldmines of traditional knowledge to the urban crowd?

The key lies in languages. For instance, the Khasi dialect of Shillong has thirty words for rain alone, for different forms of rain like sleet, hail, and drizzle, flood level rain and so on. The problem is that in most states in India, what's being forwarded is either English or Hindi, which is entirely killing off dialects. Now what's interesting to note over here is that if you look at any developed country, they are very proud of speaking their mother tongue. And countries like France and Germany want us to learn their language.

Why don't we have a similar mindset?
One of our intentions is to open a school on languages, so if instead of say, French, someone wants to learn Khasi, or even Rajasthani or Haryani bolvis, they can just hop in and take a summer school lesson. We're looking at something that doesn't require heavy infrastructure or libraries. I only need one local person who speaks that language and can teach it to others.

You advice to people who want to strike out and do something like this?
You should be in love with what you're doing, not in love with why you're doing it. A lot of people are in love with the reason why they're doing something, "I'll get a lot of money", or "I'll get to go abroad", or "My parents will be impressed", is what one usually hears.

So you can get that kind of insight when you fall in love with what you do. It allows you to give a rat's ass about what the world thinks you're doing.



Dr. VANEET JISHTU
Adrenaline Junkie Botanist

I am a scientist working with the Himalayan Forest Research Institute, Shimla. I work as a field botanist and taxonomist in the cold deserts and forests of Himalayas. I am also currently working on the viability of an arboretum that's to be based near Shimla which will include about 150 native species from the region which will help the public get a look at the rich biodiversity of the Himalayan landscape.

How did you get into this field?
I had always loved the wilderness; trekking and photographing wild flowers. At a crucial point in my career came along Dr. G.S. Goraya who observed my interest towards plants and encouraged me to do more towards the taxonomy and identification of plants. I started going for field trips with him and other reputed botanists, which included scribbling down notes about plants and their descriptions and coming back to study the flora in depth. Now we can identify almost ninety-five percent of plants just by looking at them, all thanks to the extensive field visits.

What's been the high point of your career so far?
The high point of my career came around 15 years ago when I was nominated as a member of the "Multidisciplinary Committee to Monitor Environmental Safeguards" of the Baspa HEP- II dam of JP Industries.

What's your advice to other budding aspirants?
These days, parents lead their children in the well-towed line of civil services, doctors, engin/eers and so on. However, my advice to the younger lot would be to venture into unorthodox careers, which are more challenging and personally satisfying. If in any case you want to work in the environmental field, I personally recommend "Taxonomy". This is one field where there is hardly any competition, and off late there is a great demand for good taxonomists; because this subject is the basis of any environmental activity, both faunal and floral.