REWILDING OUR WORLD AND OURSELVES
It would not be an exaggeration to say that wilderness spaces are far few left on our planet and getting ever more endangered and imbalanced. Trees are cut at an alarming rate and wildlife is in extreme peril everywhere. Yet, despite all the evidence around us, as humans, we seem trapped on a fast-paced road to destruction without the possibility to stop and restore our precious earth home.
Still, despite our relentless single-tracked pace, there are efforts being made in some places to ‘rewild’ and restore natural forests. ‘Rewilding’ means restoring a forest to the way it was before human intervention. Trees, plants, herbs, flowers, animals, water habitats, forest floor – all slowly rebuilt through human efforts to ‘undo’ destructive interventions. One can imagine, this is easier said than done.
Firstly, how do we even begin? One would need to understand an existent eco-system and estimate damage. Then, plan ways to restore, step at a time. Sometimes, it can take years before a place is brought back to its original state and even then one is not sure.
Even more importantly, one cannot ‘rewild’ a forest without also ‘rewilding’ ourselves in some ways. The two are related. This is a truly complex matter. As humans, we have inherited patterns of behavior from centuries of urban life. Even the sight of a natural being – insect, plant, tree – can seem an ‘inconvenience’ to be ‘removed’ on sight!
On this page, we will take up both aspects in a step by step manner.
ITHACA FORESTS ARE PRIMAL
Thankfully, the forests here have been untouched because of a series of unique historical circumstances. The original title ‘deed’ goes back to Emperor Aurangzeb who gifted it to a local ‘rajah’ for services.
The most striking feature here is ‘mixed’ foliage and diverse trees both of which make it highly diverse and resilient to variables. The forest bears marks of a timeless and uninterrupted growth – waves upon waves of succession have nourished it so each tree and each plant is the result of hybrid apex and fulfillment. The forest floor is a pile of moss and pine with layers of leaves and roots entwined. To walk into these forests is to enter an enchanted world.
These forests are in fact in seamless and connected flow to a range extending out for miles towards ‘Dhanolti’ and farther on towards Chamba.
In towards Mussoorie, they abut the ‘Woodstock School’ estates . As such, they form a seamless belt and function as a corridor for migrating wildlife from upstate in Uttarkhand and down to the Gangetic valley forests near Rishikesh.
Adjoining the sprawling ‘Woodstock School’ estate, this forest is encircled by trees on all sides. Here, undisturbed since posterity, one can observe the rich interplay between young and old trees in their full cycles of life. Each tree is part of an intricate eco-system that is dynamic and interactive giving way to waves of forests. Some varieties are found only here in these parts – such as the crimson himalayan rhododendron trees that explode into color at spring time.
There is also a rich diversity of wild-flowers that bloom in early spring and continue in waves until the end of summer.
Each flower seems to carry a special presence and fragrance that local Garhwali folks believe is healing for different ailments. Flower remedies are rather popular in these parts.
However, the custom is that there is special time of day for plucking a flower and permission is sought from the flower before doing so. The potency of the flower is then preserved.
Rhododendron flowers are especially used to heal ailments such as anemia, high blood pressure, insomnia and weakness. Rhododendron wine and juice is really delicious to drink. As well, wild roses bloom in lush vines. There are wild poppies, daisies, lilies, orchids and many other wild flowers.
Rewilding these forests has been exciting. Having walked their length and breadth many times, the staff and I began creating waterholes for deer and leopards. We then created a ‘list’ of observed plants and wild-flowers, birds, butterflies, bees and other wild beings like civets. If any plant seemed in ill-health, we carefully added soil and fertilizer. Sometimes, a slow transplanting was possible.
At night, we decided to leave the darkness intact – although lighting options exist, if needed.Trails for migratory animals are carefully left alone without interference.
REWILDING OURSELVES
The human aspect of ‘rewilding’ is a far more complex matter. We need to really understand how we have impacted our planet and ourselves from centuries of accelerated urbanization and industrialization. The toll that this taken on our own psyches and our ways of being.
SETTLERS ON A WILD EARTH
It seems that, as humans, we are all settlers on this land we call our earth – raised in cities, rootless, and alienated from the ecosystems we cannot avoid being a part of.
UNLEARNING AND RELEARNING
We would like to unlearn what we have been taught by a dominant urban culture, and in the process, we want to re-learn joy, connection, and wonder while embracing grief and loss in order to heal.
We want to decolonize nature, and in order to do this, we need to build a new relationship with the land and acknowledge its unconditional freedom. Only when we see that we are visitors here and part of a larger ecosystem that sustains us will we be able to live in a non-destructive way.
HOW DO WE GET BACK TO EARTH EDEN?
It can seem overwhelming to face our own alienation from the land, but we can begin by celebrating small ways as inroads to start filling the gaping void of urban excess by building meaningful connections and direct experiences.
When we realize for ourselves the ways that healthy plant and tree communities prevent erosion, or how some flycatchers and other small birds can only breed in deep forest, or how the presence of invasive junk trees can actually make wastelands richer, these truths are filled with a passionate and irresistible urgency.
They are not just abstracted facts to be either memorized or forgotten – they become part of who we are as living creatures in the world.
UNEXPERTNESS
One of the problems that comes up is a notion of pre-concieved ‘expertness’. Our conditioned urban minds create an internal pressure of ‘knowing’ – without this sense we feel a sense of failure.
Subtly and insiduously, one can have ideas about a forest, its complex realities and expectations about what it should ‘offer’ us. The idea of ‘expertness’ can be a barrier in connecting with the land, alienated from our own authentic experience.The strength of our relationships, both to each other and to the land is our capacity to listen…
We would like to build relationships as a listening community to forests and breaking from the haze of city lights. There could be nothing more enchanting than a walk through the forest at twilight or looking at stars from a lookout point.
RE-ENCHANTING OURSELVES AND WORLD
We want to re-enchant our lives. That spirit of enchantment will enliven ourselves and our communities. We are all connected to the land and, deep inside of us, that knowledge persists. It arises up from within when we are out in the hillsides of by rivers and seas. The wild brush that always push back at the city’s edges or press against our consciousness. These wild spaces beckon and interrupt our routines reminding us of what really matters in life.
Despite this, however, there sadly exists a riptide that drags us away from that vital connection. Society promotes and enforces a way of living that is quite the opposite of being enchanted with the land. We all get swept away for lots of reasons. What’s important is to make sure one can escape the daily grind – even if it is to run through the park, to laugh out loud into monsoon rains.Most likely you will find wonderful surprises, like that wild plants and flowers grow from the asphalt there. Or maybe just find time to stand outside the door, face warmed by the sun, observing a bird.
Such surprises open our hearts, eloquently reminding us of the amazing beauty and resiliency of the wild. Even when we return to work, the feeling lingers that we are always connected to that great web of life, that we are held by it and cared for.Re-enchantment is the word that best describes this sort of feeling and action. It’s about curiosity, enthusiasm, play, and a desire to share it all with others. We strive to have our thoughts and actions grow from this re-enchantment, and we think it’s contagious.
Because it wants to spread and be shared, re-enchantment is not a retreat. There is not enough wild space left for retreat to be an option, and attempts at personally escaping risk leave the needs of the land and of those most hurt by our relentless industrialization and colozation of the earth.
We feel an urgency to fight back, to hold the hard truths in our hearts even as we pursue beauty and richness.Re-enchantment is a sometimes difficult and always ongoing process. We need to take time to heal and nourish the connection to the land that we are all born with. We include the prefix “re-” before “enchantment” to celebrate and emphasize this.
Self-repression and alienation from the earth are actively beaten into us through forces like industrial education, mass media, and institutionalization. But we can break the spell by constantly fighting to remember, and to spread our enchantment like wildfire.For some folks, the weight of daily traumas and repression don’t leave room for much enchantment. Those hurt most by this culture of death are those who perpetrate destruction least and often have the least access to healing creeks and wise old trees.
We’ve often come to places where the forest suddenly ends to make way for a giant mansion – it’s a visceral reminder that easy access to healthy wild spaces is directly related to class and social position.When access to wild space is reserved for the most privileged, what is good for the health of those spaces comes to be defined by the powerful. And when the powerful define what’s good for the land, then it becomes difficult to build a movement for the health of the land that also challenges power systems.
Most modern conservation and environmental groups are tragically good examples of this: they embrace the logic of private property, policing, social control, and restricted access to protect pockets of wilderness in ways that are valued by elites.This leads to forests being seen as just another site of recreation and creates social and psychological barriers in addition to the material ones – “hiking” isn’t one of my hobbies, so why should I go to the forest?
It is important to leave our daily lives behind for a magical spell even if it is for an hour or a weekend. One never knows what one would find. Surprises open our hearts, eloquently reminding us of the amazing beauty and resiliency of the wild. Even when we return to work, the feeling lingers that we are connected to the great web of life, that we are held by it and cared for.
INTERCONNECTIVITY
Building relationships is rooted in the idea of radical interconnectivity. We are a part of the natural world, and our health is tied together with those of the creatures, plants, natural systems, and rhythms of the specific places around us. Humans belong to eco-systems, we depend on habitats, we inhabit watersheds – there is no separation between us and the land.
In fact, we seem to have forgotten where we came from and where we wish to return in our souls. What does it mean to have a real relationship with the land? It means we can trust in the authority of our own experience. Building a relationship is a powerful source of knowledge and wisdom especially in a culture that tells us to deny our own agency and to defer to experts.
It also requires engagement, actively seeking to deepen our relationships. Trusting the authority of our own experience doesn’t mean we need to be content with what little we have. It is a lifelong journey of learning, unlearning, and play.
And so we need to open ourselves to joy and humility. An ecological spirituality requires a playful spirit and the humility to let go of the need to know and have answers. Questions and wonders lead to more questions – our senses open to natural rhythms and we notice more details of the world around us. By emphasizing questions over answers, we deepen our relationship with the land without the baggage of being an expert. Seeking a connection with the land also means listening to its story. The history of a landscape is written on it.
Relationship building is much more than identifying by name. Its about close attention over time.
DEEP LISTENING
At ‘Aranyaka Upanishad’, we believe that Its far easier to offer critiques of our post-modern urban environments than to offer a genuine alternative. So, we have offered five simple principles for connecting with forests. These are:
finding our roots in relationships, ‘deep listening’, ‘urban ecology’, ‘re-enchanting’, and ‘unexpertness’.
At the core, we believe that each being is an energetic living force who is part of a complex and beautiful web of interrelationships. One can choose to be grounded in this truth, to connect with forests, and let the health of our communities guide
RECONNECTING WITH THE EARTH, OUR HOME AND SOURCE
We are all connected to the land and, deep inside of us, that knowledge persists. It rises up in us when we’re out in the scrubby wild meadows that are always pushing back at the city’s edges, or it presses its way into our consciousness, interrupting our routines and reminding us what matters.