A posse of hawk-eyed policemen stood guard outside a packed conference hall at Thodupuzha in Idukki some time in 2013, watching over the crowd for signs of unrest.
The situation was tense outside as the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) had stirred up a series of protests across the State. Everyone at the venue was expecting some heckling or sloganeering to greet the chief guest of the day.
Clad in kurta and pyjama, the willowy Gandhian walked into the hall calmly. The chitchats and murmur in the hall gave way to heavy silence as he approached the podium. The audience was all ears as Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil began his lecture on the ecological significance of the mountain ranges of Western Ghats and the need to adopt sustainable development models.
