The Chipko activists have always been close to my parents, since my father was among the few forestry officials who supported them within the bureaucracy. And I was involved with the Chipko movement in my student days.

The best and most evolved technologies are those that do not destroy the very base on which we live

When you don't take into account the way ecological systems work, then you do damage.

Uniformity is not nature's way; diversity is nature's way.

It is time to learn from the mistakes of monocultures of the mind and the essentialising violence of reductionist thought. It is time to turn to diversity for healing.

The idea of engineering is an idea of mastery. And today the role that we are being asked to play is a role based on informed humanity.

We have to build movements in the face of trade retaliation on the basis of people's democratic rights, on the basis of an ancient heritage of collective innovation. We work from the grassroots all the way to the national government and the World Trade Organization. It basically means being very multidimensional in our campaigns. And that is where part of the fun is. It involves both resistance and creativity. It involves constructive action, while at the same time saying "no."