To trace the history of the world’s first environmentalists, you would have to visit the harsh desert landscapes of Rajasthan. India’s largest state, just under the size of Germany, is home to over 8,000 square kilometres of trees in a landscape that is mostly desert.
While the Romantic artists of the Enlightenment era are normally credited as the first environmentalists, the Bishnois of Rajasthan were saving trees long before it was cool to do so in Europe. In their legends, it began with a prophet named Jambheshwar or Lord Jambhoji, who, in the 15th century, had a vision of the real cause of a drought that was plaguing the region – human beings.
He saw people felling trees, feeding leaves to their animals, selling wood, and dying along with their livestock in the face of a brutal drought. Jambhoji started to feel that human beings would destroy the earth with their own power and that trees, above all, should be protected. Realizing that the harmony between man and nature was being constantly interrupted, he laid out a series of 29 commandments on protecting Nature. Almost all the commandments have to do with conservation – even the ones asking followers to abhor the colour blue (as the vegetable dye used to produce this pigment is made at the cost of numerous local shrubs).
Bishnoi, or bis-noi, is another word for 29. They are also called so for being followers of the Hindu deity Vishnu. They would also have been called so in the name of peace, as it’s said that Jambhoji was tired of the Hindu-Muslim conflicts over political power that were growing increasingly common over the years. They took leaves from other religions – adopting Muslim burial practices instead of burning wood in a funeral pyre – as well as a syncretic approach to bhakti (devotion) practices. The Bishnois do not take drugs or alcohol.
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