Thread by @mdmadhusudan

Last week, one of the finest, gentlest humans I've ever known—Suresh Puttaswamy—lost his fight to Covid-19. His loss is devastating, not only to his family, but literally to tens of thousands of people with whom—and for whom—he toiled tirelessly, but quietly, his entire life …1

Although Suresh never received the recognition he truly deserved, he was a leader who cared deeply, both for nature and about people. His contributions to the conservation of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, and to the well-being of its adjoining villages, are, in my view, unrivalled …2

Growing up, Suresh understood two things well: hardship and nature. Dividing time between parents working on a tea-estate in the Nilgiris, and his grandmother living in a fringe village of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, he knew all too well what it was like to live on the edge …3

Our paths crossed when he joined us at @ncfindia in 1999. He'd just finished his Masters in Commerce and agreed to help manage our office while preparing for bank recruitment exams. But soon, when he stopped mentioning the exams, I knew he'd decided that he'd work with us …4

He learnt eagerly, worked hard and loved challenge. He quickly mapped out what our fledgling outfit needed and astutely read the differing abilities, limitations and quirks of our small team. He rarely brought problems for us to solve, and mostly solutions for us to consider …5

As we did fieldwork together—something he loved—I discovered his vast yet grounded understanding of how agricultural risk and uncertainty shaped the lives of villagers on the forest fringe, and how their deepening dependence on the park impoverished both community and nature …6

But Suresh was no ineffectual intellectual. He was already using his understanding to drive deep engagements with two key issues in his village: to improve regimes of rural credit, and to inspire and enable rural high-schoolers to pursue vocational and professional education …7

Although Suresh was a superb office manager, clearly this job only gave him means, not meaning. At this time, his early mentors, the filmmaker duo, Krupakar Senani and Yatish Kumar, a remarkable forester, were hatching an audacious plan for which they needed a co-conspirator …8

In 2005, Suresh left NCF to join Namma Sangha, a young NGO seeking to end firewood removal by the 38k families across 180 villages fringing Bandipur. Creatively enabling villagers embrace alternative fuels, they felt, would work better than coercion to halt fuelwood harvest …9

To this end, they found a myriad creative ways of crowdsourcing funds to make cooking gas affordable for villagers. They obtained volume discounts on gas stoves. They set up full door-delivery logistics for LPG in an underserved region. They became a most unusual gas agency …10

Suresh, with his deep understanding of the region, its conservation challenges, and his sensitivity to the hardships of villagers, spearheaded Namma Sangha's cooking gas campaign. Into this, he ploughed every dreary book-keeping and office management skill picked up at NCF …11

In between, we worked together again, this time on a community model of alleviating farm losses to wildlife. He helped organise distressed farmers into collectives that owned and managed communal solar electric fences, offering crop protection as a service to its subscribers …12

Today, Namma Sangha has helped over 40k families in this region get cooking gas. Barely anybody ventures into the forest to gather firewood. Time-series analyses of satellite imagery over this period shows how this effort helped Bandipur's northern fringes regain green cover …13

Suresh was the lynchpin of this effort. Not only did he enable this impact, he even managed to turn Namma Sangha profitable in the process. Yet he worried about how this profit—earned from converting adversaries into allies for Bandipur—could be used to make lives better …14

But sadly, we won't know what creative impulse this worry stirred.

Farewell, friend. I'll miss you. Your integrity. Your capacities. Your kindness. Your nasty digs at my weak tea. Your unwavering commitment to the idea that conservation can—and must—be fair and decent to people.