"The maximum impact of the destruction of biomass sources is on women. The most striking thing we learnt during the preparation of the report, is that the women of India, who are largely left to fend for the basic material needs of the family, are more concerned about husbanding the environment."

State of India’s Environment — The First Citizens’ Report, CSE, 1982

"If we care for the poor, we cannot allow the Gross National Product to destroy the Gross Nature Product any further. To develop India’s ecological infrastructure soil and water conservation a forestation requires extraordinary levels of labour. No such calculations have been made, but I would conjecture that if a nationwide programme for ecological regeneration was undertaken, the country would reach a stage of full employment — a dream for all national planners."

The Fifth World Conservation Lecture: WWF-UK, London, October 8, 1985

"Only a nature that is useful to the millions, not for making millions, should be reestablished."

The Fifth World Conservation Lecture: WWF-UK, London, October 8, 1985

"India cannot survive without a low-energy, low-resource input urbanisation. These technology choices will be crucial in the 21st century. People have widely talked about alternative rural development — from Gandhi to Mao to Nyerence. But it has now become crutial that we also talk about — and implement — an alternative urban development strategy. Because if we don’t, nothing will survive in the villages of the Third World. The buck, therefore, starts with us… with people like me."

The Fifth World Conservation Lecture: WWF-UK, London, October 8, 1985