Sunita Narain was born in 1961 in New Delhi,[2] and was the oldest of four sisters. Her father Raj Narain, who died when Narain was 8, had been a freedom fighter, and then established a handicrafts business. Her mother, Usha Narain, took over the business and raised the siblings. The income from the business provided the family with a comfortable lifestyle.[3][2] In 1979, Sunita Narain joined the student anti-logging activist group Kalpavriksh. she told Marcello Rossi of the Smithsonian magazine that this gave her a new direction in life, as she realised that "the crux weren't the trees, but the rights of people over those trees".[3] She completed her graduation by correspondence from University of Delhi (1980–83).[4]
Career
Sunita Narain launching the Harithkram eco-club logo (2014)
Narain began working with the Centre for Science and Environment, one of India's first environmental Non-governmental organizations whilst still a student at the University of Delhi, working with the founder Anil Agarwal.[3][4] Narain became the Deputy Director of the CSE in 1993, and was appointed as the Director in 2000.[3]
Narain, following the scientific consensus on climate change, attributes blame for the climate crisis to the fossil-fuel based economies of Western countries, and advocates that India should seek an alternative route to economic growth.[3] Under her leadership, Centre for Science and Environment exposed the high level of pesticides present in American brands of soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi.[5]
In 2012, she wrote the 7th State of India's Environment Reports, Excreta Matters, an analysis of urban India's water supply and pollution.
In 2016 Narain was named on Time Magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People.[6] Novellist Amitav Ghosh wrote for Time that "A paper that she co-authored in 1991 remains to this day the foundational charter of the global climate-justice movement ... Narain has also consistently opposed the kind of elite conservationism that blames environmental problems on the poor."[6]
In 2008 Narain delivered the K R Narayanan Oration[8] on "Why Environmentalism Needs Equity: Learning from the environmentalism of the poor to build our common future".[9]
In 2021, Narain was surveyed by TIME magazine.They conducted a survey amongst a variety of international experts to determine which potential interventions are most feasible and highest priority when attempting to stop a future pandemic. Narain expressed concern about the lack of priority for measures such as protecting ecosystems and modifying food habits.Narain cites environmental issues such as factory farming, air pollution, lack of access to proper sanitation and clean water as potential triggers for an increased spread of infectious diseases.
[11]
Personal life
Narain was injured in a traffic collision while cycling near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on the morning of 20 October 2013. Her bicycle was hit by a car while she was cycling to Lodhi Gardens from her home in Green Park. The car driver did not stop and Narain was taken to AIIMS by a passerby. She sustained facial wounds and orthopaedic injuries.[12] She was discharged 11 days later, after having reconstructive surgery on her nose, and two metal rods implanted to support her broken wrists.[13]
Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India's Water Harvesting Systems.[26][27]
The State of India's Environment, The Citizens' Fifth Report
Making Water Everybody's Business: the practice and policy of water harvesting.[28][29]
Conflicts of interest: my journey through India’s Green Movement (Penguin Random House India, 2017) was praised by reviewer Runa Sarker as "an excellent record of [Narain and the CSE's] efforts and the outcomes, and how it has shaped policy", although what Sarker felt that in some respects the book failed to address the complexities involved, and that how "the conflicts of interest deeper and wider than projected" in the book.[30]
Recovery of tigers in India: Critical introspection and potential lessons.[31]
^Agarwal, Anil; Narain, Sunita (1997). Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India's Traditional Water Harvesting Systems. ISBN818690607X. Archived 29 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^State of India's Environment, Volume 4, Anil Agarwal, Sunita Narain, Centre for Science and Environment (1997)
^Jhala, Y., Gopal, R., Mathur, V., Ghosh, P., Negi, H. S., Narain, S., Yadav, S. P., Malik, A., Garawad, R., & Qureshi, Q. (2021). Recovery of tigers in India: Critical introspection and potential lessons. People and Nature, 3(2), 281–293. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10177
