The Northern Western Ghats, or Sahyadris as they are called in Maharashtra, are under incessant attack from short-sighted human economic activities. That includes mining, tourism, dairy industry, and timber and non-timber forest produce.

This has short and long-run impacts like depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems, and loss of habitat. This has led to distress migration, mostly in search of work in the unorganized sector, and severe buildup of socio-economic stress on weaker sections of society – aged, women, children.

Mining falls within the purview of government policy. Tourism in the hill forests is directly facilitated by shifting of demarcation of protected zones, reserved forests, buffer zones etc., also a matter of policy. High-level engagement and strong, well-structured advocacy is needed to influence policy on these issues.

However, the milk industry is a well-hidden, but deep-rooted factor that is causing significant destruction in the Sahyadris. This, along with the demand for other forest produce, lies in the realm of livelihood, loosely
considered a part of ‘agriculture’ and therefore politically sensitive. The only way any meaningful impact can happen seems to be through enlightened public participation and a shift in current practices. This in turn can only happen through consistent and widespread public awareness.
Public awareness campaigns are typically long-drawn and need a lot of determined effort. The impact if any, is rarely quick and dramatic. Influencing public opinion is perhaps the toughest stage in any social change-making endeavor and hence not very popular among supporting institutions, who prefer acts that
will be easy to measure and quantify, that will make them popular among the target population, and give visibly pleasing ‘results’ in the short term.
The fact remains that public awareness is the very first mandatory requirement for any kind of further
movement towards change.