| tribute
THE VOICE OF INDIA’S LANDSCAPES
MADHAV DHANANJAYA GADGIL
Gurudas Nulkar
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Madhav Dhananjaya Gadgil, the man who taught a nation to read its own landscapes through the eyes of its people, is no more. On January 7, 2026, India lost a great ecologist and a tireless steward of India’s natural heritage. With a career spanning nearly six decades, Gadgil was more than just a scientist in a laboratory; he was a towering figure who bridged the gap between rigorous academic research and the gritty, vibrant reality of grassroots movements. To the readers of the Landscape Journal, Gadgil’s legacy is particularly profound. To Gadgil, a landscape was not merely a biophysical resource to be managed or a vista to be admired. He saw landscapes as fundamental to the existence of human settlements. Complex, historically rooted landscapes, he argued, deeply connect human cultures with their natural surroundings. His passing marks the end of an era, but his people-centred conservation philosophy lives on.
Roots in the Landscape
Born in Pune in 1942, Madhav Gadgil was grounded early in the intellectual and physical soil of India. He was the son of Pramila and the distinguished economist Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil. He was raised in a household that valued intellectual inquiry, and his school education was often supplemented by outdoor excursions. As a child, he was permitted to skip school to accompany the renowned anthropologist Irawati Karve on her field trip to study local communities in Kodagu. These early experiences taught him that understanding the land meant understanding the people who lived on it.
The renowned ornithologist Sálim Ali was a friend of his father, and Madhav’s fascination with nature was influenced by trips with Sálim Ali. He once told me that he could identify birds from Ali’s field guides before he learnt to read. Gadgil was a brilliant student and a star athlete at Fergusson College in Pune, where he played for Maharashtra at National events. This physical vitality helped him in his research, as he remarked that he was “never a roadside ecologist,” preferring to walk deep into isolated areas and meet with local communities.
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| CURRENT ISSUE LA85 |
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| tribute
THE VOICE OF INDIA’S LANDSCAPES
MADHAV DHANANJAYA GADGIL
Gurudas Nulkar
| editorial
LOOK AROUND, CHOOSE YOUR OWN GROUND
EMERGING LANDSCAPE PRACTICES
| emerging landscape practices: profiles
ANKUR JAJPURIA
STUDIO ASPIRE, JAIPUR
ARJUN SHARMA AND GAURAV SHETTY
GROUNDSTORY: LANDSCAPE + ARCHITECTURE, MUMBAI
BHAKTI THAKOOR
ENVIROSCAPE, MUMBAI
DEEPTHI C.B.
DHARITRI LANDSCAPE, BENGALURU
DHARA MITTAL AND NISHANT MITTAL
STUDIO 23N72E, AHMEDABAD
GAURI SATAM AND TEJESH PATIL
UNTAG ARCHITECTURE & INTERIORS, MUMBAI
HARISH VANGARA
IAMMIES LANDSCAPES, HYDERABAD
HEMALI SAMANT
HEMALI LANDSCAPE STUDIO, MUMBAI
HEMANSHU TANEJA AND ADITI TANEJA
STUDIO HA, JAIPUR
KAVITA KEDAWAT
EXPANSE STUDIO, JAIPUR
KRIPA K. BABY
THINKING HATS, CALICUT
NIDHI PARIKH AND NARENDRA MANGWANI
URBSCAPES, AHMEDABAD
NOOPUR SEJPAL AND ZUBIN PAREKH
SEJPAL AND PAREKH ASSOCIATES, MUMBAI
PARAS SAREEN
PARAS SAREEN & ASSOCIATES, JALANDHAR
PRACHI PANVALKAR
VOCAL HABITATS, BENGALURU
PREETANSHI SINGH AND SHANTESH KELVEKAR
READING GROUNDS, BENGALURU
SACHIN UBBARADA AND ADITI RAJ
STUDIO CONFLUENCE, BENGALURU
SANKALPA PATEL AND JAIMISH DHAMELIYA
SCULPTING GROUNDS LLP, AHMEDABAD
SMRUTI BALVALLI
NATURE NARRATIVES, BENGALURU
SUJOY DAS
INSCAPE DESIGN STUDIO, KOLKATA
VARNA SHASHIDHAR
VSLA, BENGALURU
| looking ahead
A PROMISING FUTURE
| landscape survey
CONTOURS OF CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE PRACTICE IN INDIA
A MANIFESTO FOR A PROFESSION IN FORMATION
Shilpa Bakshi Chandawarkar and Vyusti Agarwalla
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