How does the general attitude towards environment issues there compare with Indians?
The ratio of the population that is highly environmentally conscious there is much greater than in India. Because of media and films, the awareness is built into the system. I have created a series of films for Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) on wildlife and environment meant for students in class V to class X. This awareness building is not so prevalent in India—there is more emphasis on textbook knowledge in schools. How would you compare the role of the state in the US and in India? In India, at the government level, there are so many other problems that the environment is just not on the agenda. For developing nations, so many other issues supersede the environment. But fact is that soon the environment will supersede all other issues. I have just returned from the North-East and was mesmerized by the natural beauty—birds like hornbill and green magpies; rhinos, tigers, hog badgers and gibbons. India has all this and 1.2 billion people. In the West, with such p
