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The petit man with a Santa Claus beard walks jauntily onto the stage, belying his 80 years. Dr Erach Bharucha, adding one more accolade to the several he has earned earlier, is being conferred the Lifetime Service Award at the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards 2023. On receiving the citation, Bharucha humbly says, "To tell you the truth, I don’t deserve this honor.” But the spontaneous and thunderous applause belies this.

The Lifetime Service Award is the top-most recognition by the Sanctuary Asia Magazine of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation. Instituted in 2001, it annually honors Earth Heroes, those who celebrate nature, protect, defend and nurture it and are involved in research and policy making. The most recent Sanctuary Awards ceremony was held on December 1, 2023 at the Tata Theatre for the National Centre of the Performing Arts in Bombay.  

Poona based Bharucha, a surgeon by profession, has been a nature lover since his school days, a love fostered by his parents. Even as a full-time surgeon, he was deeply involved with nature organizations, as an environmental educationist and committed conservationist. While he was head of surgery at two hospitals in Poona, he was invited by the late Dr Patangrao Kadam, member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and founder of the deemed university Bharati Vidyapeeth, to set up its Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER) in 1994. Asked whether his medical training had ever been put to use in the wild, the gastroenterologist shared that he had on occasion helped veterinary surgeons in the field. 

Both Kadam and Bharucha believed that environment education should be at the core of the school curriculum. To this day Bharucha takes young school going children into the field to ignite the spark he believes exists in each one of us. BVIEER runs three graduate programs [Environment Science and Technology; Wildlife Conservation Action; and Geoinformatics (the science and technology which develops and uses information to address the problems of earth sciences such as geography, cartography, global positioning service, etc and related branches of science and engineering)] stemming from the belief that education in conservation must be introduced both at the school and college level. Bharucha’s association with BVIEER from its inception is legendary; he set it up (designing the green building himself), and considers it his greatest achievement. In fact, he rates it even higher than his contribution to environmental education involving schools, colleges and specifically teachers. He introduced geoinformatics in India and, being fluent in Marathi, runs classes on biodiversity and climate action for school students in the Western Ghats region. An alumnus of St Vincent’s High School, Poona he attended Nowrosjee Wadia College and later went to the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Government Medical College, also in Poona, where he eventually became head of the Department of Surgery. 

As a young boy, Bharucha had met The Bird Man of India — world-renowned ornithologist Dr Salim Ali. "At that time Ali was interested in the baya bird and I eyed his motorbike on which I was eager to ride. But this was only to be if I showed him new baya colonies,” the octogenarian chuckles. 

Another mentor was the Maharaja of Bansda who introduced Bharucha to the Dang Forest in Gujarat state, which was in his jurisdiction. Bharucha and his team were among the first to take aerial photographs of the forest in order to map it and also to specify its wildlife. Another naturalist who had a great influence on Bharucha was Jivanayakam Cyril Daniels, the first director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), an authority on reptiles, in addition to birds and mammals. Together they explored the sanctuaries of South India. 

In his acceptance speech at the awards function Bharucha acknowledged the role of industrialist and environmentalist Sohrab Godrej who influenced him to take conservation to the education system. The surgeon emphasized that integrating "environment education in schools and colleges as part of formal education is the need of the hour — especially conservation, biodiversity action and climate action (are a must) as are public awareness, education and communication. I have been to 111 national parks and have written on them. I like different ecological systems and teach them.” He has no favorites among the parks, no special national park, he says. 

Reticent about his personal life, Bharucha merely states that his wife is a homemaker, as is his daughter who keeps herself occupied looking after her son. His sister is a well-known piano teacher in Poona. We ask what his hobby is. "My work is my hobby,” is his clipped response. His terse response to the query of how he would describe himself is: "Nature lover. Committed. Importance of interconnectedness to nature.”

When asked what he would like to be remembered for he responds, "To simply be known as a good human being.” He explains that he wants neither his surgeon nor his naturalist appellations to be the deciding factor, but just to be valued for his beneficence. 

Bharucha was a key speaker at a seminar on "In Search of Well-Being — Decoding Economics and Rethinking Education” at Bhoomi College, Bangalore, a not-for-profit organization for "bringing people together for green wisdom and positive action.” The talk was widely covered on the internet. The lead organizers at this College had much to say, commending Bharucha as "an amazing teacher, facilitator. There is a childlike amazement of nature. Extremely knowledgeable, humble, lovable human being.”  Added another, "I can say many words about him — generous, down-to-earth, has infectious energy. An environmentalist to the core. A friendly person.”  Yet another  thought the Sanctuary Lifetime Service Award was well deserved as "he is truly Gaia’s (mother earth) child.” A speaker also described Bharucha as "difficult,” but added, "I really love this man.” The work Bhoomi College does is in sync with Bharucha’s vision for the future. The College "is committed to joining the younger generation to co-create meaningful and empowering learning environments to address the challenges for ecological and socially sane living on earth today,” the net defines its mission.

Passionate about all aspects of conservation, especially education, training, learning from indigenous people, students, anyone who is one with nature, Bharucha has been associated with practically every nature-centered non-profit organization in the country. He has been on the boards of the BNHS, World Wildlife Fund, Worldwide Fund for Nature and Wildlife Institute of India, among several other institutes. "Conservation, wildlife and nature are my strengths.” He will lend his expertise to any organization dealing with these. He has written five books on the subject, of which his latest, Wonders of the Indian Wilderness, is a set of three volumes. He has also authored textbooks on conservation and biodiversity as well as contributed articles to international magazines on the theme. 

Secular by persuasion, Bharucha avoids being typecast either as a liberal or a traditional Zoroastrian with his non-controversial responses regarding his Zoroastrian beliefs. He is eloquent on the aspect of protection of nature as a tenet of the faith. His take on the faith is that "Zoroastrianism is a great philosophy. In fact, it deals with nature.”