A festival to promote green literature 

The 3rd edition of India’s first Green Literature Festival (GLF), a forum for all forms of eco-literature, will be held at the Century Club, Cubbon Park, this weekend. The festival, which will host more than 20 authors, over a dozen stalls on sustainable products and several workshops, hopes to drive “more informed and deeper conversations around important issues,” says Greenlitfest’s founder Benedict Paramanand.

The 3rd edition of India’s first Green Literature Festival (GLF), a forum for all forms of eco-literature, will be held at the Century Club, Cubbon Park, this weekend. The festival, which will host more than 20 authors, over a dozen stalls on sustainable products and several workshops, hopes to drive “more informed and deeper conversations around important issues,” says Greenlitfest’s founder Benedict Paramanand.

As the festival release points out, GLF is a response to the urgent need for literature that helps us comprehend our relationship with the planet, mend the broken bits, and promote love and care for the climate through positive climate action. “We believe that these conversations will lead to people taking action and influencing policy,” he says. 

The festival, which kicks off at 10 a.m. on November 25, will have the inaugural keynote delivered by Dr. Ullas Karanth, Founder and Emeritus Director, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bengaluru. This is followed by a session titled Mega Mammal Myopia: Looking Past the BIG Stars of Conservation, which focuses on the need to drive a more holistic conservation narrative in the country. Often, too often, conservation focuses on large, charismatic mammals, as Benedict points out, leaving other organisations in an ecosystem neglected. “Plants and other fauna are also part of the whole system and need to be taken care of and preserved,” says Benedict 

Some of the other sessions will look into green entrepreneurship, cinematic storytelling, the business of green books, how the loss of landscapes impacts livelihoods and graphic narratives, among other offerings There will also be a series of workshops and master classes conducted by noted writers and educators as well as some interactive sessions for children. Another festival highlight is the GLF Honour Book Awards, which celebrates environmental writing across three categories-- business, general fiction and non-fiction, and children—the first of its kind in the country. 

The partners for the event, which is supported by The Habitats Trust and The Rainmatter Foundation, include WWF India, India Climate Collaborative, the Rainmatter Foundation, Indian Youth Climate Network, ASLE, Books on the Delhi Metro, The Earth Book Club and Funky Rainbow. Talking about the effectiveness of literature in driving a conservation narrative, Rushikesh Chavan, who heads The Habitats Trust, firmly believes that it opens up ways for everyone to join the conversation about conservation. “When it comes to conservation, it is easy to get caught in your silos, but literature helps break down these barriers,” he believes. 

To know more about the event or register for GLF, log into https://greenlitfest.com/