Echoes of Earth festival: On a musical night with The Cinematic Orchestra, Delhi learns to notice its natural heritage

The Echoes of Earth music festival created a new and unique space for a dialogue on conserving Delhi’s biodiversity

For a few hours on a sweltering April evening, the crowd gathered at 1AQ in Delhi immersed itself in the observation and celebration of the Capital’s rich urban ecosystem. On the final day of its three-city concert tour, the Echoes of Earth festival parked itself next to the towering Qutub Minar, with an aim to start a unique conversation around “preserving Delhi’s natural heritage for future generations.”

Following similar events in Bengaluru and Mumbai, Echoes of Earth, which calls itself ‘India’s greenest music festival’, kicked off its Delhi segment with an array of activities creatively focused on the Delhi we are missing. “The main idea is bringing in great design with technology and keeping it sustainable,” said Roshan Netalkar, director of the festival, describing Echoes. He remarked that with a theme of ‘Circle of Life’, they wanted to platform restoration as a bigger subject matter.

However, Echoes is not a typical music festival. Bringing together live music and a mindful discussion to city-specific ecosystems meant that Netalkar had to go far beyond than just ringing up vendors and artists. “We did a lot of brainstorming and research with conservationists, experts, and our partners like WWF and UNEP,” Netalkar said, adding that the aim was to understand problems plaguing each city.

To that end, Echoes’ focus on Delhi’s jungles was born out of the need to conserve the natural heritage that is overlooked. “Everybody has a thinking: “ humko jungle bachana hai” (we need to save the jungle) and they think far beyond. Do we realise that Delhi has a jungle inside it?” Netalkar said.

“We thought because of the weather and pollution, the urban ecology is what we need to save and work on. Talk about humans and animals co-existing together, Delhi is the best example. It’s right under your nose,” he added. As director of the festival, Netalkar had scouted the location for Echoes weeks in advance, when Delhi was enjoying cool breezes.

On April 16 however, while speaking to The Hindu right before the event kicked off, Netalkar simultaneously coordinated with his team over the temperature overheating the music equipment. This however was only the start of an evening during which Delhi’s weather hammered in the need to create more such spaces for a climate-centric dialogue.

Echoes began its Delhi chapter by reuniting the city with its long-lost friend: the house sparrow. Declared the State bird in 2012, it now rarely chirps around the lanes of Delhi. In a hands-on workshop, Niharika Rajput taught attendees how to mould a table-top sculpture of a house sparrow. A National Geographic explorer, Rajput expertly condensed a longer meditative exercise, into an easily accessible one for the audience as she went around personally guiding those new to the art form. While tiny sparrows took shape on ground, the city skyline sadly remained bereft of them.