- Novanita Sharma
The recently concluded ‘3rd International Conference on Global Plant Humanities: Botanical Life in Art, Science, and Imagination’, held at the North Eastern Hill University at Shillong, Meghalaya from 8th – 10th May 2026, brought a galaxy of intellectuals, writers, academicians, activists, scholars, and learners from across different parts of the world to an intriguing interdisciplinary discourse on varied aspects of ‘Plant Humanities’, which in itself is an emerging arena of new thoughts that delves to bring the vegetal world of plants to the fore of active human dialogue, research, and re-imagination with an intent of rewriting, and re-imaging human history with reference to active interactions of empires, imperialistic conquests, cultures, literatures, as well as modern science with the plant heritage found in different countries, and communities across the world.
It is noteworthy that the term ‘Plant Humanities’ is relatively new to the world; it was introduced in 2018 by Dumbarton Oaks, in collaboration with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and JSTOR Labs to define the interdisciplinary study of the interactions between plants and human culture, history, and society across diverse fields. The central aim of the term is to reawaken human awareness of the profound interconnectedness between plants and people, with a focus on its presence within literary studies. This modern concept embraces the traditional knowledge of plant-based consciousness that propagates the belief of plant as sentient beings while it engages the human world to redraw the old notions of considering plants as mere resources. It connects the world with a new set of ethics regarding human interactions with plants, apart from underlining the burning issues of ecological security, deforestation, pollution, food scarcity, etc.
When analysed from an Indian point of view, ‘Plant Humanities’ represent a set of thoughts that call for new narratives of human history which can provide the contemporary globalised world with more acceptable and inclusive versions of the past floristic conquests of many Asian and African countries by the European powers, which left debilitating impacts on the natural vegetation and plant heritage of these countries. It strives to find an interface between the curated botanical gardens of colonial glory, other gardens and repositories in the global west, with the uncharted and largely undocumented plant-based traditional knowledge as found in the numerous indigenous cultures in India and many other countries of Asia and Africa. The global outreach of ‘Plant Humanities’ strives to build an exhaustive global plant database, which will surely benefit the intellectual and commercial growth of the human world. The anthropocentric approach of the human world, which prioritises the aspects of human growth, human comfort, human happiness, and human safety at the core of the philosophical and ideological foundation of the global West for ages, seems to dominate this new dogma of ‘Plant Humanities’ as well. This anthropocentric view has been the root cause of the degeneration of plants in every sense, across the globe. In such scenario, ‘Plant Humanities’ posing as a redundant anthropocentric ideology will not suffice, it needs an overhaul, it needs an ideological shift towards the Indian philosophy of non-anthropocentric view of nature conservation that preaches the sanctity of every life form, and dictates the duty of human beings to honour this great creation of Mother Nature not for the benefit of human world, but to honour the beauty of life found in every living being including the plants.
The participation of the erudite and widely experienced naturalist, writer, and environmental activist Sri. Soumyadeep Datta, in this conference as an invited keynote speaker, added the necessary tempering for ‘Plant Humanities’ with Indian philosophy, that too as a strong voice for biodiversity conservation from Assam. He enriched the conference with his keynote address on ‘Biodiversity conservation with reference to Plants, Conservation, and Activism in Northeast India’, on 9th May 2026. His views regarding environmental activism, which call for a selfless, non-anthropocentric approach of nature conservation that solely devotes the impetus of conservation movements to uphold the well-being of natural forests, flora, fauna, and the threatened natural ecosystems, infused the essence of the Indian philosophy of nature conservation with ‘Plant Humanities’. His discourse drew a strong consensus for the school of ‘plant humanities’ for a dynamic expansion towards inclusivity. He debated the urgent need to include new concepts like ‘plant-happiness’, and ‘plant-habitat conservation’ to enable ‘Plant Humanities’ to become a purposeful intellectual exercise worldwide, which will facilitate the long-denied justice we owe to the plant world.
Soumyadeep Datta’s ardent observations regarding many celebrated botanists of our world like Joseph Dalton Hooker, C. B. Clarke, J. S. Gamble, Nathaniel Wallich, G. Watt, etc who worked extensively to study and document the floral wealth of the Darjeeling hills since the colonial era, but ironically failed to protect the natural forests of the Darjeeling hills put forth the question of accountability and responsibility of the plant explorers, and botanists towards the conservation of flora and natural forests in our world. He highlighted the fact that these great botanists who immensely enriched the repository of our knowledge and database regarding Indian Himalayan flora did not pave the path of plant protectors; on the contrary, they showed the path of ‘plant hunters’, who have nothing to do with the conservation of plant habitats in our country.
The plight of Indian flora was well depicted across colonial India, like Darjeeling, Kalingpong, and even in the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, where large tracts of the original natural forests were plundered for timber, and were replaced by invasive species like Pine (Pinus), which eventually altered the landscape and the natural vegetation in many hill districts of India. The botanists took no initiatives to protect the natural forests in these places after they identified the floristic richness of the natural forests here. Instead, their studies brought greater threats to these forests, which were pushed to organised cleansing in the years to follow. This non-accountability of botanists towards the cause of plant-habitat conservation pushed the natural forests in many parts of India to the fringes, as we see in the Darjeeling and the Kalingpong districts of West Bengal. In the past hundreds of years, the legacy of these plant hunters has failed to protect the natural forests of our country. Their enthusiastic taxonomic explorations, collections, and studies have accrued zero benefit to the natural vegetation of India.
In Assam, since 1980s, the Nature’s Beckon led biodiversity conservation movement has upheld the cause of habitat preservation with highest priority over all other conservation activities to ensure the effective conservation of the surviving natural forests of the state. This impetus on natural forest conservation has saved acres and acres of pristine natural forests and immensely rich plant habitats of the region like the last chunk of the tropical rainforest in Upper Assam. The new age concepts like ‘Plant Humanities’ will fail to serve the purpose of giving justice to the plant kingdom if the discourses and the dialogues related to ‘Plant Humanities’ cannot integrate the thoughts and public sensitisation regarding the urgent need to work for plant-habitat preservation across the world, especially in the biodiversity rich areas like Assam, other Northeastern states, other parts of India, and Asia where botanical studies continue to unravel new floristic wealth. The development of roadways, transportation, and growing economies aids accessibility of even the remotest areas of Northeast India to the taxonomists who unknowingly bring threats to the newly discovered wild habitats with their discoveries, which are seldom accompanied by any habitat conservation planning whatsoever. We need to re-educate a new generation of botanists who will actively disengage with this devastating colonial approach of plant hunting. We need plant protectors and not plant hunters in our country anymore.
Soumyadeep Datta pinpointed the false notions of in-situ preservation of select plant species, which we see in the botanical gardens and germplasm repositories around the world, he said “the uprooting of select plant species from their natural habitat to human-designed habitats like botanical gardens, greenhouses, or laboratories is nothing less than captive breeding of the plant species. Since the plants cannot walk outside these captive holes, we need not worry about building cages around these floral captive areas. But all these don’t contribute to the conservation of the plant species, because in the true sense, the conservation of any species of flora or fauna necessitates the preservation of its natural habitat. On the other hand, this practice of growing a few selected plant species in captive environments has contributed to disregarding the importance of preserving the natural habitats of plants worldwide. This also contributed to the lack of plant-based habitat preservation initiatives in our country. We see many successful fauna-based conservation actions to preserve natural forests, but we seldom hear of plant-based conservation actions in the world. The false notion of in-situ preservation of plant species must be dropped from the modern conservation thoughts for once and all. Otherwise, we will remain far from achieving the goals of holistic biodiversity conservation that incorporates the significance of plant habitat conservation as an integral part of wildlife conservation in our world.”
He also introduced the concept of ‘Plant – Happiness’. The Western world learned about the existence of life in plants from Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian polymath in the 1900s. Acharya Bose had attributed this knowledge to ancient Indian wisdom, which he demonstrated to the modern world with the help of scientific apparatus at that time. Before Acharya Bose’s explanation, the Western world didn’t realise that plants are living beings too. In a similar way, the contemporary world remains oblivious of ‘plant-happiness’. Soumyadeep Datta introduced this concept as he says, “Plants also feel happiness, wound, and sorrow. The only problem is that we fail to perceive these plant feelings. How can a plant be happy in captivity? Plants are happy when it is allowed to grow in natural habitats without any hindrances. If we want to ensure plant-happiness, we must work for plant-habitat conservation.”
The scope of charting a holistic biodiversity conservation movement in the future can be augmented by integrating these concepts of ‘plant-habitat conservation’, and ‘plant-happiness’ across the grassroots people of India, because despite the conservation efforts, we are yet to protect large tracts of natural forests in India, which still lie outside the protected area network of the country. We need progressive growth in our conservation approach for the preservation of innumerable plant species, which are either going extinct because of no conservation measures or are threatened to face exploitative onslaughts due to anthropogenic needs. The fraternity of botanists has a lot to contribute in this regard, but this cannot happen unless they shift their priorities from taxonomic exploits to taxonomic contributions in identifying important plant habitats for conservation. They must wake up to the need of the hour and play their roles in ensuring the protection and conservation of the plant habitats, which will accrue academic and professional benefits for them. Our future generations also must come forward to contribute effectively in breaking this vicious legacy of the plant-hunting botanists of the colonial era.
In India, the best way and in fact the only way to protect the natural forests is to upgrade the status of the forest to that of a Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park. The conservation of plant species in their natural habitats depends entirely on the legal protection given to the protected areas under the Wildlife Protection Act of India 1972 because the status of Reserve Forest doesn’t provide any protection to the forests in India. The Reserve Forests are subject to government run revenue generation activities like logging, mining, etc, these forests are not set aside for biodiversity conservation. In India, it is very important to strengthen this protected area movement to create more Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks in the country to implement an effective preservation of rich habitats for flora and fauna in different parts of our country. While the conservation movements will be fruitful when based on grassroots participation, it is important to note that the future of biodiversity conservation and the prospects of facilitating a future framework for plant-habitat conservation will depend on the effective growth of grassroots – based conservation movements in India. We need many more conservation movements like the ‘Save Chakrashila Movement’, and the ‘Rainforest Conservation Movement’ of Assam, which led to the creation of the Chakrashila wildlife sanctuary and the Dihing Patkai National Park. We Indians must come forward to identify our conservation priorities, and must work by ourselves to find solutions. We must have the clarity to work for the preservation of natural forests as the national conservation agenda, without getting derailed by global issues of the climate crisis, and the outside world must show solidarity towards our chosen conservation goals for India. If they want to support environmental causes in India, then they must support the Indian grassroots movements and the initiatives to create new Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks. Similarly, the world congregations for ideologies like ‘Plant Humanities’ must grow beyond the anthropocentric ideals to include the concepts of ‘plant-habitat conservation’, and ‘plant-happiness’ to make a meaningful contribution towards biodiversity conservation, which is the melting point for the 21st-century universe. This will also strengthen the realisation that we cannot create forests, but can do our best to save the natural forests of our planet as a mark of respect to this Universe.
The current concept of ‘Plant Humanities’ works very closely with the anthropocentric ideals of eco-criticism, which again has an ideologically discrete counterpart in India, represented by ‘prakriti sahitya’. This genre of literature has been growing steadily, with its roots richly embedded in contemporary Assamese literature. Many books by Soumyadeep Datta, like the Dhrubajyoti Bora Sahitya Puraskar-awarded forest-based travelogue ‘Utbhashito Mayabon’, the well-acclaimed chronicle of the rainforest conservation movement titled ‘Namsangor Anteshpur’, the popular forest-based writings titled ‘ Aranyat Ekhoj Dukhoj,’ represent a unique form of literary expression of enthralling and spiritually motivating accounts of compelling ‘prakriti sahitya’ that mobilise the readers to the forefront of the continually growing biodiversity conservation movement of Assam. ‘Plant Humanities’ may find many path-breaking leads from ‘Prakriti sahitya’ because this genre presents a dynamically growing interface of literature and nature conservation to the contemporary world.
While the concept of ‘Plant Humanities’ is still evolving, and may go through an overhaul from its anthropocentric view to adopt a more holistic and nature-centric approach in the future, the emergence of this concept focusing on the hyphenated relationship of plants with human beings is a welcome change for the modern-day self-conceited human world. However, it is undeniable that 21st-century children do not need replication of an ideological labyrinth to propagate human-driven resource plundering around the world, whether it is biological resources or our traditional intellectual knowledge, the draining of resources will eventually lead to greater unrest in the world. The world will await to see prospective concepts like ‘Plant Humanities’ to grow robust plant-habitat conservation initiatives among the people, let ‘Plant Humanities’ take the challenge of reaching the grassroots and make people aware that extraction and selling of their native plant species like the orchids growing naturally in wild spaces of Assam and Northeast India is causing deeper wounds to their ecology, and culture by threatening the future of these species which has been an integral part of the natural landscapes since time immemorial.
This conference jointly organised by The Global Plant Humanities Network (GPHN); North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Meghalaya, Shillong; Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Australia; Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya (affiliated with the University of Calcutta); Department of English, Cotton University, Guwahati, India; NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal has brought an active exchange of thoughts and ideas, new research works, and studies related to various fields like plant neurobiology, cognitive studies related to plants, plant intelligence, readings and interpretations from ancient knowledge found in the traditional cultures and heritage related to plant based consciousness, expressions of plant humanists in published literary works, and so on.