ABSTRACT
In late March 1976, Janaki renewed contact with an old acquaintance, Marie Buck from her years at the WCC, after several decades; Buck was involved with the family planning association in the Nilgiris from the 1970s. The Silent Valley controversy would remain one of Janaki’s greatest concerns during this period. Janaki was interested in the Flora of the Nilgiris and its affinities with the Himalayan plants and wished to make a more detailed study of this affinity and its relationships with the tribes of the Nilgiris; she would have her doctoral students work on this research problem. Janaki would be visited by her old friend, the geneticist, Eileen Macfarlane; hill tribes of the Nilgiris and the secret herbs they used in contraception and for overnight sterilisation would connect the lives of three women (of which two were geneticists) in their late 70s and 80s, in unusual ways. This chapter is a story of their coming together. Janaki believed that plants which could restrict fertility were most important to India, given the ‘population explosion’ the country was witnessing. The bulk of Janaki’s energies during the 1970s was directed towards attending national-level committees, and meetings of scientific societies, presenting public lectures, guiding doctoral students, collecting and developing the gardens at Maduravoyal and Shoranur.
