Season 3, Episode 22: Gokul

Host John Whidden welcomes Gokul from Kerala, India. Gokul connects cultural practices to science and explains youth climate organizing through YOUNGO’s local, regional, and global Conferences of Youth ahead of COP. A final-year Ayurveda student, he describes how climate change disrupts Indigenous/traditional medicine by affecting medicinal plants, potency, treatment protocols, and trust, with implications like antimicrobial resistance. He presents Govardhan, an app envisioned as a global repository and “social media for biodiversity” to share medicinal plant uses across countries, and Climate Entertainment, a youth-friendly way to translate UN climate language. He also mentions COP participation via Ukraine and Egypt accreditation, advocates protecting nearby species through turtle-egg protection in Kerala, and says hope comes from engaged audiences who share and support climate content.

00:00 Welcome to the Show

00:29 QuickFix Yard Cleanup

01:10 Traditions and Turmeric

03:04 Kerala Roots and Youngo

04:33 Ayurveda Meets Climate

05:56 Govardhan Plant App

08:08 Climate Entertainment Project

09:18 Indigenous Medicine at Risk

13:24 Ukraine COP Connection

14:36 Climate Action and Hope

16:42 Final Thanks and Subscribe

https://sites.google.com/view/govardhan-app-web

https://www.climateentertainment.com/

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Transcript

Gokul 0:00

Hi everyone. Namaste Al, another climate action figure. Anna

John 0:15

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Climate Action Figures. I'm John Whidden, and this week on the show you get to meet Gokul. First this week's QuickFix, which comes to us from Genevieve from Medicine Hat, and she says, avoid yard cleanup until the average temperature outside is 10 degrees or above. Raking or removing the layer of leaves or organic matter from the surface of your lawn or soil is harmful to wildlife. That organic matter is not only insulating the soil below, but is the habitat for beneficial insects that are overwintering. Well, thanks for that pro tip, Genevieve, and welcome Gokul.

Gokul 1:05

Hey.

John 1:06

What do you think about that QuickFix?

Gokul 1:08

it's really interesting to know that. And I would like to say this is like, uh, something, like we have a lot of things to care about in nature, but we are like really unaware of all of this stuff and we are like going around and doing whatever we want, but mostly it, uh, for us, small information like this are part of our cultural stuff. Uh, we usually, uh, give it down from like from our ancestors to down to us. Mostly we have not even known the scientific factors behind that. For us, we use turmeric, mixed in water. We splash it in front of our houses. It was actually done to. Protect the house from, micro microbes and infections and everything like that from entering the house. And also we use smokes, everything like that, uh, to clear the air. So these are stuff that we actually do in our community actually for like, uh, cultural reasons, but the scientific factors we never, uh, ask or question. So it's like really interesting to know stuff

John 2:06

That is very interesting that often we have these traditions and we don't

Gokul 2:11

really

John 2:12

know why they happen, but there's actually

Gokul 2:14

science behind.

John 2:15

behind them. we love turmeric around here, but we never splash it around, so maybe we'll start doing that outside our front

Gokul 2:21

door! Yeah. Yeah. It's like it depends on the weather as well. It was too hot today. Like, it's like around 30 degree right now, going to 32 and most of the North India, it's like 40, 45, 49. It's going up too much. So we are going to have rain soon as well. So this time it's like, uh, it's like very important to do that because uh, the rain will be carrying harmful virus, bacteria, everything. Uh, so people will be stepping on all of their stuff. So at least at the entrance of the home, the water that we put, it will clear clearing away all this, uh, microorganisms and stuff. That's the main goal of doing that.

John 3:03

Well, very interesting. Now, Gokul, in the introduction, you spoke in a language that I did not recognize. What was that?

Gokul 3:10

it's my regional language. I come from the tip of India, the peninsula, the Kerala region, the God's own country country, say South India.

John 3:18

Speaking of South India, we were connected by Harshita, who was on the show last season and also lives in South India. How do you know Harshita?

Gokul 3:26

So we have met through Youngo and have seen her in person. We have worked on, worked with her NGO Foundation. So that's how I know Harshita, and we have been like, uh, in, at COPs and, uh, have done a lot of events together.

John 3:41

Gokul, you mentioned RCOY. Can you tell us what that is?

Gokul 3:44

So Youngo has this global youth event, which is called the Global COY, the Conference of Youth, which happens two days to three days before the main COP. Before that we have the regional COYs, where, which each region has its own conferences. Even before that, there is a local conference, which is like for each country there is a local conference. So the state from the local conference comes to the regional conference. Then we consolidate that into a new, uh, regional statement. From that, it goes to the global, uh, COY. So that is how the Youngo system works.

John 4:20

If people are interested in Youngo, quite a bit on the program about Youngo so we're not gonna go back there today, but you can go back to Paul's episode and you can get an introduction to Youngo, but we will go back to medicine, Gokul. You are in the final year of your medical degree,

Gokul 4:36

Perfect. Yeah. I'm doing my traditional medicine like Ayurveda.

John 4:39

Harshita talked about the intersection between medicine and climate change. Do you find connection at those crossroads?

Gokul 4:47

Whenever we speak the main thing that we forget is about the traditional indigenous medicine, which, uh, lies lot on the climate condition, the medicinal plants, and also uh, the regional Indigenous knowledge as well. So because of the climate change issues, the Indigenous community has been affected, the medicinal plants are affected and the treatment protocols are being affected. What we as a Indigenous healer or traditional medicine student learns to do the practice for their life is being affected, so it goes forward. It's affecting more than medical student, or like a normal doctor. It's like more affecting our, uh, entire career itself. That's interesting, I'd

John 5:35

never thought about traditional medicine difficulties with climate change changing the plants that are available for that.

Gokul 5:43

That is something really, really missing. And it's a connecting link between most of the things, like it's connected to biodiversity, it's connected to medicine, it's connected to Indigenous communities, so it's like a three link cross roading between all these communities.

John 5:56

Now Gokul, you have developed the Govardhan app. I probably mispronounced that, but you can correct me. Tell us about that.

Gokul 6:03

Govardhan is an idea that I got during my, studies when our teacher was struggling with sharing the plant information. Like each plant, we have the study, what are the properties, what are the uses for our bachelor degree. I thought like we could make an app because my passion was to do something on digital stuff. So I thought I'll make an app that will work. So that's how I came up with the project of Govardhan it's like a local name, which means like the divine heal of medicine. After that, I went to a COP, and there I saw a lot of, a lot of communities from the global south, like the Cameroon, Tanzania, like a lot of African communities have brought their indigenous and traditional medicinal plants like I was like blown out of my mind. What. What is this plant? What is this plant? So that was a turning point where I wanted to innovate and then we came up with a, like a new solution, like I wanted to. Integrate all these medicinal plants, uh, together in one space. So that, uh, as a doctor from traditional medicine, even if I go to Africa, I can find the plants and I can suggest this is a plant you can use. and also create a global repository of information. So in the app, it's like a social media for biodiversity, and traditional information about how people are using this plant. So if you're having a hibiscus in your, in your house, so you can find out which other countries have hibiscus and how they're using the plant. The hibiscus that we have in India, it is found in Malaysia, it is found in Fiji, it's found in Peru, it's found in Bolivia. Fiji Hibiscus is a national flower for India. It's like we use it to clean our head. It's useful for dandruff, but if we go to Peru, they don't use it for dandruff, it's useful some other purpose. all that information, it's an app which can transfer information from one country to another country across the globe. So that is Govardhan.

John 7:55

Congratulations on that! That's a, a fascinating connection of all of these traditional medicines across the world, so I'm sure that will be a very useful tool for many people, and we will definitely link that in the show notes as well, so our audience can check that

Gokul 8:08

Thank you.

John 8:09

Now, you've also created a website called Climate Entertainment, and that will also be linked. Uh, what's that about?

Gokul 8:16

It was another project, so we were trying to bring awareness for the climate change issues but most of the time when we go to COPs and other spaces where the policies are being made where the main things are happening. It was too much of the UN language. People doesn't understand what is happening, so we wanted to make it more, local youth friendly and everyone to be aware of what is happening internationally, so, I'm the only person from my community, my colleagues, that has, uh, been able to at least reach to the UN to at least address this issue of having traditional medicine, which is being affected globally. But no one is speaking about that. So we want to make the youth on ground, make the content, which is entertaining, combined with the scientific stuff together. So it's like climate, entertainment. So the climate part is like the scientific part and the entertainment part is like, uh, like the dramatic stuffs everything together. So that is climate entertainment.

John 9:16

We will definitely check that out. And you're working on this global alliance between traditional and Indigenous medicine. You've talked about some of the difficulties with. Uh, biodiversity loss or climate change. Are there any other connections there with climate change between the traditional and Indigenous medicine world and climate

Gokul 9:34

change? Yep. There's a lot of things. So the main thing is the medicinal plants are affected. Second thing, when we treat a patient in, like in I traditional medicine, the environment factor is a really big thing. In Tibetan medicine we have like five other things, which is like the elements. The ether, air, water, fire, like that stuff. So these are hugely impacted by the weather condition. So if the weather condition is too much hot, then the medicine that we are going to give, it's also being affected. And if the climatic condition is unpredictable or things change a lot, then that is also like something we cannot work with. So the medicine that we give will not have the effect. So the people will not trust the Indigenous medicine. And then we will lose that person, like the possibility of making like livelihood for us. It's gone and this person will be like sharing that the Indigenous medicine didn't work. Now he will go to the modern one. So that will be leading more towards the anti-microbial resistance. Then also the traditional medicinal plants availability, because of the climatic issues, the plants that we usually give are not available, uh, in enough quantity so that we had to find alternative. And also that is, doesn't have that much potency. I was recently able to go to Nepal, so I was able to go talk to the Tibetan medicine people over there. They also, uh, confirm with me that the medicine that we give. Now we had to increase the dosage of the quantitative medicine that we give because the potency has gone down a lot. So certain issues like this, which is very much linked with the climate, has not been spoken a lot. Indigenous knowledge, uh, which lies within our community, we, we are slowly losing it. Mostly we are not speaking about that because it, we connected with our ancestral knowledge and then we just don't share it because we don't know that actual value of that, slowly making it go away. Last WHO World Health Assembly, I was there and I was the only person in traditional medicine space, in youth, and I was like wondering, who should I talk to? Because there was, um,

John 11:44

Wow.

Gokul 11:45

students having their own, uh, group or there, there was medical doctors, international Federation for Medical Students Association were there. And I was like, who should I talk to? And I was like, really confused. What, what should I do here?

John 11:58

So there's a huge missing piece of Indigenous healing

Gokul 12:02

Mm-hmm. So that is something I'm trying to push for and bring, bringing it in front so that we can address most of the issues like anti-microbial resistance, bringing value back to nature because people, when we say we want to protect these plant species because climate change, they'll not care because in the global south, everything comes with a value. So we need to say that this is the value of this. You need to protect this

John 12:27

it's sad that we have to always connect the value to

Gokul 12:29

yeah.

John 12:30

And often it's a financial value. Do you see that as well?

Gokul 12:33

Yep, I see that as well. But when we say Indigenous and traditional medicine, medicinal value, people see more value on that because it's part of their community. It's already there and they don't want to leave it. It is like not just this tree produces carbon dioxide, and we need to protect this because it produces carbon dioxide. The other tree also produces carbon dioxide. Now we can say this plant species is important, because you can use it for this disease. Now that has a more value

John 13:01

I said it's too bad we always have to have value, but I guess what we need to do maybe is link the value back to humanity, not just our immediate needs.

Gokul 13:12

Yeah, but people doesn't care about that anymore because it's global south, struggling for themselves a lot. So if you want them, want change to happen, you need a high value. I'm going to

John 13:24

go off on a tangent here because when I was looking at your social media, I noticed there are some definite connections with Ukraine. Do you have a special connection with Ukraine?

Gokul 13:33

Yep. Almost all my accreditation for the COPs and everything comes from Ukraine Ministry. Thanks to the Ukraine ministry, I was able to make it to different COPs like the COP 28, 29, COP 30. So that was made possible by the Ministry of Ukraine for Environment Ministry.

John 13:50

Why is that? We have a photo that we'll put up right now of you at the conference behind the Ukraine sign, and I wondered what does that have to do with Ukraine? How did that come about?

Gokul 13:59

That was a strange thing I would like to say because, uh, I was trying to get a badge and it's really hard to get a COP badge, so I reached out to many countries. The Ukraine Ministry really liked our project on biodiversity, Indigenous and traditional medicine. So the ministry told like they could provide me with a badge. So that is how I attended the conferences last year. The first COP, COP 27, I got a bat from the Egyptian ministry. They invited us, they featured our project.

John 14:29

So you are an honorary citizen of Ukraine. Are you?

Gokul 14:32

Yeah. I'm

John 14:33

sorry that we're running out of time because it's such an interesting talk. But let's just ask you what you've chosen today for your climate action.

Gokul 14:41

So for me, I was really working right now with one of the organizations here in Kerala, which is called the Foundation. So I was working for, with them for protecting the, uh, turtle. And so we are giving protection for the turtles that has laid egg eggs in the beach of India, like in Kerala. The protection until it hatches. So I've just been working with them. Protect the species within your reach because they need your help. Uh, mostly because of the changing weather. I just, yesterday I just saw a dog, which was taking shelter inside an ATM because there was an AC in the ATM and the door was open, so the dog went inside and it was sleeping inside the ATM. With the cold. So then my action is like, take care of the species around you, because humans are not just, um, just the nature. The nature has a lot of things which keeps the cycle going forward. And it's not just for you, but also for all of your family, the children and the people who are going to come as well after us.

John 15:47

Very true. What gives you hope?

Gokul 15:51

I am not sure what to say because the current situation of the world is like, uh, too bad. But, uh, people who we are talking to who are listening to us right now gives me hope. So how many people watches this right now are my hope, and I feel that is my hope. Most of the time people. When we speak about climate change situation like that, they just hear and they're just, okay, very good, very good action, but they don't support, uh, more than that. Or they don't even share the content or something like that, or they don't even speak about that somewhere else. Once we are producing these contents or sharing about what you need to do is for them to share and also understand and then, see if the community is doing it or not, and, the hope is the people who are trying to make the change. So

John 16:42

Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Gokul!

Gokul 16:44

Thank you so much for making this happen. Thanks so much for hosting me today, John.

John 16:50

And thank you dear audience. Uh, it's the first time you've got a shout out in

Gokul 16:54

Yeah.

John 16:55

someone's question what gives you hope. So that's wonderful that you give people hope. So thanks for tuning in and if you like what you have heard here today, help us spread that good news and that hope. By hitting those like and subscribe buttons. We will be back again next week, same time, same place to hear from another climate action figure. Until then:

Gokul 17:14

Go figures!