The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A nature lover’s dream for the future

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 15, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A nature lover’s dream for the future

Michael Klimes

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Visitors at the wildlife photography exhibition at Oxford Bookstore on Saturday.

Chennai: J. Mangalaraj Johnson, Chairman, WWF India, discussed wildlife conservation and his own inspiration at the Oxford Bookstore in the city on Saturday.

The book store has been organising special meetings on second Saturdays every month to create awareness of wildlife.

It has also organised a wildlife photo-exhibition to coincide with the talks.

Mr. Johnson quickly came to the point in his talk when he said: “We are left with very little natural world and we want to preserve it.” Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson and Martin Luther King were three people he considered his inspiration.

Mr. Johnson said his ‘dream’ was to ensure that all of the remaining wildlife areas in the world remained untouched. He talked primarily about the different types of rainforests in the world and birds within the Chennai and Tamil Nadu areas.

When questioned about India’s attitude towards the environment, he said we were better off compared to other developing nations.

Mr. Johnson also reflected on his seven years in Nepal during 1960-67.

His expertise

His main interests as a scientist were wide and varied but his expertise lay in evergreen forests, conservation and the lion-tailed macaque endemic to the Western Ghats.

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