“Protection of nature does not happen on
its own; it can happen only when people work for it,” said Paul Rosolie, a renowned Amazonian explorer and conservationist. He was delivering a talk
on his experiences in the Amazon rain forests of South America at a program
organized jointly by Kudremukh Wildlife Foundation and SDM College of Business
Management, Mangalore on Monday 15th July.
“Few decades back the population of bald
eagle, the national bird of USA, began to decline. It was only because the
people noticed this and began to act that the bird was saved. Similarly tiger
was saved in India because people recognized the need to save them,” he explained,
“Hence the solution is literally in our hands.”
He inspired the young minds through his
enthralling experiences as an explorer and explained the multitude of flora and
fauna found in the vast Amazon rain forest, which is spread over roughly double
the land area of India. “Amazon is the largest repository of life ever on
earth, surpassing even fossil record. Much of its bio-diversity is still
unexplored and unknown,” he said.
Interestingly Paul Rosolie is no stranger
to Dakshina Kannada, as his wife, Gauri Varanashi, hails from Vittla.
Explaining the present day threats to these rain
forests, he called for conservation actions.
“Amazon is a large self sustaining system. If the Amazon collapses it
will adversely affect 20% of oxygen supply on earth,” he warned. “Development
takes place bit by bit, but we need to realize that over a period of time, the
damage becomes huge.”
Expressing his admiration and awe of Western Ghats
biosphere, he encouraged the public and the students present to take up nature
conservation, advising that it is important to take people into confidence
first. “The reality is that today 50% of the people live in cities and they
have no emotional investment in forests. Hence you should give them reason to
act by creating awareness,” he said.
The talk concluded with a screening of ‘An Unseen
World – Visions of Amazonian Wildlife’, his United Nations Award winning short
film. Later he interacted with the audience by answering their queries
Rohit S. Rao, managing trustee of Kudremukh Wildlife foundation
welcomed gathering. Niren Jain, chief co-ordinator of The Kudremukh Wildlife
Foundation expressed thanks.
Paul
Rosolie is
a naturalist, author, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker who has specialized
in the western Amazon for nearly a decade. Along with running a
conservation project called Tamandua Expeditions that uses tourism to support
rainforest conservation, Paul's work has taken him to some of the last dark
places on the map. Paul has traveled with poachers into
deep jungle to document the black market trade in endangered species. He has
learned from indigenous trackers about the Amazon's flora and fauna, and has
explored a previously undocumented ecosystem that has come to be called the
'floating forest'.
His
work with anacondas has attracted the attention of major television networks
such as NatGeo Wild and Discovery Science. Paul says: telling the story of
places like the Amazon and other threatened biomes and the species within them
is a crucial link in the process of protecting them. These stories need to be
accessible to a wider audience, not just biologists and conservationists. The
loss of biodiversity and ecosystems affects all of us as a global community.
Paul's book Mother of God, focuses on the adventure of the Amazon's Wild West
and the conservation challenges there, and also highlights the struggles
between people and wildlife in India.
His
link to our own district is through his soul mate. He is married to Gauri
Varanashi who is a native of Vittla. Her father Sathyaprakash, is a famous
architect in Bangalore.
Photos: Dr. Krishnamohan Prabhu
source by: Mahesh nayak
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