Media Release
Pics: Dr Krishnamohan Prabhu
Mangalore, Jul 16: “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 here on Monday July 15.
“A 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 - A Profile
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 Vittal. Her father Sathyaprakash, is a famous architect in Bangalore.