NGO Profiles

What started as a casual talk between three friends – Mansur Ahamed, Mohammed Saleem and Gaythri Devi – to bring the birdwatchers of Coimbatore under one group, led to the formation of the Coimbatore Birding Club (CBC), the avian wing of the Environment Conservation Group (ECG) started in 2009 by a small group of like-minded people committed to protecting and conserving nature.

April 2012: The Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade (VEAB) was formed in 2001 in Sattari-Goa by Rajendra Kerkar and his wife Pournima Kerkar, Sanctuary Green Teacher Award 2011 winners, and for the last decade, it has been creating change-makers in the state.

February 2012: Brought together by a common interest in protecting India’s last remaining wildernesses, WildCat-C is changing the facing of conservation in Chikmagalur.

December 2011: Sometimes a simple solution is all that is needed to impact an entire forest. Before 2003, every single day, the Bandipur National Park was buzzing with people collecting fuelwood and grazing cattle from the 200 or so villages surrounding the forest.

October 2011: With carbon levels steadily rising (we are now at 389 ppm, rapidly moving away from the safe limit of 350 ppm), global warming needs to be tackled on all fronts. That is what the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is doing. An independent, not-for-profit organisation based in the United Kingdom, it works with shareholders and corporations to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of major…

June 2011: The Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), a Mumbai-based public charitable organisation, has been set up to support the work of government and non-government organisations and individuals who are protecting wildlife and wildernesses across India.

April 2011: In the Northeast, a virtually silent army of wildlife defenders is working tirelessly to conserve the region’s fragile ecosystems. The Green Heart Nature Club is one such group. The goal of its volunteers is simple – protect the forests of the Northeast and their wildlife and improve the lot of local communities living in and around forested areas.

February 2011: In Gudalar, at the edge of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, a small committed group of volunteers work to protect India’s shola forests – a mosaic of montane evergreen forests and grasslands found only at high altitude (more than 1,500 m. above mean sea level) regions within the tropics.

October 2010: Guided by the belief that conservation and community development go hand in hand, the Aranya Wildlife Trust (earlier called Vanya) works with villagers living in and around the Bandipur and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves and the Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka.

June 2010: It was 5:30 a.m. and my phone rang loudly. Being a late riser, I was rather annoyed until I saw the number and recognised it as one of the villagers of Mangalajodi, a picturesque hamlet on the banks of the Chilika Lake in Orissa. Picking up, I heard the troubled voice of Madhu, an eco-guide at Mangalajodi, saying “Sir kuch log Mangalajodi main shikar kar rahe hain…