Guardian of the lakes

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Arun Krishnamurthy quit a promising career at Google to focus on his passion for conservation. The 27-year-old, a graduate of Madras Christian College, began with Roots & Shoots India (part of the Roots & Shoots Network) and founded his own NGO, Environmentalist Foundation, in 2011. Today, Arun works with a team of 900 volunteers towards restoring six lakes across India.

For his efforts, Arun was awarded the Google Alumni Impact Award in 2011, chosen as a Young Laureate for the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2012 and most recently, as a Youth Action Net Fellow by the International Youth Foundation. He has also produced and directed the environmental documentaries Elixir Poisoned and Kurma, which highlights the plight of sea turtles.

Why did you choose to focus on restoring the lakes across India?
Water at the end of an open tap has made it an insignificant resource, where we do not understand the importance of it. Water is the basis
for all life… it is crucial for us to protect water bodies such as lakes and ponds as they cater to several life forms ranging from birds and amphibians to reptiles. With the urban landscape growing, several water bodies are being turned into construction sites or dump yards and thereby having a negative impact on all life forms. To ensure that the remaining water bodies are preserved our NGO, Environmentalist Foundation (EFI), started a project called Fence It, which aims at cleaning and restoring lakes and ponds in the Indian urban mass.

Community participation is one of the cornerstones of your initiative. How did you manage to get together the 900 volunteers who’re working on the effort to save lakes?
EFI has extensive mass sensitisation and public awareness campaigns through which we attract volunteers to join our project. The majority of our volunteers are aged between 11 and 18 and we recruit them
through dedicated school programmes. “Science Badge” is one such initiative through which we offer fellowships to students interested in scientific research and conservation.

You’ve worked on two documentaries. What has the response to them been like?
Reaching a large number of people has always been a challenge. When we thought about ways through which we can reach large sections of the society convincingly, we came up with the idea of street theatre and documentary films. Making these documentaries has been a learning experience and has made us better understand society in general.

At the age of 27, you’ve scooped up a host of awards for your work in environmental conservation. Which to you has been the most meaningful?
Every organisation that has considered and awarded us has shown confidence in our work and agrees with us that environment conservation is the need of the hour. The Rolex Award specifically is a major morale booster, it has given us at EFI a lot of confidence. Receiving an award like this has brought credibility to our work. Running an organisation which is comprised mainly of students gives us a whole new level of exposure and sense of
responsibility.

In environmental activism, apart from a passion for environmental causes, what would you say is the primary requirement?
Commitment. Just because there is nobody to question us on what we have delivered for the environment, we can’t just do anything and everything. We need to do the right thing in the most committed way as we are answerable to ourselves.