The other director and founder of the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary is Wolfgang Teuerkauf

Suprabha Seshan has won the UK’s top conservation award for her commitment to protecting and propagating some of India’s rarest and most unique plants. Suprabha received her Whitley Award sponsored by WWF-UK from HRH The Princess Royal at a prestigious ceremony at London’s Royal Geographical Society.

Suprabha Seshan says: “Our Ecosystem Gardening involves tending, reseeding and reconstructing habitat structure in a variety of native ecosystems, as well as removing exotic alien species. Now we have begun to re-introduce species to degraded places where they were once found.” Suprabha has also as they were overwhelmed by requests to share their expertise with a vast range of interested parties across the Western Ghats: forest departments, colleges, NGOs, scientists and plantation industries.

One thing the award will now make possible, says Suprabha, is an additional greenhouse and a jeep. “All plant survey and collection work has been accomplished, at great expense and trouble, without our own vehicle,” she says. “An off-road vehicle would allow us to conduct plant survey and collection trips during the monsoon without having to hire a taxi and driver. A video camera would allow us to document the places we survey, record essential propagation processes such as pollination, seed dispersal, and wildlife behaviour, and produce short clips on our conservation and education techniques that would be more effective for teaching. “

node with some bits Supi wrote about ecology etc. :

An Article by Suprabha after her visit to Europe: http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2007/09/23/stories/2007092350010100.htm

– Theun Karelse - 17 Jan 2007