YPS Event | Oct 8, Sun, 4:30 PM | Venkatappa Art Gallery

YPS is pleased to announce Special Event on October 8,  Sunday at 5:00 PM at Venkatappa Art Gallery to celebrate Wildlife Week.

The function will be inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Dr. N Manjula, Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka. During the event, YPS will be honouring one of the veterans of Wildlife Photography, Mr. Pampayya Malemath for his contributions to the conservation of Wildlie in Bellary district. This will be followed by a Wildlife Slideshow by Sri S Karthikeyan, Chief Naturalist JLR, an expert in wildlife photography.

Dr. N Manjula, IAS

Dr Manjula N, IAS, studied MBBS from Bangalore Medical College. She entered Civil Services with an All India ranking and joined the Home State (Karnataka) Cadre. She started her career as Assistant Commissioner, Hassan Subdivision after which she worked as Director, Rural Infrastructure in Rural development and Panchayat Raj Department and as CEO Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat. During her tenure 40 Gram Panchayats were awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar by the Government of India for making them open-defecation-free. Then she worked as CEO of Mysore Zilla Panchayat and later went on to work as Deputy Commissioner in Chikballapur District. Prior to joining Department of Tourism as Director, she worked as Director of Municipal Administration in the Urban Development Department.

Dr. N Manjula has been largely instrumental  for conducting Karnataka Tourism Photo Contest hosted by YPS in Sep 2016 in celebration of World Tourism Day and the Monthly theme based contests held by YPS or Karnataka Tourism. Chek the website YPS-DOT Shoot to Fame Monthly contest for details.

Sri Karthikeyan S, Chief Naturalist, Jungle Lodges Resorts

Karthikeyan S, known to most as Karthik, has nurtured a deep love for wildlife for over 25 years. He is an avid birdwatcher and also has a keen interest in butterflies. As an amateur photographer he has till date photographed a wide variety of subjects including butterflies, landscapes, wild flowers, flowering trees, lesser mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and other insects. Many of his works have been published in leading dailies like Deccan Herald, magazines like March of Karnataka, Sanctuary Asia, The Bengaluru Pages and Newsletters of WWF-India and publications like – Some South Indian Butterflies, Amphibians of Peninsular India, A Field Guide To Indian Mammals, Encounters in the Forest, A Photographic Guide to Birds of India and Nepal, ‘A concise field guide to Insects and Arachnids’, Mammals of South Asia (Vol. 1)  and Publications of Centre for Environment Education to name a few.

Karthik has been educating and creating awareness among the young and old alike on various aspects of natural history through nature camps, talks, slide shows, and nature-based activities.

He has undertaken various faunal surveys including those at Biligirirangaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary and Devarayanadurga State Forest and Bannerghatta National Park. He has also done a project on the little known Indian Tree Shrew.

The Fauna of Bangalore: The vertebrates and butterflies of Bangalore – A Checklist that gives a listing of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and butterflies published by WWF-India, Karnataka State Office was authored by him. He has co-authored a booklet comprising of activities targeted at high school students titled Ideas for Outdoors – Plants also published by WWF-India, Karnataka State Office, Bangalore. He has also published a pocket book titled ‘Avenue Trees’.

He has over 50 technical publications in International/National journals and periodicals and over 85 popular articles (most with supporting pictures) in leading dailies, magazines and other periodicals. Prior to joining Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd. he was working with WWF-India for over 13 years.

In March 2013, he was conferred the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in 2013.

All are cordially invited. Please join us at the venue ahead of time.

Meet the Wildlife Veteran

Sri. Pampayya Malemath,

Sri. Pompayya Malemath, who combines his political career with a passionate love for the birds of the region, and who is very knowledgeable about them, mentions that the existence of the Sanctuary allows many species of birds to exist and breed peacefully. “The arrival of a steel plant will mean, quite literally, the death of many of these birds,” he says. According to Range Forest Officer Sangamesh N. Matt, the sanctuary has innumerable wild fruit-bearing trees and bushes.

Being ex Municipal President, Hospet, wild life enthusiast, social worker, guide, friend and a good photographer who helps all photographers in identifying birds to make pictures. He has been providing all the necessary guidance and help for the fellow photography community always.

His skills of spotting birds is amazing.! Born and brought up here, he has thorough knowledge about the terrain and wildlife. He is an avid birder and has set up a small hide in his farm. Birding with him was a sheer joy.

 Wildlife Week

In the year 1952 with a view to preserve the fauna of India, particularly to take urgent steps to prevent extinction of any species, the Government of India established an Indian Board of Wild Life (IBWL).  The Board has since been doing pioneering work to arouse public consciousness in favour of wildlife preservation.

From time immemorial, our wildlife has been closely associated with our legendary beliefs and our folklores, with our epics and our history. Our lives would be very much poorer without these varied forms that build up the balance of nature. Wildlife preservation in fact implies active and planned wildlife management under which all forms of life would progress side by side with human progress, each in its own sphere of influence and utility and without any detriment to human interests. In fact, it is with this end in view that wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have been established and developed in suitable localities all over the country.

In order to arouse a general awakening in the common man in favour of protection of wildlife, the Indian Board of Wild Life (IBWL) decided to observe the Wildlife Week and since then from October 2 – 8 every year organize different activities related to wildlife conservation to commemorate this week.

Every year around this time (October 2 to 8) governments, environmentalists, activists, educators organize different activities to accelerate the awareness of wildlife conservation among people. India, being a mega-storehouse of various species, is also able to manage several conferences, awareness programmes, and public meetings among the nature lovers. Schools and educational institutions organize events such as wildlife related movie screening, painting competition/essay writing/ debate competition for young children with wild life as the theme.

Bangalore has the largest community of Wildlife Photographers. To celebrate wildlife and its conservation, YPS will be celebrating Wildlife Week with a function on October 8th 2017.