Tuesday, Oct 05, 2004
TIRUCHI, OCT.4. K.M. Mathew, a renowned botanist of Tiruchi, was conferred with the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar for 2002 under the `individual' category posthumously.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests gave the award at a function held in New Delhi recently to mark the `International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer' held in New Delhi recently.
The unique honour, bestowed for the first time on an individual from Tamil Nadu, comprised a trophy, a citation and a cash award of Rs.5 lakhs.
The Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Namo Narain Meena, gave away the award to Fr. S. John Britto, Principal, St. Joseph's College, who is also the director of the Rapinet Herbarium in Tiruchi, a plant diversity research base, and the Anglade Institute of Natural History, an environmental base at Shembaganur on Palani Hills.
Fr. Mathew, founder of the bases, died on April 16, 2004. The works initiated by Fr. Mathew will continue, said Fr. John Britto, also a botanist.
Born into a family of farmers on March 16, 1930 in Kerala, Fr. Mathew completed his school education at St. Augustine's High School, Ramapuram, and moved to Tiruchi for higher studies.
He joined the Jesuit Religious Order in 1950 as a botany graduate. During 1950-57 when he was undergoing Jesuit training at Shembaganur, he got acquainted himself with the plant wealth of the Palani Hills in the Western Ghats.
Through the Rapinet Herbarium, he spread the gospel of ecological conservation through many of his publications, and implemented his insightful outreach programme on `Environmental Education' at the Anglade Institute of Natural History in Kodaikanal. Nearly 65,000 participants were trained at the Institute in environmental awareness and conservation.
Fr. Mathew was a man of clear vision and commitment, and powerful witness to the culture of science that leads to the making of a life, not merely a living, Fr. John Britto said.
source: http://www.hindu.com/2004/10/05/stories/2004100513480300.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There are very few stalwarts and plant lovers who really believe that Kindness is a language which the deaf could hear and blind could see.Medicinal plants do give endless hope to people at hopeless ends. The service rendered by rev. Fr. John Britto is unmatched. I am one of the beneficiaries. We My dad Dr. Pambu Rajendran and myself wanted to immortalise our snakes and have deposited a few as early as 1968 in Shembaganur Museum at Kodaikanal .Hats off dear father. Your service is great.
ReplyDelete