About Us: History

About 18 kilometers from the city of Hassan, located on the highway that connects it to Belur, is the village of Anuganalu. For more than a century it has existed thus, located at the very foot of Western Ghats, about 35 kilometers from it. This proximity naturally bestows the area with abundant rainfall and a characteristic heavy green cover that the ‘Malnad’ region of Karnataka is so famous for. To those who have never been there, this may even evoke images of scenic beauty that have set many a hearts afire with passion and enriched Kannada literature several fold through inspired prose and poetry.

This was pretty much the picture, just twenty years back. This modest village was yet to weather the storm of ‘population explosion’. Dr. Malali Gowda recounts memories of the Ghats extending all the way to Anuganalu cloaking it with a sense of solitude and peace, while the villagers went about their primarily agricultural occupations growing potatoes, paddy, ragi and vegetables. In the intervening couple of decades, he was a witness to indiscriminate deforestation, groundwater usage and land fragmentation that have together spelt doom to the local ecosystem. The village itself has remained practically unchanged over the last few decades, except for its electrification in 1986. Higher education is practically unheard-of and the ‘technological boom’ in Hassan, just 20 kilometers away, reaches it only as a distant echo.

Figure: A plant grows in a rocky region that was earlier barren. This area was successfully afforested by BCRT within a span of three years.

It was in this setting that Dr. Gowda grew, eventually to move out, complete his Masters, then his PhD and is now in USA (Columbus, Ohio) as a postdoctoral researcher in molecular biology. As a graduate student in plant genetics and molecular biology, he was inspired by the works of Gregor Mendel (that eventually laid the foundation for genetics) and wanted to erect a huge model of DNA-the prime reason for all the limitless variety found in the living world-in Anuganalu. It was in 2000, in the course of doing the ground work for this, that he felt the need to broaden the scope and try, in his own small way, to rejuvenate the richness of plant-cover in and around his village-richness that he had the privilege of experiencing in his childhood. He used the savings from his PhD fellowship to purchase and grow seedlings of native and economically important tree species. This nursery soon grew, thanks to some more additions from the forest department, and he started distributing them to farmers and school kids. This soon became a regular activity as the nursery started to grow the plants in their thousands. As these efforts began to snowball, his interests extended to growing medicinal plants, conserving soil and water etc...

These activities lead Dr. Gowda and his wife Ms. Roopalakshmi to found a Trust dedicated to conservation and study of all life forms, which was named Biodiversity Conservation and Research Trust. This was registered on Dec. 29th 2001 under the Indian Trust Act (Reg No 46/2001-02) and has ever since expanded its domain of influence to many villages. While it’s primary activity has remained growing and distribution of plant species, it has also played key roles in trying to improve the local eco-system on several different fronts. For a complete list of its activities over the years please click here.

All the members of the Trust are from an agricultural background, and stand a much better chance of passing the message of bio-diversity conservation to fellow-farmers. The president of BCRT, Dr. Doddahanumaiah, played a key role in Krishi Vignana Kendra (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) of Hassan District receiving an award in 2004 for its superlative performance (see article in The Hindu newspaper). The Secretary, Mr. Krishnamurthy, is equally motivated and is responsible for effectively implementing most of the plans of BCRT.

© 2001-2005 Biodiversity Conservation & Research Trust