Sri. Panduranga Hegde is an environmentalist from Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India, and is the person who started the Appiko movement to protect trees in the Western Ghats. He worked as Chartered Accountant at Delhi and later trained himself in Social work at Delhi School of Social Work and spent four years in Madhya Pradesh among rural people with Damoh, a non-government organization. He was attracted by the Chipko movement led by Sundarlal Bahuguna and got involved with the protection of forests and the environment. He is actively involved in the Save Western Ghats campaign. He was instrumental in releasing Western Ghats Manifesto before the 15th Loksabha election, so as to commit the candidates competing for election towards holistic policies to conserve the Western Ghats.

For more information: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/appiko-movement-forest-conservation-southern-india

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