Ramnath Chandrashekar
Young Naturalist Awards (2011)
Award-winning wildlife photographer and conservationist
At 22, Ramnath Chandrashekar has already chalked up an impressive list of achievements. Quite apart from being an accomplished nature photographer, he has an abiding ambition to convey practical, rational conservation values to young India. His first brush with photography began at the age of 13, in the lush southern Western Ghats. His work soon began to be published nationally and was noticed by the likes of Fujifilm and the Rolex Young Laureates Programme. He was a part of a documentary on king cobras which was broadcasted on National Geographic. Determined to influence India’s conservation movement he co-founded Youth for Conservation with his guide and mentor, wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri. Today he has channelled his talent and drive with missionary zeal across Tamil Nadu, where he helps inform thousands of school and college students on the finer aspects of tiger conservation through screenings and discussions based on the film ‘The Truth About Tigers’. In his view, awards and accolades merely help to ratify his strongly-held conviction that nature conservation is vital to the well-being of Indians in all strata of society.
For this we honour him.