Thimmakka and her trees There is something special about the 385 towering avenue trees on a four km stretch of a public road from Kudur and Hulikal in Karnataka, South India. All of them were planted and cared for by an elderly couple, Thimmakka and Chikkanna. Thimmakka was born in 1910 or so in the…
Author: Prof RR
My name is R.Rajagopalan, but students and many friends call me as Prof RR. I am an engineer by training, environmentalist and writer by passion, and a story teller by choice. I am a great believer in the ‘liberal arts’ and am interested in a wide variety of things, from ecology and environment to literature and life purpose.
I believe in the power of stories to inspire, educate and influence people, especially children.
I retired in 2003 as Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. I hold a B.E. (Honours) degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras and M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. I taught for over 30 years at IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, handling a variety of courses on industrial engineering, management, environment, and development. At IIT Madras, I was also the Director of International Ocean Institute (IOI India) and coordinated several international ocean and environment-related courses and workshops.
I have been giving presentations and conducting workshops on environment for different groups in India. I am a regular facilitator at Initiatives of Change, Panchgani, where I have made presentations on environment and life purpose to a large number of participants including 300 IAS and other Civil Services officers. I also co-direct an annual workshop on sustainability at the international community of Auroville, near Puducherry in south India.
I have published 20 books on environment for schools, colleges and aspirants to the Civil Services. My university-level book, Environmental Studies: From Crisis to Cure has consistently been a bestseller on Amazon.in. In recent times, I have also written books on ethics meant for aspirants to the Civil Services.
I now divide my time between Bangalore, India and Oakland, USA.
024. Lois Marie Gibbs: Homemaker turned renowned activist
Lois Marie Gibbs Toxic dump under homes In 1978, she was a 27-year-old homemaker with two children, living near Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York. She had no experience in environmental or social work – until she became concerned when her children began experiencing unexplained illnesses. She began investigating the cause, became an activist and…
023. Chipko: Hug the trees, save the forest
Gaura Devi who led the women in Renni Village Women prevent the felling of trees On March 26, 1974, a group of men arrived stealthily in the forest next to Renni Village in the Garhwal District of Himalayas in India. They had been sent by a contractor to begin cutting down 2500 trees in the…
022. Ray Anderson: Doing well while doing good
Ray C. Anderson Ray C. Anderson (1934-2011) was the CEO of Interface, the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer. In 1994, at the height of his success with Interface – a company he had built with enormous dedication – he was challenged with a question that would define the rest of his life: “What is your…
021. An Enemy of the People
Henrik Ibsen The doctor’s discovery In a small Norwegian town, Dr.Tomas Stockmann is a doctor at Kristen Springs, a spa that is popular with the town’s people and outsiders. The spa had been founded by himself and his brother, Peter Stockmann, who is also the Mayor of the town. At one point, Tomas becomes suspicious…
020. Joanna Macy: A wild love for the world
Joanna Macy Born in 1929, Joanna Macy is an environmental activist, author, and a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. In the mid-sixties, Joanna moved with her husband Francis to post-colonial India, where he ran the US Peace Corps. There, she cared for Tibetan refugees, joining the young, newly exiled Dalai Lama….
019. Banabai Kumre: ‘Did you get a cut on my dam?’
Banabai Kumre The agriculture department official told Banabai Kumre that nothing would come of her complaint of corruption, because he had already paid hush money to the district collector and the chief minister. So the septuagenarian did what she thought was best: She went to Mumbai and asked Maharashtra’s chief minister if he had received…
018. It is in your hands
Outside of a town, there lived an old and blind woman, who could answer any question asked by visitors. Her knowledge and wisdom became well-known and people revered her. One young man, who came from another town, did not believe that the woman had extraordinary powers. He thought that she was a fraud and made…
017. Iqbal Masih: Child activist against bonded labour
Iqbal Masih Iqbal Masih was born in 1983 in Muridke, near Lahore, Pakistan. His family was poor and had borrowed 600 Rupees (less than US$5) from a local owner of a carpet weaving business. Iqbal, just four, became a bonded labour and was required to work for the weaver until the debt was paid off….
016. Rachel Carson and ‘Silent Spring’: The launch of the environmental movement
Rachel Carson If you have any interest in environmental issues, you would have read or heard about Rachel Carson (1907-1964). Her book Silent Spring helped launch the environmental movement in the US and elsewhere. She was a marine scientist, ecologist, and also an extraordinary science writer. Researcher and writer Growing up in the rural river…