Custodians of Madurai's history, feathered friends and more

WHEN the first light crept into the room, Thamildhaasan alias Johnson M slowly opened his eyes.

- JEYALAKSHMI RAMANUJAM

As he heard birds chirping outside the window, a grin started appearing on his face-a small smile of contentment. This 38-year-old from Melamadai along with his Madurai Nature Cultural Foundation has been making ardent efforts to protect the biodiversity and heritage of the district since 2012.

The foundation's one such successful endeavour was documenting the bird species of Samanatham tank. Following this they sent a proposal to the forest department through Madurai Collector MS Sangeetha to transform the tank into a bird sanctuary.

Briefing how he got interested in environmental activism, Thamildhaasan said, “It was 2012 and Indira Nagar, located near Melamadai, was witnessing a chain of protests demanding potable water. As many villagers were illiterate, my friends and I started writing petitions to the officials to aid them. As a result, the people got water facilities. This made me think." "Melamadai is one of the fertile areas with more kanmoi around it. However, there was neither no data on the natural resources nor any efforts to protect it. So I decided to do something for it," he added.