Lake Warrior - Arun Krishnamurthy

At 31, Arun Krishnamurthy has already quit a job at Google, set up Environmental Foundation of India (EFI), an NGO. In 10 years EFI has cleaned 83 lakes and the list of lakes to be cleaned is long

Vaani Anand

Arun didn’t quit his fancy job because he was bored. “I quit my corporate career not because I didn’t like what I was doing, but did so because I liked working for the environment even more!” Arun says excitedly. At work (in Google, Hyderabad) his manager pushed him to perform better at work and use the incentives to pursue his environment work. It set a model for him and gave him the confidence that he can still take care of himself and the environment without a fulltime job.

EFI’s primary objective is wildlife conservation and habitat restoration. It focuses on real-time and result-oriented environment conservation work. EFI has over 100 volunteers and is spread across 6 states and 2 union territories in the country.

As a child, Arun Lived in Mudichur, Chennai. He wanted to become a cardiologist but his academic grades didn’t match the systems’ expectations. “My school never pressurized me into becoming someone, they let me be myself which has helped me a great deal in life” says Arun. He went on to study Microbiology at Madras Christian College. “Confidence, leadership, a good job and a beautiful wife, all these were given to me by my college MCC,” says Arun candidly. He went on to study at the Indian institute of Mass Communication, Jawarhal Nehru University.