Balaji's visit

Balaji is an amazing man. He's motorbiked around India to promote awareness and protection of the coastal ecosystem. He's kayaked the length of Palk Bay (the bite of coastline shown here, hairily close to the frightening end of Sri Lanka) over three months stopping off at various villages to preach the gospel of coastal zone conservation. Within a viva of receiving his PhD in seagrass monitoring he's also set up OMCAR, his own NGO that is based in, and works closely with, two or three communities on the Tamil Nadu coast (embedding like this is the best way to ensure development projects really work), sorted out core funding support from DEEPWAVE, a German NGO, (a rare trick that every NGO fantasized about achieving) and is about to get married in a few weeks time.

We met at Robin Lewis' mangrove rehab training workshop (2005) and have kept in touch ever since. So it was wonderful to show him round Krabi, hear what he's been doing in India and take him to the pond. In true Balaji style he leapt straight in and started digging. Please come back and see us soon. We wish you all the best for your wedding.