Environment Conservation Group (ECG) is a

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

based in Coimbatore,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. The group is active since 2009 and works towards conservation of the environment and wildlife. ECG was formed by a group of wildlife and environmental enthusiasts headed by environmental activist Mr.

Mohammed Saleem Mohammed Saleem is an environmental activist, environmental campaigner, National Geographic educator and explorer. He is the co-founder of Environment Conservation Group, a nonprofit Non-governmental organization, NGO based out of Coimbatore, Ta ...

, Mr. Stephen Joseph is the Co-founder and Vice-President. The group is involved in monitoring the

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s of Coimbatore against dumping of debris and encroachments. ECG is also involved in advocating sustainability,

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often ...

and rescuing birds from the

wildlife trade Wildlife trade refers to the of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, t ...

. ECG is involved in stopping the felling of trees and conducting awareness programmes.

Click Your Pic 2011

Click Your Pic is a national level photography exhibition organised by ECG to spread awareness about the rich natural heritage of India.The event was organised jointy with

Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History The Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) is a national centre for information, education and research in ornithology and natural history in India. It was inspired by and named in honour of Salim Ali, the leading pioneer ...

and Central Academy for State Forest Service from 3rd - 9 th January 2011 at CASFOS campus. Some of the eminent speakers during the event were Dr. Azeez- Director of SACON, Mr. Marudachalam of Photo centre, Mr. TNA Perumal and Mr. K.Jayaram.

Click Your Pic 2012

This second annual exhibition was held on December 27–30, 2012 at Hindusthan College of Arts and science, Coimbatore. It has received very good response from wildlife photographers across the country. Photography sessions were conducted by Mr. Perumal and Mr. Balan Madhavan. Mr.

Bittu Sahgal Bittu Sahgal is an environmental activist, writer, and the founder of Sanctuary Nature Foundation, an Indian nonprofit conservation organization that works on environmental policy, advocacy, science, on-ground support and habitat management. He i ...

was one of the chief guests. The Judge of the event was

T.N.A. Perumal T.N.A. Perumal or Thanjavur Nateshachary Ayyamperumal (15 November 1932 – 8 February 2017) was a wildlife photographer from Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He started taking photographs of flora and fauna in 1960 and was awarded with several a ...

and

Balan Madhavan Balan Madhavan is an Indian nature conservation photographer. He is a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Life and work Madhavan runs the N Madhavan Pillai Foundation for Conservation Communication, which ...

. The event was sponsored by Savithri Photo House and GLO colour lab.

Click Your Pic 2014

Click your Pic 2014 was held at

Brookefields Mall Brookefields is a shopping mall located on Brookebond Road (Krishnasamy Road) in Coimbatore, India. It was opened in May 2009. The mall has outlets from major clothing and apparel brands and a 06-screens multiplex cinema, along with a food co ...

from November 14–19, 2014. The mega photo exhibition drew lot of visitors from across the region, also on display were photographs by India's eminent wildlife photographers including TNA Perumal,

Rathika Ramasamy Rathika Ramasamy is an Indian wildlife photographer. She is based in Chennai and operates as a freelance photographer. She has received many accolades for her photographs and has been called the "first Indian woman to strike an international rep ...

Kalyan Varma Kalyan Varma is a Bangalore-based wildlife filmmaker, photographer and conservationist. He is one of the founders of Peepli Project, co-director of Nature InFocus nature and wildlife festival, and founding member of India Nature Watch. He cu ...

and Sudhir Shivaram . The Judge of the event was Mr.

. The event was sponsored by

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...

PATH / SEEK2016

A group of five wildlife conservationist from ECG led by its president R. Mohammed Saleem traveled about 20,000 Kilometers across 22states of India to study

roadkill Roadkill is an animal or animals that have been struck and killed by drivers of motor vehicles on highways. Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) have increasingly been the topic of academic research to understand the causes, and how it can be mi ...

and spread awareness on the impact of roads on

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted f ...

, in February 2016. The team traveled through major wildlife sanctuaries and visited major institutions like

IIT Guwahati The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) is a public technical university established by the Government of India, located in Amingaon area, North Guwahati city, in the state of Assam in India. It is the sixth Indian Inst ...

University of Jammu A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

American College, Madurai The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Saracenic style, bl ...

and

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in nor ...

to spread awareness among students. The expedition was sponsored by

Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

Sanctuary Asia ''Sanctuary Asia'' is an Indian nature and wildlife conservation magazine founded in 1981 by Bittu Sahgal, its current editor. The magazine expanded in 2015 to become established as a non-profit foundation (Sanctuary Nature Foundation). Sanctua ...

SEEK2017

A second international expedition named Save Endangered, Endemic and Key Species (SEEK) was headed by R. Mohammed Saleem, President and Managing Trustee of the organisation. The team members Sisir, Srini, Abishek and Anirudha travelled by

Mahindra Scorpio The Mahindra Scorpio is a mid-size SUV manufactured by the Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra since 2002. It was Mahindra's first model to be built for the global market. The Scorpio was conceptualized and designed by the in-house integrated ...

, they visited various wildlife sanctuaries across India. They spread awareness in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

Tribhuvan University Tribhuvan University (TU; ne, त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय) is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest university in Nepal. In terms of enrollment, it is ...

and Golden Gate International College

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Nepal, Province , subdivision_name1 ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

, IIT Guwahati and many other educational Institutions. The four members traveled for 60 days across India and the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. The expedition was sponsored by WWF,

, Wulf Pro,

MapmyIndia MapmyIndia is an Indian technology company that builds digital map data, telematics services, location-based SaaS and GIS AI technologies. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered at New Delhi with regional offices in Mumbai an ...

and CRI Pumps.

SEEK2019

The third expedition SEEK2019 was organised to document the threatened birds of India as well as to spread awareness on the importance of birds. The four member SEEK2019 team consisted of Dr. P.A. Azeez, former director - Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Dr. Ravi Rishi - a physician, Mr. Makathan, headed by Mr. R. Mohammed Saleem. The team travelled across India for 79 days in search of elusive and rare birds. The team were successful in spotting the

whinchat The whinchat (''Saxicola rubetra'') is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in central Africa. At one time considered to be in the thrush family, Turdidae, it is now placed in the Old World flycat ...

for the first time in India. During the expedition the team visited various educational institutions and NGOs. The expedition was sponsored by

Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...

, Coimbatore City Round Table 31, NM & Co., Wulf Pro,

, Pricol, Sulochana Mills and Twin Birds

Save Coimbatore Racecourse

ECG spearheaded the Save Coimbatore Race course movement. It grew into a mass movement in a very short time. ECG along with other associations, stakeholders and general public's support were able to stop the indiscriminate cutting of trees on race course in the name of Smart City development, thanks to their efforts the green spaces were successfully reclaimed at Coimbatore Racecourse
Save Race course movement

Sponsorship & Support

ECG activities are made possible due to generous support from corporates and individuals; some of them are: * National Geographic * WWF * Carl Zeiss * Google * HP * Panasonic * Mahindra & Mahindra * Sanctuary Asia * Fire Bird Institution * MapmyIndia * Coimbatore Round Table * Coleman * Twin Birds * N Mahalingam & Co * Sulochana Mills * Apollo Tyres * Pricol * CRI Pumps The ECG has received voluntary support from celebrities of film industry, including Nassar (actor)
Famous Film Star Nazar speak on Wildlife Conservation
Vijay Sethupathi, Vivek (actor), Ponvannan and Singamuthu
Tamil Film star Singamuthu Invites you

References

{{Reflist Nature conservation organisations based in India Nature conservation in India Organisations based in Coimbatore 2009 establishments in Tamil Nadu Organizations established in 2009 Sustainability advocates