CHENNAI: Art gallery Studio Palazzo is organising Madras Week Celebrations on ‘158 years of Forest Conservation in South India’. The event will take place between August 18 and August 30.
The event is an attempt to highlight the contributions of Dr HFC Cleghorn, Dr R Wight and Dr E G Balfour in the area of forest conservation.
Apart from a few images of the plant specimens, copies of the book by S Subbarayalu (Indian Forest Service) will also be available for sale to interested students.
Cleghorn, who was born in Madras, went back to Scotland at the age of four, and became a surgeon from the University of Edinburgh. With a keen interest in Botany and Forestry, he began studying trees and plants, while he was an Assistant Surgeon .
He was instrumental in creating the Forest Department and spreading the principles of forest conservation, not only in India but also in the neighbouring countries.
After returning to Madras in 1851, he taught botany and materia medica at the Medical College.
Milton-born Wight was appointed to the Superintendence of the Public Cattle Depot near Mysore. Noticing his interest in botany, the government then appointed him as economist botanist. As part of his work, Wight undertook horticultural and acclimatisation projects, based on the garden of the Agri-Horticultural Society in Madras. Many of the drawings were used to in his work ‘Icones planitaritinorientalis’ ( 1838-1853 Madras ) and ‘Illustrations of Indian Botany (1838-1853 Madras).
Balfour came to Madras to serve as a surgeon, but he showed keen interest in the local language.
His skills linked science, science administration and human values. Balfour’s portrait by Walter Barnard in 1880 was placed in the Government Central Museum (the ‘Chennai Museum’ today). Balfour was a Fellow of the University of Madras. Balfour Road in Kilpauk is named after him
Chitra Ragulan, proprietor of Studio Palazzo, says that the event aims to reach the student community, as the information is going to be of immense significance to their learning minds.
“I would like the school and college students to visit as it will benefit them enormously to learn about conserving our forests and environment,” she says.
Studio Palazzo is located at No 14, Harrington Road, Chetpet. Phone Number: 28362166.