Varun Alagar Surendran, wildlife cameraman and filmmaker shares his experience of working for BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. He is an animal behavioural specialist and has presented some spectacular sequences in the natural world. He won much acclaim for his work for BBC’s series Primates, especially in the sequence where lion tailed Macaque and the Indian Great Squirrel interact. He will share his insights and experiences of filming in the Anamalais in a session of Couch Explorer, that was begun post Lockdown by Pollachi Papyrus , an online portal that documents the bio-cultural diversity of Pollachi and the Anamalais.
Founder Editor of Pollachi Papyrus Pravin Shanmughanandam
Says its founder-editor Pravin Shanmughanandam, “Couch Explorer is one way of bringing the great outdoors into your homes. It bring the essence of travel to you wherever you are. We organise sessions where you meet new people, learn something different and share ideas. This is to keep us going till such time we can step outdoors again!” Not all are live events. Some are videos that are shot and posted, sometimes it is an article or recipe that is shared and then others, like Varun’s are interactive. An online tutorial on how to grow micro-greens at home went down really well, says Pravin. The sessions have seen quite a few people in attendance, most of them from Coimbatore, Chennai, Bengaluru and parts of North India too.
So far Couch Explorer has hosted seven sessions on Instagram, says Pravin. Their guests have included popular bloggers, photographers, writers, animal lovers and entertainers. Its eighth session will feature Varun Alagar Surendran who describes this opportunity to engage with people on Instagram as a “positive event. “I look forward to it, it will keep us going till we can step out. In these strange times while everyone is bogged down by saddening reports, Pollachi Papyrus has taken a positive step to educate, empathise and entertain an audience. I hope my encounters from the field will inspire someone.”
Varun goes live on Sunday May 3 at 7 pm on Couch Explorer with Papyrus on Pollachi Papyrus instagram handle (https://www.instagram.com/pollachipapyrus/?hl=en )
