Panduranga Hegde
Panduranga Hegde is an environmentalist from Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India and is known as the person who started Appiko movement to protect trees in Western Ghats. Birth and early life. Panduranga Hegde was born in Uttara Kannada Distric. and studied bachelor's degree at Karnatak University. He worked as Chartered Accountant at Delhi and later trained himself in Social work at Delhi School of Social Work and spent four years in Madhya Pradesh among rural people with Damoh, a non government organisation. He was attracted by Chipko movement led by Sundarlal Bahuguna and got involved with protection  of forests and environment. Appiko movement. Panduranga Hegde is inspired by Sundarlal Bahuguna and Amrita Devi Bishnoi in the area of environmental protection and is known as "disciple" of the latter. During the 1980s, Panduraga Hegde led people to protect trees in forest by embracing the trees or "appiko" (as in local language Kannada) when the contractors tried to fell trees. He was a great nature lover.