BANGALORE, Nov. 30. Five hundred school children from about 12 schools waited eagerly to meet the 'Man with a globe on his back' - Johny Biosphere.

Senaranya, of ASC Centre's third gate was the right place - an 'Urban Forest' as Suresh Heblikar of Eco-Watch says, Eco-watch, an NGO, has planted about 40,000 saplings to make an Eco-park for bio-diversity here. Eco-watch, Karnataka Environment Research Foundation and Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, with other NGOs conducted an environment awareness programme - cum - workshop on Thursday.

Dr. Jack Vallentyne or Johny Biosphere as he likes to call himself, an ecologist, came with a globe on his back, to help children 'Know Their Ecosystem'. An environment scientist from Canada, he wore the globe on his back in 1983 to make people aware about the eco-system.

A belt around his waist on a khaki dress, he displayed pictures - boxes with the pictures of animals in each, animals from across the globe. In the end was a picture of his two children. He wore leather traps over his shoulders, fixed with switches.

"Do you know why I wear the belt?" he asked, "to remind me that these animals are part of the biosphere, like my children."

A sound came every time they pressed buttons on his straps. The first one - an elephant from Africa. The last was a sound every child identified with, a baby laughing. Doesn't it show we are all part of Biosphere? "Eco-system is more important than the environment. The Environment is out there, but eco-system is what you are a part of."