By Alladi Jayasri BANGALORE Feb. 27. "A delicate wild begonia and a shy lion-tailed macaque have known only one home, and the dense rain forests of the Western Ghats. Now concerned citizens are joining forces to save what is left before it's too late, for forest dwellers and human beings alike." This is how the writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, has chosen to introduce the Western Ghats to readers of the prestigious The National Geographic Magazine, which is featuring a series on the ecological hotspots of the world. The series was kicked off with India's Western Ghats where Mr. Ward and the photographer, Frans Lanting, tramped, trekked, interviewed and photographed, recording for posterity a piece of Nature that might soon be gone. For the Bangalore-based wildlife enthusiast, Praveen Bhargav, and friends such as Niren Jain, who go under the name of Wildlife First, this couldn't have come at a better time. As guides to the magazine's team, and more importantly, as a group engaged in the battle to stop mining and development activities inside undisturbed forest areas of the Western Ghats, they have been able to strengthen the case for reclaiming the forests for the vanishing wildlife by building a strong people's movement. The wildlife biologist, K. Ullas Karanth, who provided inputs for the article, and had done so a decade ago in an earlier article on "India's Wildlife Dilemma", in May 1992, is now quoted as saying, "Most environmental organisations concern themselves with the convenience of people." But Wildlife First, Dr. Karanth who is the group's science adviser, goes on to add, does not. "People already occupy 97 per cent of this country. Their problems should be solved there. The other three per cent should be left for wildlife." The National Geographic Magazine then goes on to pay wildlife activists the ultimate compliment it has recorded the untiring defence of wildlife by groups like Wildlife First, which led to an order from the Supreme Court, demanding that Karnataka explain why it permits mining in Kudremukh National Park in violation the Wildlife Protection Act. Yet, after weeks of winding down from Kudremukh and reaching Munnar and Eravikulam in Kerala, there's hope. Mr. Ward wonders at the tenacity of India's wildlife, given just half a chance. There are folks who will look to science for benign interventions, and there is still the tiger lurking in the mists waiting to ambush its prey the food chain going full circle to sustain life, and hope. я