MADURAI: A day-long painting exhibition titled ‘Mann – Manitham kappom' (Let us save both earth and humanism) held here on Monday at Madura College highlighted on one of the most pressing issues in the contemporary, viz., the need to protect and save environment.

The exhibition, organised by ‘Eeranilam', an organisation working for the cause of environmental protection and Visual Arts Centre, National Service Scheme of Madura College, jointly organised the exhibition.

About 50 paintings by N. Tamilarasan, president of the Eeranilam, depicted the ill-effects of pollution on nature, forests, groundwater and oceans. Paintings depicting the effects of climate change-induced incessant rainfalls, crops submerged in floodwater, effluents coming out of industries, empty lakes and ponds formed the oeuvre.

One of the paintings, which caught the imagination of many visitors, was the one where a man sitting on a trunk of a huge tree (which was felled) was found carrying an umbrella; it was irony at its best.

Wretched bodies of the peasant face was indeed a beautiful piece of work. The parched land highlighting the peasant's life formed the background and was extended to the whole imagery starting from the face which too was done with strokes of parched land.

Mr.Tamilarasan who had been painting with some thematic aspects in mind over the years said that the idea behind creation of ecoawareness was sparked due to distress over animal and bird species getting extinct due to various environmental reasons including global warming over a very long period.

Similar exhibitions have been organised in the schools and colleges across the State to create awareness among the student community of the need for protection of the earth and natural resources. This one-day exhibition will be held across the State at each of the 32 districts.

The exhibitions have been evoking overwhelming response from the students, he added.

He had already conducted a similar awareness campaign in all the districts with a set of 30 portraits stressing the concept of global warming and solutions. It drew tremendous positive response from more than one lakh students which motivated him to go on a second trip this year.

The exhibition was inaugurated by S.Thiagarajan, Head, Department of Mathematics, in the presence of R.Murali, Head, Department of Philosophy, Madura College. Mr.Murali introduced the painter to the students and asked them to inculcate the message and spread the awareness.