Elephantine zeal

Natarajan Ishwaran, a wildlife conservationist, aims to use technology to promote better management of natural habitats. Raymond Zhou reports.

Natarajan Ishwaran has a special affinity for the Asian elephant. It roams wild in his country, Sri Lanka, where domesticated ones are used to take tourists around. He studied the animal through his doctoral program. Now he uses state-of-the-art technology to promote the conservation of natural habitats for them and other creatures.

All this from his Beijing office at International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage, a United Nations agency, where he is a visiting professor.