[2] She is the daughter of Shakunthala Jagannathan, Deputy Director-General and Regional Director of Tourism, Government of India, Mumbai, and author of the best-seller Hinduism – An Introduction  and Ganesha,[3] and A.R.

Institute of Indological Research, affiliated to the University of Madras for the Ph.D. degree in History and Environmental Studies.

She was appointed as director and later a professor of the institute[11] In 1983, she founded The Grove School which was affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examination in 2006[12] In 1985, she established Saraswathi Kendra Learning Centre for Children with autism, dyslexia, learning disabilities and problems in the CPRAF campus[13] In 1989, she founded C.P.R.

She has restored 53 sacred groves in South India; trained Kota and Kurumba tribes to develop their traditional skills as a source of income;[14] revived traditional rainwater harvesting in eight tanks of Tamil Nadu;[15] designed programmes to train teachers in environmental education;[16] introduced Dr. Dog, a pet therapy programme for autistic and dyslexic children, in Chennai ;[17] introduced Kindness Kids, a programme to teach children about their food and the environment, in Chennai .

[18] She has been documenting the Ecological Traditions of India which are posted on the Ministry of Environment and Forest's ENVIS (Environmental Information systems) website on "Conservation of Ecological Heritage and Sacred Sites" run by CPR Environmental Education Centre.

Ramaswami Aiyar family into the Shakunthala Jagannathan Museum of Folk Art and Rangammal Vidyalaya, a school for low-income children.

[29] CPR Environmental Education centre received the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar (1996)[30] under her directorship.

She is married to S. Chinny Krishna, an industrialist who is a co-founder and chairman of the animal rights charity Blue Cross of India.

Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation,10 and Rudra Krishna, who is a writer and author of Onus of Karma[33] and Brahma Towers[34]