Venita Coelho lives in Goa — in an old Portuguese house with four dogs and a cat. Could they be the inspiration for her stories?
This writer, who has made a mark for herself in the world of children’s literature, worked in film and television.
In 2016, she won The Hindu Young World Goodbooks award for the best fiction for her book Dead as a Dodo. In this book, she talks about having to save the earth and animals from the greed of humans.
Coelho began her writing career scripting serials for UTV. But when they began to showcase serials about mothers and daughters-in-law, she decided it was time to move out, calling it quits to writing for the moving-images medium.
Fight for survival
She continues to write, but now it is stories and in them she portrays the sad plight that animals face. Her animal activism is obvious in her books, but then, not surprising for an animal lover.
In her books, it is the animals themselves who fight for their survival. They have an organisation known as Animal Intelligence Agency and the motto of the agency is to “Save the Animals, Save the World”.
The Animal Intelligence Agency is a multi-species non-governmental agency. Specially trained animal and human agents work undercover to save animals and the world. Some of them even have a license to kill!
Coelho’s Tiger by the Tail, is about the agency’s efforts to investigate and rescue missing tigers. In her second, Dead as a Dodo, the Dodo is back from the dead...but he is the only one of his species in the world.
Her other books include: Boy No. 32; The Washer of the Dead; Dungeon Tales; Moneky See Monkey Do.