SANCTUARY WILDLIFE AWARDS

ENVIRONMENT

THE SANCTUARY WILDLIFE AWARDS 2012

Categories: One Lifetime Service Award, five Wildlife Service Awards, one Green Teacher 

Award, three  Young Naturalist Awards, and two  Wind Under the Wings Awards  for 

organisations that have supported and encouraged their employees to be of service to wild 

nature. 

This year, we have also instituted a special Best Tiger State Award. Maharashtra, under the 

visionary leadership of its Chief Minister, Shri Prithviraj Chavan, and ably supported by Forest 

Minister, Dr. Patangrao Kadam, has been selected as Sanctuary’s Best Tiger State for 2012.

This is in recognition of the dramatic improvement in tiger protection in Maharashtra over the 

past year. Tiger numbers have risen, vacant forest guard and frontline posts have been filled, a 

Tiger Protection Force has been established, tiger corridors have been strengthened and above 

all, in the process, the relationship between people and parks has significantly improved 

because of policies that recognise the contribution of local communities to the vital task of tiger 

protection. 

The Lifetime Service Award has been conferred upon Belinda Wright, Founder of the Wildlife 

Protection Society of India. A dyed-in-the-wool wildlifer, she is a renowned tiger conservationist 

and wildlife campaigner, who has pioneered investigations into the illegal wildlife trade in India, 

Nepal, Bhutan and China. She has also organised hundreds of wildlife enforcement and anti-poaching workshops and skill shares for a range of professionals including Forest, Police and 

Customs officials. She helped discover and expose the trade in shahtoosh and its connection 

with the tiger bone trade, tracked tiger skins from India to the Tibetan plateau, and has worked 

to stop the slaughter of sea turtles off the coast of Odisha and the poaching and electrocution of 

wild elephants.

Five Wildlife Service Awards have been presented to diverse individuals for their contributions 

to wildlife protection. The awardees are:

1.  Srinivasa Reddy, Field Director of Maharashtra’s Pench Tiger Reserve: He has 

served in various capacities to protect the wildlife around Chandrapur, Nandurbar, 

Ahmednagar and Melghat. He has also become one of the architects of the renewed 

drive to consolidate the Nagzira-Navegon landscape and is currently the Field Director of 

the Pench Tiger Reserve. Aware that relocation of villages is a sensitive issue, he 

worked with local communities, and by making them the architects of the move, he 

managed to successfully oversee the relocation of Amona, Nagartas and Barukheda 

villages from Wan Sanctuary in the Melghat Tiger Reserve, repeating this success in 

Navegaon National Park, where villagers had been demanding to be relocated for three 

decades.

2.  Richard D’souza, Additional PCCF, Goa: As the Chief Wildlife Warden of the A&N 

Islands, he quickly got Cuthbert Bay declared as a sanctuary for the olive Ridley turtle, 

Rani Jhansi Marine National Park for the endangered dugong and Galathea Bay in 

Great Nicobar for the highly endangered giant leatherback turtle. He has also authored 

management plans for many other regions in the Andamans in the 16 long years he 

spent there. This lifetime experience stood him in good stead in Goa, where he works as 

the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests.

3.  N. Badusha, Wynad Prakruthi Samrakshana Samithi: A simple man who lives to 

protect forests, he has been fighting the illegal sandalwood trade, forest encroachments 

in Wynad, commercial plantations on forest lands and the trapping of wild elephants. 

Recently, Badusha successfully steered the first-ever voluntary relocation of 50 families 

from the Wynad Wildlife Sanctuary, which has led to several hundred families seeking 

voluntary relocation to improve their own conditions of life, while releasing vital lands for 

wildlife.

4.  P. Dhanesh Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer, South Wynad Forest Division: In the 

face of threats to himself and his family, he fought powerful forces that were 

systematically destroying Kerala’s fragile forests, where he has served as a Forest 

Range Officer and then Divisional Forest Officer for over a decade. In the process, he 

has had to confront ruthless poachers, ganja dealers and sandalwood smugglers. 

Having launched ‘Operation Clean Nelliampathy’, this exemplary defender of the wilds 

has used the court to reclaim over 6,000 acres of forest land that had been illegally 

taken over.

5.  Jadav Payeng, Forest Man of Assam: A cowherd, he lives on a Brahmaputra sandbar 

called Aruna sapori. Due to his concerted efforts he has been able to reforest his island 

and it is now home to elephants, tigers and rhinos! Not satisfied with greening just his 

own tiny ark, he exhorts villagers to do the same on part of their own lands. 

The Wind Under the Wings Award: Arti Kulkarni and IBN Lokmat for their impactful reports 

on conservation issues. An award-winning journalist, Arti Kulkarni has been lauded as the voice 

of conservation in the Marathi media, and has a dedicated following in her viewers and readers 

across the state. Encouraged by IBN Lokmat, where she works as Deputy Feature Editor, this 

bold woman has doggedly followed her dream, and lives it every day by defending the wild 

species she loves through her hard-hitting exposes and campaigns on the problems facing 

wildlife reserves in Maharashtra.

A special Wind Under the Wings Award: Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd. and its 

Managing Director, Deepak Atal. A Tata Group Company, APPL manages the heritage 

Hathikuli Tea Estate, which, backed by its board and employees took the farsighted decision to 

turn its plantation organic. Located in the Golghat district in Assam, this step has dramatically 

benefitted the Kaziranga National Park by protecting it from toxic pesticides and chemicals,

which has brought biodiversity back to its buffers. 

The Young Naturalist Awards have been presented to three exceptional young Indians, for 

whom the study and defence of nature is the purpose of life, and who inspire hope for the future. 

This year the awards go to:

1.  Cara Tejpal (writer, animal rights activist): She currently works with the Gerry Martin 

Project that seeks to protect and educate the masses on reptiles and specifically on how 

to reduce snakebites in India. A prolific writer, Cara has covered a number of 

conservation issues in India and has a veritable following in cyberspace as well. 

2.  Roheet Karoo (tiger protector, wilderness crusader): The surveys and studies he 

has undertaken resulted in the declaration of the Umred-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary, 

which has given the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve a much needed boost. A sober 

young man, driven by a deeper purpose, Roheet has only one dream – of protecting 

tigers and their habitats.

3.  Rohan Chakravarty (talented cartoonist and illustrator):  His illustrations and 

cartoons have been published in several magazines and journals across India. Rohan 

has the ability to bring a smile to your face and introspection to your deepest thoughts. 

He was awarded the first prize by the United Nations Development Programme and the 

French government for his illustrations, which highlight the impact of climate change on 

the Sundarbans. 

The Green Teacher Award is being presented to Professor Chandrakant Wakankar. A 

Contributory Faculty member with the University of Pune, he guides M.Sc. students, on whom 

he is undoubtedly leaving an indelible conservation stamp. Many of today’s most popular field-training programmes, workshops, and camps, which are being implemented across India, have 

their roots in the early structure that Professor Wakankar put together for students of all ages, 

ranging from primary school to university. In his view, the one achievement he is most proud of 

is the creation of over 2,000 nature clubs across India.

The Sanctuary Wildlife Awards 2012 will be presented on November 30, 2012 at the Tata 

Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai.

The Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Contest winners will also be announced at the ceremony. 

The first prize is being awarded to Sudhir Shivaram for his stunning image of a leopard basking 

in the warm glow of the morning sun in Nagarahole, Karnataka. The second prize is being 

awarded to Vinayak Parmar for his image of a Black Drongo Dicrurus macrocercus, skimming 

the waters of a lake 30 km. from Jamnagar, Gujarat. A joint third prize is being given to Ashvin 

Trivedi for his image of the coordinated aerobatic flocking display of birds at the Lakhota lake, 

Jamnagar and Shyam Ghate for his magical image of a herd of elephants in Corbett.