Sanctuary Wildlife Awards 2014

  

Sanctuary

 Wildlife 

Awards 2014

On December 5, 2014, Sanctuary Asia, supported by DSP Blackrock and Deutsche Bank, will present the 15^th Sanctuary Wildlife Awards at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. The awards were instituted to recognise the best-in-the-field of wildlife conservation in India and to highlight the immense contribution of individuals working to defend our wildernesses. The awardees are nominated by Sanctuary Asia readers and supporters from across the country.

The award categories include the prestigious Lifetime Service Award, five Wildlife Service Awards, three Young Naturalist Awards, one Green Teacher Award, one Wind Under the Wings Award and a Special Tiger Award. The winners of Sanctuary Asia’s Wildlife Photography Awards will also be felicitated at the ceremony.

Bittu Sahgal, Founder and Editor, Sanctuary Asia, said, “With every passing day the role of the earth heroes who are protecting wild India is becoming more critical to national development. These biodiversity defenders are vital to any hope India has of dealing with the worst impacts of climate change because forests, wetlands and other such natural ecosystems not only moderate climate, but also sequester and store carbon. Sanctuary asks that they be placed on the same pedestal as our armed forces for their role is no less critical to the survival of India.”

Hemendra Kothari, Chairman, DSP BlackRock, said, “Over 600 Indian rivers are fed by tiger forests. Helping save the tiger and its habitat ensures water security and their ecosystems which make our planet habitable. What is more, wildlife tourism is coming to be accepted as a vital revenue source that has a very high capital to employment return. Africa gets millions of wildlife tourists every year. To see the Tiger by and large in the wild, is very likely in India, and I believe this can be an important draw for India’s tourism.  We strongly support Sanctuary Asia and share its purpose, which is best represented by the tiger and its many defenders, some of whom we are jointly honouring.”

Ravneet Gill, CEO –India, Deutsche Bank, said, “Balanced and principled growth are central to Deutsche Bank's operating philosophy. We, therefore, stand deeply committed to our entire constituency of nation builders, be they policy makers, captains of industry, educationists or those who protect & preserve our forests, wetlands, rivers, coasts and mountains. It is the latter who we are delighted to honour at the Sanctuary Awards. Through its Green Karbon initiative, being implemented by Sanctuary Asia, Deutsche Bank is committed to be a thought leader and an agent-of-change to build a future that will help India's astonishing biodiversity and ecological richness regenerate and find full expression.”

Lifetime Service Award: Dr. M.K. Ranjitsinh

An institution unto himself, Dr. Ranjitsinh has been at the forefront of India’s conservation movement for over half a century. A scion of the erstwhile royal family of Wankaner, Ranjitsinh drafted India’s progressive Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, facilitated the first ever relocation of a village from inside a Protected Area, was the Member Secretary of the task force that formulated Project Tiger, launched successful captive breeding and release programmes for all three species of Indian crocodilians, and oversaw the notification of over eight National Parks and 11 Wildlife Sanctuaries amongst much else. His entire life has been spent walking the wilds, drafting ground breaking policies, catalyzing action for lesser-known species and initiating pioneering conservation projects. His appointments, past and present, are too innumerable to list and it is equally impossible to summarise the full scope of his contribution.

The five Wildlife Service Award winners are:

1. The Hornbill Nest Protectors’ Team This team of 12 Nyishi tribals from forests near Arunachal Pradesh’s fecund Pakke Tiger Reserve is an exemplary model of community conservation. Established in 2011, each member of the team locates, monitors and protects nests of any of the four hornbill species found in Pakke. In the last two years 90 per cent of these nests successfully fledged chicks. The success of this project has been supplemented by a pre-existing community ban on the hunting of hornbills.
2. Binod ‘Dulu’ Bora A daring young man from Assam, Dulu is not only an expert wildlife rescuer but also a stellar communicator. Other than mitigating human-wildlife conflict in the Karbi-Anglong hills and mentoring students interested in conservation, Dulu also engages with the notorious insurgents of the region and asks them one simple question, “Ok, so you have a problem with some people, why take it out on wildlife?” His rescues include all manner of wildlife from elephant calves to leopard cubs to king cobras.
3. Pramod Patil A medical doctor by degree, Pramod is dedicated to finding a cure for a different kind of problem: the destruction of India’s grasslands and the impending extinction of the Great Indian Bustard. To this end he tackles policy and management issues, leads awareness programmes for both public and forest staff, and works toward grassland restoration. An Advocacy Officer with the Bombay Natural History Society he is also a member of numerous national and international committees dedicated to the conservation of this bird.
4. Chewang Motup Goba Intrepid explorer, Motup Goba is a mountain man at heart. Founder of Rimo Expeditions he is committed to promoting sustainability amongst Himalayan communities and adventure tourists. His team organises clean ups of camping sites, constructs toilets along busy trekking routes, holds medical camps in remote Ladakhi village and in 2013 brought down four tonnes of garbage from Mt. Everest! They are responsible for the rescue of hundreds of humans from the climate-change triggered natural disasters that struck first Ladakh, then Uttarakhand and most recently Kashmir. This visionary man is also asking for the declaration of the Siachen Glacier as an International Peace Park.
5. Rajesh Sanap and Zeeshan Mirza Research Associates with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, these two Bombay boys spend most of their time exploring India’s remotest habitats. Together they are responsible for the discovery of 23 species of lizards, scorpions and spiders new to science! Currently, they are fighting the illegal wildlife pet trade that is robbing Indian forests of its most striking arachnids, documenting the herpetofauna of Tripura and are compiling a comprehensive database of the snakes, lizards, scorpions and tarantulas of the country.

Green Teacher Award: Isaac Kehimkar

Widely referred to as India’s ‘Butterfly Man’, Kehimkar is responsible for introducing countless young Indians to the wonders of nature. Other than leading exciting nature walks for children and adults alike, Isaac is also the author of two comprehensive field guides: Common Indian Wildflowers and the Book of Indian Butterflies. Today, Isaac Kehimkar is committed to popularising the concept of butterfly gardens in urban areas as a way to bring young people closer to nature.

Wind Under The Wings Award: 

Nirmal Kulkarni and Wildernest Nature Resort

Nirmal Kulkarni dons multiple hats as the Director (Ecology) of the Wildernest Nature Resort, Chairman of the Mhadei Research Centre, Team Leader of the Hypnale Research Station, Senior Research Collaborator at Madras Crocodile Trust and a Promoter of HERPACTIVE, a study initiative on herpetofauna. All this was only possible thanks to the unstinting support of Captain Nitin Dhond, of the Merchant Navy who decades ago purchased a parcel of degraded land in Goa’s Chorla Ghat area. This is now a private, biodiverse, nature conservancy. He met and employed Nirmal in 1997 and together over seven years, they transformed the valley into a 450 acre nature conservancy of incredible biodiversity. On five out of the 450 acres, they set up Wildernest, an eco-lodge that employs locals from seven villages in three states. The Wildernest Eco-lodge encouraged Nirmal to establish the Mhadei Research Centre and later, the Hypnale Research Station. Today, scores of aspiring young conservationists use these institutions to work for the conservation of the Western Ghats. Nirmal has been credited with the discovery of several species and is associated with multiple national and state organisations including the Goa State Wildlife Advisory Board. His team also works with other groups seeking to protect tigers in Goa. It is their united effort that resulted in the declaration of the incredible Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary.

The three Young Naturalist Award winners are: 

1. Arjun Srivathsa Science meets art meets heart in the work of this young crusader. Having spent his undergraduate years volunteering with a number of conservation research projects, Arjun went on to receive a Masters degree in Wildlife Biology and Conservation Biology from the prestigious National Centre for Biological Sciences and Wildlife Conservation Society-India. Today, under the mentorship of Dr. Ullas Karanth, he studies dholes, tigers, leopards and other mammals of the Western Ghats landscape. In his spare time, this artist creates stunning works with a clear conservation message.
2. Vikas Madhav Just 15 years old, this teenager is already a well respected authority on the birds of Chennai. He has campaigned for the protection of the Pallikaranai marsh in Chennai and even wrote to the International Journal of Environmental Studies to draw the attention of the international community to this area. His bird list of the Odiyur lagoon featured prominently in a Rapid Assessment Study Report released by the Bombay Natural History Society and the Madras Naturalists Society for the protection of the site. An avid writer and an unstoppable birdwatcher, Vikas is a young naturalist to reckon with.
3. Keerthi Krutha Hardy in the field and meticulous in the laboratory, Keerthi Krutha is fuelled by an insatiable curiosity for the natural world.  She has spent the past two years undertaking fieldwork in 39 Protected Areas and 19 other sites within the Western Ghats landscape. In this time she collected skin swabs from over 2,000 infected amphibians and through lab analysis was able to identify a strain of chytrid fungus endemic to Asia. With a mature perspective on conservation, Keerthi is an inspiration to students everywhere.

Special Sanctuary Tiger Awards to: The Women of Maharashtra’s Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), Gajendra Narawane and S.D. Shendre

The women of Maharashtra's Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), have been successful in staunching the unbridled poaching attacks launched on tigers and other wild species across Maharashtra by the illegal wildlife trade. This highly trained group of women, best known as 'Durga Shakti', patrol the forests daily and will be represented by 20 selected members of the STPF (10 from the Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra and 10 from the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve).

Protection can be a life or death matter. Forest guard S.D. Shendre, Pench Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, just 24 years old, displayed exemplary courage and dedication when, unarmed, he confronted two gun-toting poachers. Shendre survived a bullet through his collarbone. He then walked two kilometres to the closest protection hut and waited for two hours for medical aid to arrive, but not before taking action to ensure that the four involved poachers were arrested.

Gajendra Narawane, DFO Buffer, Tadoba, is strengthening protection by winning the support of local communities. Over the past year he has not just hammered out a truce between people and parks, but has managed to turn enhanced biodiversity restoration into better living standards for villagers. Old timber extraction roads now carry visitors through Tadoba and every trip adds to village revenues. What is more, we have seen a dramatic reduction in human-wildlife conflict, another factor that has helped to bridge the gap between people and protected forests.

 This year, the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards drew over 2,500 entries and our judges had a hard time selecting the winners. The panel of judges included – wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri, National Geographic conservation photographer Steve Winter, founder of kolkattabirds.com Sumit Sen, scientist and conservation photographer Nayan Khanolkar, Head, Natural History and Science, Sanctuary Asia Dr. Parvish Pandya, Executive Editor, Sanctuary Asia Lakshmy Raman and editor Sanctuary Asia Bittu Sahgal. 

Sanctuary’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014 is Daanish Shastri for his stunning image titled ‘Curtain Call’.  This image was taken in Uttarakhand’s famous Corbett Tiger Reserve, where 15-year-old Daanish Shastri displayed the photographer’s instinct, changing his lens in the nick of time to capture the tigress known as Charamma (mother of four), launch her deadly attack on a chital Axis axis. So stealthily did she stalk her prey that for a considerable period of time neither deer nor on looking visitors were able to distinguish her concealed form in the golden grass.

Second Prize: Keerthana Balaji for her photograph titled ‘Mammoth Skirmish’ that captured an unbelievable face-off between a pack of dholes Cuon alpinus and a herd of elephants Elephas maximas,in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve. The photographer captured an image that is not just technically sound but also displays an incredible natural history moment. 

Joint Third Prize: Sachin Rai for the image titled ‘Outfoxing the Sun’. The stark, sandy tones and the fox’s exquisite, inquisitive, peeping face make this a photograph to remember.

Joint Third Prize: Balaji Loganathan for his startling picture of a pair of Large-billed Crows Corvus macrorhynchos sending a parakeet Psittacula krameri plummeting to the forest floor. Titled ‘Large Billed Bullies’, this is a rare image.

About Sanctuary Asia

Sanctuary Asia, India's leading wildlife, conservation and environment magazine, was started by Editor Bittu Sahgal in 1981 to raise awareness among Indians of their disappearing natural heritage. Sanctuary communicates the rationale for wilderness conservation and environmental protection, particularly in an era of climate change. Kids for Tigers, the Sanctuary Tiger Programme is the largest mass-mobilisation initiative of its kind anywhere in the world. For more information, visit www.sanctuaryasia.com

About DSP Blackrock

DSP BlackRock Investment Managers is one of the premier asset management companies in India. It is a joint venture between the DSP Group and BlackRock. Recognising that the richness of wildlife has played a pivotal role in maintaining the diverse ecosystems spanning across the length and breadth of India, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers joined Sanctuary Asia in celebrating the unsung heroes of India defending her wildernesses at the annual Sanctuary Wildlife Awards ceremony. Additionally, Chairman, Hemendra Kothari, driven by his enthusiasm towards wildlife, set up the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), a Mumbai-based registered public charitable trust dedicated and committed to the preservation, protection and conservation of wildlife across India.

About Deutsche Bank, India

Deutsche Bank is among the leading foreign banks in India catering to the financial requirements of companies and individuals. The Bank established its first branch in India in 1980, and now has over 10,000 employees in the country, operating 17 branches in 16 cities. For a global bank like Deutsche Bank, which operates in more than 70 countries, climate change is of paramount importance, not just for the sustainability of the business, but for the sustainability of society as a whole. This is why the bank joined hands with Sanctuary Asia in 2011 to launch GreenKarbon, a climate change-biodiversity programme that seeks to empower the individual to take small and large actions and be a part of the climate solution.