Wildlife Service Awards

Manglu Baiga has spent his entire life in the jungles of the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. A child of nature, Manglu is a master tracker and his skills have helped many tiger experts refine their own techniques. When the Kanha Tiger Reserve was declared in the 1970s, Manglu helped Project Tiger officials to explore these fabled meadows and mountains. Manglu possesses incredible wisdom and knowledge and typifies the riches that India's remnant tribal cultures have to offer us. The fact that he knows Kanha and its topography like the back of his hand makes him crucial to the park's anti-poaching, fire fighting and monitoring efforts. It is doubtful that any living person knows more about this world famous tiger reserve than Manglu Baiga.[more]

Niren Jain: An architect and a native of the Bajagoli village near Kudremukh, Niren has been actively involved in conservation efforts since 1998. He has worked on camera trapping and mapping surveys in Kudremukh. He successfully campaigned against the destruction of rainforests by iron ore mining in the park and helped secure a decision from the Supreme Court to end mining within the park by 2005. Niren also oversaw a voluntary resettlement effort that helped people to move out of the park, benefitting tigers, elephants, lion-tailed macaques and people. Since June 2003, he has been the target of harassment by those who place the value of iron ore above our natural heritage, with false cases being filed against him. But he remains undaunted and totally committed to saving the rainforests of the Western Ghats.[more]

Charudutt Mishra and Aparajita Dutta are a husband-and-wife team whose life’s purpose is the study and protection of India’s wildlife. Charudutt specialises in high-altitude wildlife and Aparajita works in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. In 2003, they jointly undertook an expedition into the remote mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, which resulted in the discovery of the Chinese goral, a new record for the subcontinent. They also discovered the ‘Tawang macaque’, that is new to science. Charudutt is currently working to establish the first high-altitude wildlife reserve in Tawang and West Kameng. Aparajita runs a conservation programme in Namdapha, where she is trying to integrate the Lisu community in wildlife monitoring and protection. She also helps train and employ former Nishi hunters to monitor hornbills. This adventurous couple has combined sound science and social responsibility into effective wildlife conservation action.[more]

Pankaj Sharma: He has served as a Forest Ranger in the Assam Forest Department for over two decades.
In 1990-91, he was posted at the Laokhowa Sanctuary, then in the grip of armed miscreants. He was singled out for attack on numerous occasions and was almost killed. Between 1993 and 1997, he was part of a crack team in charge of the Kaziranga National Park, when armed poachers were rampant. Thanks to his bravery, and that of his colleagues, the number of rhinos poached fell from 25 in 1992 to six in 1996. Sharma was personally involved in seven armed encounters, resulting in the deaths of 13 poachers. Ignoring risks to his life and family, he helped secure the future of Kaziranga, which today has over 1,800 rhinos. He is currently posted at the Dibhru Saikhowa Sanctuary, where some of Kaziranga's rhinos may now be translocated.[more]

Ratan Singh has worked in the Keoladeo Ghana National Park at Bharatpur, Rajasthan, for 25 years, first as a boatman and now as a rickshaw puller and guide. He has evolved to become one of India's most accomplished bird experts, respected even by the likes of the late Dr. Sálim Ali. He has personally seen and identified more than 500 out of India's over 1,200 recorded bird species. More importantly, he understands birds, particularly their nesting habits. A villager who lives around the park, he helps improve relations between villagers and the forest department.
He believes that the national park is the heritage of the children of Bharatpur, explaining to villagers that the resident and migratory birds bring respect and income to the community. Ratan Singh continues to stand as a buffer between these famous swamps and those who might harm them. [more]


Green Teacher Award

Sonam Wangchuk is the founder of the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL). Recognising that modern education has displaced young Ladakhis from their environment and traditional sustainable lifestyles, Wangchuk and SECMOL are working to reverse this trend through revitalised education and the sensitisation of students and teachers. He also helps publish ‘Ladakh's Melong’, a magazine that highlights environmental and developmental issues of this beautiful mountain region. Wangchuk has also designed the SECMOL campus, which runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating, even when temperatures fall to minus 25 degrees. He now shares this technology with schools across Ladakh. [more]


Young Naturalist of the Year 2004
Maan Barua has grown up in and around Kaziranga. He has turned out to be one of India's most promising naturalists and ornithologists. He has been an intrinsic part of field surveys that studied pheasants in Arunachal Pradesh, eagles in Ladakh and the birdlife of remote wildernesses such as Arunachal's Mishmi and Meghalaya's Garo Hills. He works with Assamese youth to awaken their interest in Assam's vanishing natural heritage. He is writing two books on the birds of Kaziranga and Assam. Maan also works with young persons to promote tourism that is sensitive to wildlife and to develop in them natural history skills they could use to defend Assam’s wildlife. [more]

Young Naturalists
Rahul Alvares is a naturalist, author and snake expert all in one. He took a break after completing his 10th standard to work at the Madras Crocodile Bank and Pune's Snake Park, where he learned the basics of snake-handling and identification. This was the subject of his first book ‘Free From School’ at the age of 17. On his return to Goa, Rahul conducted snake talks in schools and colleges and also joined the turtle conservation programme at Morjim. In 2002, he travelled to Thailand to learn how to handle king cobras. He now rescues snakes from human habitations. These incidents resulted in a second book ‘The Call of the Snake’ in 2003. He is currently back at school, doing his M.Sc. in ecology and the environment, while writing on wildlife and snake awareness issues for local newspapers. Snakes are still his main
pre-occupation. [more]

Aaron Savio Lobo is obsessed with snakes, particularly sea snakes. He did a one-year dissertation on the distribution and status of snakes in coastal Goa. He then won a scholarship to do his M.Sc. in Wildlife Science from the Wildlife Institute of India. A six-month study to estimate the diversity and mortality of sea snakes in Goa won him the respect of India's finest wildlife conservation biologists and an award from the University of Cambridge. He has worked on the ecology of the dog-faced water snake in the Sálim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Goa. He will soon be starting work in the Gulf of Mannar, studying the area’s sea snake population and the threats they face. [more]

Indrapratap Thakare:Villagers living in Melghat and Tadoba, Maharashtra, call him “the boy with the stick”. Indrapratap's life is defined by the wild habitats he lives to defend. Two years ago he helped the forest department to crack down on an illegal operation to extract musali medicinal plants from the Melghat Tiger Reserve. Here he also helped identify and study a population of Forest Owlets, once presumed extinct. He has studied the endangered Great Indian Bustards in Nanaj, Sholapur and tracked wild buffaloes along the Indravati river. He has worked on surveys of the submergence zone of the proposed Upper Tapi Stage II dam in Melghat and the Human dam that threatens the Tadoba Tiger Reserve. He is working with the Satpuda Foundation to ensure just and proper resettlement of six villages that have chosen to move out of the Tadoba Tiger Reserve. [more]

Application Guidelines *Nominations must be kept confidential from the candidate. *Nominations must be proposed and seconded by individuals/organisations who know the candidate well. *A brief note (around 500 words) on the achievements that qualify the candidate for the award should be attached along with a biographical note (around 250 words) and photographs of the candidate at work. *Details of specific instances/examples demonstrating the candidate’s committment together with details of the issue he or she is tackling. *Press clippings/published material, if any, by or about the candidate or the candidate’s work . *Any other supporting material for the benefit of the judges.

Fill in the form below or download a form and send it with supporting material to Sanctuary Magazine, 145/146, Pragati Industrial Estate, N.M.Joshi Marg, Lower Parel,
Mumbai 400 011, India.