Here are just a few of the outstanding Wildlife Award Winners of years past - their stories continue to inspire us in our journey to a greener tomorrow.
Daulat Singh Shaktawat
Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) in the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, braveheart and tiger lover.
In 2011, we were proud to give a Wildlife Service Award to this quintessential tiger defender. Born and brought up in Rajasthan, he was attacked in 1985 by the villagers of Sherpur and Khilchipur who killed a member of his patrolling party. Yet, Daulat Singh was back on duty the very next morning. In Sariska, in 1997, a leopard that came out of anaesthesia faster than expected badly mauled him… and again, he was back on duty the day he was discharged from hospital. In 2010, in a now-famous incident on the fringes of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve at Bhuri Pahari, he lost an eye when ‘T-Seven' - a terrified and confused tiger that was being harassed by a mob of over 3,000 villagers - suddenly turned on him. Daulat Singh's first coherent comment was: “It was not ‘T-Seven's fault. If the villagers had not forced him back, the tiger would have quietly returned to the forest." It is on the shoulders of such men that the world of conservation stands when we want to save the tiger, or its forests.
Bibha Sonowal, Pallabita Bora, Swarnalata Bhuyan and Anita Das
Courageous women, forest guards of Kaziranga.
Theirs is the very first team of female wildlife defenders in the Kaziranga National Park and by December 2010, when we discovered them, they had been patrolling this world famous rhino and tiger forest for a year. Their contribution far exceeds their role in checking crime by women operatives of the many armed poaching gangs that plunder this world famous wildlife reserve. Working in the same difficult conditions as their male counterparts, they conduct day and night patrols on foot and go out on raids, fiercely defending the wildlife in their charge. For this we honoured them with a Joint Wildlife Service Award in 2010.
Prosper S. Marak
Green warrior, young conservationist, determined leader
This remarkable young man was the recipient of the Young Naturalist Award in 2009. Despite not being formally trained, his knowledge and passion for India's wildlife has won him the reputation of a giant-killer with many hard-fought conservation battles under his belt. At just 24 he was the President of the Southern Zone of the Garo Students' Union, the apex body of Garo Youth. With his young compatriots he took on the mining mafia that dominated much of the northeastern state of Meghalaya. One of the major battles they fought was against exploratory mining for uranium in Balpakram. As a result of their pressure the state of Meghalaya was forced to put together a mining policy, which will have an impact far beyond Balpakram. When Prosper now asks for their attention, the local administration listens. He is a true green warrior, a voice for tomorrow.
Bahar Dutt and CNN-IBN
Wind Under the Wings
Bahar Dutt, Environment Editor, CNN-IBN uses the camera the way a forest guard or officer might use a gun. She is an effective defender of wild India who has transformed environmental journalism from an obtuse segment on the daily news to an independent and vital component of mainstream reportage. She has traversed the length and breadth of India's wilderness and has been shining a spotlight on the seamier side of Indian politics, business and the wildlife trade. One of her most dramatic exposés involved a cement company of global dimensions that had been operating illegally in the forests of Meghalaya on the India-Bangladesh border. She and the CNN-IBN team exposed the operations of a miner in Goa who had illegally devastated forest lands (Sanctuary, Vol. XXVIII No. 5, October, 2008). Their story led to the shutdown of the mine and several threats to Bahar and her crew. In her own words, Bahar Dutt suggests: “At CNN-IBN the environment beat is taken as seriously as any political or mainstream reporting." For this amazing effort on the part of CNN-IBN and Bahar, we selected them as recipients of the Wind Under the Wings Award for the year 2008.
These are just a few of the hundreds of men and women who work tirelessly to protect India's wilds, and to whom we owe a greater debt than could be imagined. This year, we have once again been on the hunt for individuals who meet the standards of their predecessors and are breaking barriers in the conservation battle of tomorrow. Their stories, just like these above, are a beacon of hope to us all.
Source: Sanctuary Asia
