Two Indians win Whitley Awards for wildlife conservation

London: Two Indians have been awarded with the prestigious Whitley Awards for their contribution to wildlife conservation.

Dr Ananda Kumar, a conservationist from India, was awarded the prize, in honour of his work using innovative communication systems to enable human-elephant coexistence in southern India.

Another winner of the Whitley Award, dubbed 'Green Oscar' is Dr Pramod Patil. He has been awarded for his work to protect the iconic great Indian bustard in the Thar Desert.

HRH The Princess Royal presented the awards and each of them receiving a Whitley prize worth £35,000 at a ceremony in London on Wednesday 29th April.

Each year in India, 400 people and more than 100 elephants are killed as a result of conflict.

Dr Ananda has developed an Elephant Information Network (EIN) which acts as an early warning mechanism to alert people when elephants are nearby, minimise negative human-elephant interactions, and increase people's tolerance towards elephants.

As part of the system, a trained conflict response team tracks elephant movement and conveys this information to people via text messages, calls and mobile-operated red light indicators placed in strategic locations.

Fatal encounters and incidents of damage to property in the area have already fallen, since inception of this early warning system, and these positive results have encouraged Ananda to expand his project to the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.

Once flourished across the Indian sub-continent, the Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps) has been declining day by day due to poaching, loss of grassland habitat and lack of community involvement

After first sighting the species in 2003, Pramod, a doctor at the time, made the decision to leave medicine and devote his life to conserving the great Indian bustard.

By working with communities in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan and the State Forest Department, Pramod and his team at the Bombay Natural History Society are helping to change opinions, develop positive relationships between authorities and local people, and enable better management of the land on which both community livelihoods and bustards depend.

His work is collecting crucial information about the species, and engaging people with anti-poaching activities.

Dr Pramod and Dr Ananda are among the seven conservationists to have been awarded the Whitley Awards for their efforts to protect wildlife in developing countries.

The 2015 Whitley Awards Ceremony was held on Wednesday at the Royal Geographical Society, London, hosted by television naturalist Kate Humble.