SunCorp

The spectre of an earth devastated by climate change marked the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards on Friday night; the function also saw 11 individuals being honoured as Earth Heroes for their efforts in the field of conservation.

Several local heroes were also honoured for being anonymous warriors in the battle to save the environment. They included students who helped bust a ring selling tiger claws and other products; the Save Rani Baug Committee, which is seeking to stop the zoo from becoming a Rs 400-crore entertainment park; and a Sanjay Gandhi National Park forester who documented and helped shift encroachers and others.

Forest ranger Sasi Kumar has won many an accolade for tracking down the purveyors of animal products—a regular menace in the forests of Wayanad, Kerala. From chasing leopard killers to tusk smugglers, this winner of the Wildlife Service Award has displayed his sharp investigative skills on all fronts.

He co-heads a design company in Mumbai, and at 31, has traversed the length and breadth of India on self-organised survey tours and photography adventures. Sachin Rai’s photograph of a male Wards Trogon Harpactes, a rare bird found in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, has won him the first prize in the Sanctuary Wildlife photography awards this year.
He is a teacher by profession, but his lessons are not confined to the four walls of a classroom. Sukumar Paira of Bali, an island near the Sunderbans in West Bengal, won the Sanctuary Green Teacher Award. He has extended his work to renew the bond between children and tigers by opening 26 nature clubs.

Winner of a Lifetime Service Award, researcher and zoologist Dr Ulhas Karanth has been active in tiger conservation surveys and measures at the Nagarhole and Bhadra reserves. He has maintained a reliable record of the tiger population in India through the camera-capturerecapture method. Karanth is also director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s India programme.

The Sanctuary Wildlife Awards ceremony in Mumbai showcased prize-winning photographs shot in the jungles of India. With a humour-laced commentary interspersed with warnings on global warming, green warrior Bittu Sahgal unveiled images that vibrantly captured fauna in habitats that have to kept alive.