(March 03, 2019) Bengaluru: I, on behalf of Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program, condole the tragic demise of Mr. S Manikandan, Conservator of Forests, Nagarahole National Park, Karnataka.  Mr. S. Manikandan passed away in a shocking incident inside Nagarahole National Park when he was confronting and killed by a wild elephant while performing his duties in the D B Kuppe range.Our deepest condolences are with the bereaved family and friends of Mr. Manikandan.  Forest department personnel often ...

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(March 03, 2019) A two-day training workshop was held to educate and strengthen the front line forest department staff of North Bengal on various aspects of reptile care and rescue. The training was jointly offered by the Dept. of Forest, West Bengal and WCS-India. Shyama Prasad Pandey from the NGO, SPOAR (Society for Protecting Ophiofauna and Animal Rights) was part of the training team.Forest Guards, Beat Officers, Rangers, PDLs [Packaged daily labours of the dept] and ADFOs were informed about reptile rescues...

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(February 27, 2019) Jharkhand: WCS-India will be conducting a capacity building workshop for the forest department staff in combatting wildlife trafficking in Jharkhand. We hope to further equip the department and support them in tackling the serious issue of wildlife trafficking.Wildlife trade is the third most rampant illegal trade in the world, only after illegal trade in arms and narcotics. India is a prime source country for wildlife trade, and it is reported that in 2018 alone, 329 leopards and 78 tigers were...

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(February 26, 2019) Bengaluru: Ms. Tilotama Varma is an IPS Officer (1990 batch), currently working as the Additional Director, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. On an invitation by our Director Ms. Prakriti Srivastava, Ms. Varma visited WCS-India office in Bengaluru. Discussions were held on current conservation issues and various challenges confronting our wildlife and forest.

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(February 25, 2019) Mr Kota Thirupathaiah (Retired APCCF, Telangana Forest Academy), Mr P.K. Jha (PCCF & HOFF, Telangana), Mr Munindra (APCCF - Wildlife, Telangana) with Prakriti Srivastava, WCS-India Country Director and WCS-India team.Hyderabad: WCS-India has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Forest Department to conduct capacity building workshops for combatting wildlife trafficking in the State. Together, we hope to further equip the Forest Department and support them in tackling...

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(February 22, 2019) Experts who met to discuss ways to conserve the Great Indian Bustard and its habitat. © H S Sathya Chandra SagarCountry Director of WCS-India, Prakriti Srivastava met Mr. C.S. Ratnasamy IFS (PCCF and HoFF), Mr. Arindam Tomar IFS (CWW), Dr. G.V. Reddy IFS (PCCF TREE) and Mr. Arijit Banerjee IFS (APCCF Forest Protection), all senior officials of Rajasthan Forest Department, to reaffirm the immediate need to save the Great Indian Bustard and its habitat in Rajasthan. She was accompanied by int...

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(February 21, 2019) WCS-India and Rajasthan Forest department facilitated a visit of international experts to assess the habitat status, consider existing conservation efforts and identify immediate interventions with the goal to help recover the population of the Great Indian Bustard in the state. The experts are Dr. Nigel Collar (chairperson of IUCN Bustard Expert committee) and Dr. Paul Donald from Birdlife International. Accompanying them are WCS-India's country director Prakriti Srivastava and other staff memb...

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(February 15, 2019) Hyderabad: The M.Sc students of Wildlife Biology and Conservation from NCBS recently visited the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in Telangana as part of field studies. They learnt about the ecology of the landscape from research scholars Sachin Sridhara and Shashank Ongole. How trees adapt to the heat, the various possible techniques, methods to calculate carbon absorption in a plot of trees, seed dispersal by birds and ungulates, and so on were some topics of discussion.The students also learnt to identi...

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(February 08, 2019) Mr. Dev Prakash Bankhwal, IFS (Retd), who was till January 2019, the PCCF (Wildlife) & Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam, joined WCS-India to lead our program on Combating Wildlife Trafficking (CWT) in North-East India. This is a new and extremely important project for WCS-India and has the potential for significant impact in terms of understanding and addressing illegal wildlife trade in India.We welcome Mr. Bankhwal into the WCS-India family. 

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(January 26, 2019) Bangalore: At a function organised by the Kannada daily Vijaya Karnataka in Bangalore on Republic Day, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who was appraised of the needs for relocated tribals promised to provide the support needed by them.WCS Staff H L Govindappa mediated an interaction between the Chief Minister and Dasi, a relocated tribe from Sollepura center, Nagarahole. Dasi was one of the progressive farmers selected by the daily to be awarded as a Super Farmer for her achievements.Govindappa told ...

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