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(June 10, 2019) Situated on the eastern coast of Odisha, Chilika Lake is the largest shallow water lagoon in Asia. Each year the lake hosts nearly 2 million migratory birds belonging to more than 150 species. Mangalajodi wetland, located on the north-western bank of Chilika Lake, is one of the important sites where migratory birds congregate in large numbers during winter months.Purple Heron in Mangalajodi wetland © Paromita Ray, WCS-IndiaIt is also a popular eco-tourism destination that attracts thousands...

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(June 10, 2019) WCS-India’s legal team conducted the first orientation for lawyers who have offered to donate their time pro-bono to the Counter Wildlife Trafficking Project. More such orientations are scheduled in the coming weeks.Lawyers from different backgrounds, united with a passion for conservation are attending the orientation scheduled every week. If you are trained in law and want to contribute your legal skills to countering the horrific organized crime of wildlife trafficking, write to us at&n...

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(June 07, 2019) Mumbai: WCS-India researcher Nikit Surve has been awarded the Maha Mumbai Tarun Bharat Green Avengers Award 2019. He was felicitated during a program ‘Green Idea 2019’ organized by Mumbai Tarun Bharat, a Marathi newspaper. The award was granted in recognition of his work in the field of environment protection and conservation on the occasion of WorldEnvironmentDay.Working on human leopard interactions in and around Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali, Nikit who com...

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(May 31, 2019) Calls for transformative change across all levels and factors.Paris, May 7, 2019: Around a million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades. Not only is this loss a direct result of human activity but also constitutes a direct threat to human well-being. Among the main drivers of this change are, changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution and invasive species.This is the conclusion of one of the most exhaustive...

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(May 27, 2019) Taking up conservation of marine ecosystems and biodiversity on a priority basis, the Kerala Forest Department organized a one-day workshop on “Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Initiatives in Kerala” on Saturday at its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.Senior officers from the Forest Department including Shri P.K. Kesavan, IFS (PCCF and Head of Forest Force (HoFF)), Shri Surendra Kumar, IFS (PCCF (WL) and CWW), and Shri V. Gopinathan, IFS (PCCF and HoFF, Retd.) were pres...

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(May 15, 2019) May 14, 2019: Wildlife researcher Rohan Pandit and his teammate Wangchu Phiang first stumbled upon the new-to-science pit viper species in May 2016 while surveying biodiversity in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India, reports Mongabay.  In a new paper, the researchers have described this species and named it Trimeresurus arunachalensis, or Arunachal pit viper. The researchers say the species is unique with features that distinguish it from all the other known species of pit vipers.T...

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(May 14, 2019) Students of the MSc course in Wildlife Biology and Conservation interacted with conservationists at WCS-India and learnt about the various aspects of conservation applied in the field, as well as the challenges involved. From the ingredients for a good relocation process to how wildlife trade is detected, they were given a quick view of the ground realities.Mr P M Muthanna giving a quick overview of the conservation activitiesAddressing the audience, Mr P M Muthanna, Assistant Director of Conser...

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(May 09, 2019) Bangalore: Dr. Scott Roberton, Director, Counter Wildlife Trafficking Asia and Charlotte Davies, Analyst (CWT) and other WCS staff from Asia visited the WCS-India Bangalore office from 6th to 8th May. WCS-India CWT Team led by Prakriti Srivastava (Country Director),. Sahila Kudalkar (CWT Program Manager), Mridula Vijairaghavan (Legal Adviser), and Aristo Mendis (Researcher) had a productive interaction with the Asia team over the three days, where they exchanged notes on the progress of the CWT ...

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(April 29, 2019) R to L: Mr AK Johari, IFS, Spl PCCF (Biodiversity and Climate Change), Ms. Sahila Kudalkar (WCS-India), Dr. Ranjana Gupta, IFS, PCCF(Wildlife) & CWLW, Ms. Prakriti Srivastava, IFS, (WCS-India Country Director), Mr. Dp Bankhwal, IFS, (retd. CWLW Assam & currently CWT Project Leader, WCS-India) and Mr. M. Hussain, DCF O/o PCCF (Wildlife)Assam: The WCS-India team comprising Country Director Prakriti Srivastava, IFS, Retd. Chief Wildlife Warden (Assam) and Project Leader Combating Wildl...

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(April 25, 2019) A two-day training was conducted by WCS-India and Telangana State Forest Department at Kawal Tiger Reserve Forest Office Complex, Nirmal. The training focused on building capacity of forest officers to understand the scale of wildlife trade, impacts of wildlife trafficking, protocols to be followed during investigation, search and seizure, powers entrusted to the forest officers under India’s wildlife protection law and efforts to improve conviction rate of wildlife criminals in the state....

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