COIMBATORE: Ananda Kumar, a wildlife scientist from the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) working to mitigate human-animal conflict in Valparai, has received the Whitley Award, given by the UK-based Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN).
Called the ‘Green Oscars,’ the annual Whitley Awards for efforts at conservation were presented to Ananda Kumar and seven others on April 29 in London. The award for Anand Kumar, worth 35,000 British pounds, was donated by WWF-UK.
Another Indian, Pramod Patil also won the award for his efforts at community conservation of the great Indian bustard in the Thar desert.
Ananda Kumar and his team have been working for nearly 10 years to facilitate human-animal coexistence in Valparai. They have been using innovative communication systems to give early warning to people about the presence of wild elephants and their movement in the area.
On an average, around 400 people and over 100 elephants are killed every year due to human-animal conflict. Anand Kumar has developed an Elephant Information Network (EIN) which acts as an early warning mechanism to alert people when there are elephants nearby, minimise negative human-elephant interactions and increase people's tolerance of elephants.
The system informs local people of elephant movement through SMS, local cable television and red light indicators placed at strategic locations.
On finding the system a success at Valparai, Anand and his team have expanded the project to the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.
Anand Kumar expressed happiness about receiving the award and attributed their success to effective team work.
“The decrease in the number of people getting killed and cases of property damage is the result of the collective effort by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, tea and coffee plantation companies, and the people of Valparai in proactively sharing information on elephants,” he told Express.
“The award will motivate us to carry out more studies and work for the welfare of the people as well as wild elephants,” he added.