The Nature Conservation Foundation is a non-governmental

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species and their habitats in order to maintain healthy wildlife species or populations and to restore, protect or enhance natural ecosystems. Major threats to wildlife include habita ...

and research organisation based in

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. They promote the use of science for wildlife conservation in India.

History

The Nature Conservation Foundation was founded in 1996. Their mission is to carry out "science-based and socially responsible conservation".

Activities and Projects

The organisation works in a variety of habitats. The high altitude program focuses on human wildlife conflicts and conservation of endangered species such as the

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia'') is a species of large cat in the genus ''Panthera'' of the family Felidae. The species is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because ...

and the Tibetan gazelle. A livestock insurance program has been launched to prevent retaliatory killings of snow leopards by communities whose livestock were being preyed on. The organisation has partnered with the International Snow Leopard Trust and the Government of India to launch a ''Project Snow Leopard'', similar to Project Tiger for the protection of the wildlife in the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

n landscapes.Press Release by the GoI on the launch of Project Snow Leopard
/ref> The Project Snow Leopard seeks to address the problem of species declines in the high-altitude Himalayan landscape through evidence-based conservation plans as well as local support. Species such as snow leopard, Asiatic ibex,

argali The argali (''Ovis ammon''), also known as the mountain sheep, is a wild ovis, sheep native to the highlands of western East Asia, the Himalayas, Tibet, and the Altai Mountains. Description The name 'argali' is the Mongolian language, Mongolian ...

, urial, chiru,

takin The takin (''Budorcas taxicolor''; ), also called cattle chamois or gnu goat, is a large species of ungulate of the subfamily Caprinae found in the eastern Himalayas. It includes four subspecies: the Mishmi takin (''B. t. taxicolor''), the golde ...

serow The serow (, or ), is any of four species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals in the genus ''Capricornis''. All four species of serow were, until recently, classified under ''Naemorhedus'', which now only contains the gorals. Exta ...

and

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all eight, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family (biology), family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, b ...

will particularly benefit from this project. In 2003, three wildlife biologists from the foundation reported the Chinese goral (''Nemorhaedus caudatus'') from

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

, the first record for

In 2005, scientists from the foundation described the Arunachal macaque from western

, a species new to science.
* The organisation runs a rainforest restoration program in the

Anamalai hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala (Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of wester ...

in the Western Ghats where fragments of degraded patches of rainforests outside

national parks A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

or wildlife sanctuaries are restored in partnership with the private tea and coffee plantations.

Awards

Charudutt Mishra and M. D. Madhusudhan, two of the founders received the Whitley award, also called "Green Oscar" for 2005 and 2009 respectively. Charudutt Mishra was awarded for the conservation efforts in the high altitude landscapes, while Madhusudan was conferred the honor in recognition of his work to reduce human-wildlife conflict in the Western Ghats. In 2006, the organisation won the ''Distinguished service award'' from the Society for Conservation Biology. for ''outstanding contributions to nature conservation''. Sushil Dorje, a field coordinator with the organisation was awarded the Van Tienhoven Foundation award for his work on human-wildlife conflict in Spiti and

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

. In 2013, Aparajita Datta was awarded the Whitley award to continue her decade long work on conservation of

hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

s. Aparajita Dutta, a Senior Scientist at NCF was announced as the recipient of ''2009 Woman of Discovery Humanity Award'' by the New York-based Wings World Quest for a lifetime dedicated to wildlife biology and her work in Namdapha Tiger Reserve. She was also awarded by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

as an ''Emerging explorer'' for 2010, which recognized ''"..14 trailblazers from around the world"''. In 2015, Dr. Ananda Kumar was awarded the Whitley award for his work on elephant-human conflict management on the Valparai plateau. In 2017, he was awarded a continuation of funding.

References

External links

Website of NCF

eco-logic, the NCF Blog

Restoration project showcase
{{Authority control Non-profit organisations based in India Environmental organisations based in India Organizations established in 1996 Scientific organisations based in India Nature conservation organisations based in India Environment of Karnataka Nature conservation in Asia Lahaul and Spiti district Nature conservation Himalayan studies Environmental studies institutions in India