The Nature Conservation Foundation is a non-governmental

wildlife conservation Wildlife conservation refers to the practice of protecting wild species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often ...

and research organisation based in

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. 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''), also known as the ounce, is a felid in the genus '' Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because the global population is es ...

and the

Tibetan gazelle The goa (''Procapra picticaudata''), also known as the Tibetan gazelle, is a species of antelope that inhabits the Tibetan plateau. Description The goa is a relatively small antelope, with slender and graceful bodies. Both males and females sta ...

. 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 Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's tenure. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of the Bengal tiger in its natural habitats, protect ...

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 planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

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 The Siberian ibex (''Capra sibirica''), also known as the Altai ibex, Central Asia(n) ibex, Gobi ibex, Himalayan ibex, Mongolian ibex or Tian Shan ibex, is a species of ibex that lives in central Asia. It has traditionally been treated as a subs ...

argali The argali (''Ovis ammon''), also known as the mountain sheep, is a wild sheep that roams the highlands of western East Asia, the Himalayas, Tibet, and the Altai Mountains. Description The name 'argali' is the Mongolian word for wild sheep ...

urial The urial ( ; ''Ovis vignei''), also known as the arkars or shapo, is a wild sheep native to Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Characteristics Urial males have large horns, curling outwards from the to ...

chiru The Tibetan antelope or chiru (''Pantholops hodgsonii'') (, pronounced ; ) is a medium-sized bovid native to the northeastern Tibetan plateau. Most of the population live within the Chinese border, while some scatter across India and Bhutan in ...

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 ...

serow The serows ( or ) are four species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus ''Capricornis''. All four species of serow were until recently also classified under ''Naemorhedus'', which now only contains the gorals. Extant s ...

and

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all seven, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, but rather their f ...

will particularly benefit from this project. In 2003, three wildlife biologists from the foundation reported the

Chinese goral The Chinese goral (''Naemorhedus griseus''), also known as the grey long-tailed goral or central Chinese goral, is a species of goral, a small goat-like ungulate, native to mountainous regions of Myanmar, China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and po ...

(''Nemorhaedus caudatus'') from

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It share ...

, the first record for

In 2005, scientists from the foundation described the

Arunachal macaque The Arunachal macaque (''Macaca munzala'') is a macaque native to Eastern Himalayas of Bhutan, China and India. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It was scientifically described in 2005. It is a relatively large brown primate ...

from western

, a species new to science.
* The organisation runs a rainforest restoration program in the Anamalai hills in the Western Ghats where fragments of degraded patches of rainforests outside

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

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 The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) is an 501(c)(3) non-profit international professional organization that is dedicated to conserving biodiversity. There are over 4,000 members worldwide, including students and those in related non-acade ...

. for ''outstanding contributions to nature conservation''. Sushil Dorje, a field coordinator with the organisation was awarded the

Van Tienhoven Foundation A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

award for his work on human-wildlife conflict in

Spiti Spiti (pronounced as Piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

and

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu a ...

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

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

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 (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

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