CBSG -‐ SA - Zoo Outreach Organisation

Interest, skills and expertise: Wildlife Activist.
Contribution to Wildlife conservation since last 3 yrs: I am founder and key person of "Wildlife Conservation Trust:
1. For information on Asiatic Lion and Gir, WCT launched and manages www.asiaticlion.org, since Aug 2006.
2. WCT manages and updates last minute news articles about Asiatic Lion and Gir on News Blog http://asiatic-­lion.blogspot.com
3. WCT supports and is moderator of http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Asiatic_Lions, which also is very much
popular Yahoo Group amongst Asiatic Lion lovers.
4. Regularly information emails are sent out to wildlife’s around the globe for information about wildlife in Gujarat.
5. WCT members participated in Lion Census April 2005.
6. WCT nominated Late Shri P.P. Raval for prestigious ‘Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation Award’ for 2007 in Dec
2006.
7. Participated in Symposium on “Emerging Conservation Strategies for Endangered Species” organized by VHF at
Ahmedabad on 27 th & 28 th Feb 2007.
8. Spread information about simple “Rope Technique to keep elephants away from farm lands” to different states in
India to help reduce “Man-­‐Animal Conflict”, Mar 2007.
9. In synergy and financial support of Vanishing Herds Foundation we jointly barricaded 96 wells in Sukhpur,
Trangsha, Dudhada and Kotda villages in Dhari Taluka in Gir East, Apr 2007.
10. ‘Project CTC’ (Project Catch The Culprits) To catch the Poachers of eight lions we declared cash award of
Rs.21,000 to the informer of Lion poachers. Also intensive Public Awareness Campaign in Gir villages was done by
distributing printed pamphlets, SMS, phone calls etc, Apr 2007.
11. Open wells are virtual death traps for wild animals in Gir. We developed a dynamic design to barricade open
wells, which is economical, fast to install, strong and environment friendly, May 2007.
12. We prepared an exhaustive report titled “Suggested measures that could be adopted to further strengthen the
protection of Asiatic Lions and Gir Biodiversity” (Jun 2007). This report was brought to the attention of the office of
the Honorable Chief Minister of Gujarat, May 2007.
13. Participated in “Migrant Watch”, an annual countrywide programme to study the movements of nine common
winter migratory birds to India. It was organised by Indian Birds Journal in association with the National Centre for
Biological Sciences. Our involvement gave good support from bird-­‐watchers of Gujarat, Aug 2007.
14. We were the first to sign MoU with Gujarat Forest Dept. on Sep 26, 2007 to barricade 101 open wells in Kotda
village. Work has started, 17 are done and hope to finish others.
15. Participated in preparation of guidelines along with ATREE, CSD-­‐Delhi, Kalpavriskh, Samrakshan Trust, SHODH
and WWF-­‐ India. The note was titled as “Identification of Critical Tiger Habitats, Co-­‐existence and Relocation” and
was submitted to National Tiger Conservation Authority, Sep 2007.
16. WCT helped prestigious Zoo’s Print magazine to publish a special issue for respectful tribute to Shri. P.P. Raval,
Oct 2007.
17. To encourage field staff and local villagers surrounding Gir forest we have planned ‘P.P. Raval Memorial Awards’.
(Financial Aid from donors is requested) Oct 2007.
18. Celebrated National Wildlife Week at Rajkot by organizing a wildlife exhibition and essay competition titled
‘Wildlife of Gujarat’, Oct 2007.
19. Signed MoU to barricade 50 open-­‐wells in Gir in synergy and financial support of World Wildlife Fund for Nature-­‐
India, Nov 2007.
20. Committed 25 more open-­‐wells protection with support of WWF-­‐India. In all we finished about 185 wells (other
than 96 done with VHF) in record time of 3 months and that also ahead of all corporate giants, Jan 2008.