Skip to content Skip to navigation

Biologist Purnima Barman among ‘Green Oscar’ winners

By Rituraj Phukan |

The 2017 Whitley Awards Ceremony was held on 18th May at The Royal Geographical Society in London. The Ceremony was hosted by celebrity BBC presenter Thomas “Tom" Heap with the Whitley Awards presented to the winners by the Whitley Fund for Nature Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne.

The annual Whitley Awards are a celebration of successful conservation leadership from across the globe and each of the winners receive £35,000 in project funding to help scale up their work. The prestigious ‘Green Oscars’ recognize effective local conservationists from bio-diversity rich, resource-poor countries spearheading innovative work to save endangered wildlife and benefit local communities. 

This year, the award recipients include two Indians among six conservationists chosen from 169 applicants from around the world. The awardees this year have been chosen for their exemplary leadership in conservation projects, ranging from saving the Greater Adjutants in Assam, extending the protected area network of Royal Bengal Tigers in Karnataka, protecting the Harpy Eagle across South America, protecting the nesting grounds of the Critically Endangered Philippine cockatoo, grassland conservation with local communities in South Africa and promoting coexistence of the Spectacles Bear and people in Bolivia.

The Whitley Gold Award for 2017 was won by Zafer Kizilkaya, a 2013 Whitley Award winner from Turkey, for his conservation project “Guardians of the sea: securing and expanding marine reserves along the Turkish coastline”. The Whitley Gold Award is given to an “exceptional Whitley Award alumnus for outstanding contribution” and includes £50,000 in project funding donated by The Friends and Scottish Friends of the Whitley Fund for Nature.

Ms Purnima Barman from Aaranyak, a NGO based out of Assam, India was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by The Shears Foundation in memory of Trevor Shears, for “Inspiring women to protect Assam’s Greater Adjutant and its wetland habitat.”

Mr. Sanjay Gubbi from the Nature Conservation Foundation was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by WWF-UK, for “Reducing deforestation in Karnataka’s tiger corridors, India.”

Ms Indira Lacerna-Widmann from the Katala Foundation was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by Notting Hill Preparatory School, for “Partnering with prisoners to safeguard the Critically Endangered Philippine cockatoo.”

Ms. Ximena Velez-Liendo from WildCRU and a Chester Zoo Conservation Fellow was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by the Savitri Waney Charitable Trust, for her project “An uphill climb: enabling coexistence of Andean bears and farmers in the Bolivian mountains.”

Mr. Ian Little from the Endangered Wildlife Trust was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by the Garfield Weston Foundation, for his project “Custodians of South Africa’s threatened grassland biodiversity.”

Mr. Alexander Blanco from the Harpy Eagle Conservation Program was the winner of the Whitley Award donated by the William Brake Charitable Trust in memory of William Brake for his project “Nest protectors: conserving Venezuela’s magnificent harpy eagles as a rainforest flagship.”

 

Author info

Rituraj Phukan's picture

Rituraj Phukan is the Chief Operating Officer, Walk For Water; District Manager, Assam, Nagaland & Manipur, The Climate Reality Project India and Secretary General of Green Guard Nature Organization.

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Road mishap

1 Jul 2016 - 8:27pm | AT Kokrajhar Bureau
A person was received serious injury due to road mishap at Joypur area along JD Road under Kokrajhar PS this morning in Kokrajhar district. The mishap took place at Joypur around 11 am where Ritu...

Cultural rally at Tangla

15 Apr 2016 - 5:11pm | Shajid Khan
As a part of the three-day programme for the celebration of Rongali Bihu. The first day celebration on Thursday marked with flag hoisting by the president of the celebration committee, of Xadou...

Wild elephant poisoned to death in Udalguri

30 Jun 2016 - 7:08pm | Jayanta Kumar Das
 The carcass of a twelve years old wild elephant (Makhna)found this morning on the bed of Samrang river near India-Bhutan international border.It has caused concern among nature loving people of...

Encephalitis vaccination from Feb

26 Jan 2014 - 1:44pm | AT News
The Assam government is gearing up for encephalitis vaccination across the state from February.Disclosing this in his Republic Day speech in Amingaon on Sunday, health minister Dr Himanta Biswa said...

Other Contents by Author

World Elephant Day observed at Nagaon

World Elephant Day was observed today by Green Guard Nature Organization with students and villagers of elephant depredation affected areas along the Nagaon- Karbi Anglong border. Green Guard Executive Member Dulu Bora, who is also a Consultant with the London-based Elephant Family, interacted with students of Samgaon No. 2 Buniyadi Bidyalaya and Samgaon Madhya Engrazi Bidyalaya, close to the Karbi foothills elephant habitat. Later, he addressed farmers of Loonsoong village on the best practices of human-elephant conflict management from his experiences as Field Officer for the grassroots initiatives of Green Guard Nature Organization since 2004. Dulu also thanked the community for the...

Implications of the Larsen C collapse

Four years back, on 9th March, I watched in awe at the remnants of the Larsen B ice shelf, massive tabular icebergs that we passed at the Antarctic Sound. A small group had braved the numbing cold to gather on the top deck of the Sea Spirit at 7 AM for the Iceberg Ceremony. Legendary explorer Robert Swan, the first man to walk to both the poles was the leader of the International Antarctic Expedition 2013. He voice was barely audible in the howling wind, “Back in 2002, most people did not believe in climate change. When it started to collapse, scientists said it will take a long time, but after the cracks were first noticed, it went very fast and collapsed in less than 4 weeks. Throughout...

King Cobra Rehabilitated at Nagaon

A King Cobra was rescued from the premises of the Jiajuri Tea Factory near Nagaon today by Green Guard Nature Organization rescue specialist Dulu Bora. The very aggressive snake had reportedly charged at a group of female leaf pickers, following which some men had been summoned to kill it. The arrival of Dulu saved the King from being bludgeoned to death, and perhaps being eaten, as there are people in that area who are not adverse to eating even venomous reptiles! Later, forest personnel including the Chapanala Beat Officer accompanied Dulu to release the King at an uninhabited wilderness about 5 kms from the place of rescue. Dulu mentioned before the media contingent that this specimen of...

Global Wind Day: India Can Harness the Potential

Global Wind Day is observed on 15th June to raise awareness of the potential of wind power for future energy systems and the opportunities for growth and employment.Wind Day, as it was known until 2009, was first organised by the European Wind Energy Association in 2007 and is currently coordinated by WindEurope and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and various national associations.  Wind energy is important for decarbonization of economies as unlike fossil fuels, itis clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, consumes no water, and uses little land. Wind power is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed and has the potential to exceed current global energy...

World Environment Day programs by Green Guard

Green Guard Nature Organization organized multiple events centered around the theme of 'Connecting People with Nature' at various locations to celebrate World Environment Day 2017. At Loongsoong, Nagaon, a 'March For Nature' was organized under the stewardship of Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award winner Dulu Bora. Students and teachers of Loongsoong Shamgaon ME School, Shamgaon LP School and the Bridge of Hope School marched through the streets to demand an end to illegal poaching and logging activities in the area, which is close to the Swang R.F. and the Kaziranga- Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve. A Tezpur, Green Guard Nature Organization collaborated with Tezpur Bikers and Tezpur...

The Paris Agreement Sans USA

The widely anticipated US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was announced by President Donald Trump as promised during his election campaign and seeks to undermine the gains of the climate change agreement. Although expected, environmentalists and world leaders were harboring a faint hope that the US would not shirk from its responsibilities and accountability of being the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history.  With this announcement, President Trump has surrendered leadership of the environmental movement, with the US now joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries outside of the global agreement. This is not the first time that the US has tried to disrupt global...

World Biodiversity Day at Nagaon

The International Day of Biological Diversity was observed by Green Guard Nature Organization at the Chapanala Higher Secondary School, Nagaon on Monday. The interactive awareness programme was addressed by   Subhasish Das, DFO, Nagaon,   Khagen Bhuyan, Range Officer Salonah,   Parul Gayan, Principal of the host school,  Jahira Begum, teacher and multiple award winning rescue specialist Dulu Bora, who provided a riveting account of his experiences with wildlife in the vicinity of the Karbi foothills. An audio-visual presentation by Green Guard Secretary General focused on emerging conservation challenges and man-animal conflict management. A photo exhibition was also...

The inspiring stories of the 6 ‘Green Nobel’ winners

Prafulla Samantara, who led a historic 12-year legal battle that affirmed the indigenous Dongria Kondh's land rights and protected the Niyamgiri Hills from a massive, open-pit aluminium ore mine, won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for 2017. The 65 year old activist from Odisha was one of the 4 anti-mining activists among the winners of the ‘Green Nobel’ awarded annually to people from six global regions for outstanding grassroots conservation.  The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by American philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman to recognise individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment. The past...

Rivers to the fore

The Namami Brahmaputra festival could not have happened at a better time, with rivers around the world in focus, albeit due to varied reasons. The mighty red river of India carries the hopes and aspirations of millions and at the same time, elicits fear and reverence, yet increasing pollution, the will of development planners and the consequences of global warming could transform the Brahmaputra basin. The ‘Son of Brahma’ weaves an increasingly tempestuous course as ‘He’ meanders down the valley, and further intensification of the hydrological cycle due to climate change and planned human interventions could exacerbate the riparian impacts.Late last year, the United Nations issued a warning...

World Wildlife Day: Heat On Survival

Today is World Wildlife Day, designated so by the United Nations General Assembly on 20th December 2013, marking the day when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was adopted back in the year 1973. So, every year, March 3 is the day we humans have dedicated to celebrate the birds and animals that share this planet with us, the same creatures whose lives are largely endangered by the reckless pursuit of our development goals. With the world in the midst of a mass extinction event, with more than 24,000 species at the risk of extinction, the challenge for wildlife is clearly, is whether they can overcome the heat on survival.In September...