Shawshank Redemption
Oft in the midst of noise and haste, one tends to forget that there is a battle going on, a quiet, stealthy battle waged against that which cannot speak in its own defence – Nature. Irreplaceable ecosystems are being lost, too many species are going extinct to keep a count, and others are at the brink of extinction… floods and droughts have become permanent ‘seasons’ across the globe. And in this face of aridity and hopelessness, we have Earth Heroes who give silent Nature a voice, while risking their lives everyday for us. That is what makes them out of the ordinary. They give us hope for a better tomorrow. For our children, and our children’s children… For this, we honour them.
Earth Heroes Awards for the year 2005
Dr. A.J.T. Johnsingh
India desperately needs the right kind of heroes. In a world of crumbling values, our children need people they can look up to. For our Lifetime Service Award, we found just such a man, whose life has been devoted to the study and protection of wildlife and wild habitats. Dr. A.J.T. Johnsingh is the quintessential wildlifer. He has been charged by elephants, has walked in tiger country and even risked death and injury from poachers in forests where he wanted to protect what others wanted to kill.
Chander Singh Negi (Jolly Uncle)
Universally and fondly known as ‘Jolly Uncle’, Chander Singh Negi, joined the Forest Department in Garhwal at the age of 16, over 50 years ago, as a dakwallah, or postman. He is still there today, more than a decade after he was ‘put to pasture’ but, of course, he continues to work for the tiger, now with the Corbett Foundation. Jolly Uncle is utterly fearless. His job is to find cows that tigers kill outside the tiger reserve and get to them before villagers, with poison in bottles and anger in their hearts, do.
Gir Rescue Team
The Rescue Team of the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park works around the clock. The team comprises 20 frontline defenders of wildlife whose job it is to keep wandering lions, leopards and crocodiles away from humans. This team of foot soldiers working in the Gir East, Gir West and Sasan Wildlife Division of the Gujarat Forest Department, act as one entity in defence of lions. They help to reduce human-wildlife conflict at grave individual risk to their lives.
K. Manu
An engineer and a defender of birds,
K. Manu moved to Kokkare Bellur in 1994 to help villagers protect a large pelican nesting site near their homes and fields. He is of the view that winning the cooperation of villagers wherever possible should be a key long-term strategy to protect wildlife.With close friends and supporters and a shoe-string budget, they started an organisation called Mysore Amateur Naturalists, or MAN. Today, Kokkare Bellur is one of the five most important pelican nesting sites in India.
Madhu Bhatnagar
An artist in her own right, Madhu Bhatnagar believes a child’s mind is a canvas. As the Deputy Head of The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, she had charted out an Environment Education Policy long before the Supreme Court so instructed. She has been working relentlessly to breathe the spirit of conservation into her students. Working with her wards, she has pioneered a whole host of campaigns including a rainwater harvesting system, zero garbage zones and grey water recycling and a very effective
Vishal Prabhakar Bansod
Wildlife defender and social worker, Vishal Bansod is active in 39 villages of the Melghat Tiger Reserve. Just 24 years old, he already has an incredible 10 years of nature education and wildlife conservation work with the Nature Conservation Society, Amravati (NCSA) under his belt. Hardcore wildlifers and conservationists in Central India know Vishal to be a part of the protection landscape in this, one of India’s most critical wildlife regions.
Bharat Vaghabhai Kamaliya
He protects nesting sea turtles and has taken on poachers who have been slaughtering migratory birds around his village – Saiyad Rajpara – in the Una taluka of Junagadh district. He is also a protector of endangered whale sharks that were once mercilessly slaughtered. Bharat is just a Class IX student. And his involvement with wildlife is as recent as 2003, when the Gir Foundation organised a Samark Yatra to increase awareness of the need to protect sea turtles and migratory birds along Saurashtra’s coast.
Indian Express
For our newly-instituted Wind Under the Wings Award, we zeroed in on the Indian Express that has built its reputation on a consistent ‘Journalism of Courage’. Their penchant for courage and investigation was in clear evidence in the shape of the incisive investigative report written by Jay Mazoomdaar in January 2005, which exposed the truth behind the death of the tigers of Sariska. Then, Shekhar Gupta, Editor, of the Indian Express asked
Belinda Wright
Founder and Executive Director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). She and her colleagues and with allies across the globe, she recently exposed the hideous trade in tiger, leopard and other wild animal skins being exported to Tibet. She has often risked her life working undercover against lethal foes and has actually stared at the wrong end of a gun barrel in her quest to stem the tiger bone trade. She has co-authored five books. Her writings grace books, magazines, exhibitions and scientific journals across the world.
B.K.Sharma
He is a police officer with an abiding love for wildlife. He has been a persistent investigator of wildlife crimes, following the trail of tiger skins and bones, shahtoosh, ivory and rhino horn in India and across our borders where he has worked with his counterparts in the Interpol and CITES. DIG with the Central Bureau of Investigation, his battle against organised crime has seen him apprehend some of the most dangerous criminals who had unleashed a reign of terror and had taken a vicious toll on endangered wildlife.
Kirat Singh
Too young even to qualify for a Young Naturalist Award, Kirat has been singled out for a special award for his unbelievable drive and ability to work doggedly towards the objective of saving tigers when they were vanishing into thin air. Anti-cracker campaigns, cleaning the Yamuna, waste management, water harvesting... have all been a part of his agenda. He was even presented with The Sri Ram School’s Prayukti Award for Lateral Thinking in 2004-05.