ZEISS Wildlife Conservation Awards celebrates unsung heroes

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The wildlife conservation worker, like most of their subjects, is an elusive person. To celebrate the outstanding contribution of these simple, hardworking, humble yet extraordinary people, ZEISS group acknowledged these talented individuals in wildlife conservation through their annual ZEISS Wildlife Conservation Awards and this year on March 24th, 2017 at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

17th ZEISS Wildlife Conservation Awards was back to celebrate the selfless work of these extraordinary people in nature and wildlife conservation. Since 2000, every year Carl Zeiss, as a socially responsible corporate, has been acknowledging the outstanding contribution made by talented individuals in wildlife conservation. There have been 80 awardees till now and this year another six joined the honours list.

The jury that decided the awardees includes Valmik Thapar, Tiger Specialist and Mr. Umender Shah, Business Head, Consumer Optics, Carl Zeiss India.

The Lifetime Wildlife Conservation Award was presented to Bholu A. Khan who has spent his entire life working for the welfare of the Bharatpur Wetlands. He served in the forest department for 38 years and spent all his life caring for the park at Bharatpur. He monitored the park on a daily basis and fought with encroachers, poachers and wild res.

The winners for Wildlife Conservation Award 2017 are:

Bijo Joy - Deputy Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur who is instrumental towards the nature conservation.

Dr. Rina Dev - She runs a critical care center for birds and exotic species in Mumbai. She is a specialist in Avian Orthopedic Surgeries and Critical Care.

Nikhil Devasar, founder of Delhi bird group, has spearheaded many of the group's conservation efforts awareness and education programs for young people, monitors the status of the birdlife as well as their habitats and also discovers new birding sites while keeping the authorities abreast of the problems in the existing ones.

Kalyan Varma- An award winning Wildlife Photographer, Filmmaker and Conservationist specializing in Environment, Ecology and Conservation in India.

Minaram Gogoi-A daily wage labourer dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and its habitat at Nameri National Park, since 1991.

Congratulating these awardees, Mr. Daniel Sims, Managing Director, Carl Zeiss India said, "It is a privilege for ZEISS to recognize and support these outstanding contributions to the conservation of India's natural species. We hope that as they have inspired the judges, that this award helps them to continue inspiring others to support conservation in India. "

The past awardees include individuals from different spectrum of work and regions of India such that forest officers, forest guards, wildlife biologists, researchers, conservation practitioners, birders, writers, photographers and filmmakers.

Commenting about the award night, Vikram Thapar, said "I am delighted that ZEISS has instituted an annual award for wildlife conservation. This will give an enormous boost to our efforts to save tigers and the rich wildlife of our country. The superb vision that ZEISS Binoculars provide will be a great asset for all those engaged in saving India's rapidly declining wildlife."

The event was a token of gratitude to the real champions of our society who are constantly striving to safeguard our beautiful nature, salute to their passion and commitment.