Habitats Trust awards grants worth Rs 84 lakh for environment conservation

The Habitats Trust, co-founded by HCL Corporation CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra, has announced grants totalling Rs 84 lakh to organisations working on environment conservation.

The Habitats Trust awarded full financial grants worth Rs 60 lakh to four recipients across four categories. It also awarded 10 per cent of the grant amount in the respective categories to the nine finalists to ensure that their effort and work is recognised.

"Every conservationist who applied for The Habitats Trust Grants is engaged in doing crucial work towards protecting our natural habitats and species. Each of them is deserving of support and it wasn't easy for us to choose the final recipients," The Habitats Trust founder and Trustee Roshni Nadar Malhotra said.

The 13 finalists and eventually four winners were selected through a rigorous three-stage process that considered the expected impact, relevance, scalability of the project, the applicants' capacity to deliver as well as sustainability of their proposed work with a duration of approximately a year.

The Trust received 860 registrations this year and chose 13 finalists from that pool after conducting field visits and due diligence by an external auditor.

Aaranyak - which is working to secure and recover Manas grasslands in Assam and its threatened species - received a grant of Rs 25 lakh, while Costal Impact that is working on coral transplantation aids for preservation of coral patches off Goa was given Rs 20 lakh.

Metastring Foundation, a citizen-based conservation initiative of the Malabar Tree Toad, received Rs 15 lakh, and Neethi Mahesh got Rs 10 lakh for her efforts on Riparian habitat conservation along the Cauvery River in Coorg District.