BNN
The Habitats Trust, founded by Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Corporation, is organizing a series of symposiums across the country to empower local conservationists and help them gain support from India and other parts of the world. The fourth symposium in this series was held in Bengaluru, which witnessed participation from over 100 people from the field of conservation. The next symposium is scheduled to be held in Chennai on February 8th, 2020.
The Habitats Trust symposiums are aimed at helping grass-root conservationists learn to design and develop effective and time-bound conservation project proposals that can attract grants. In a megadiverse country like India that accounts for 7% - 8% of all recorded species in the world and houses four of the 36 globally identified biodiversity hotspots (The Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the North-East, and the Nicobar Islands) conservation is critical for ensuring a sustainable future for the planet. However, the issue of conservation often takes back seat to people problems in a country with a population of 1.3 billion people and as a result the support available for conservationists is often limited. Also, while committed conservationists are doing some seminal work on ground, they often lack the specialized skill to present their work in a way that can help them secure the limited institutionalized support that is available. The Habitats Trust is committed to bridge this gap.
Panellists who participated in the Bengaluru symposium included conservationist Sanjay Gubbi, a member of the State Wildlife Board of Karnataka; Prakriti Srivastava, Country Director of Wildlife Conservation Society India Program; A. Damodaran, Professor of Economics & Social Sciences at IIM Bengaluru; Neethi Mahesh, renowned individual conservationist and recipient of The Habitats Trust Conservation Hero Grant 2019 and Steffi Xavier, Project Coordinator at The Habitats Trust. Naturalist and Conservationist Kashish Madan moderated the panel discussion.
Also present at the Symposium was Mr. S Harikrishnan from Metastring Foundation, a winner of The Habitats Trust Grants 2019. He shared his experience of working with the Trust and also highlighted their winning project that aims to conserve The Malabar tree toad. Steffi Xavier further shared specifics about the its annual Grants Programme, which selects and supports four organizations and individual conservationists, helping them complete a project of one-year duration. The application portal for the 2020 Grants will open on 23rd Jan.
Last year the THT Grants received 860 registrations and the winners included Aaranyak (awarded Rs 25 lakhs under the Strategic Partnership Grant); Costal Impact (awarded Rs. 20 lakhs in the Lesser-known Habitats category); Metastring Foundation (awarded Rs. 15 lakhs in Lesser-known Species Grant) and Neethi Mahesh who was awarded with Rs. 10 lakhs as the recipient of The Conservation Hero Grant.