The Habitats Trust, founded by Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCL Technologies, announced the recipients of The Habitats Trust Grants 2021 on December 20 – an annual initiative aimed at securing India's biodiversity by bolstering efforts of conservationists on-ground by bridging the resource gap and providing critical support to make their work more sustainable. Grants amounting to 1.05 crore INR across four categories have been awarded to protectors of India's natural habitats and indigenous species.
Congratulating the recipients, Ms. Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Founder & Trustee, The Habitats Trust said, “At the recently concluded COP-26 in Glasgow, world leaders recognised the interlinked relationship between biodiversity and climate crises. Protecting, conserving, better managing, and restoring our world’s critical flora and fauna is a key to securing human existence and requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders."
“The Habitats Trust Grants is our effort to partner with some outstanding organisations and individuals who are doing laudable work in conserving threatened ecosystems and species. The Grants not only support these breakthrough conservation efforts, but our teams continuously work with the recipients to help capacity build and set up governance structures, making them ready to secure future funding,” she further added.
While The Habitats Trust awarded full financial grants to one recipient in each category, other finalists were also awarded 10 per cent of the grant amount in their respective categories, to ensure that their efforts and work is recognised. The four recipients of the Grants were chosen from a total of ten finalists by an eminent jury that included - Bahar Dutt, Wildlife Biologist, Author and Environmental Journalist; Brian Heath, Founder and CEO for the Mara Triangle Conservation Area, Kenya; Dr. M. K. Ranjitsinh, Wildlife Expert and architect of the WildLife (Protection) Act of 1972, and Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson HCL Technologies and Founder and Trustee, The Habitats Trust.
The Habitats Trust Grants’ recipients were selected through a rigorous five-stage process that took into account the expected impact, relevance and scalability of the project; the applicants’ capacity to deliver and finally, the long-term sustainability of their proposed work post the two-year grant period. The Trust received over 4,200 registrations this year and chose 10 finalists after conducting a thorough evaluation and due diligence by an external auditor. The Habitats Trust team also visited the finalists’ project sites across the country to assess the scope and potential conservation impact of the applicants’ proposed projects.
Given to mid to large sized field-work oriented organisations to create a two-way partnership for the common cause of conservation.
Recipient: The Nature Conservation Foundation
The Nature Conservation Foundation is a non-governmental wildlife conservation and research organisation based in Mysore, India. They promote the use of science for wildlife conservation in India. The organisation has been selected for SPG for mobile phone technology being developed for human - elephant coexistence in the Anamalais.
"With the support from The Habitats Trust, we believe to bring about a shift in management practices from a "Problem Animal" approach to "Problem Location" approach while empowering local people and would facilitate to create human-elephant coexistence, and serve as a model for other landscapes in Asia. We believe an alert in time saves lives.” - Ganesh Raghunathan, NCF
Given to organisations working to secure and regenerate the overlooked and unaddressed habitats of the country that are in urgent need of conservation attention.
Recipient: Bombay Environmental Action group
Bombay Environmental Action Group’s project aims to prepare Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) for 11 Sada sites in Rajapur, Lanja and Ratangiri Tehsil of Ratanagiri district of Maharashtra. The project area spreads over 200 sq.kms of ‘Sada’ habitat supporting undistributed populations of endemic herbs rarely seen anywhere else in Konkan.
"The grant will help us document indigenous knowledge about Sada ecosystems and integrate it in conservation management planning for the biodiversity heritage sites.” - Aparna Watwe, Bombay Environmental Action Group
Given to organisations working to secure a future for our lesser-known endangered species, which have not been awarded the same level of protection as our more charismatic species such as tigers, leopards, elephants and rhinos.
Recipient: Association for Social and Environmental Development
Association for Social and Environmental Development is working towards a fishing cat conservation and habitat management project which will help monitor the species’ population, identify threats and adopt mitigation strategies.
"ASED and The Fishing Cat Project are co-partnering a project "Fish-Fishing Cat-Fishermen: visualising the persistence of a rich socio-ecological system" in Chilika. We have trained members of the indigenous fisherfolk in monitoring Fishing Cats and assessing threats to its ecological community so that we can mitigate the same in collaboration with relevant govt departments." - Tiasa Adhya, Association for Social and Environmental Development
Given to grassroots conservationists working dedicatedly with little or no support, to protect our biodiversity. The work they do in their individual capacity has a huge positive impact on conservation in the country. This grant aims to recognise these conservation heroes and provide them a platform to expand their activities and garner further support for their work.
Recipient: Ayushi Jain
Ayushi Jain aims to work for the conservation of Pelochelys cantorii, one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world. The species is highly threatened due to many anthropogenic activities like poaching and habitat destruction and is at the risk of extinction.
It is evident that the threats to the Cantor's giant softshell turtle can be mitigated only with the support of local communities. From the Conservation Hero grant, I hope to identify and train a locally-led team to initiate a long-term management program to conserve the unique and elusive turtle.” - Ayushi Jain
