K. Ullas Karanth

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K. Ullas Karanth
Padma Shree
WebsiteDr K. Ullas Karanth, CWS

Kota Ullas Karanth is a conservation

zoologist and a leading tiger expert based in Karnataka, India. He was the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's India Programme.[2] He is notable for pioneering the scientific use of camera traps in population density
studies of large wild mammals in India. He was a Senior Conservation Scientist with the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Technical Director of the WCS Tiger Conservation Program.[3] [4]

Karanth directed the WCS-I effort to help save

predator
species such as the tiger.

In 2007, Karanth was the second recipient of the

World Wildlife Fund's annual J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership.[5] In 2019, he became the first recipient of the George Schaller Lifetime Award in Wildlife Conservation Science from the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York.[6]

Early life

Karanth is the son of noted

Suratkal, where he studied from 1966 to 1971. He then tried his hand at farming in Karnataka for several years.[7]

His amateur biological observations of the flora and fauna of his native Karnataka State in Southern India, under severe pressure from incompatible human activity, spurred him to investigate conservation models for the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. A 1983 meeting with a visiting Smithsonian Institution delegation paved the way for his travel to the US, where he studied in the National Zoo's Wildlife Conservation and Management Training Program in 1987. He obtained his master's degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Florida in 1988, and a Doctorate in Applied Zoology from Mangalore University in 1993.[4][8]

Studies on tiger populations

His single longest project is the monitoring of the health of forests and biodiversity in Nagarahole Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, Karnataka. Some results arising out of the study, on the status of tigers and their prey in particular, have been published in several scientific papers and books.

Karanth pioneered the scientific application of

Ministry of Environment and Forests, Project Tiger five-year tiger census. It is also different in its approach in that it does not claim to produce an absolute count of tigers in a given area but is more indicative of population levels.[9]

This approach to tiger conservation relies on conservation of forests from both a prey and predator perspective. Karanth suggests that with such approaches, it is possible to preserve tigers in India and elsewhere.

Other work

Karanth has conducted groundbreaking research on the ecology of tigers and other large mammals. He pioneered radio-telemetry of tigers in India. He founded the Centre for Wildlife Studies, published more than 135 international peer-reviewed scientific papers and popular articles, and authored seven books in English and Kannada.

Karanth serves on the Government of India's Forest Advisory Committee, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Government of Karnataka's Tiger Conservation Foundation and Tiger Steering Committees. He is past Vice-President of the Bombay Natural History Society and a Scientific Advisor to several conservation advocacy groups in India. He is the Scientific Advisor to Wildlife First, a pro-active wildlife advocacy group and is prime mover in a WCS-funded multi-institutional initiative running a graduate program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at the National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore. In 2008, Karanth was elected a member of the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Karanth is a scientific fellow of the

IUCN Species Survival Commission specialist groups on Cats, Elephants, Wild Cattle and Small Carnivores. Karanth has adjunct teaching faculty status at NCBS, Bangalore and at the Department of Wildlife Biology, University of Minnesota. He also supervises doctoral candidates at Manipal University, Karnataka.[4][8]

Karanth was consulted by author R. K. Narayan who was working on his book A Tiger for Malgudi, a book about an anthropomorphic tiger's adventures; because of his knowledge on the animal.[10]

Karanth also works conservation policy issues and mitigation of

National Geographic Channel, BBC, CNN and the Discovery Channel.[4]

Awards

Padma Shri award

In 2006, Karanth received the Sierra Club International EarthCare award. In 2007, Karanth won the 200,000 J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership.[11] Also in 2007, he won the Sanctuary Asia lifetime achievement award.

In 2010, Karanth received the Karnataka Government’s

Rajyothsava Award. In January 2012, Karanth was conferred with the prestigious Padma Shri award for his outstanding contributions to Wildlife Conservation and Environment Protection.[4][8] In 2019, he was awarded the George Schaller Lifetime Award in Wildlife Conservation Science from the Wildlife Conservation Society.[12]

Publications

Karanth has published over 80 peer reviewed papers including in

Kannada language
. He serves on the editorial boards of Oryx and Journal of Applied Ecology.

Books

References

  1. ^ . Leela karanth Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty (12 September 2002). "Tailing man's most admired enemy..." The Hindu. Delhi. Archived from the original on 1 July 2003. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  3. ^ Verma, Varuna (24 February 2008). "'I was interested in saving the tiger. So I created enemies'". The Telegraph. The Telegraph -- Calcutta. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e CWS. "Founder Trustee and Director : Dr K. Ullas Karanth". 1669, 31st Cross, 16th Main, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore – 560070: Centre for Wildlife Studies. Retrieved 26 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ "World Wildlife Fund's Prestigious Getty Award Given to India's Leading Expert on Tiger Conservation". World Wildlife Fund. worldwildlife.org. 16 October 2007. Archived from the original on 16 September 2009.
  6. ^ "George Schaller lifetime award for Ullas Karanth". The Hindu. 9 November 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  7. ^ Dreifus, Claudia. "Interview". The New York Times, reprinted in International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 3 September 2006.
  8. ^ a b c WCS (26 January 2012). "WCS's Dr. Ullas Karanth Wins India's Padma Shri Award". Hime, News and Features. New York: Wildlife Conservation Society. Archived from the original on 14 April 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  9. ^ Gubbi, Sanjay. "The tiger trail". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 14 March 2003. Retrieved 3 September 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  10. ^ Verma, Varuna (24 February 2008). "'I was interested in saving the tiger. So I created enemies'". The Telegraph India. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  11. ^ "World Wildlife Fund's Prestigious Getty Award Given to India's Leading Expert on Tiger Conservation". World Wildlife Fund. worldwildlife.org. 16 October 2007. Archived from the original on 16 September 2009.
  12. ^ "George Schaller lifetime award for Ullas Karanth". The Hindu. 9 November 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  13. ^ CWS. "Publications: Books and Products by CWS, Scientific Publications, Technical Reports and Dissertations". 1669, 31st Cross, 16th Main, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore – 560070: Centre for Wildlife Studies. Retrieved 26 January 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)[permanent dead link]

External links

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