Premier biodiversity conservation organisation of India, Aaranyak has been presented with the esteemed ‘Mark Shand Award’ by UK-based prominent conservation charity ‘Elephant Family’ in a glittering and star-studded event titled ‘Wonders of the wild’ at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London yesterday, May 13.
Aaranyak was presented with the award for its unrelenting efforts for the conservation of Asian elephants in Northeast India by implementing multiple approaches in order to achieve peaceful coexistence between wild elephants and communities.
Aaranyak’s senior scientist, Dr Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar, who heads its Elephant Research and Conservation Division, received the award on behalf of the organisation from Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla, Joint Presidents of Elephant Family.
About 250 guests attended Wonders of the Wild, including HRH Princess Beatrice, Lady Marina Windsor, Ronaldo Nazario, Brazilian footballer, actors Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson and singer Sophie Ellis-Bexter.
Elephant Family was founded by The Queen’s brother, Mark Shand, who was an English travel writer and conservationist, and passed away at the age of 62 in 2014. Shand wrote four travel books and appeared in BBC documentaries about his journeys, most of which were about elephant conservation. His book Travels on My Elephant became a bestseller and won the Travel Writer of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 1992.
In his address to guests, The King said: ‘This evening is an opportunity as well to pay a special tribute I think to all the wonderful people who do all the work on the ground to rescue not only elephants, but even more species. As the Trust and Elephant Family develop an even greater ability to manage the human and animal conflict, it just seems to be the greatest example why collaboration is far better than conflict, and also why if we are to rescue this poor planet from continuing degradation and restore some degree of harmony, we must also understand that whatever we take and exploit from nature, we need to give something back to it to enable nature to sustain us.’
Dr Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar said “Thanks to all the people who are working with us to save one of the last remaining populations of Asian elephants in the Northeastern part of India. As a collective, we at Aaranyak vow to continue to work tirelessly, through multiple avenues, in order to mitigate human-elephant conflict in an effort to facilitate coexistence between wild elephants and communities, so that there is a better future for everyone.”
“Aranyak’s Elephant Research and Conservation Division is one of the key divisions which deals with the conservation of Asian elephants in Northeast India. The division outlined a 20-year-long elephant conservation plan. As per the plan, its focus is on facilitating human-elephant coexistence, conducting ecological studies, habitat restoration, conservation education, and supplementing the livelihood of people affected by human-elephant conflict among others to aid in the long-term conservation of elephants and its habitat,” says Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Secretary General of Aaranyak.
