Who Won the Green Oscars from India? | Barkha Subba | Parveen Shaikh | Endangered Species | StudyIQ

0:00 Hi everyone, Jind and welcome to the platform of study IQIS in English.

0:03 Uh and this is a moment of uh you know

0:05 pride for India where we have two of the grassroot

0:08 conservation leaders who had been honored with a green Oscar

0:12 and I'm talking about Pravin Shik as well as Burka Suba.

0:16 Now these are the two prominent of the environmentalist

0:19 the conservators who have won the green Oscar for 2026.

0:24 Now when it comes to the green Oscar,

0:26 green Oscar is basically a name uh that has been given to the Witle Awards,

0:30 the Witlay Awards or the Whitlay Fund

0:32 for Nature is basically a UK registered charity

0:35 that champions the grassroot conservation efforts

0:38 and the grassroot conservation leaders across the global south.

0:41 Now this Whitlay fund for nature it was established

0:44 in 1993 and these awards focus on the projects

0:47 that use scientific evidence as well as community involvement

0:51 to invol you know to protect the nature that is there.

0:54 Now over here you can see that there is uh when it comes to the Whitlay

0:58 awards or the green Oscars they majorly

1:00 focus on the localized impact that is recognition

1:03 of the high impact community rooted strategies as well

1:06 as they are or they grant the international

1:09 advocacy for the winners as well and there

1:11 is a project funding as well that is provided.

1:14 When it comes to the awards,

1:15 the awards carries £50,000 of the uh prize money that is given and also

1:20 there is long-term vision which focuses

1:22 on sustainable and evidence-based conservation as well.

1:26 Now when it comes to Pravin Shake or Pervin Shik,

1:29 she has won the Whitley award or the green Oscar

1:33 and she is a dedicated scientist we with the BNHS

1:37 that is Bombay Natural History Society as well and she has

1:41 over a decade of the research that is in the field.

1:45 Perv has built the career protecting the riverine

1:48 birds which are there in the central India.

1:51 Now her award-winning project focuses

1:52 on the critically imperiled Indian skimmer.

1:56 This is a bird which is found in the central India

1:59 and her work had been centered around the Chumbal river and even Mahanadi.

2:03 The last remaining strongholds of this rare species which is found in central

2:07 India and both ecologically significant river systems

2:10 which are there in India as well.

2:13 Now when it comes to the bird

2:14 that I'm talking about for which for the conservation

2:16 of which she had got the green Oscar its scientific name is Rilchop's lbis.

2:23 Now over here please note that this is endangered

2:25 bird and the distinctive feature is that the lower mandible

2:29 it is longer than the upper and this had been

2:32 adapted for skimming the water surface to catch the fish.

2:36 All right.

2:37 The nesting grounds are basically on the exposed

2:40 river sandbarss and it is included in first

2:43 schedule of the wildlife protection act 1972 that is

2:47 it has been provided with the highest protection.

2:50 Now it is found in India along with India.

2:52 It is also found in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar as well.

2:56 And when it comes to the key threats to this bird,

2:59 it is basically the damning where there are the altered water levels.

3:03 There is also sand mining and domestic predation

3:05 by the dogs and kettles on the nesting sandbarss.

3:09 So overall the strategy while conserving this uh particular

3:13 bird uh that was adopted by her it was

3:17 that uh you know there was sandbar security where

3:19 the community-led monitoring was done to prevent the eggs.

3:22 All right the eggs the the the eggs were prevented from trampling

3:26 and predation by the stray animals during

3:28 the critical nesting window that was there.

3:31 Along with this there was uh

3:33 also collaboration directly with the dam authorities

3:36 to halt the sudden water releases

3:38 that flood and destroy the nesting sides midseason.

3:41 There is also the local fishermen.

3:43 They were trained as the skimmer guardians minimizing the human

3:46 disturbance and reporting threats near the colonies of Indian skimmer.

3:51 And also there was systematic uh nest

3:54 counts and GPS tracking to build the long-term

3:56 population data and inform policy decisions and that has

4:00 led to her winning the green Oscar.

4:02 The second name is of Burka Sububa.

4:05 Now when when we talk about Burka Sububa,

4:08 she is a pioneer research of the eastern uh Himalayas and she has

4:12 won the reward or the award

4:14 for her groundbreaking work on the Himalayan salamander,

4:17 a species which had been long neglected

4:19 by the mainstream conservation programs as well.

4:22 Now she had combined the traditional uh ecological

4:25 knowledge with the modern science to save the rare

4:27 amphibians in one of the Asia's most fragile

4:29 ecosystem or the mine ecosystems that are there.

4:33 Now this is Himalayan salamander that you are seeing over here.

4:36 The scientific name is tylo tiloto triton vicosis.

4:42 When it comes to the common name it is crocodile n or himalayan salamander.

4:47 Now Ian status is nearthreatened but when it comes

4:50 to India so in India it is in the endangered category.

4:55 At the same time when it comes to the habitat it is the wetland ponds

4:57 and the vernal pools and even the tea gardens reservoir which are there in Dling

5:02 and Sikkim and over here they are textured

5:06 rugged skin which resembles them of a crocodile

5:09 a primitive ancient linage and therefore they

5:12 are also called as the living fossil.

5:15 Again when it comes to the Himalayan salamander it

5:17 is there in the first schedule of the wildlife protection

5:20 act that is there and they have a very important

5:23 ecological significance because the species it is an indicator species.

5:29 Now this is a rare or the vital

5:31 indicator species that signals or its presence signals

5:33 the purity and the health of the high altitude

5:36 freshwater ecosystem in the mountain ranges or the regions.

5:40 So these are the two of the important species

5:43 which had been conserved and ultimately for their conservation both

5:46 these environmentalists they have been or they backed the uh

5:51 the green oscars which are there or the witlay award.

5:54 Now when it comes to the conservation strategy that was

5:56 adopted for the amphibian that we have just spoken.

6:00 So it was the fencing of the seasonal

6:02 breeding ponds to prevent the pollution as well

6:05 as cattle trampling and siltation during the critical

6:08 amphibian breeding windows that was the approach of Burkha.

6:11 Along with this T estate workers and the school

6:14 children they were trained to document the cylinder roots

6:17 or the migration route that were there and ultimately that have

6:20 built a realtime data network across remote terrain as well.

6:24 There was also mapping by the local

6:26 myths and the folklore to foster the commentary

6:28 reverence for the pani goro or the water

6:31 element turning tradition into a conservation tool.

6:34 That is a very unique uh conservation uh approach that was taken by burkha.

6:39 At the same time there was reviving of the neglected

6:42 and drying seasonal ponds as well to ensure

6:45 that the breeding success is there as well as maintaining

6:48 the freshwater connectity connectivity across the different landscape as well.

6:54 So these are the two ecosystem and ultimately we have

6:57 two of the different species but the uh the mission

7:00 was uh one and that was to save these two

7:03 important endangered as well as you know vulnerable species in India.

7:08 So both of these uh you know award winners they have

7:11 operated in a region which are critical to the India's environmental security.

7:15 one in the central Asia and the another in the eastern

7:19 Himalayas and their target species they serve as the umbrella species.

7:23 Now what are the umbrella species?

7:25 They are the species if they are conserved so they have

7:28 a far-reaching impact on the conservation of the nature as a whole.

7:32 So from the chambul sandbar to the sikim misty ponds these ecosystem

7:36 represents the dual environment or the biodiversity

7:39 fronters frontiers that we have.

7:41 We have one that was thriving in the riverine uh

7:45 climate and the another one species that is majorly endemic

7:49 to the mountain characteristics but at the same time both are

7:52 under the escalating anthropogenic pressures that we are seeing right now.

7:57 So this is the comparison that you can see of both

7:59 the species which had been conserved Indian schema or shake

8:03 you know the the species that was conserved by the or the efforts

8:06 for the conservation were laid down by the shake.

8:09 This is basically found in the large river sandbars

8:13 and in the riverine regions of Chumbal and Mahanadi.

8:16 At the same time, halleluer is found in the high

8:19 altitude wetlands in mountain regions like in Darling and Sikkim.

8:23 The highin status for Indian schemer is endangered.

8:26 But when it comes to the Himalayan salamander, it is near threatened.

8:30 At the same time, the primary threats for Indian schemer is sand mining,

8:33 d management and the predation.

8:35 And for himalian salamander it is habitat discuss

8:39 destruction pollution and the pond drainage as well.

8:42 Both of these species they are there in the first schedule of the wildlife

8:47 protection act and the conservation model

8:49 that was undertaken by shake or pervin shake

8:52 was the fisher folk as the nest guardians and for the uh you know

8:57 himalan cimeter it was the tea workers

9:00 which acted as the climate scientist as well.

9:03 Now this is very important because when it

9:05 comes to Himalayan salamander it is an indicator

9:07 species and the Indian schema is a umbrella

9:10 species for the complete riverine habitat that is there.

9:14 All right so it is very important when it comes to the local stewards.

9:18 So empowering them is one of the methods

9:20 that the conservation will become a success story and that is

9:24 why these two of the women they have achieved

9:27 and begged the very prestigious green Oscars for the 2026.

9:31 Also when it comes to the success so we have to understand that the success

9:35 and the conservation it lies at the intersection of science and soci society.

9:39 It is not the science alone that will be or that will lead

9:43 or that can lead to the conservation and it is also not the society itself.

9:47 So there has to be a way where we have

9:49 to intersect the society and the so uh the science

9:52 where the data it will meet the devotion and the communities

9:55 they become the guardians of their own wildlife heritage.

9:59 So that is all in today's session.

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