A champion of India's natural heritage - Kartick Satyanarayan
Over the course of his career, Wildlife SOS Co-Founder & CEO Kartick Satyanarayan has demonstrated an unflinching dedication and service to wildlife conservation, animal welfare and environmental protection, staying true to his vision of a modern India where man and animal coexist respectfully and in peace together. Kartick's lifelong love of animals stems from a childhood spent in the midst of nature. Despite growing up in the bustling city of Bangalore, Kartick would find every opportunity to escape to the surrounding woodlands and national parks, watching wildlife while perched in the treetops. While still at school he volunteered with forestry departments, accompanied night patrol teams and did all he could to rescue and rehabilitate injured animals. As an Animal Welfare Consultant to UK-based charity Brooke Hospital for Animals, Kartick presented papers at workshops and conferences across the world, but his passion has always lied with the wildlife and wilderness of India.
Kartick is perhaps most well known for spearheading the eradication of the dancing bear trade in India, and his tireless advocacy for the species has led to him being dubbed as India's "Bear Man". The scope of Wildlife SOS is far broader than bears, however. Since co-founding the organisation in 1995, Kartick and his team have established dedicated rescue and rehabilitation centres not just for bears but also for leopards and elephants (including the world's first elephant hospital) and have have made significant steps in tackling the illegal wildlife trade.
Wildlife SOS also rescue close to 1,000 reptiles every year, including snakes, turtles, monitor lizards and crocodilians; house over 250 primates rescued from all over the country; run grassroots anti-poaching training programs and workshops for forestry departments and law enforcement agencies in a number of states; conduct conservation awareness programs to educate villagers, farmers, schoolchildren and tribal communities who live in human-wildlife conflict zones; operate habitat conservation and restoration projects; work with local communities and stakeholders, empowering them to patrol and protect their forests; and secure agricultural land in areas bordering forests to create safe buffer areas for wildlife.
Kartick is a TED International Fellow, an Executive Board Member of the FSECA and a member of a number of other advisory boards, including the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and IUCN Bear Specialist Group. For his achievements in the field of conservation he has been the recipient of the Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar Award, the First Planman Media Award for Environmental Activism, the Elisabeth Lewyt Award for Disaster Management and Planning, the Karamveer Puraskar Award from the iCONGO Civil Society, and the San Diego Zoo Global Conservation Medal for “Conservation in Action”.
Please visit the Wildlife SOS website to find out how you contribute to their cause: http://wildlifesos.org/