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Dr. Ulhas Karanth

Activist

Ulhas Karanth, Ph.D., is a Conservation Zoologist and a leading Tiger Expert based in Karnataka, India. He is the Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and India Program. Dr. Karanth directs the WCS efforts to help save tigers, and has conducted countrywide surveys to better estimate their population and habitat needs. Dr. Karanth’s system of sampling – using cameras to track tigers in a certain area and then using statistical techniques to estimate their numbers, proved to be a more scientific and correct method than the Govt. used pugmark system of counting tigers. Karanth plans to turn his longest single project – Nagarhole Tiger Project (where rehabilitating the population, protecting the forest cover and strictly cracking down on poaching that helped in saving tigers) into a model, which can be replicated in other habitats. In 2007, Dr. Karanth won the $200,000 J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership. The earlier recipients of this award include Dr. Salim Ali and Jane Goodall.

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