Wildlife awards for Mumbai duo

Two young men from the city will receive awards for conserving and improving the understanding of wildlife from the

Sanctuary Nature Foundation

on Friday night. Hailing from the western suburbs, both

Shashank Dalvi

(34) and

Nikit Surve

(25) grew up exploring the wilderness of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). While both went on to become wildlife biologists, Dalvi was captivated by the diversity of birds in the country and Surve followed the trail of SGNP’s urban leopards.

While collecting data on the elevational distribution of birds in

Himalayas

, Shashank Dalvi was the first to spot a bird new to science. He was part of the team that described the bird in 2016. Acknowledging the legacy of the venerable ‘Birdman of India’ Dr

Salim Ali

, Dalvi named it Zoothera salimalii. Now commonly known as the Himalayan Forest Thrush, the bird is only the fourth new avifauna species to be described from India since independence. In 2012, Dalvi was a member of the team that discovered and documented the mass massacre of

Amur Falcons

in

Nagaland

. “About 12000-14000 birds were killed per day. The most difficult thing I have done in my life is filming the massacre of these birds,” he said. His documentation of the killings led to one of the most successful conservation movements in the country led by local conservationist Bano Haralu. “Since 2013, not a single Amur

Falcon

has been killed in that landscape,” he said.

Mira Road resident Nikit Surve grew up exploring SGNP during school picnics and later by bunking college. His first encounter with a leopard in 2011 got him hooked. He went on to conduct the first ever scientific census and dietary analysis of the leopards inhabiting SGNP and its peripheral areas. He intends to introduce these urban leopards as unique individuals that have distinct personalities. “We have named a male leopard ‘mastikhor’, for he has slapped six of my cameras, knocking them down sometimes,” he said.

“Today, we are at the intersection of biodiversity, economics and climate change. The task of nation building can only be accomplished through protection of natural resources,” said Bittu Sahgal, editor of Sanctuary Asia, underling the need to empower conservationists.