“It was an awesome feeling,” says Sanjay Molur, a trailblazer in conservation, about receiving the Distinguished Service Award. He is simply again from Australia after being awarded through the International Conference for Conservation Biology in Brisbane/Meanjin.
The award, instituted by the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), recognises work of people and organisations within the subject of conservation, selling science and social features, and Molur’s recognition comes as a second of delight for conservationists throughout the globe. “It brings emotions of the past 30 plus years of service, often behind the scenes without much recognition. The fact that my work and I were recognised by the international committee really got me emotional and brought back all the memories of having worked with conservationist Sally Walker, whom I dedicated the award to; for it was her dedication, steadfast drive, motivation, and mentorship that made me the person I am today,” he says.
For over three a long time, Molur has performed an important position within the safety of lesser-known and threatened species, formed international conservation pointers and led main international assessments for amphibians, reptiles, primates, and freshwater species. He has been a relentless assist for numerous researchers, conservationists, and coverage makers at nationwide and international ranges.
He is the chief director of Coimbatore-based Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO), that’s a part of a number of initiatives equivalent to human-wildlife coexistence, and month-to-month open entry publications equivalent to Zoo’s Print and Journal of Threatened Taxa, a beacon to the world of conservation popping out of Coimbatore for the final 40 years apart from coaching and constructing capability in taxonomy, subject strategies, and conservation, for kids and skilled biologists from throughout.
Sanjay Molur throughout digicam trapping coaching and establishing
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Special Arrangement
His journey as a conservationist, Molur says, has been an exhilarating one with extra harmful curves than a roller-coaster experience. “The beauty of hindsight is to relish those moments of celebration, excitement, joy, and achievement, and be aware of dejection, horror, dismay, sorrow, and betrayal, all of which played a crucial role in my evolution as a conservationist.” Apart from engaged on primary features of taxonomy, surveys, inventories, pure historical past, encouraging and constructing capability in children to take up conservation as a profession, he has been concerned with a number of on-the-ground conservation actions for particular person and a number of species and ecosystems. Some of the continued ones embrace these on native species restoration within the western Himalayas, shark and ray conservation in Tamil Nadu and Kerala coasts, and freshwater biodiversity conservation within the Western Ghats.
“My involvement in the development of the IUCN Red List guidelines and the Conservation Translocation guidelines at the global level have had several impacts around the world. The journey of species assessments has been one of the most thrilling, path-breaking, and consistent application of principles of conservation biology for over three decades. It has contributed to the promotion of conservation of species and habitats across India, South Asia, and the world. Being an integral part of that movement gives me a great sense of achievement and pride and to bring in more innovative ways of addressing challenges.”
The award-winning conservation biologist along with his workforce
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Special Arrangement
He attracts consideration to his work on distribution and standing of tarantulas in India which he’s been engaged on since 1999. “The studies filled huge gaps of knowledge which eventually helped in their status assessments last year. We brought some of the more traded ones onto the protection schedules of the Wildlife Protection Act in 2022. The second example is of sea cucumbers, which are heavily traded from India internationally and have been retained on the Wildlife Protection Act. It is slowly making a difference in peoples’ understanding that conserving the sea cucumbers and other fauna and flora like seahorses, seagrasses, and seaweeds is a better livelihood option for locals than overexploiting the species at the cost of their survival.”
He sees hope within the youthful technology eager to take up conservation as their subject of curiosity and even profession. “While a lot are enamored by wildlife, there is a growing number interested in knowing the harsh realities also, which makes it worth the while for people like me to invest time in up skilling young conservationists.” Children, he says, can shadow conservationists from native organisations, studying from their each day works. They can get into studying a big selection of topics associated to nature, historical past, setting, ecology, genetics, evolution, pure historical past, zoos and botanical gardens, geography, politics, civics, and different associated matters. “They can write to us at zooreach@zooreach.org indicating their name, age, areas of interest, and what they wish to do so that they can be enrolled in our new initiative ‘ConZervation’, which is for gen Z+.”
His recommendation to anybody concerned about conservation is to begin taking a look at native species and the threats they face, particularly from people. “Identify those native species and if you need help contact us in the above email,” he says, including, “Always remember, good intent should always be backed by science so that it leads to good content.”
Molur runs an Advanced Training in Conservation Course for 21 to 35 12 months olds which is open to anybody from any subject or background. Applications shut on July 12.Visit rhatc.zooreach.org
