Whitley Awards:
Indian conservationists Barkha Subba, Parveen Shaikh win Whitley Awards for conservation of Himalayan salamander and endangered Indian skimmer.
- It is often called as the “Green Oscars,”
- It recognises grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South.
- It is given by the UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN).
- It provides winners with £50,000 in project funding over one year to scale up local solutions to biodiversity loss.
Himalayan salamander:
- It is a lizard-like amphibian species.
- Although it resembles a lizard, it lacks scales on its body.
- It is endemic to India (the Darjeeling region), Nepal and Bhutan,
- Salamanders return to their natal site to breed and lay eggs—a process known as philopatry, which makes them highly vulnerable to changes in habitat and wetland health.
- The wetlands where Himalayan salamanders breed are culturally revered water bodies, associated with local deities and rituals.
- Conservation Status: IUCN: Vulnerable
Indian skimmer:
- It is one of the three species that belong to the skimmer genus Rynchops in the family Laridae.
- It gets its name from the way it feeds, flying low over the water surface and ‘skimming’for fish.
- It occurs primarily on larger, sandy, lowland rivers, around lakes and adjacent marshes
- It is mainly found in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, with some populations extending to Nepal and Myanmar.
- In India, one of the key areas for spotting Indian Skimmers is the Chambal River.
- Conservation status: IUCN: Endangered
