A leading wildlife conservation scientist in India, Dr. Krithi Karanth won the 2019 Women of Discovery Award by WINGS Worldquest, an organization that recognizes and lauds women scientists for their work in their respective fields.

Her inclination towards wildlife is blossomed into passion thanks to her family of wildlife enthusiasts, with her father being a Tiger Biologist, and her grandfather who was a leading environmentalist. Hence growing up, her prime focus of interest was forests, animals and conserving natural resources.

“I had a pretty unusual childhood. My father is a very well known Tiger Biologist and conservationist, so I spent a lot of my childhood watching animals and [travelling] with him. I was definitely interested in being outdoors, watching animals, and just being in nature but I also saw the difficulties he faced… and so I never wanted to even remotely pursue a career that was like his,” she said.

She eventually completed her BS and BA from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Duke University. Her focus of research has been India for the past 20 years and she has been conducting macro-level studies assessing patterns of species distributions and extinctions, impacts of wildlife tourism, consequences of voluntary resettlement, land-use change, and human-wildlife interactions.

Currently, she is working on a project called Wildseve, under which she has helped over 7000 families claim wildlife-compensation which is their rightful benefits.

In December this year, she assisted in the making of the film ‘From Killer Roads to Humane Highways’ by wildlife and conservation filmmaker Shekar Dattatri. The film focused on the rapid expansion of roads and highways which are a serious threat to India’s wildlife today and the mitigation measures that are needed to be adopted to avoid this catastrophe.

From Killer Roads to Humane Highways

The rapid expansion of roads and highways through Protected Areas and corridors is one of the most serious threats facing India’s wildlife today. ‘From Killer Roads to Humane Highways’, a film by wildlife and conservation filmmaker, Shekar Dattatri, addresses the adverse impacts of roads and highways on wildlife, and showcases some of the mitigation measures that countries must adopt to arrest the needless deaths of thousands of wild animals every year.

H/T: The Better India