K. Ullas Karanth

K Ullas Karanth
ಕೋಟಾ ಉಲ್ಲಾಸ ಕಾರಂತ

Ullas Karanth
Born Karnataka
Residence Bangalore
Nationality Indian
Fields Wildlife Conservation, Conservation Biology, Carnivore Biology
Institutions Centre for Wildlife Studies, Wildlife Conservation Society
Alma mater NITK, Surathkal
Known for Tiger conservation
Notable awards J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership

K. Ullas Karanth (Kannada: ಕೋಟಾ ಉಲ್ಲಾಸ ಕಾರಂತ), Ph. D., is a conservation zoologist and a leading tiger expert based in Karnataka, India. He is the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society India Program. Dr. Karanth directs the WCS effort to help save the tiger, and has conducted country-wide surveys to better estimate their population and habitat needs. Working mainly in the Nagarahole Wildlife sanctuary, Dr.Karanth's work has highlighted the importance of conserving prey populations in order to ensure the survival species such as the tiger.

He is also a Senior Conservation Scientist with the New York based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Technical Director of the WCS Tiger Conservation Program.He is an alumnus of NITK, Surathkal[1] .

In 2007, Dr. Karanth won the $200,000 J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership;[2] earlier winners include Salim Ali and Jane Goodall.

Contents

Early life

Dr. Karanth is the son of noted Kannada writer, Dr. Shivaram Karanth. In his adolescence, Dr. Karanth read about naturalists trying to save tigers in Asia. While he resolved to join the effort, he studied engineering. He then tried his hand at farming for some years.[3] His amateur biological observations of the flora and fauna of his native Karnataka State in Southern India, under severe pressure from incompatible human activity, spurred him to investigate conservation models for the Western Ghats, which represent a global biodiversity hotspot. A 1983 meeting with a Smithsonian delegation paved the way for his travel to the USA. He studied in the US National Zoo's Wildlife Conservation and Management Training Program in 1987, obtained his Master's degree in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Florida in 1988, and a Doctorate in Applied Zoology from Mangalore University in 1993. He did his B. Tech. in metallurgy from KREC (now known as NITK), Suratkal, where he studied from 1966 to 1971.

Studies on tiger populations

His longest single project is arguably the monitoring of the health of forests and biodiversity in the Nagarahole Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in Karnataka. Some results arising out of the study, on the status of tigers and their prey in particular, have been published as scientific papers and books.

The scientific technique that forms the foundation of scientific estimation of tiger densities in forests is capture-recapture sampling. By applying a robust statistical model to the sampling data, a fairly accurate estimate of tigers in a given area can be arrived at. This is distinctly different from the pugmark method adopted so far by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and its specially constituted unit, Project Tiger, in India. It is also different in its approach in that it does not claim to produce a total count of tigers in a given area and is more indicative of population levels.[4]

This approach to tiger conservation relies on conservation of forests from both a prey and predator perspective. Dr.Karanth suggests that with such approaches, it is possible to preserve tigers in India and elsewhere.

Other work

Dr. Karanth is a scientific fellow of the Zoological Society of London, and is on the editorial board of the journals Oryx and Journal of Applied Ecology. He also serves on the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s specialist groups on Cats, Elephants, Wild Cattle and Small Carnivores. He is the Scientific Advisor to Wildlife First, a pro-active wildlife advocacy group and is prime mover in a WCS-funded multi-institutional initiative running a graduate program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at the National Centre for Biological Sciences at Bangalore.

Bibliography

Books

Notes

  1. ^ Verma, Varuna. "‘I was interested in saving the tiger. So I created enemies’". The Telegraph, Sunday , February 24 , 2008. The Telegraph -- Calcutta. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080224/jsp/7days/story_8941596.jsp. Retrieved 25 February 2011. 
  2. ^ WWF - Who We Are - About WWF
  3. ^ Dreifus, Claudia. "Interview". New York Times, reprinted in International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/16/news/tigers.php. Retrieved 2006-09-03. 
  4. ^ Gubbi, Sanjay. "The tiger trail". The Hindu. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/10/06/stories/2002100600570800.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-03. 

External links