Honorable Chief Guest Introduction 2020!

Season Greetings from AWN,

It brings us immense pleasure and happiness to introduce you all to our honorable chief guest for 2020 Annual show. AWN would like to thank him sincerely for his support!

Dr.Ullas Karanth, Conservation Scientist, 

Founder of Centre for Wildlife Studies

Image credits: ©Kalyan Varma

Kota Ullas Karanth, who originally trained as an engineer at NITK, Surathkal (1971), switched his career pursuing his passion for wildlife, obtaining a Master’s degree from the University of Florida, USA (1988) and a Doctorate from Mangalore University, India (1993). Joining Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 1988, he built the WCS India Program over the next thirty years. He currently serves as the Director of Centre for Wildlife Studies, which he founded in 1984. 

Dr. Karanth is an Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Florida and Minnesota, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research's National Centre Biological Sciences where, India he established a world class Master’s Degree Program in Wildlife Biology in 2004.

Dr. Karanth has conducted long-term research on the ecology of tigers, other predators and their prey in India and other parts of Asia. His areas of expertise include large carnivore ecology and modeling of animal populations as well as conservation biology and policy. He has published over 150 scientific papers in prestigious journals as well as numerous popular articles. He has authored, edited, co-edited several books: The Way of the Tiger (2001),Monitoring Tigers and their Prey (2002), A view from the Machan (2006),Tiger Tales (2007),Camera traps in Animal Ecology (2009), Science of Saving Tigers (2011),Science and Conservation of Animal Populations (2017) and Methods for Monitoring Tiger and Prey Populations (2017) in English as well as three books in Kannada; Aranya Mattu Samaja (1983), Hulirayana Aakashavaani (2007), Kaadupranigala Jadinalli (2011). 

Ullas Karanth serves on the World Conservation Union's specialist groups on Cats, Elephants, Wild Cattle and Small Carnivores. He has served as a member of the Indian Government’s Forest Advisory Committee, Indian Board for Wildlife, National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Governing Boards of Wildlife Institute of India, WWF-India and the Liz Claiborne Foundation, New York. Dr. Karanth has been active in the conservation arena for five decades, advising several conservation advocacies groups in India.

His work has been extensively featured in world’s media including Nature, New York Times, Time Magazine, National Geographic, BBC, PBS, CNN, Discovery and Animal Planet channels.

In recognition of his contribution’s wildlife conservation, Dr. Karanth won the Sierra Club’s EarthCare award (2006), World Wildlife Fund’s J. Paul Getty award (2007) and was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2008). He was conferred the Karnataka Rajya Prashashti in 2011, and the high national civilian Honor Padmashree by the President of India in 2012.

Dr. Karanth (71) lives in Bangalore, India and is married to Prof. Prathibha Karanth, a speech pathologist. His daughter, Dr. Krithi Karanth, the Chief Conservation Scientist with Centre for Wildlife Studies recently won the prestigious Rolex Award for enterprise.