Dear First name / friend,

 

March 2026 was a month of milestones at CWS. We came together to celebrate World Wildlife Day, reflecting on the importance of protecting India’s rich biodiversity and the communities that coexist with it. This month also brought us a moment of immense pride, as Dr. Krithi K. Karanth was named the first Asian recipient of the Esmond B. Martin Prize from the Royal Geographical Society.

 

In this edition of Into the Wild, we share highlights from our latest publications and updates from the field along with recent media coverage that amplifies our work. We also bring you the wonderful news of another successful PhD defense by one of our Post Doctoral Fellows, Dr. Simran Prasad, continuing a strong run of academic achievements at CWS. Dr. Simran is now the second student from our first official cohort of Doctoral Fellows to defend her PhD!

We are excited to announce that Dr. Krithi K. Karanth has been awarded the 2026 Esmond B. Martin Royal Geographical Society Prize. With this honour, she becomes the first Asian recipient of this prestigious award! The award recognizes outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation and environmental research, and celebrates the impact of science, storytelling, and public engagement in advancing biodiversity conservation globally. She shares this recognition with Professor Alexandre Antonelli, Executive Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. To read more about the prize and its recipients, click here! 

Dr. Simran Prasad, Post Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) and affiliated with the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, has successfully defended her PhD dissertation. Simran’s research was titled ‘Ascertaining the socio-economic and ecological drivers behind human and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) injury and mortality patterns in South India.’ Her dissertation was guided by Dr. Krithi K. Karanth, CEO of CWS.

 

Simran’s work examined how environmental and socio-economic factors shaped human-wildlife interactions, with a specific focus on elephants. Her research drew upon an extensive global literature review integrating over 270 publications spanning five decades of research. She conducted field surveys of more than 500 people living near wildlife reserves, using the data to examine people’s perspectives on elephants. Furthermore, she researched economic impacts to local communities due to elephant conflict and analyzed the drivers that influenced people’s decision to implement mitigation measures. Lastly, her research employed ecological modelling using household surveys and satellite landscape data to examine elephant occurrence in 2022 and project future occurrence in 2030. Her study found that escalating anthropogenic factors, socio-economic conditions, and environmental causes led to higher human-elephant conflict. Her research recommended conservation solutions to balance the needs of people and elephants in the Western Ghats.

 

During her PhD, she published a paper in Scientific Reports titled ‘Community mitigation decisions in elephant conflict zones of southern India depend on environmental and socio-economic drivers’, which you can find here. 

This month, Dr. Krithi K. Karanth’s felicitation of the The 2026 Esmond B. Martin Royal Geographical Society was covered by various media houses in articles such as the ones by Royal Geographical Society, Millennium Post, Press Trust of India, and many more.

1. Imran Siddiqui Felicitated at World Wildlife Day Celebrations: Imran Siddiqui, Senior Field Conservationist at CWS, was recognized at the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department's World Wildlife Day 2026 celebrations and the launch of the Healing and Nurturing Units for Monitoring, Aid and Nursing of Wildlife (HANUMAN) project. He was awarded a certificate of appreciation in Vijayawada by them for his long standing support for tiger conservation.

 

2. Ishika Ramakrishna speaks at Pint of View: Ishika Ramakrishna, Doctoral Fellow at CWS gave a public talk on primates at Pint Of View, Bangalore. The talk, titled ‘Hukuuu-Hukoooo: What Villages and Forests Reveal About Macaques, Gibbons and Forests’ drew from her fieldwork, exploring the lives, intelligence, and social worlds of primates. It looked into how similar the lives of primates are to that of humans, and explored her journey from the Nicobar Islands to the forests and plains of Northeast India. Her talk focused on the Nicobar long-tailed macaque and the Western hoolock gibbon, using stories from the field to look at shared landscapes, conflict and empathy between humans and primates.

 

3. Dr. Krithi K. Karanth at Indiaspora Forum 2026: Dr. Krithi K. Karanth attended the Indiaspora Forum 2026 in Bengaluru between 22nd-24th March, 2026.  The Forum brought together leaders from tourism, hospitality, and policy to examine how India can reimagine its tourism narrative, balancing scale with sustainability, authenticity with global appeal, and growth with community impact. This included a breakout discussion titled 'Incredible India, Once More' which focused on how tourism, livelihoods, and ecological stewardship must be thoughtfully balanced.

 

4. Wildlife Chronicles Public Lecture on human-primate conflicts: In March, we hosted our third public lecture at the CWS Office. In this lecture, Dr. Sindhu Radhakrishna spoke on the topic 'From farms to landscapes, and individuals to species: Why scale matters in understanding human-primate conflicts.' The talk focuses on the rise of human-primate conflicts, their complexity and why they pose a serious issue for conservation.

 

"In 2018, I arrived in Northeast India's hill states and fell instantly in love with the landscape and culture. Here, people live hand-in-hand with nature, drawing their livelihoods straight from the land. As my research training deepened, I zeroed in on the vital intersection of human lives and wildlife.

 

One day, work led me to Krem Puri in Meghalaya, the world's longest cave in sandstone, stretching 24.6 km into the earth. I sat motionless inside, lights off, enveloped in perfect peace. The cave came alive: echoes of water dripping from stalactites, a faint underground stream murmuring, and a refreshingly cold draft brushing my skin. Then, a rustle. I flicked on my light just in time to glimpse a bat vanishing into the shadows.

 

That spark ignited more explorations. Each cave in the region felt uniquely alive, its branching passages and hidden nooks possibly sheltering diverse bat species. Chats with bat experts fuelled my questions “How do these cave-dwellers benefit local communities?” They devour insects, regenerate forests through seed dispersal, and pollinate plants, acting as quiet guardians of the ecosystem.

 

To pinpoint my study sites, I joined a CORE Geo-Expeditions team consisting of seasoned cavers, geologists, and biologists. For two weeks in Meghalaya's Garo Hills, they trained me to navigate vast cave networks. Armed with a camera and ultrasound bat detector tucked in a dry bag, I delved in, capturing the eerie calls of roosting bats. The sheer variety fascinated me; their high-pitched zips and deep pulses echoing off walls.

 

Bingo! Near a tiny village by the Bangladesh border, I struck gold! We found caves packed with massive bat colonies! One teemed with over 4,000 Western Bent-winged bats (Miniopterus magnater). The floor lay buried under two feet of guano, alive with invertebrates feasting on it. I had found my landscape. Soon, I would be heading back again to uncover what wonders those critters hold.”

 

- Arjun Menon, Doctoral Fellow

Ganesh Billekar is a smallholder farmer from Bandegali village in Karnataka. As the primary provider for his family, he depends heavily on agriculture and livestock for his livelihood. His village is located close to Anshi National Park, an area that frequently experiences human-wildlife conflict.

 

On 17th March 2026, one of Ganesh’s cows that had gone out to graze near his farmland was attacked by a leopard. As the family members were occupied with their daily work, they did not notice this. This incident caused a financial setback to Ganesh’s household.

 

Our Wild Seve Field Assistant promptly reached the location and took swift action. The Wild Seve Field Assistant arranged for a veterinary post-mortem examination and coordinated with the Forest Officers to complete the necessary documentation.

 

Ganesh expressed his sincere gratitude to the Wild Seve team, especially Field Assistant Mahabalu Kundalkar, for completing in a single day a process that usually takes several days. Their timely support helped him cope with the loss.

In the semi-arid landscapes of the Deccan, blackbuck, striped hyenas and sloth bears survive outside protected areas, sharing space with farms and pastoral communities. Labelled “wastelands”, these areas may not look like classic wildlife habitats, but they are vital for conservation. Read more here. 

In 1998, a group of scientists mapped 159 tiger zones across Asia, from strongholds such as the Western Ghats of India to other hotspots in need of urgent protection. Mammals play an important role in maintaining ecological balance, and species such as tigers act as umbrella species that maintains this balance for entire ecosystems! This study highlighted the need to work towards reducing poaching, linking habitats, and building transboundary reserves between adjacent countries for a roaring comeback for this species. To learn more, read our blog here.

We are delighted to celebrate the achievements of our staff members and Doctoral Fellows, and are equally excited to welcome a new cohort of passionate and curious minds joining us in 2026. This year, we are proud to announce that we have received the highest number of applications for our PhD projects so far; with over 170 applications coming in as of this month. As the year unfolds, we look forward to shedding light on critical conservation challenges while sharing fresh perspectives brought in by our incoming students. We hope you will stay with us as their journeys take shape.

 

Warm Regards,

Dr. Krithi K. Karanth

Chief Executive Officer

Centre for Wildlife Studies