Assam ecologist and conservation activist Dr Bibhuti Lahkar has become the first Asian to be nominated for the prestigious ‘Heritage Heroes Award’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Lahkar is among five conservationists from across the globe to be nominated for this year’s Heritage Heroes Award which is aimed at recognising the “outstanding efforts” of conservationists around the world in making a difference in the conservation of World Heritage sites in challenging situations, an IUCN release said.
The conservationist has been working to save the grasslands, flora and fauna of Manas National Park area for the past two decades and is currently engaged as Manas Landscape Administrator for Aaranyak, an NGO working for biodiversity conservation in North East India.
Lahkar has intensively studied the grasslands of Manas and is now recognised globally as an expert for the threatened flora and fauna of the Terai region along the southern foothills of the Himalayas, a release issued by Aaranyak said.
During the early nineties, Lahkar was conducting research at Manas when he found himself in the height of the Bodo agitation, followed by the armed struggle by Bodo insurgents when people occupied land within the Park and started rampant timber collection and poaching within the Protected Area.
As a consequence Manas was listed as a World Heritage Site ‘in Danger’ (1992-2011) and it was during this period that Lahkar formulated a vision for Manas with support from the local population.
The recipient for the award will be selected through online voting through the website www.iucn.org, which began on August 25 and will continue till August 31.