- Two Indian women, Praveen Shaikh and Barkha Subba, won the 2026 Whitley Award.
- Shaikh's project protects the Indian Skimmer along India's river systems with local guardians.
- The Indian Skimmer population rose from 400 to nearly 1,000 due to Shaikh's conservation efforts.
Two Indian women among six received the Whitley Award, which is also known as the "Green Oscar" award, for local solutions to create a future where communities and wildlife thrive together on a healthy planet. The Indian women who received the awards are Praveen Sheikh and Barkha Subba.
Parveen Shaikh was honoured for her community-led conservation work to protect the endangered Indian Skimmer along India's river systems. Working with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), she launched the "Guardians of the Skimmer" initiative on the Chambal River.
The project trains local community members as "nest guardians" to monitor and protect bird nesting sites from threats such as sand mining, predators, cattle trampling, pollution, and human disturbance. Her efforts have led to major conservation success: the local Indian Skimmer population increased from about 400 birds in 2017 to nearly 1,000 birds, while nest survival rates improved significantly.
With the 2026 Whitley Award funding, Parveen Shaikh plans to expand the project to Prayagraj in the Ganga Basin, where the rivers Ganga and Yamuna meet. The initiative will include GPS-based nest monitoring, predator-proof fencing, and greater community participation in river conservation.
Barkha Subba is a conservationist from the Darjeeling Himalayas who received the 2026 Whitley Award, popularly known as the "Green Oscars," for her work to protect the rare Himalayan salamander and its fragile wetland habitats. She works with the Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection in Darjeeling. Her project, titled "Survivor of a Lost World: Saving the Himalayan Salamander and its Wetlands," focuses on restoring critical breeding wetlands, removing invasive species, monitoring amphibian diseases, and involving local communities in conservation efforts.
The Himalayan salamander, found only in parts of India, Nepal, and Bhutan, is considered highly vulnerable due to habitat loss, unregulated tourism, pollution, and climate-related changes. Barkha Subba's initiative promotes community stewardship by engaging tea garden workers, Indigenous communities, students, and local leaders in wetland restoration and eco-friendly conservation practices. Her long-term vision is to create a sustainable network of protected wetlands across the Eastern Himalayas to ensure the survival of this unique "living fossil" amphibian.
