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Guwahati, Oct 11 (IANS) Senior IFS officer and Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) director Sonali Ghosh received the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) award for innovation in national parks and protected area sustainability, officials said on Saturday.
An official of KNPTR, India’s seventh UNESCO World Heritage site, said Ghosh was presented at the Kenton R. Received Miller Award.
The official said the Kenton R.K. Award, given for innovation in national parks and protected area sustainability, The Miller Prize is a biennial award given by the IUCN WCPA.
Dr. Kenton R., a distinguished leader in protected area management and former Director General of IUCN. Named after Miller, it honors innovative contributions that significantly enhance the sustainability of national parks and protected areas globally.
The IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) is one of IUCN’s six technical commissions, composed of thousands of volunteer experts from around the world.
It specializes in protected area governance, management and policy, supporting the creation and effective management of protected areas globally, including national parks, reserves and marine protected areas.
According to the official, the two persons were presented with Dr. Kenton R. Miller Award was presented.
Apart from Ghosh, Ecuador’s Roque Simón Sevilla Larrea is the other recipient of the award. More than 3000 delegates are participating in the Congress.
Sonali Ghosh, director of KNPTR in India, is recognized for her innovative approach to protected area governance, which critically acknowledges the colonial origins of indigenous communities while affirming their vital rights and roles, the official said.
He said that through his leadership, he has championed a model of conservation rooted in community engagement, awareness building and seamless integration of traditional ecological knowledge with modern scientific expertise, an ethos that has been particularly influential in the highly biodiverse landscape of Manas and Kaziranga.
Meanwhile, on the occasion of Lok Kalyan Diwas (People’s Welfare Day) in August, the Assam government has honored Sonali Ghosh, who also serves as the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, with the Karmashree Award. Ghosh had topped the Indian Forest Service (IFS) examination in the 2000 batch.
Apart from a postgraduate degree in Forest and Wildlife Science, he also has a postgraduate diploma in Environmental Law and another diploma in Systems Management from the National Law School of India University.
She earned her doctorate in remote sensing techniques, focusing on assessing habitat suitability for tigers in the Indo-Bhutan Manas Landscape. Ghosh became the first woman director of the 120-year-old Kaziranga National Park in August 2023.
–IANS
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