Nine forest dept personnel honoured with Jumbo Wildlife award

The awards were presented to Basavaraj, R Venkatesh, Shivappa Hosmani, all foresters and watchmen; K T Boraiah and Devaraj, Range Forest Officers; Ajay Desai for his expertise in protecting environment, Gopal Krishna Gowda and S T Neginhall for their outstanding service as civil servants while in service in the Forest Department and K S Lokesh for his effective leadership in the department.

Presenting the awards were cricketers, including Ross Taylor, Scott Styris from New Zealand cricket team and Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and V V S Laxman. Also present were movie stars Upendra and Srinath. The Jumbo Wildlife Awards 2010, given in five categories, carry a purse of Rs one lakh and citation. The five-member panel selected the nine persons among the 40 nominations it received. Minister for Forest and Small Scale Industries C H Vijayashankar said a new project, ‘Devavana’ will be launched.

Nurseries will be developed at popular tourist spots to attract visitors and also to encourage them protect the green cover. He commended Anil Kumble and his team for instituting the awards.  He said a meeting of like-minded environmentalists will be convened to discuss the measures to check man-animal conflicts and other issues related to protection of environment.