Wildlife SOS gets international recognition

Wildlife SOS, a New Delhi based wildlife NGO with a unit in Bengaluru, bagged the international lifetime achievement award and the conservation medal from San Diego Zoo Global at the recent 'Friends of the Animals' event.

Douglas G Myers, President and CEO of San Diego Zoo Global, handed over the medal for Conservation in Action and Life Time Achievement to Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO for the Wildlife SOS and Geeta Seshamani, Co-founder and Director, Wildlife SOS.

Best known for their efforts to end the illegal and brutal practice of “dancing bears” across India the organisation today operates over 10 wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres across India in collaboration with the government. The Wildlife SOS established the Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Center in 2005, which currently houses over 70 rescued sloth bears amidst the lush greens and rocks of the dry deciduous Bannerghatta Biological Park, making it the second largest rescue centre for sloth bears in India.

The conservation medal award recipients, since 1966, include conservation luminaries like Gerald Durrell, Jane Goodall, George Schaller, Sir David Attenborough, H R H the Duke of Edinburgh, Laurie Marker, Joan Embery, Gordon Moore, Betty White and Edward O Wilson.

San Diego Zoo Global is a non-profit organisation which recently celebrated its centenary year in existence that runs the Institute for Conservation Research, Wildlife Conservancy, the Wild Animal Safari Park and the San Diego Zoo.

The organisation’s mission is to save vulnerable species through animal care based on conservation science.