Indian conservationists Barkha Subba and Parveen Shaikh have won the prestigious 2026 Whitley Awards for their work in protecting the habitat of the Himalayan salamander and conserving nesting sites of the endangered Indian skimmer.
Subba, a scientific adviser at the Darjeeling-based Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection (FOSEP), will lead the first coordinated grassroots effort to secure the future of the Himalayan salamander in Darjeeling.
Shaikh, a scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society, was recognised for her community-led "Guardians of the Skimmer" initiative on the Chambal river.
Through the recruitment of local nest guardians and continuous scientific monitoring, nest survival has increased to 27% from 14%, with the local population growing to about 1,000 individuals last year from 400 in 2017.
The Whitley Award recognises grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South and provides winners with £50,000 in project funding over one year to scale up local solutions to biodiversity loss.
