Assam conservationist to get Harry Messel award

Guwahati: Conservationist Goutam Narayan has become the first Indian to get Harry Messel Award for Conservation Leadership in recognition of his paaivotal role in leading the Pygmy Hog Conservation programme in the North-East.
The award was announced during the IUCN Species Survival Commission Leaders’ meeting held in Abu Dhabi last week. The award citation mentions that Narayan has been awarded “in recognition of his pivotal role in leading the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme in north eastern India since 1995, thus saving a whole genus from extinction and his long service to the Wild Pig Specialist Group.”
The Harry Messel Award recognises exemplary service to IUCN Species Survival Commission. The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP) is a collaborative project of the Assam Forest Department.
Dr Narayan began his career in 1980 at Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) under eminent ornithologist Dr Sálim Ali and in 1995. Then he went on to join Durrell Wildlife and established PHCP in Assam with the then WPSG chair William Oliver to save the critically endangered pygmy hogs that were reduced to a single population. (PTI)