New Delhi, December 21, 2016: In a ceremony held at Federation House, New Delhi this evening, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) awarded its prestigious FICCI Corporate Social Responsibility Award for 2016 to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for its support of Wildlife Trust of India’s Eastern Swamp Deer Conservation Project.

Mr Dinesh K Sarraf, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC; Mr DD Misra, Director (HR), ONGC; and Mr Vivek Menon, Executive Director and CEO, Wildlife Trust of India received the award from Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, and Smt Rajshree Birla, Chairperson of FICCI’s CSR and Community Development Committee.

The Eastern Swamp Deer Conservation Project has taken tangible and successful action to save the sub-species from extinction.

With less than a thousand Eastern Swamp Deer (Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhii) remaining in the wild, mostly in an isolated population in Kaziranga National Park, the Eastern Swamp Deer Conservation Project, in which WTI and ONGC have partnered with the Assam Forest Department, has taken tangible and successful action to save this sub-species from extinction by establishing a viable alternative population in Manas National Park. The project’s scope has included a comprehensive study on the ecology and behaviour of the Eastern Swamp Deer, as well as, in December 2014, the first ever mass capture and translocation of any large ungulate in India.

Congratulating Mr DD Mishra, Director (HR), ONGC, on the award, WTI CEO Vivek Menon said: “It is especially gratifying that this unique project has been recognised in this manner. A lot of conservation work, especially on lesser known wild species, tends to go unnoticed – and in this case an entire sub-species is being saved from being wiped off the face of the Earth! I would like to thank ONGC for their unflinching support and commitment to the project.”