New Year Wishes
- Vivek Menon, Executive Director, WTI

Dear wildlife lovers,

The year 2011 gave the Wildlife Trust of India cause for celebration when UNESCO upgraded Manas National Park from the List of World Heritage in Danger during its 35th session in Paris, reflecting the revival of the formerly beleaguered protected area in north-east India, bordering Bhutan. A victory that was celebrated by all stakeholders involved in Bringing Back Manas - the Assam Forest Department, IFAW, BTC and local communities and NGOs. Our decade old project in Manas had started yeildling fruit!

Manas - a biodiversity hotspot in northeast India and with enviable additional epithets of a National Park, a Tiger Reserve, an Elephant Reserve and Biosphere Reserve, was listed as a World Heritage in 1985. In 1992, amidst the civil unrest of the 1980s and 90s, Manas was declared ‘a World Heritage in danger’.

Working with the Government of India, we co-hosted two major events - the International Conference on Tiger Conservation and the Elephant 8 Ministerial Meet in New Delhi and launched the Haathi Mere Saathi campaign to save the Asian elephant. Our Enforcement team cracked a case of online sale of wildlife articles. In our first wild-to-wild translocation, a stranded family of endangered gibbons were moved to a safe sanctuary. Extending our pioneering work to marine species as well, our team satellite tagged a whale shark for the first time in India. After playing an instrumental role in upgrading vital areas to National Parks by recording the presence of the endangered Markhor in J&K in 2007, our team further confirmed the presence of markhor on the slopes of Pir Panjal this year. They have been proposed as Wildlife Sanctuaries to the state government and we hope they get the protection they deserve soon.

The organisation believes in using technology for conservation and awareness. We established our presence in the social media space in 2011 and are adding and sharing more with our increasing group of followers on Facebook and Twitter. This is all to help you see what we are doing better and continue with your love and support.

From the entire team, I extend my heartfelt wishes for this New Year and I look forward to directly interacting with you on @VivekMenon_wti on Twitter.

Vivek Menon
Executive Director
Wildlife Trust of India

More on 'Notes from Vivek Menon':
Walking in water
Befriending the National Heritage animal
Elephants are getting bigger
A forest god that was
A Russian roar
A cat in a box
Monkeying in Upper Assam
Gujjar Diwali
Of canopies, corridors and catchments
A rainbow dream
Time to count tigers once again
Goats on the Border
Rescue in the new year
On Safer Shores