{"id":101426,"date":"2026-05-02T14:59:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=101426"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T09:29:01","slug":"whitley-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/whitley-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitley Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Whitley Awards Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, Indian conservationists Barkha Subba, Parveen Shaikh won Whitley Awards for conservation of Himalayan salamander and endangered Indian skimmer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Whitley Awards<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is often <\/span><b>called as the \u201cGreen Oscars,\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>recognises grassroots conservation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> leaders in the Global South.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is given by the <\/span><b>UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (WFN).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It provides <\/span><b>winners with \u00a350,000<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><b>project funding over one year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to scale up local <\/span><b>solutions to biodiversity loss.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Himalayan salamander<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>lizard-like amphibian species.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although it resembles a lizard, it <\/span><b>lacks scales on its body.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is endemic to India (the Darjeeling region), Nepal and Bhutan,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can grow up to 17 cm in length and <\/span><b>live for up to 11 years.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Salamanders return to <\/span><b>their natal site to breed and lay eggs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014a process known as philopatry, which makes them highly vulnerable to changes in habitat and wetland health.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Cultural Significance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The wetlands where Himalayan salamanders breed are culturally revered <\/span><b>water bodies, associated with local deities and rituals.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation Status: IUCN:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Vulnerable<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Key Facts about Indian skimmer<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the three species that belong to the <\/span><b>skimmer genus Rynchops<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the family Laridae.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It gets its <\/span><b>name from the way it feeds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, flying low over the water surface <\/span><b>and \u2018skimming\u2019for fish.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It occurs primarily on larger, sandy, lowland rivers, around lakes and adjacent marshes.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is mainly found in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, with some populations extending to Nepal and Myanmar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In India, one of the key areas for <\/span><b>spotting Indian Skimmers is the Chambal River.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Conservation status:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> IUCN: Endangered<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/indian-conservationists-win-whitley-awards-for-work-on-threatened-wetland-species-101777551570429.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">HT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whitley Awards is often called as the \u201cGreen Oscars,\u201d Read more about Whitley Awards, Key Facts, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":101470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7294],"class_list":{"0":"post-101426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-whitley-awards","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101426"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101492,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101426\/revisions\/101492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}