Praveen Shaikh and Barkha Subba among 2026 Whitley winners
Praveen Shaikh and Barkha Subba just scored the 2026 Whitley Award (also known as the "Green Oscars") for their inspiring conservation work.
Out of six global winners, these two are being celebrated for leading community-powered projects that protect threatened wildlife in India.
Praveen Shaikh, Barkha Subba conserve wildlife
Shaikh's "Guardians of the Skimmer" project trains locals to protect Indian skimmer bird nests along the Chambal River, helping their numbers jump from 400 to nearly 1,000 since 2017. She plans to expand her efforts to Prayagraj.
Meanwhile, Subba's "Survivor of a Lost World: Saving the Himalayan Salamander and its Wetlands" project teams up with tea garden workers and Indigenous communities to restore Himalayan wetlands and save the rare Himalayan salamander from threats like habitat loss and climate change.