Anup B. Prakash has been awarded this year's K. Ullas Karanth - J. Paul Getty fellowship. George Schaller, one of the world's preeminent field biologists and Vice President of Panthera (http://www.panthera.org/?splash=off ), presented the trophy and certificate to him on 22^nd November 2011. Schaller was at NCBS to give a talk about his five decades of work in ecology and conservation.

The K. Ullas Karanth - J. Paul Getty fellowship is awarded each year to a student of the Masters Course in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. The award funds a travel grant that will help the student present the results of his/her thesis project at an international conference.

Selecting that one student from a batch of fifteen is a hard task, admitted Course Director Ajith Kumar, during the award-giving ceremony. "But a pleasure nonetheless," he added. The selection of the recipient is based on academic performance, conservation activities outside of academics, institutional activities such as participation in programs in NCBS and peer assessment. Often, it's the peer assessment that is decisive. Nomination for the award is made by a committee consisting of representatives from NCBS, the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program and the Karnataka Forest Department.

So how does Prakash feel about the award? "I'm too shocked to say anything," was Prakash's immediate reaction when he was conferred the award. "It feels really nice, it was quite unexpected. None of us are really looking at the award as an objective, but it is a definite push," he said later. For his masters dissertation he plans to look at the effect of linear intrusions such as road networks on protected areas.

Prakash is the fourth recipient of the prize. Meghna Krishnadas and Nishant Srinivasaiah were the joint awardees of 2009 and Aditya Joshi received it in 2010.

The fellowship came into existence when K. Ullas Karanth, eminent Indian wildlife biologist and Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program, received the $ 200,000 J. Paul Getty Award for Conservation Leadership in 2007. He used the prize money to establish fellowships to support selected students pursuing the Masters course in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, run as a joint venture by the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Centre for Wildlife Studies and Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program.