Securing Tiger and Elephant Habitat in India

Happy New Year from the Wildlife Conservation Society! Thank you to all of our GlobalGiving supporters for your incredible generosity this past year—your contributions have been instrumental to securing healthy habitat for tigers, elephants, and other wildlife in India.

Some promising news from the field: WCS is currently in final land purchase negotiations with the only two families living in a protected area in the Western Ghats mountains of south India. This protected area is home to critical populations of numerous highly threatened endemic species, including the regal lion-tailed macaque, as well as many unique frogs, birds, and plants. It also serves as the only corridor between two major populations of tigers and Asian elephants in south India, making the recovery of this habitat a high priority. We are hugely grateful for the support of our GlobalGiving donors, who provided the primary source of funding for this effort.

WCS is also in exploratory negotiations with three families living in the middle of a second protected area of the Western Ghats. They are the only families living in this protected area, which is important not only for Asian elephants and tigers, but is also home to a major population of dhole (Asiatic wild dogs), a stunning rust-colored dog species of Asia that is now highly endangered. We are still working on securing the funds to purchase these lands, so we very much hope you will be inspired to continue supporting this project in 2015.

We look forward to sharing more news from India with you soon. From all of us at WCS, thank you for your amazing support!