For conservation biologist Barkha Subba, the elusive Himalayan salamander is a lesson in patience. “To watch these secretive creatures live out their lives, one has to slow down,” she says. A scientific adviser to the Darjeeling-based NGO Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection (FOSEP), her grassroots salamander conservation efforts have won her the prestigious Whitley Award, handed out by the UK’s Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), and often called the Green Oscars. The Himalayan salamander lives in cool, shaded wetlands in just three regions in the world: Darjeeling in India, eastern Nepal and western Bhutan. As wetlands shrink, amid human activity and changing rainfall patterns, the animal has been tagged as Vulnerable on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The award is good news, Subba says, because it means more attention for the vulnerable amphibians, and £50,000 (about ₹64 lakh) in prize money that she can use to further its cause.
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