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 Dr. A.J.T. Johnsingh initiated pioneering field research on free-ranging large mammals in India by studying dholes (Cuon alpinus) in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in 1976-78 for his Ph.D. After a brief stint at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. where he carried out post-doctoral work on the ranging and habitat use behaviour of racoons and opossums he returned to India in October 1981. He briefly worked with the Bombay Natural History Society on their elephant project and then joined the newly established Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun as faculty. His research has focussed on the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), goral (Nemorhaedus goral), Himalayan ibex (Capra ibex sibirica), Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius), Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), grizzed giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) and Nilgiri langur (Presbytis johni). He also works for the conservation of endangered golden mahseer (Tor putitora), blue-finned mahseer (Tor khudree) and tiger (Panthera tigris). He represents IUCN in the Asian Elephant, Cat, Canid, Bear and Caprinae Specialist Groups. He has contributed to field training programmes in Bhutan, China and Vietnam. He has contributed to the training of about 300 wildlife managers, 50 M.Sc. Wildlife Science students and supervised 10 Ph.D. students in India. He has published over 70 scientific papers and over 80 popular articles on wildlife conservation. Several of his popular articles were combined in the form of a book “On Jim Corbett’s Trail and other tales from tree-tops” which was published by Permanent Black, New Delhi in March 2004. Some others were published as “Field Days: A Naturalist's Journey through South and Southeast Asia” by Universities Press, Hyderabad in November 2005. He is in the process of editing “The Mammals of South Asia”, with Dr. Nima Manjrekar as the co-editor, which has 70 chapters on different species and mammals groups contributed by nearly 75 authors from India and abroad. The book will be published by Universities Press, Hyderabad towards the end of 2007.
He was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Service Award for Government from Society for Conservation Biology for his exemplary contributions to the conservation of mammals and forests in South Asia through leadership, guidance and inspiration, the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award 2004 for lifetime service to Indian wildlife and the ABN AMRO Sanctuary Lifetime Wildlife Service Award in 2005. He retired as Dean, Faculty of Wildlife Sciences at the Wildlife Institute of India in October 2005. Presently he lives in Bangalore and works for Nature Conservation Foundation as their Eminent Wildlife Biologist and for WWF-India as Honorary Scientific Advisor. |
