The Wildlife Protection Society Of India (WPSI) was founded in 1994 by Belinda Wright, its Executive Director, who was an award-winning wildlife photographer and filmmaker till she took up the cause of conservation. From its inception, WPSI's main aim has been to bring a new focus to the daunting task of tackling India's growing wildlife crisis. It does this by providing support and information to government authorities to combat poaching and the escalating illegal wildlife trade - particularly in wild tigers. It has now broadened its focus to deal with human-animal conflicts and provide support for research projects.

With a team of committed environmentalists, WPSI is one of the most respected and effective wildlife conservation organisations in India. It is a registered non-profit organisation, funded by a wide range of Indian and international donors. The Society’s Board Members include leading conservationists and business people.

Executive Director

Belinda Wright is the founder and executive director of WPSI. She travels the length and breadth of India to assist and support wildlife conservation

Wildlife conservation

Wildlife conservation is the preservation, protection, or restoration of wildlife and their environment, especially in relation to endangered and vulnerable species. All living non-domesticated animals, even if bred, hatched or born in captivity, are considered wild animals. Wildlife represents all...

 efforts and to help federal, state and local Indian Police Service

Indian Police Service

The Indian Police Service , simply known as Indian Police or IPS, is one of the three All India Services of the Government of India...

 authorities and Game warden

Game warden

A game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers...

s of state forest departments to enforce wildlife laws, especially those affecting wild tiger

Bengal Tiger

The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...

s, for which Belinda has had a life long-passion. In June 2003, Belinda followed in the footsteps of her parents and was awarded an OBE for her "services to the protection of wildlife and endangered species in India".

Programs

The WPSI works with government law enforcement agencies throughout India to apprehend tiger poachers and traders in tiger parts. WPSI also makes every effort to investigate and verify any seizure of tiger parts and unnatural tiger deaths that are brought to their notice.
Investigation
WPSI maintains a network of undercover agents and Informant

Informant

An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...

s who gather intelligence on the illegal trade in endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

. WPSI's informers and agents are especially active in Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

, Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh is a state in Central India, formed when the 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking South-Eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained separate statehood on 1 November 2000....

, Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...

, Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, Karnataka

Karnataka

Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...

, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

 and the Sundarbans

Sundarbans

The Sundarbans [Sundarban Tour Booking-9051115228] is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world.The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language...

 area.

In November, 2008, in one notable case, the notorious tiger poacher, "Dariya", was arrested by the Katni Forest Department, with information and assistance provided by Wildlife Protection Society of India. Senior field investigators also maintain contact with personnel in lower courts, which is where most wildlife offences are tried. They liaise continuously with informers, forest officials and the police. They are involved with elephant poaching and ivory trade

Ivory trade

The ivory trade is the commercial, often illegal trade in the ivory tusks of the hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, mammoth, and most commonly, Asian and African elephants....

 investigations.
Crime data
The WPSI Wildlife Crime Database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 has records of over 15,300 wildlife crimes involving more than 400 species that are targeted by wildlife traders and poachers. Data on wildlife crimes is received and processed daily with specially developed computer software. Important leads are verified and passed on to enforcement authorities for further action. In 2008 WPSI significantly expanded their database on tiger poaching and trade and related wildlife crimes. This data assists enforcement agencies in detecting wildlife crime and aids the apprehension and prosecution of criminals.
Training
WPSI conducts Wildlife Law Enforcement Workshops for enforcement agencies. Since 2000, it has undertaken over 25 workshops in 12 States across India. WPSI has given specialist presentations to the SVP National Police Academy, the National Institute of Criminology, the Central Bureau of Investigation

Central Bureau of Investigation

The Central Bureau of Investigation is a government agency of India that serves as a criminal investigation body, national security agency and intelligence agency. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941...

, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Indo-Tibetan Border Police

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police is an Indian force conceived on October 24, 1962 for security along the India's border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, border covering 2115  kilometres...

, Indian Customs and Excise

Indian Revenue Service

The Indian Revenue Service , abbreviated as IRS, is the revenue service of the Government of India. It is a Central Civil Service...

, the Wildlife Institute of India

Wildlife Institute of India

The Wildlife Institute of India is a autonomous institution under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.WII carries out wildlife research in areas of study like Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Wildlife Policy, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Forensics, Spatial Modeling,...

, tiger reserve authorities, and enforcement training centres.
Conservation
WPSI supports Conservation Projects for species as varied as the tiger, otter

Otter

The Otters are twelve species of semi-aquatic mammals which feed on fish and shellfish, and also other invertebrates, amphibians, birds and small mammals....

 and sea turtle

Sea turtle

Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...

. Among these projects are: Support to Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Trade & Wildlife Crimes Grassroots NGO Support Network, Support to Corbett Tiger Reserve & Adjoining Forests, Support to Sundarbans Tiger Reserve

Sundarbans National Park

The Sundarbans National Park [Sundarban Tour Booking-9051115228] is a National Park, Tiger Reserve, and a Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger...

, WPSI Tiger Protection Awards, Award for Information that Leads to Seizure of Tiger Parts,‘Operation Kachhapa’, Conservation of the Olive Ridley Turtle, ‘Corridor to Survival’ - Landscape Conservation Plan for Elephant Management, Human-Elephant Conflict & Elephant Mortality in North Bengal

North Bengal

North Bengal is a term used for the northern parts of Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Bangladesh part denotes the Rajshahi Division. Generally it is the area lying west of Jamuna River and north of Padma River, and includes the Barind Tract. The West Bengal part denotes Cooch Behar, Darjeeling,...

, a film campaign on Otter Conservation, Indian Crane

Crane (bird)

Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...

s and Wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s Working Group and Animal- Human Conflict Management. They provide support to prosecution of wildlife court cases, public interest litigations, wildlife law publications and the Millennium Digest (1950-2003) on Wildlife & Ancillary Laws. They were instrumental in the resettlement of Van Gujjars outside Rajaji National Park

Rajaji National Park

Rajaji National Park is an Indian national park that encompasses the Shivaliks, near the foothills of the Himalayas. It is spread over 820 km²., and three districts of Uttarakhand: Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal. In 1983, three wildlife sanctuaries in the area namely, Chilla, Motichur...

. They have conducted research on Interactions between the Ladakh

Ladakh

Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...

 Urial

Urial

The Urial , also known as the Arkars or Shapo, is a subspecies group of the wild sheep Ovis orientalis. Noticeable features are the reddish-brown long fur that fades during winter; males are characterized by a black ruff stretching from the neck to the chest and large horns. It is found in western...

 & Livestock, interactions between Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard

The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia...

 prey species & livestock, development of pugmark-based population monitoring, human-leopard conflict in Pune District

Pune District

Pune District is situated in Maharashtra state of India. Pune city is the district headquarters. In the last census on 2001, the total population of the district was 7,232,555, making it the fourth most populous district in India . Urban population comprises 58.08% of the total population...

, Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 and effects of forest resource extraction on biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

.
Education
WPSI is actively involved in all of India's major wildlife conservation issues and have been in the forefront of media campaigns to highlight the importance of wildlife protection. WPSI prints and distributes educational posters about tiger and wildlife conservation and laws. The posters target the general population, highlight the need for conservation and encouraging the protection of wildlife and spelling out penalties for poaching and trading. More than 40,000 posters have been distributed by State Forest Departments and local NGOs in seven languages - Hindi, English, Kannada, Oriya, Assamese, Bengali and Malayalam.
Publications
Some of the WPSI publications include: Shatoosh - The Illegal Trade, Skinning the Cat: Crime and Politics of the Big Cat Skin Trade, WPSI-Ranthambhore Tiger Census, May 2005, India’s Tiger Poaching Crisis, Tiger Poaching Statistics of India, A God in Distress: Threats of Poaching and the Ivory Trade to the Asian Elephant, Fashioned for Extinction: An Exposé of the Shahtoosh Trade, Handbook of Environment, Forest and Wildlife Protection Laws in India, Wildlife Crime: An Enforcement Guide (English & Hindi), Signed and Sealed: The Fate of the Asian Elephant, The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972

Wildlife Protection Act of 1972

The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 refers to a sweeping package of legislation enacted in 1972 by the Government of India. Before 1972, India only had five designated national parks...

- A Hand Guide With Case Law and Commentaries, A Brief Guide to The Wild Life (Protection) Act (English & Hindi), The Wild Life Protection Act - 1972 - as Amended with effect from 1 April 2003, Warden Alert (Newsletter on wildlife protection issues, English & Hindi editions) and Kachhapa (Newsletter on sea turtle conservation issues, in English).

They have produced documentary films including: Bones of Contention (a short film documenting the crises faced by wild tigers in India as a result of poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts.), Birds of the Indian Monsoon (a 45 minute film on the lives of Kepladeo Sanctuary’s birds), The Killing Fields: Orissa’s Appalling Turtle Crisis (a documentary on the mass slaughter of Olive Ridley sea turtles along the coast of Orissa) and “…And Then There Were None” (a short documentary film which investigates the rampant poaching of otters in India).