Kishor Rithe

Environmental Award 2003 Runner-Up
Kishor Rithe, India

Creating a contiguous tiger habitat
There are only 3,000 tigers left in the wild today, their numbers decimated by loggers, poachers, and villagers trying to protect their livestock. The 2,300-square-mile forested Satpura Mountain Range, in northeastern Maharashtra, is the world’s largest tiger breeding habitat. As of 2001, there were 238 tigers in the area, 650 square miles of which, known as the Melghat Tiger Reserve, are officially under government protection. Kishor Rithe, who grew up near the reserve, has established the Satpura Foundation, whose mission is to make the entire Satpura Range into a contiguous tiger territory. However, nearly 20,000 indigenous people live in and around the reserve and pose a constant threat to the tigers’ habitat. Under Rithe’s guidance, three villages have relocated, faring so well that others are seeking to do the same.

His program, Kids for Tigers, has reached more than a million children in 750 schools in 14 Indian cities. One of his most persuasive messages has been that preserving the Satpura’s forests will also protect people’s drinking water, since 30 percent of the region’s supply comes from there. In addition to raising awareness about the tigers’ plight, Rithe has developed a network of informants who have enabled him to curtail poaching.

Condé Nast Traveler Environmental Award 2003 Judges
The following individuals helped select this year’s winner

Frances Beinecke, executive director, Natural Resources Defense Council
Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, writer; chair, New York City’s Historic Landmarks Preservation Center
Larry Fahn, president, Sierra Club
Harrison Ford, actor; vice chairman, Conservation International’s board of directors
Denis Hayes, president, Bullitt Foundation; chairman, Earth Day Network
Thomas E. Lovejoy, president, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment
Anthony D. Marshall, former ambassador to Kenya, Madagascar, the Seychelles, and Trinidad and Tobago
Bill McKibben, author, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age and The End of Nature
Dr. Marilyn Perry, chairman, World Monuments Fund; president, Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Glenn Prickett, senior vice president, Conservation International
David Sandalow, former executive vice president, World Wildlife Fund