Dr Anil Kumar Singh
Coordinator and HoD - Conflict Mitigation division

Dr Anil Kumar Singh is widely recognised as one of the main persons behind complete eradication of elephant death due to train hits in Rajaji National Park, Uttarakhand. He has been managing the Train Hits Mitigation Project of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) which has succeeded in reducing to zero, the number of elephants killed in railway accidents in Rajaji NP, since 2001, through a coordinated approach with the Uttarakhand Forest Department and the Northern Railways.

Anil is a wildlife biologist with a post-graduation in Zoology from Bhagalpur University and a doctorate on ‘Ecological investigations on human-elephant conflict in south’ from Saurashtra University, Rajkot. He was selected as a Junior Research Fellow of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in 1995, following which, he was associated with several research projects between 1995 and 2001. These included management of elephant populations in West Bengal for mitigating human-elephant conflicts, promotion of wildlife tourism in protected areas in Maharashtra, establishing a viable rhino population and restoration of corridor habitat in western Terai Rhino Conservation Unit comprising Dudhwa TR and Katerniaghat WLS in Uttar Pradesh, India and Bardia National Park in Nepal, and relationship among large herbivores, habitat and humans in Rajaji-Corbett National Parks.

With over 13 years of experience in wildlife research and conservation, especially on issues related to the Asian elephant, Anil has been a member of several State Government Committees on wildlife conservation. He has served as a member of a ‘Task Force’ constituted for resolving elephant mortalities due to train hits in Rajaji NP and the ‘Gujjar Rehabilitation Committee’ of the Uttarakhand Government.

Anil has published several research papers, abstracts and technical reports on subjects ranging from elephant ecology, managing human-elephant conflict, use of GIS and Remote Sensing in wildlife management, elephant corridors, documenting elephant movement using radio telemetry, developing wildlife techniques and mitigation of elephant mortalities due to train hits. In 2002, he was awarded the prestigious "Chaturvedi Award" for the most outstanding wildlife paper in 2002, published in the Indian Forester.

He currently works as Head of Division in WTI's Conflict Mitigation division. In Uttarakhand in addition to the train hit mitigation project, he has been working for the revival of Chilla-Motichur corridor, mitigating human-elephant conflicts and Gujjar rehabilitation. He is also working to replicate the Rajaji NP success of the train hit mitigation project in other elephant range states across India.

With a humble personality, Anil is respected by his colleagues as a person with excellent inter-personal relationship skills. He also liasions with government officials for WTI projects.

Anil loves to play football, volleyball and badminton. He is also a good swimmer.