Vivek Menon

Vivek Menon is a wildlife conservationist, environmental commentator, author and photographer with a passion for elephants. He has been part of the founding of five environmental & nature conservation organizations in India. The winner of the 2001 Rufford Award for International Conservation for his work to save the Asian elephant, Menon is the Founder, Executive Director and CEO of the Wildlife Trust of India as well as Advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. In India, he plays a role in advising the government on natural heritage conservation as a part of several committees including the Project Elephant Steering Committee, National Wildlife Action Plan Committee, CITES Advisory Committee and the Governing Council of the Central Zoo Authority. He is a member of four State Advisory Boards for Wildlife and an Honorary Wildlife Warden of Delhi. In the interphase between business and Biodiversity, he is the Co-Chair of Leaders for Nature, IUCN and an Advisory Council Member of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development Internationally, Menon is the Chairperson of the IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group since 2013 and a member of the Species Survival Commission Steering Committee of the IUCN, on the International Jury of the Future for Nature Awards (Netherlands) and an Advisor of the Marjan Centre of Kings College, London. In the past, he has served as a consultant to the Kenya Wildlife Services and helped establish the first elephant reserve of Myanmar. He has trained wildlife officers of over fifty countries in wildlife crime prevention and has attended CITES meetings for over twenty years as a Technical Advisor to the Indian delegation and as an observer. He is also the author or editor of ten wildlife books including the recently published bestselling Indian Mammals, A Field Guide, scores of technical reports and more than 160 articles in various scientific and popular publications.