Scientist Parveen Shaikh has been awarded a 2026 Whitley Award by the UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature, recognising her efforts to protect the endangered Indian skimmer along India’s rivers. The award comes with funding to expand her community-led conservation model from Chambal river to Prayagraj, where the Ganga and Yamuna rivers converge.
The Indian skimmer is identified by its vivid orange bill and its habit of flying low over water, skimming the surface to catch fish. India holds over 90% of the world’s population of the bird, with roughly 3,000 individuals, making the country critical to the species’ survival. The birds breed on seasonal sandbars and mid-river islands, making their nests vulnerable to changes in river flow, predators, and human disturbance.
When Shaikh, who works with the Bombay Natural History Society, began her “Guardians of the Skimmer” initiative on the Chambal river, the local Indian skimmer population stood at around 400 individuals in 2017. As of 2025, the population has grown to approximately 1,000. Nest survival has nearly doubled, rising from 14 percent to 27 percent, a direct result of community involvement and scientific monitoring.
“Local guardians help identify new sandbars, monitor nests, and prevent disturbance during the breeding season. Some now proudly refer to the skimmers as “our birds,” which reflects a growing sense of ownership,” says Shaikh.
With the Whitley Award funding, her team will now expand to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradash, a place of cultural significance and also home to breeding populations of Indian skimmers, river lapwings, and little terns. The challenges here include heavy boat traffic, fishing activity, religious practices along the riverbank, and urban pollution all increase pressure on nesting colonies. The team plans to appoint new local guardians, install predator-proof fencing, and use GPS mapping for real-time nest monitoring.
The Whitley Award, also known as the Green Oscars, is given annually to those achieving exceptional success in grassroots community-led protection for threatened species and habitats. This year, the award includes two Indians among the six winners. In addition to Shaikh, the other winner from India is Barkha Subba who is leading the first grassroots movement to protect the Himalayan salamander and its fragile wetland habitat in the Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal.
Read about Parveen Shaikh’s work in Chambal river and the community champions that she works with in this 2021 story on Jagdish, one of the nest guardians.
Banner image: Images courtesy of Parveen Shaikh/Whitley Award.
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