Wildlife conservationist dies in road mishap

Nagpur: Anoop Kumar Awasthi, assistant director of Satpuda Foundation, died on Saturday morning in a road accident in Seoni. Working for more than ten years in wildlife conservation, Awasthi played a key role in providing livelihood to tribals through tiger conservation.
Awasthi was on his motorcycle when he got hit by a truck near Gopalganj around 8.30am. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead by noon.His demise has left the entire wildlife conservation fraternity mourning. Former field director of Pench MP Alok Kumar took to social media highlighting Awasthi’s contribution towards betterment of stakeholders in buffer areas and remembered him as an inspiration for thousands of tribal youths.
Awasthi joined Satpuda Foundation in 2006 as a conservation officer in Pench Tiger Reserve Maharashtra and MP. He was promoted as assistant director in 2014 and was also a member of Local Advisory Committee (LAC) of PTR. He had activated many self help groups in MP Pench and also provided jobs to around 700 youths from both the tiger reserves. He was responsible for guiding all the conservation officers and staff working in six tiger reserves of Central India.