The Rufford India Conference, Bengaluru was held between 15 and 16 November 2013 at the National Centre for Biological Sciences. The two-day conference was jointly organised by Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning (FERAL), Pondicherry, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru and Researchers for Wildlife Conservation (RWC), Bengaluru with support from the Rufford Foundation. The Rufford Small Grants Program (RSGP) has played a crucial role in the field of nature conservation in the developing countries worldwide. It has supported over 290 research and conservation projects in India. The primary objective of this meeting was to explore different aspects of conservation and action research and building conservation capacity at local, regional, and global levels. It also provided an opportunity to the grant recipients to meet and interact. The grant recipients presented their work either as oral presentations or as posters.
Dr. Ajith Kumar, (Director, Postgraduate Program in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, NCBS, WCS-India Program) welcomed all the participants and the representatives of the RSGF. He stressed on the importance of the conference and the role played by RSGF in the careers of young researchers.
Apart from oral and poster presentations from grant recipients, the conference included talks by Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte, Dr. Kavita Isvaran, Mr. Nishant M.S., Dr. Samrat Mondol and Mr. Manish Chandi. Short workshops were conducted by Dr. H.N. Kumara, Mr. Vijay Mohan Raj, Mr. Balachandra Hedge, Dr. Ravinder Singh Bhalla, Mr. Srinivas Vaidyanathan and Dr. Arjun Sivasundar.