Bangladeshi wins award for tortoise conservation

Shahriar Caesar Rahman, a Bangladeshi conservation biologist specialising in reptiles, is one of the six winners of the prestigious Whitley Award for working in grassroots nature conservation in the world’s developing countries.

Shahriar won the award for his work to preserve Asia’s largest tortoise in a remote corner of Bangladesh, reports UNB.

The awards were given at the 25th Anniversary Whitley Awards Ceremony held on 25 April at The Royal Geographical Society in London, according to official website of Whitley Fund for Nature.

The Ceremony was hosted by WFN Ambassador, Kate Humble, with the Whitley Awards presented to the winners by WFN Patron, in front of over 600 guests.

In 2011, Caesar began exploring the Chittagong Hills, one of the least explored but most biodiverse areas of the planet. His team discovered the wild Asian giant tortoise, previously thought to be extinct, and a new species of forest turtle.

The prestigious awards, known as the ‘Green Oscars’, are made annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature, and provide winners with funding to scale up their projects.