Project Summary

The project “Community-Driven Conservation and Wildlife Monitoring in Dharkot, Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand” supported under WWF India’s flagship Conservation Catalyst Programme (CCP), adopts a community-based conservation approach to safeguard biodiversity and forest health. The initiative seeks to build a strong foundation for biodiversity monitoring, conservation planning, and livelihood development, with scientific tools like camera traps serving as one of the tools to track and monitor the presence of wildlife species.

The project, with the support and mentorship of the Forest Department, aims to initiate the following measures in its first phase (Sep 2025 to Oct 2026), as a joint effort -

Biodiversity Assessment: Data obtained from camera traps, supplemented with structured field surveys will facilitate monitoring wildlife species and document biodiversity within the proposed area. These efforts will generate valuable baseline data to guide a community-led conservation strategy.

Capacity Building: Train local youth as naturalists to drive community driven conservation, deter hunting activities and promote livelihood.

Governance & Institutional Body: Build a local village conservation committee / Van Panchayat to sustain community driven conservation and drive local ownership.

Community Engagement & Awareness: Sensitize and raise awareness about the biological diversity of the region, highlighting species such as the Himalayan Serow and Himalayan Goral.

Community Driven Conservation

EcoSanskriti has been working closely with the local community to identify wildlife ambassadors and nature enthusiasts. Currently, we have a team of community members who are actively involved in all our citizen science initiatives and programs. Forests around Dharkot village are endemic to rare and vulnerable species like Himalayan Goral, Himalayan Serow, leopard cat and masked palm civet. Our community members have reported multiple direct and indirect sightings of these animals from the community forests around Dharkot.

Keep watching this space for more updates on the project.

A poster displaying WWF's Conservation Catalyst Programme Awardees for 2025-26, featuring six different animals and their conservation initiatives in various locations. Top row: Yellow-breasted Bunting from Manipur, India, and Pangolin from Nagaland,
A young goat with brown fur, small curved horns, and a white patch on its nose, standing on rocky terrain surrounded by green foliage.
A goat standing on a rocky, dry hillside with sparse vegetation and cacti.
Two young calves standing on a grassy hillside surrounded by tall, wild grass.
Two goats on a grassy hillside, one standing and one laying down among brown and green foliage.

Support our Conservation Efforts in Uttarakhand

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