Speaker

His work has covered topics as varied as elephant-human interactions, reproductive biology, molecular genetics, evolutionary history, population dynamics, landscape ecology, movement ecology and the cultural history of elephants. His research interests also extend to tropical forest ecology and climate change. 

Sukumar has also contributed extensively to Indian government policy on wildlife conservation. He was one of the architects of the country’s flagship conservation initiatives, namely, Project Elephant, launched in 1992. He was Chair of the IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group during 1997-2004. 

The author of four books on the elephant and over 200 scientific papers, Sukumar is the recipient of several national and international awards, the most notable being the International Cosmos Prize from Japan in 2006. 

Sukumar is a Fellow of the three major science academies in India, and the World Academy of Sciences. He has also contributed for three decades to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity in 2022.