In a landmark moment for Indian conservation, Dr Sonali Ghosh, Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, has become the first Indian to receive the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Kenton R. Miller Award for Innovation in National Parks and Protected Area Sustainability. The award was presented during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, where the IUCN recognised exemplary leadership and innovative solutions that strengthen protected-area management on the ground.
Below I’ve pulled together a clear, sourced profile of the achievement: what she did to earn the award, her background and past recognitions, where and how the prize was conferred, the history of the award (and previous winners), and why Kaziranga — and its unique wildlife — matters so much.
What the IUCN cited — achievements that contributed to the award
News reports and the award citation point to a cluster of practical, high-impact achievements under Dr Ghosh’s leadership at Kaziranga:
- Strengthening anti-poaching and frontline protection — persistent on-ground enforcement campaigns, smarter patrol deployment and support for forest staff have reduced high-risk poaching incidents and protected key megafauna.
• Flood response and disaster planning — Kaziranga faces annual floods that can be catastrophic to wildlife and staff; Dr Ghosh led adaptive responses and recovery strategies (evacuation, rescue, post-flood monitoring) that reduced mortality and improved resilience. Recent studies and coverage show the park’s vulnerability to floods, making these measures critical.
• Community engagement and inclusive conservation — building stronger relationships with neighbouring villages, integrating local livelihoods (eco-tourism, staff welfare initiatives) and working to reduce human–wildlife conflict. Local participation and welfare support for staff were repeatedly highlighted.
• Habitat management and science-led planning — restoring and managing grasslands and wetland mosaics used by rhinos, elephants and swamp deer, and using better monitoring to guide management choices. (Recent WII work shows grassland loss is a pressing issue, which makes active habitat management strategically important.)
Taken together, these practical, iterative solutions — not theoretical plans — are what the Kenton Miller Award is designed to recognise: innovations that improve the long-term sustainability of protected areas and are replicable elsewhere.
Dr. Ghosh’s background and earlier recognitions
Dr Sonali Ghosh is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer (topper of the 2000–2003 batch) with advanced academic training in forestry, wildlife science, environmental law and systems management; she also holds a PhD and decades of field experience in protected area management. Her professional profile shows long service in wildlife and natural heritage management and multiple leadership postings prior to Kaziranga.
Before this IUCN honour, Dr Ghosh was recognised nationally and locally for her role in improving Kaziranga’s on-ground management, disaster responses and for the professionalisation of the park’s staff welfare and anti-poaching efforts — coverage in Indian media over recent years documents these recognitions.
Previous winners of the Kenton R. Miller Award — last cycles and what they did
A quick note on timing. The Kenton R. Miller Award (IUCN–WCPA) honours practical innovation in protected-area management. It is not strictly annual; recent cycles span congresses and special events, so winners appear in different years. IUCN/WCPA records and press coverage show the most recent recipients and the work for which they were recognised.
Summary — recent winners (last ~5 years / recent cycles):
- 2025 — Dr Sonali Ghosh (India), Field Director, Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve
What she was recognised for: Innovative, on-the-ground leadership blending frontline protection, flood-resilience planning, community engagement and staff welfare that strengthened Kaziranga’s capacity to withstand floods, reduce poaching risk and build local partnerships. Her award marks the first time an Indian has received this IUCN WCPA Kenton R. Miller recognition. - 2023 — María del Carmen García Rivas (Mexico)
What she was recognised for: Advancing marine protected-area governance through collaborative community-led management and science-based monitoring — a model for bringing coastal communities and science together to manage marine biodiversity. (Media & IUCN summaries of the 2023 award emphasise her work on marine protected area governance and monitoring.) - 2020 — Nizar Youssef Hani (Lebanon) and Pedro Estêvão Muagura (Mozambique) (dual recognition in that cycle)
What they were recognised for:- Nizar Youssef Hani (Shouf Biosphere Reserve, Lebanon): Leadership in restoring degraded Mediterranean landscapes, integrating community livelihoods, and building nature-based resilience and reconciliation after conflict.
- Pedro Estêvão Muagura (Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique): Post-conflict ecosystem restoration and community-linked recovery in Gorongosa — rebuilding habitat, working with local farmers and restoring wildlife after civil-war impacts. The 2020 ceremony highlighted restoration+community development as central innovations.
- 2019 — Dr Robert Wallace (Australia/International)
What he was recognised for: Longstanding innovation in biodiversity monitoring and protected-area practice (his work has included developing monitoring frameworks and tools that helped protected areas measure and manage biodiversity outcomes). IUCN coverage lists him among recent recipients for innovation in protected areas.
How many Indians have won?
- As of the 2025 awards, one Indian has won the Kenton R. Miller Award (Dr Sonali Ghosh). Multiple Indian conservationists have won other international awards, but this particular WCPA Kenton R. Miller Award was, per IUCN and press reporting, given to an Indian for the first time in 2025.
Why those winners matter (short analysis):
- The selection of winners in recent cycles highlights two themes: (a) restoration+community integration (Gorongosa, Shouf), and (b) governance and monitoring innovations (marine protected areas, protected-area science). The 2025 winner underscores a third practical theme — climate/flood resilience and operational innovation in a high-risk landscape (Kaziranga). These are not academic prizes: they reward measurable management change on the ground and solutions transferable to other parks.
Why Kaziranga matters — global and local significance
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve is not just another protected area — it is a global stronghold for the greater one-horned (Indian) rhinoceros and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park supports very large populations of rhino, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, swamp deer and other megafauna; its grassland–wetland mosaic is ecologically unique in the eastern floodplain of the Brahmaputra. UNESCO’s site description and conservation literature underline Kaziranga’s global importance for multiple threatened species.
Why conservation is urgently needed (and why management is hard)
Two big threats make Kaziranga management both vital and complex:
- Floods and climate variability. The park experiences severe seasonal flooding that can kill wildlife, threaten staff and damage habitat. Recent extreme flood events and scientific assessments underscore the ongoing vulnerability of Kaziranga’s animals and grasslands during high water years.
- Habitat loss and grassland shrinkage. Long-term studies show substantial contraction of Kaziranga’s grasslands over the last century — a direct threat to species that depend on these open habitats. That shrinking area increases competition for space, changes fire and grazing regimes, and reduces resilience to extreme events. This is precisely why the park’s habitat management work has been central to the award citation.
Beyond those, human-wildlife conflict, infrastructure pressure around the reserve and historical poaching make Kaziranga a conservation priority where strong, adaptive management is non-negotiable.
Key species and “endemics” of the region
Kaziranga’s fauna list reads like a conservation priority roll call: the greater one-horned rhinoceros, Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, and eastern swamp deer are among the globally threatened species the park supports. UNESCO’s World Heritage entry and other authoritative sources list these as the site’s most significant holdings. While the park is not a center of strict endemism in the way island systems are, it lies at the edge of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot and supports regionally important populations of several threatened and range-restricted species (e.g., swamp deer, certain primates and key bird species). Protecting these populations has global significance because Kaziranga contains some of the largest viable populations of several species.
What this award means going forward
An international honour like the Kenton R. Miller Award does more than recognise a single manager. It:
- Validates the practical approaches that worked in Kaziranga and increases their credibility as models for other parks.
• Draws international attention (and potentially more collaborative support and funding) to Kaziranga’s unmet needs — especially habitat restoration and flood resilience.
• Sends a strong signal within India that high-quality, inclusive, science-led protected-area management is visible and rewarded on the global stage.
