Sukumar's effort in saving the endangered Asian Elephants has won him the Whitely Golden Award. Both the international awards in the field of environment are popularly known as the “Green Oscars”.

The Energy Activists
The Ashden Awards, instituted by the London-based Ashden Trust, recognize and reward inspirational renewable energy projects, which provide social and economic benefits for local communities and protect the environment. Among the international energy activists who received this year’s Ashden Award includes Chowdhury, the director of West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Authority (WBRDA) and Roy who is the founder of Barefoot College in the Himalayas. The British minister for Sustainable Energy honored them on June 18, 2003.

Solar Island
Since 1996, Chowdhury has been responsible for providing solar power to 2,000 families in 16 villages through nine solar mini-grid systems in the ecologically fragile belt of the Sunderbans, the world's largest delta and mangrove forest. His citation for the Green Oscar includes his work done in pre-paid meters in solar-powered households, which would prevent pilferage and wastage of power.

The award would be used to train residents in plant maintenance, management and operation.

Chowdhury is also instrumental in implementing solar electrification projects in health centers of 13 atolls of Marshall Island in the Pacific region.

Solar Power in Himalayas
Since 1990, the Barefoot College has provided lighting using solar panels in over 136 remote and virtually inaccessible Himalayan villages.

Village energy committees are established and training is provided for 'barefoot' engineers, leading to technical and financial self-sufficiency. Local villagers no longer have to walk for two days to get a 20-litre can of kerosene used for lighting.

“I began to work with people considered drop-outs and wash-outs,” Roy said at the awards ceremony. “We exposed them to new skills for the first time. We picked up young boys and girls and trained them to go back and electrify their villages with solar power.”

The Savior
The endangered Asian elephant took a step nearer survival when ecologist Raman Sukumar was awarded £50,000 at the annual Whitley Awards ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Instituted by the Whitley Laing Foundation, the Whitley Awards are awarded for nature conservation projects worldwide.

At the award ceremony held on March 13, 2003, Edward Whitley, the founder of the Whitley Awards, described Sukumar as “a truly exceptional person, who most probably knows more about elephants than anyone else in the world and has devoted his professional life to their survival.” Founder-director of the Bangalore-based Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Center Professor Sukumar has dedicated his life to saving the Asian elephant.

Sukumar, 47, works closely with the Indian government's Project Elephant. His Centre covers the area near the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, where there are 8,000 elephants in the wild, the largest concentration in the world. Sukumar's work seeks to save the varied habitats and wildlife of Nilgiri. He combines scientific research firmly rooted in good theory with pragmatic conservation solutions involving local communities, and is determined to succeed.