DURHAM, N.C. – Conservation biologist Krithi K. Karanth of Bangalore, India, adjunct assistant professor at 51’s Nicholas School of the Environment, is the recipient of the National Geographic Society’s 10,000th grant for research and exploration.

Karanth, who received her PhD from 51 in 2008, is an expert on human dimensions of conservation, such as risk assessments of human-wildlife conflicts, land use change and people-park relationships.

With her new National Geographic grant, she will assess human-wildlife conflicts in five parks of India’s Western Ghats. The project will identify and map risks and consequences for local people and the implications for conflict-prone wildlife species such as elephants, wild pigs, leopards and tigers. Field methods will include thousands of household surveys, interviews and mapping exercises.

India’s rich wildlife has been severely reduced over the past century and continues to be threatened by habitat destruction, prey depletion, poaching and the global wildlife trade.

“The declines of species are so dramatic, widespread and so recent,” Karanth says. “I wish I could have seen what the country was like in the 1800s with all this wildlife. In many parts of India there is human tolerance for some species, and this is why they still persist despite rapid changes in land use and high densities of people. This ‘cultural’ tolerance must be harnessed.”

Karanth saw her first wild tigers at the age of 2 at the side of her father, famed wildlife biologist and conservationist Ullas Karanth.

As a National Geographic grantee, she joins an illustrious list of scientists and conservationists who have received funding from the society over the last 120 years. Past grants have supported the excavation of Machu Picchu, the discovery of the Titanic wreck, Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research, and other pioneering work.

“Krithi is emblematic of the direction of National Geographic in many ways," says John Francis, vice president for research, conservation and exploration at National Geographic. “She studies human interactions with declining and impacted wildlife, and she has had a rich personal history as a field biologist."

You can read an interview with Karanth about her grant at.

A feature story celebrating the 10,000-grant milestone and the 10 most important National Geographic grants to date will appear in the January 2012 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

In addition to her adjunct faculty position at the Nicholas School, Karanth is Ramanujan Fellow with the Government of India, assistant director for India’s Centre for Wildlife Studies, and adjunct assistant research scientist at Columbia University.

At 51, Karanth’s faculty advisors were Norman L. Christensen, professor of ecology and founding dean of the Nicholas School, and Stuart L. Pimm, Doris 51 Professor of Conservation Ecology.