More about Belinda

Belinda Wright, tiger conservationist and wildlife campaigner, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). Born in Kolkata, Belinda has spent her entire life working with wildlife in India. Before turning to full time conservation work in 1994, she was a wildlife photographer and an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker who worked for many years for National Geographic. Since then, she has pioneered investigations into the illegal wildlife trade in the Indian Subcontinent, helped expose the trade in tiger parts, and has been instrumental in the arrest of hundreds of wildlife criminals. In 2005, she was a member of the team that revealed the magnitude of the big cat skin trade in Tibet. Belinda was awarded the O.B.E. in 2003 for services to the protection of wildlife in India. Among other awards, she received the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in 2005, and was elected an Ashoka Senior Fellow in 2009.

Belinda has been a member of a number of Central and State Government committees. In her capacity as the Executive Director of WPSI, she was a member of the National Board for Wildlife (chaired by the Prime Minister) until 2010. She is presently a member of the State Wildlife Advisory Boards of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. She is also an Honorary Wildlife Warden of NCT Delhi.