Harbhajan Singh Pabla is the former Chief Wild Life Warden of Madhya Pradesh. Apart from doing the usual things that an Indian forester does, he nurtured his love for the wild while managing national parks like Kanha, Panna and Bandhavgarh. On the basis the lessons learned on the ground, he developed a penchant for challenging the stereotypes that rule the conservation mindsets in the country.
He introduced a culture of active wildlife management in India. When Panna lost all its tigers, he led their successful reintrodution, including the rewilding of hand-reared orphans. This has given the world the confidence that wild tigers will always be around. He also reversed the local extinctions of gaur, blackbuck and barasingha in various parks of Madhya Pradesh. Thousands of animals have been moved between Indian parks since then, on the strength of the learnings from his initiatives. Despite his retirement from IFS, he still dreams of seeing the white tiger back in the wild. His wish list also includes seeing Indian foresters using horses for patrolling the wilderness. He believes that India will not be able to conserve its wildlife unless it becomes a tool for creating jobs for rural people and human-wildlife conflict is managed effectively. He has published five books on his unconventional views about conservation of wildlife in India.
He has also worked as a forestry and wildlife consultant in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh ,Nepal, and Indonesia, besides having been on the faculty of the Wildlife Institute of India.
Currently, he lives in Bhopal, India and can be contacted at:
E-mail: pablahsifs@gmail.com
Cell: +91-9425007850