Dinesh Chandra Pandey
Assistant Project Officer
National Elephant Conservation Project

Dinesh Chandra Pandey is the Assistant Project Officer in the National Elephant Corridor Project, Wild Lands programme of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). He is also the Honorary Wildlife Warden of Nainital, Uttarakhand - a post he was awarded in August 2009.

Dinesh joined WTI in 2001 as the field investigator in WTI’s Policy, Enforcement, Law and Training (PELT) programme, contributing significantly to several divisions within the programme.

Over the years Dinesh assisted authorities in a number of wildlife trade control operations in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh among other Indian states. He was also a part of a number of studies on wildlife crime and trade in various Indian states.

He has also been involved in the Van Rakshak Project (VRP) that deals with training, equipping and morale boosting of the frontline Forest Department staff, and has imparted training in wildlife enforcement methodologies.

With strong inherent values of right and wrong, Dinesh says that he cannot tolerate injustice of any kind. “My interest in wildlife arose through one such incident. It was around the late 90s when I was involved in the Uttarakhand andolan. A range officer in Corbett National Park was trying to protect the forest in his jurisdiction from encroachers, but got no support from any quarters. This irked me. I supported him with what I could. He inspired me and continues to do so,” says Dinesh, recalling his venture into wildlife conservation.

Since then, Dinesh has continued his fight to protect the country’s wildlife. He is currently assisting authorities to secure the critical Gola (Gola Rokhar and Gorai-Tanda) corridor in Nainital, Uttarakhand, that has been nearly completely blocked by massive infrastructure development. Credited for bringing the plight of the corridor to the notice of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Dinesh says, “Through neglect and lack of awareness, this vital elephant corridor was almost completely lost to some massive constructions. However, now, the Ministry is involved and has taken the issue very seriously. Sincere efforts are being made to recover this corridor.”

Dinesh is also assisting the Forest Department to facilitate voluntary relocation of Gujjar settlements and Village Khand gaon-3,from Rajaji National Park, among others.

An alumnus of the Kumaon University in Nainital, Dinesh holds two post-graduation degrees in Sociology and Political Science. He is confident and highly energetic, and is respected for his focus and his ability to get work done. He also has good people skills and handles emergencies well.

“During a seizure which we had conducted together, the accused had started creating a ruckus and had succeeded in gathering a sympathetic crowd. However, Dinesh single-handedly managed this entire crowd of about 40 people and the accused was subsequently booked by the authorities. Very few have this ability to stay calm and composed during such situations,” says a colleague. 

During his free time, Dinesh likes to contemplate over wildlife issues, to try and think up possible solutions.