A forest officer once had to shoot a tiger himself, as part of his job issuing hunting permits. The animal’s open eyes haunted him for the rest of his life. Kailash Sankhala spent the following four decades undoing exactly that kind of killing, as India’s first Project Tiger director.
Must Know
From Hunting Permits to Project Tiger
- Who He WasKailash Sankhala was born on 30 January 1925, in Jodhpur. He died on 15 August 1994, in Jaipur, at age 69.
- His TrainingHe earned a Master’s degree from Jaswant College, Jodhpur, and a postgraduate diploma in Forestry from the Indian Forest College, Dehradun, in 1953.
- His First JobHe joined the Rajasthan Forest Service in 1953.
- The Turning PointEarly in his career, while issuing hunting permits, Sankhala was made to shoot a tiger himself. The experience haunted him and turned him into a lifelong conservationist.
- His First Public StandIn 1956, he appealed to the Rajasthan Wildlife Board to stop tiger hunting, one of the earliest such appeals made in India.
- Running Delhi’s ZooHe served as Director of the Delhi Zoological Park from 1965 to 1970.
- The Big AppointmentIn April 1973, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hand-picked Sankhala as the first Director of Project Tiger.
- National RecognitionHe was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992, for his contribution to wildlife conservation.
Good to Know
Two Decades of Groundwork
- Reforming Delhi ZooAs Delhi Zoo’s director, Sankhala stopped animals from being made to perform for visitors. He also redesigned enclosures to resemble tigers’ natural habitat more closely.
- Exposing the Fur TradeIn 1967, he investigated the illegal trade in tiger and leopard fur in Delhi’s markets. He published his findings on the front page of The Indian Express.
- Going InternationalIn 1969, he appealed to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) over India’s rapidly declining tiger population.
- The Survey That FollowedIn May 1970, Sankhala was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, for a study titled “The Controversial Tiger.” This funded an all-India survey of the tiger population.
- Winning a Trade BanIn September 1970, he persuaded Union Minister Karan Singh to ban the export of tiger, leopard, and panther skins and products made from them.
- Shaping the LawHe served on India’s first Task Force on Tigers, alongside Dr. Karan Singh, Anne Wright, M.K. Ranjitsinh, and Zafar Futehally. Its work led directly to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
- Building Parks AfterwardAfter his Project Tiger years, Sankhala served as Rajasthan’s Chief Wildlife Warden, from 1978 to 1983. In that role, he helped establish the Ranthambhore, Keoladeo Ghana (Bharatpur), and Desert National Parks.
- His Later LegacyHe founded the Tiger Trust in 1989, and authored several books, including “Tiger! The Story of the Indian Tiger” (1978). The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change later instituted the Kailash Sankhala Fellowship in his honour.
Exam Point of View
The Dates Examiners Like to Mix Up
- No PYQ Yet, Still Worth KnowingNo exam has directly asked about Sankhala by name so far, in the papers indexed on this site. That’s likely just a matter of time, given how central he is to Project Tiger’s own history.
- Likely TrapThe most exam-likely trap is mixing up his three big dates: joining the Rajasthan Forest Service (1953), becoming Project Tiger’s first Director (1973), and receiving the Padma Shri (1992). All three get cited together in his biography. That’s exactly when a question starts swapping one date for another.
- A Second TrapDon’t confuse “Project Tiger was launched in 1973” (the scheme itself) with “Sankhala was appointed its first Director” (a specific role within that scheme). A statement-based question could make one true and the other subtly wrong.
- Why He Matters for Project Tiger QuestionsAny PYQ that tests Project Tiger’s early history, its founding logic, or its first Director is really testing Sankhala’s own work, even without naming him. See the PYQ tier in EnvEco0038 — Project Tiger and NTCA for the questions that already exist on that side of this same story.
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Great to Know
Guilt Turned Into a Life’s Work
- A Real TransformationSankhala’s personal transformation was real, not just a symbolic origin story. In his own book, he wrote that the tiger’s “open eyes have haunted me all my life.” He dedicated his life to tiger preservation to overcome that guilt.
- Foundational FieldworkHis field research on tiger territoriality, scent-marking, and calls was foundational. Much of how India still manages tiger reserves today traces back to that early observational work, not just to policy documents.
- The Law Came LaterProject Tiger’s legal power grew well after Sankhala’s own tenure. It only gained real statutory backing in 2005, after tigers disappeared entirely from Sariska Reserve. See EnvEco0038 — Project Tiger and NTCA for that institutional history.
- See AlsoFor the wider conservation landscape Sankhala helped shape, see EnvEco0014 — Wildlife in India.
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EnvEco0038 — Project Tiger and NTCAEnvEco0014 — Wildlife in IndiaUPSC CSP 2026 — General Studies Paper I (Full Question Paper)UPSC CSP 2019 — General Studies Paper I (Full Question Paper)UPSC CSP 2020 — General Studies Paper I (Full Question Paper)❓ Practice this topic
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