National Advisors and Consultants

Dr. Suhas Kumar (Retired IFS)

National Adviser

Dr.Suhas Kumar retired as Principal Chief Conservator of Forests from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department. He spent 23 years of his 35-year-long service, managing, supervising, and guiding the management and training of the officers and staff of national parks, sanctuaries, and tiger reserves of the state. He worked as the Director of Pench National Park for 5 years in its formative period from 1985 to August 1990. He headed the Wildlife Extension Faculty at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, from 1990 to 1996 and contributed to the growth of the training and publishing capabilities of WII. He is a trained wildlife manager, a law graduate, and a Ph.D. in the field of ecotourism in protected areas.
He is trained in nature interpretation, conservation education, and ecotourism in the USA, UK, and Australia. Presently, he is a member of WWF-India’s State Advisory Board for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Governing Body and Governing Council of the National Centre for Human Settlement and Environment, Bhopal, and the Delhi Biodiversity Society. He was the chairman of one of the evaluation teams constituted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Government of India, in 2017-18 for 13 tiger reserves in the country.
His write-ups, papers, and case studies have been published in books, magazines, newspapers, and web media. Wildlife Management, Ecotourism Planning, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Rescue, Wildlife Health and Forensic, Wildlife Crime Investigation, and Interpretation & Conservation Education have been areas of his interest and engagement. His most recently published book is – ‘Nature’s Disciple’.

Mr. Sunil Limaye (Retired IFS)

National Adviser

Mr. Sunil Limaye retired as the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden of Maharashtra State recently in July, 2022. He earlier served as the additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) West Mumbai and prior to that as an Additional PCCF (Wildlife) East and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Ecotourism Board, Nagpur. He has served in various capacities as a Conservator of Forests and Director, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, whereby he started the initiative ‘Mumbaikars for SGNP’ in order to actively involve and promote active participation of all the probable stakeholders to address the issue of Human- Leopard Conflict. He holds a Masters in Forestry and a Diploma in Wildlife Management from Wildlife Institute of India. He has keen interest in research in conservation and has several publications to his credit. He has been an adviser to the Forest Officials of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradeshpertaining to the issues of management of Human-Wildlife Interface. Researchers have attributed to him the names of biological species namely 1. Cnemaspislimayei( Limaye Day Gecko)andJerzegosunillimayei(Jumping Spider). He has set an example as a dynamic personality with excellent ‘Conservation Leadership Traits’.

Mr. Bivash Ranjan (Retired IFS)​

National Adviser

Mr. Bivash Ranjan, retired as the Additional Director General of Forest and Co-chair and Thematic lead under Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group of G 20, has worked as an Indian Forest Service (IFS) official and managed multiple desks Forests & Wildlife management, Land restoration, Species conservation, the National Mission for Green India, Desertification Cell. He also chaired the Standing Committee of Global Land Initiative (GLI), established under UNCCD. He owns varied international exposure in policy initiatives for natural resource management.
He is a highly experienced Indian bureaucrat with 35 years of experience in Forestry, Wildlife Conservation, Landscape Approaches for Sustainable Development, Community-based Natural Resources, Biodiversity Conservation and Enrichment, Landscape Ecology, and Climate Change.
He is a member of the Indian Forest Services who has served in Uttar Pradesh and the Government of India in various capacities and successfully demonstrated expertise in strategic planning, high-level negotiation, project management, grant management, policy research, evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and cross-functional team leaderships.

Mr. Ajay Pillarisett

National Adviser

He joined the Maharashtra Forest Division as Range Officer in 1977 and retired from service as Divisional Forest Officer in 2013. During his tenure with the department, his major postings were in Wildlife wing. He has been posted in Tiger Reserves like Melghat, Tadoba Andhari and Pench. He also served in Nasik Wildlife Division and Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary. He was awarded medal for his service in Melghat Tiger Reserve in 1993 and ‘Kailash Sankhla Wildlife Fellowship’ in 1998.