Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientistwho has been involved with research, education, conservation,outreach and public engagement related to Indian wildlife andbiodiversity since the early 1980s. He studied the Asiatic lionsin Gir Forest for his Ph.D. and has been involved with researchand conservation of lions since 1985. He served as an ExpertScientific Advisor to the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court ofIndia in 2012. Since 2013, he serves on the Expert Committeeappointed by the Supreme Court to guide and monitor thetranslocation of lions from Gir forest to Kuno National Park.He has published extensively both academically as well for thepublic, works closely with the government on policy matters,served on a few government committees and is engaged inpolicy-related work in India which includes serving on theMinistry of Environment and Forest and Ministry of TribalAffairs’ Joint Committee to review the implementation of theForest Rights Act. For about a decade he was involved with theStudent Conference on Conservation Science-Bengaluru.He worked for more than 17 years with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and for four years was the Programme Officer (Biodiversity) at the UNDP.His current responsibilities at Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) include the development of a new programme on protected areas and surrounding landscapes with the goal to develop an online decision support system. Issues related to restoration of habitats, wildlife corridors, human-wildlife conflicts, resettlement of forest dwellers, community forest rights and making natural resource management initiatives more sensitive to ecology, biodiversity and sustainability are part of my mandate.