Wildlife Institute of India

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is an autonomous natural resource service institution established in 1982 under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change, Government of India.^[1] WII carries out wildlife research in areas of study like Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Wildlife Policy, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Forensics, Spatial Modeling, Ecodevelopment, Ecotoxicology, Habitat Ecology and Climate Change. WII has a research facility which includes Forensics, Remote Sensing and GIS, Laboratory, Herbarium, and an Electronic Library.^[1] The founder director was V. B. Saharia while the first director was Hemendra Singh Panwar who remained the director from 1985 to 1994. Trained personnel from WII have contributed in studying and protecting wildlife in India. The national tiger census or the All India Tiger Estimation, is done by WII along with NTCA and state forest departments.

Wildlife Institute of India

Agency overview
Formed	1982
Parent department	Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India
Website	https://www.wii.gov.in/

The institute is based in Dehradun district, India. It is located in Chandrabani, which is close to the southern forests of Dehradun district. The campus is 180 acres, from which 100 acres are in wilderness and 80 acres are operational facilities. It is close to Rajaji National Park. The training of the direct recruits of the India Forest Service Officers and also those who are recruited as the State Forest Officers is done here itself.

Directors

The current director of Wildlife Institute of India is Dhananjai Mohan who was appointed in December 2019.^[2] He was formerly Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Planning and Financial Management and Chairman of State Biodiversity Board in Uttarakhand.^[3]

Previous directors included:

• Vinod Bihari Mathur from February 2014 to (June 2019?)^[4]
• Radha Krishna Goel from 2013 to February 2014^[4]
• Priya Ranjan Sinha from September 2004 to June 2013^[5][6]
• Hemendra Singh Panwar from 1985 to 1994, first director of the Wildlife Institute of India.^[7]

See also

• Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education
• Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species
• Forest Research Institute (India)
• Arid Forest Research Institute
• List of Environment and Forest Research Institutes in India
• Van Vigyan Kendra (VVK) Forest Science Centres
• List of think tanks in India