Chennai: Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami today expressed condolences over the death of field biologist and wildlife conservation expert Ajay Adrushyappa Desai who passed away in Belagavi on Thursday night.
In his message, Palaniswami said Ajay’s death was a great loss and he was saddened by the expert’s demise.
Desai was a member of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group of IUCN and a co-chair from 2005-15, a two-term member of the state wildlife board, a member of the Karnataka High Court-constituted elephant task force and was a senior member between 2011 and 13.
He was part of the Project Elephant Task Force in 2010, where he along with another elephant expert and IISc Prof R Sukumar brought out the report ‘Gaja’.
He was currently finalising the National Elephant Action Plan for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and was advising the ministry on mitigating human-elephant conflict.