<h1>Conservation trust awards INR 3.8 crore to eight projects nationwide, prioritizing lesser-known species and new interdisciplinary research grant</h1> A conservation trust awarded INR 3.8 crore to eight projects across India, its largest private funding round, prioritizing lesser-known species and critical habitats and introducing a new research grant for interdisciplinary, science-led conservation. Since 2018 the programme has funded over 31 projects across 25 states and union territories, disbursing more than INR 12.93 crore. Funded work includes species recovery, habitat restoration, applied research, and community-led management spanning community forests in Assam, endemic and Himalayan species, coastal and marine studies, and a Trans-Himalayan ecological study. Grants were selected through a four-stage evaluation assessing relevance, scalability, sustainability, and measurable impact.