French honour conferred on Prajna Chowta
Q. Which well known researcher and conservationist was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit) by the French Government?- Published on 05 Oct 16a. Prajna Chowta
b. Kamal Hassan
c. Teesta Setalvad
d. Medha Patkar
ANSWER: Prajna Chowta
Elephant researcher and conservationist Prajna Chowta was honoured with the Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit) by the French Government. Her appointment by the President of the French Republic comes in recognition of a life devoted to caring for wild Asian elephants
- Chowta has founded the Aane Mane Foundation which has been researching and conserving wild Asian elephants
- She has also authored the Elephant Code Book on captive elephant management as well as the French book Enfant d’Elephant (Elephant’s Infant) in 2014
- The book captures the link between tribals and elephants in the Indian settings
- As a researcher, Chowta also developed an online monitoring system and one of the first GPS collars for India’s elephants
- She was also among the first few Indian women to be appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite (Knight in the National Order of Merit)
- Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Kamal Hassan was honoured under the French government’s Legion of Honour award in 2016 as well
- The National Order of Merit is a French order of merit with membership awarded by President of the French Republic
- It was founded on 3rd December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle
- Reason for this order’s establishment was twofold- to replace the larger number of ministerial orders given by the ministries and create an award lower than Legion of Honour, which is generally for French citizens
