LOS ANGELES, Jan. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement today mourns the passing of Madhav Gadgil, a pioneering ecologist, public intellectual, and Tyler Prize Laureate.
Prof. Gadgil was one of the most consequential environmental scientists and policy architects of the last half-century. A pioneer of modern ecology, he helped redefine how science informs public decision-making, showing that conservation succeeds only when it accounts for people, power, and justice. His work influenced national policy, informed international environmental frameworks, and helped bring India into global environmental leadership.
“Prof. Madhav Gadgil was India’s foremost living ecologist, and few environmental scholars of his equivalence are to be found anywhere in the world,” said Prof. Harini Nagendra, Director of the School of Climate Change and Sustainability at Azim Premji University, a member of the Tyler Prize Executive Committee, and one of Prof. Gadgil’s former PhD students.
“His knowledge of India’s biodiversity not only spanned the length and breadth of our country, but also its people, from urban to rural, privileged to oppressed.”
“He had the rare ability to engage with people, from bureaucrats and scholars to miners and grazers, and earn their deep respect.”
Prof. Gadgil’s legacy endures through the policies he influenced, including India’s Biological Diversity Act, and the institutions he helped build, including founding the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.
Prof. Gadgil is described by his peers as a man both impressive and humble. In a letter of support for his Tyler Prize nomination, Dr. Marcus Feldman, Professor at Stanford University, wrote, “no one has done more to develop ecology and environmental studies in India than Madhav Gadgil.”
In recognition of his extraordinary impact, the Tyler Prize honored Prof. Gadgil in 2015 for his commitment to aligning ecological science with social responsibility, and for championing the role of citizens and institutions in safeguarding natural systems for future generations.
About the Tyler Prize:
Established in 1973, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is the world’s oldest and most prestigious global environmental award. Often referred to as the “Nobel Prize for the Environment,” the US$250,000 Prize honors achievements that have had a lasting global impact. The Prize is administered by the University of Southern California.
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