Currently, WWF-India is addressing species conservation through field-level activities in different landscapes as well as through direct interventions aimed at conserving a particular species. These programmes focus on threats to wildlife and the issues surrounding these threats. Prominent among these are poaching, human-wildlife conflict, trade in wildlife parts, habitat destruction and legal support. The project activities are carried out at field as well as policy levels. They are mainly related to scientific information gathering, working with the local communities, NGOs and government agencies including the state forest departments.

Apart from the mega-species– Royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant and Indian rhino, WWF-India also has Threatened Species Conservation Programme since 2008 and include species, viz., Nilgiri tahr, Asiatic lion, snow leopard, black-necked crane, smooth coated otter, Himalayan quail, great Indian bustard, leopard, gharial, brow-antlered deer, golden mahseer, Indian pangolin, sarus crane, house sparrow and Ganges river dolphin.

WWF-India sees some of the above and a few other species as critical to India’s wildlife conservation for reasons that include the rarity of the species (e.g. Himalayan quail) as well as the cultural importance they have for the people (e.g. house sparrow). In addition to these species, WWFIndia also encourages conservation-oriented action/ research on species through its Small Grants Programme that began in 2011.