Apollo Hospitals Provide medical support to forest staff

WWF India and Apollo Hospitals Foundation announced the continuation of their year-long partnership to provide medical support to forest department frontline staff and local communities across the conservation landscapes in which WWF-India operates.

The tie-up, to be effective from April 2017 for a one-year period, will extend immediate medical support to affected frontline staff of forest department and local community members in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. The partnership covers quality medical treatment of patients that also includes air ambulance services in critical and emergency conditions.

This unique partnership between the two organisations will cover medical camps and cases including (but not confined to) grievous injury due to attacks by wild animals; fall from elevated areas (like hills or machines); accidents while patrolling in vehicles (collision, falling off etc); burns during fire-fighting operations; injuries in crowd control operations during incidents of human-wildlife conflict ; medical emergencies during extreme climatic events, life threatening diseases like malaria, dengue etc; venomous bites/stings, and electrocution.

Speaking on occasion, Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India said, “This partnership is a key milestone where WWF-India and the Apollo Hospitals have come together to provide specialised medical care to both the frontline forest staff and members of the local community, who form an important part of our work. Initiatives such as medical treatment and health check-ups will go a long way in ensuring that people have access to medical care.”

Upasana Kamineni Konidela, Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Foundation said, “We at Apollo Hospitals Foundation understand the perils that these frontline staff face and we are always there to support them in their endeavour to help conserve our wildlife.”