Ajit K Huilgol, ARPS, EFIP, GPU CR 2, cMoL, A.NPS, A.APS

Country: India

Dr Ajit K Huilgol is a man who wears, and has worn, many hats – pioneer kidney transplant surgeon, hypnotist, cricket commentator, and wildlife photographer. 
He was in the team that did Karnataka’s first successful kidney transplant in May, 1983. Since then, in these 37 years, he has done almost 2500 transplants, both in India and abroad, and specializes in doing multiple artery transplants and double ureter transplants. He started transplant programs in several hospitals – MS Ramaiah Hospital, Wockhardt, Yellamma Dasappa, Ashok Nursing Home, Columbia Asia Hospitals in Bangalore and Mysore, to name a few. He has also established transplant centres in Jalandhar, India, and in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been a consultant for Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, and other African countries.
Dr Huilgol was a cricket commentator in English for All India Radio from 1972 to 2005, and has been a commentator for Doordarshan for a few cricket matches, including some One Day Internationals. 
An image that he took in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in Karnataka of a leopard descending vertically down a tree won him the coveted Runner-up Award in the highly prestigious BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award in 2009. He is also an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society since 2008.
Dr Huilgol was given the title of Hon Special Police Officer in the Karnataka Forest CID wing for his courageous role in nabbing over 45 poachers who were operating in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve.