Advertise on podcast: The Thing About Wildlife

This week I'm in conversation with the deep, strong and heartwarming partnership of Amir Chhetri and Priyanka Das, both part of the 2022 cohort of the Coexistence Fellowship. Amir hails from a forest village in northern West Bengal, and his indigenous knowledge on the biodiversity of the landscape and skills in community engagement are unparalleled. From a young age, Amir has worked with the Forest Department and as a safari guide for tourists, and later, has also worked with a range of research and conservation projects.  On the other hand, Priyanka is trained in ecology and conservation science and has completed her M.Sc. from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History in Coimbatore. Besides working for various short-term projects in different capacities across India, she has been associated with their current project landscape since 2016.  Together, they have worked on a series of projects for about a decade leading up to this Fellowship, and their is a partnership that inspires and keeps giving. Their present project addresses the underlying drivers of human-elephant negative interaction in northern West Bengal by providing technical assistance to the local forest department and monitoring ecological restoration in the degraded forest patches to ensure availability of forage species for elephants, unveiling further nuances of the coexistence world. Here it is now, The Thing About Old Bonds and Elephants with Priyanka and Amir from the Coexistence Fellowship.

This week I'm in conversation with the unlikely but effective partnership of Sunil Harsana and Nitesh Kaushik, both part of the 2022 cohort of the Coexistence Fellowship. Sunil is a homegrown conservationist from Mangar Bani who has spent over a decade of his life preserving the floral and faunal diversity in the (NCR)-Aravallis region, the last remaining natural forest of this landscape. He has also worked extensively to spread awareness among the Mangar Bani community and, during his work, has even unearthed evidence of a pre-historic civilisation in this area! He has a burning, deep focus with his work, where there has never been a distinction between the personal and professional - it is all just his life. Nitesh, complementarily, is a young and upcoming conservationist with big dreams who completed her Master's in Biodiversity and Conservation from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, kickstarting her career by contributing to a baseline study of flora through ethnobotanical tools in the Damdama Biodiversity Park, in Haryana. Her main interests lie in understanding the relationship between humans and nature, which further found its footing through the Fellowship. Sunil and Nitesh are now working in the Aravallis of south Haryana, an important leopard corridor, between the Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, in Rajasthan, and the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, in Delhi. Their project focused on understanding mammal diversity and their ecologies in this landscape, and enhancing human-leopard coexistence in the area. After some rocky beginnings, that you will hear more about in this episode, they are now thick as thieves and continue to collaborate towards common conservation goals in this landscape. Here it is now, The Thing About Finding Common Ground with Sunil and Nitesh from the Coexistence Fellowship.

This week I'm in conversation with the spirited Avantika Thapa. She was part of the first cohort of the Coexistence Fellowship, and went through the programme with her partner, Chandra Maya Sharma. Avantika hails from the hills of Darjeeling and has been knowingly and unknowingly linked with nature from a young age. Serendipity and more kind humans along the way helped her find her footing, and she then went on to pursue a PhD and this Fellowship to better study the people and wildlife of the eastern himalayas. Both she and Chandra Maya noted the disparity between the stories they grew up hearing and the realities they now lived among. Avantika is an enthusiastic do-er, and has since not let go of any opportunities to give back to the communities she works with. She has used her voice well in these years and is now a post doctoral consultant with ATREE, based out of Gangtok in Sikkim. Hers is truly an inspiring and motivating story, and I hope like me, you feel a bubbling burning urge to do your bit to make a difference in this world after listening to this episode. The Coexistence Fellowship thanks the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU) for creating a home for the Coexistence Fellowship Programme, and the British Asian Trust and Elephant Family for their generous support, also to the Coexistence Consortium for their guidance as their knowledge partner.

Dive into a thought-provoking conversation with one of the Coexistence Fellowship pairs - Mahesha & Vinay - in our very first episode of Season 6, where we discuss the importance of viewing the world through multiple ways of knowing, redefine what we mean by 'science' and look closer at community-held knowledge and indigenous practices in wildlife management and conservation! This season, we are in conversation with the Coexistence Fellowship - a transformative programme that empowers pairs of fellows, including local community members, to collaboratively develop culturally grounded, equitable conservation practices focused on human-wildlife coexistence across India. It aims to shift conservation paradigms by centering community knowledge, fostering mutual learning, and building a movement of conservation practitioners rooted in empathy, reciprocity, and shared stewardship.  The Coexistence Fellowship thanks the University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU) for creating a home for the Coexistence Fellowship Programme, and the British Asian Trust and Elephant Family for their generous support, also to the Coexistence Consortium for their guidance as their knowledge partner.

Today we bring you you an enthu-cutlet conversation with the excitable and passionate Sayee Girdhari. With important nudges from the universe towards the world of botany through happy coincidences and crucial mentors, Sayee fell deeply in love with trees. After spending some pivotal time working with the Karnataka state biodiversity board and Terracon Ecotech exploring the plant world across a range of habitats, she now finds herself being the flag holder and spokesperson for the citizen science platform, SeasonWatch. She is a Project Coordinator under the Education and Public Engagement programme at the Nature Conservation Foundation, and is the undisputed queen of the tree walk, most prolifically in Maharashtra. I hope this episode moves you to peer into the souls of some of your neighbourhood trees, and perhaps towards being a botanical citizen scientist too!

Today I bring you you a warm and wholesome conversation with the incomparable Nitya Satheesh. She's had a fascinating journey within the wildlife space and has contributed to a slew of disciplines within the field, but most notably in the environmental education sector. We recorded this episode a while ago while she was a Senior Program Manager at the Centre for Wildlife Studies for several years, primarily working on every aspect of their flagship Wild Shaale conservation education program. She is now the Head of Engagement at the Echo Network that brings nuanced science to a vast range of audiences and collaborators to tackle real-world problems in human and environmental spaces. Nitya has been a mentor, a friend, a colleague and confidante ever since I started my first proper job in this field, and this episode was my selfish way to reconnecting with a beautiful soul who I've dearly missed - I hope you learn from her as I have in all these years!

Today's episode features the wonderful Shweta Shivakumar with whom we continued on our Season 5 journey hitting upon our recurring themes of coexistence and living alongside wildlife. Shweta worked on a fantastic PhD at the Centre for Wildlife Studies that focused on attacks by big cats on people. The case study of Shweta's work delved into the spatiotemporal patterns of leopard attacks on people and narratives of these attacks in Himachal Pradesh. She is now a Programme Manager with the High Altitudes Programme at the Nature Conservation Foundation to continue doing such meaningful work! Our conversation meandered through empathy, loss, nostalgia and laughter.

Today, I'm in conversation with India's foremost historian, Dr Ramachandra Guha: an environmentalist, prolific writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental history, and is an important authority on the history of modern India. Many of you may know him through his writings, like Environmentalism, that I first had the pleasure of reading for a university assignment several years ago, India after Gandhi, The Unquiet Woods, Makers of Modern India and Savaging the Civilized. Dr Guha is now out with his most recent book - with poingnantly writing that you'd want to relish while hanging onto the important historical and philosophical insights it provides. It's called Speaking with Nature - a comprehensive volume that walks us through the most important personalities in India's global history of environmentalism, highlighting the immense diversity of thought, practice and environmental literacy that our country has always housed.

This is the first of two episodes recorded in the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, with the fantastic field staff that works with Dr Umesh Srinivasan. This episode features two young women who joined the team three years ago - Dema and Aiti (Kanchi) - who have since become invaluable members of the research teams that conduct bird research in this mountainous landscape!

Today's guest is a very cool spider specialist and all-round natural history enthusiast with a penchant for storytelling, photography and zooming into every living being in every environment he finds himself in: Samuel John. John is someone who first made strides in the corporate sector as he began his career, and within the last decade, decided he wanted to switch gears entirely! He is currently a fantastic nature educator and is now the co-founder of an exciting initiative: Spiders and the Sea. In addition to his photography and teaching, he's also a prolific writer, with his words appearing frequently in places like Roundglass Sustain where he's written over 50 articles!

Today we're in conversation with Alissa Barnes - a marine biologist who wears several hats - from illustrator and social scientist to diver and shark anatomy specialist! She has been working to understand elasmobranch fisheries since 2015, and much of her work has focussed on gathering baseline information about fishing practices across multiple states along the west coast and understanding the drivers behind the fisheries. With about a decade of interdisciplinary and diverse experiences under her belt, she is now co-leading the Sharks and Rays project in the Marine Conservation Programme at the Wildlife Conservation Society!

Dhee is a researcher interested in the human dimensions of wildlife conservation, specifically the psychological and socio-cultural factors that shape people's perceptions towards wild animals. Currently, she is the Program Manager for the Coexistence Fellowship Programme. She continues to be curious about human-wildlife entanglements and how they shape and get shaped by stories, social institutions, cultures and histories. ~ We want to take a moment to shout out to Feedspot! They are a platform that discovers, categorizes, and ranks podcasts across a wide range of niche categories and geographies, and we were thrilled to be ranked third among India's Top Science Podcasts! Thank you so much, Feedspot, and every listener who has tuned in, it is truly an honour. https://podcasts.feedspot.com/india_science_podcasts/

Rushikesh Chavan tells us about how he's been diving deep into large-scale conservation issues ever since he got into this field a couple of decades ago. He's worked across 19 states and spearheaded campaigns that have become milestones in Indian conservation. Currently the head of The Habitats Trust, he has spent several years with the Bombay Natural History Society and the Wildlife Conservation Trust too.

Today, I'm in conversation with Priyadarshini Panchapakesan - a young English language school teacher who grew up inspired by the nature around her in Kodaikanal. Her fascination for the natural world, concern for the environmental issues she observed over time, and love for writing have led her to create and publish several storybooks for children - from short stories to novellas that explore ecological facts, folklore, adventure and magic. Her books include some exciting titles like The Myth of the Wild Gaur and The Guardians of the Forest - and she already has a couple more in the pipeline!

Today, I am joined by an old friend - Tarun Menon - birder supreme. Having completed his masters from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, he's now at the tail end of his PhD at the Indian Institute of Science, where he is studying altitudinal migrations of birds in the Eastern Himalayas.