The Thing About Wildlife

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.

The spaces of wildlife and conservation are home to LOTS of queer-identifying individuals around the world, each one doing inspiring and important work. The risks of being openly and visibly LGBTQIA+ are, unfortunately, still very real - a topic that we have been discussing since June on The Thing About Wildlife, and in our safer silos like the Queer Wildlifers' Circle.
Each voice MATTERS. Every story MATTERS. Visibility matters, even when kept completely confidential and anonymous.
Keeping this in mind, earlier this month, I called upon the discreet, quiet LGBTQIA+ identifying ecologists and conservationists out there, hoping to provide a safe space for them to share their stories. Today, I’m humbled to lend voice to their words - written from their lived experiences and their hearts - a mix of happy moments, anguish, optimism, pleas for the future and the desire for our professional spaces to do better by the queer community.
Today’s episode features a series of anonymous stories shared by queer-identifying wildlifers from India. While you won’t get to hear all their voices, I implore you to pay attention to their words.
I thank Ishaan and Tanisha for lending their voices to these tales, and hope you enjoy, relate to and mull over all that lies in the upcoming minutes.

Welcome back to our new series: The Thing About Pride!
On our third episode, I bring to you a marine biologist and conservationist who truly wants to do it all - and within the last decade, has worked systematically towards making that a reality! Avik Banerjee is currently a Project Manager at Willdife Conservation Society -- India's Marine Programme. From understanding dolphin interactions with fishermen and studying octopus behaviour, to being part of a marine exploration team to the little-known Angria Bank off the western coast of India, Avik shares several stories with us along with his lived experiences as a proud, queer wildlifer.

Malika Virdi is an urban citizen turned farmer who co-founded Maati Sanghthan, a women’s collective, in Sarmoli, Munsiyari. This collective actively works to fight against the growing violence against women, and focuses on improving community wellbeing through an environmental lens. Siddharth Negi is one of the founders of the Uttaranchal Youth and Rural Development Centre, or UYRDC, where he works to establish an ecological, social and economic environment wherein the local communities can grow to sustain themselves in the years to come. Together, we explore the challenges of living and farming in a place as dynamic and unpredicatable as Uttarakhand, and explore how the agrarian communities there have been adapting to climate change over time.

This is the first of two very special bonus episodes produced in collaboration with the Sydney Environmental Institute and the India and Bharat Together NGO. Together, we explore the on-ground consequences of climate change in the western himalayas, and what they mean for the future of people and habitats of these regions.

In our first episode - The Thing About Glacial Melts, through an introspective conversation with two young individuals rooted in Ladakh, we will try to understand how local communities from the higher reaches of the Himalayas have been experiencing, and adapting to, the increasingly real consequences of climate change. Lobzang Wangtak, glacial conservationist and co-founder of Navikarana Trust, an NGO , and Dawa Dolma, an independent journalist striving to bring the people’s stories to the forefront of climate change discourse, join me to dissect what is happening in Ladakh today. 

Dr Sahir Advani is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Maine. While he works at a larger, global scale now, we dipped into his experiences from the pre-pandemic era for this episode, from when he conducted his doctoral work across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Sahir is interested in finding sustainable solutions to coral reef associated fisheries and the export markets driving them. He has profiled the fisheries of these Islands, with a focus on the grouper fisheries. His research spans avenues of marine biology, community-based research and conservation, and global economics.

Today's guest is Mahi Mankeshwar - a cetacean biologist who has one of the most natural affinities to the marine space that I've ever encountered. She was one of the first people to systematically document the diversity of marine mammals around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with a focus on cetaceans - that is, dolphins and whales. Her work across the islands has led to some of the most fantastic sightings and records of these incredible animals for whom Indian waters are home. And from the sound of it, she's only getting started.

I am joined by my guest co-host, Tanmay Wagh, who you all met last Season as part of episode 21: The Thing About Marine Adventures! Together, we speak to two fabulous members of the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team at the Dakshin Foundation - James Tirkey and Babu Kutty.
James is the Base Coordinator and a Field Assistant at ANET. He has extensive research experience - having assisted on several forestry projects. He enjoys work within the realms of botany, herpetology, birding, mangroves systems and the marine sphere. He has a scientific and logical mind, with a largely calm demeanor, save for the occasional volleyball match! He's also a keen naturalist, and seeing an unexpected species around the field base is one sure-shot way to bring an uncharacteristic, joyous smile on his face.
Babu is the Boat Captain of the research vessel Khlee, and is also the maintenance-in-charge at ANET. Basically, the king of jugaad and quick-fixes! He is also a certified diver with skilled knowledge in navigating the seascape - both above and under water. He is integral to the planning and execution of several research projects - including Tanmay's - and is one of the most passionate members of ANET. He expresses his concern for the environment through heated discussions and long rants, all lending insight into his deeply pragmatic thinking.

Dr Elrika D'Souza is the Programme Manager of Oceans and Coasts at the Nature Conservation Foundation. Her research interests lie in exploring plant-animal interactions in seagrass ecosystems. Elrika has documented historical declines in dugong populations in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, and has worked towards identifying the reasons that led to that very decline. Presently, her research in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago focusses on understanding the biotic and abiotic processes that  shape seagrass ecosystems and dugong behaviour.

Today, I speak with the dedicated and observant, Dr Arijit Pal, a postdoctoral fellow at the national institute of advanced studies in bangalore. For the past decade, Arijit has been closely studying the Nicobar long-tailed macaques of Great Nicobar Island. He was one of the first primatologists to venture into this space in order to study a species we knew next to nothing about. Today he is continuing to build upon his years of work studying tool use and social dynamics in this uniquely islandic primate. In today's episode, we delve into his deep love for this space and species, and also inspect what the future looks like for them and upcoming research.

In memory of Aishwarya Mandya.

Shiba Desor is a social scientist who worked with the Karen community in the middle Andamans  to set up the Andaman Karen Crafts initiative, a cooperative to promote cultural continuity and environmental conservation through weaving, artisanal crafts, tree nurseries and a local-cuisine restaurant. Shiba has previously worked with forest rights policy and livelihoods as well, and now continues to look inwards about how best to help and aid local communities sustain themselves and, perhaps, thrive.

We're back today with another in our Andaman and Nicobar series, with a conversation featuring Professor Pankaj Sekhsaria. His main areas of research lie at the intersection of environment, science and society and he is incredibly driven when it comes to issues of the environment and wildlife conservation across the country. He is also an incredible and prolific writer and storyteller, and you can find his words tucked away in mainstream journalism, academic articles, novels, essays and more.

Today, he joins me to talk about where his deep connection with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands comes from, and we dissect all that is currently unfolding in terms of infrastructural development on Great Nicobar Island. What does it mean for the future of the island's people and biodiversity?

Madhuri Ramesh is a faculty member at the School of Development at Azim Premji University. Madhuri has worked in deserts, rainforests, coasts and islands, she’s a herpetologist who turned to political ecology for her PhD and later work. Her research in the Andaman Islands focuses on nature-society relations, and the consequences of these negotiations for conservation and sustainability.

Manish is a phenomenal storyteller, who uses his lived experiences to talk about the people and ecology of the islands with extreme clarity. Our recording with Manish ran into hours, and so I'll be bringing his voice to you in two parts. In the first epsiode featuring Manish, The Thing About Discovering The Islands, he talks to us about how he stumbled into the Andamans nearly three decades ago, what it was about the place that got him involved in several projects there, how he came to know and live with the local communities intimately, introduces us to the who's who of early ecological and anthropological work in the islands, and provides us with a window into how he began working with restoration.

Happy 2023, listeners! This year, The Thing About Wildlife is kick-starting with a 10-part series on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Stay tuned for more!

Welcome to Season-2 and an all-new segment on the podcast: The Thing About Wildlife - In a Nutshell. Here, I talk to researchers, students, educators, artists, field assistants and wildlife enthusiasts who bring you stories from their time in nature. Episode 1 will be up next week!