When we speak of degradation & conservation, we generally tend to speak of biodiversity loss. Perspectives of local communities often get overshadowed, even though they lie at the frontlines of any meaningful, sustainable conservation project. In a country (and indeed a world) that is getting increasingly urbanised, this panel discusses why it is absolutely vital to mainstream messages from the so-called 'margins'.

Stephen Alter is the author of more than 20 books of fiction and non-fiction.  Much of his writing focuses on the Himalayan region. Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth (Aleph 2019) received the 2020 Banff Mountain Book Award in the Mountain Environment and Natural History category and the 2021 Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan Literature. Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime (Aleph 2014) received the 2015 Kekoo Naoroji Award. In The Jungles of the Night: A Novel about Jim Corbett (Aleph 2016) was shortlisted for the DSC South Asian Literature Award. He has written extensively on natural history, folklore and mountain culture, particularly in his travel memoir Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimage to the Many Sources of the Ganga. Among the honours he has received are fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the East West Centre in Hawaii, and the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture.

Aparajita is a scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation and her interests are in plant–animal interactions in rainforests, tropical forest dynamics, tree phenology, understanding human impacts on wildlife, and engaging with people for conservation. She and her team have been primarily engaged in long-term research, monitoring and conservation of hornbills in the Eastern Himalaya for 20 years. Currently, conservation work is focused on protecting hornbills and forest habitats through partnerships with communities and the government. When she is not in the field, she enjoys watching and photographing birds and plants in urban-rural habitats and making eBird lists. She has written several books for children, co-authored Trees of Arunachal Pradesh: a field guide and co-edited a book At the Feet of Living Things: Twenty-Five Years of Wildlife Research and Conservation in India. She is the Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Hornbill Specialist Group.

Yuvan Aves is a writer, naturalist, educator and activist based in Chennai. He writes on topics at the intersection of ecology, education, and human/more-than-human consciousness. He is the author of two nature-writing books and 3 children's books, recipient of the M. Krishnan Memorial Nature Writing Award, Sanctuary Asia Green Teacher Award among others. He loves working with children and educators - emplacing the living world as a learning space. He is the founder - managing trustee of Palluyir Trust for Nature Education and Research.

Meghaa Gupta has worked in Indian children’s publishing for over a decade and studied Environmental Humanities in UK. She heads the Youth programme at the GLF & curates a course on nature writing for new writers at Azim Premji University. Meghaa is the author of the picture book A Home of Our Own and a series of history books on Independent India published by Penguin Random House: Unearthed: An Environmental History of Independent India and After Midnight: A History of Independent India.

свернуть