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PODCAST

The Thing About Wildlife

The Thing About Wildlife offers long and insightful conversations with Indians working closest to nature: researchers, educators and conservationists.

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All Episodes

01:30:04

#60 The Thing About An Army of Kindness

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2025/11/02

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

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01:41:17

#59 The Thing About Indigenous Science

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2025/10/19

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

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01:39:36

#58 The Thing About Tree-walking Through Life

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2025/10/12

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

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02:22:36

#57 The Thing About Learning with Children

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2025/04/20

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

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01:39:52

#56 The Thing About Living with Leopards

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/12/02

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

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00:51:58

#55 The Thing About Speaking with Nature

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/10/21

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

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01:00:32

#54 The Thing About Haath Mein Chidhiya (Hindi)

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/10/13

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!

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01:52:40

#53 The Thing About Spiders and Spinning Stories

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/08/04

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

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01:52:40

#53 The Thing About Spiders and Spinning Stories

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/08/04

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

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01:46:13

#52 The Thing About Elasmobranchs and the Coast

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/07/14

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

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01:22:32

#51 The Thing About Coexistence and Negotiation

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/03/17

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

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01:43:23

#50 The Thing About Big Picture Conservation

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/02/18

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.

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00:47:51

#49 The Thing About Writing Storybooks

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/01/28

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

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02:12:17

#48 The Thing About Birding for Science

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2024/01/21

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.

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00:24:27

#47 The Thing About Camouflaged Identities

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/07/30

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

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01:40:56

#46 The Thing About Risky Waters

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/07/16

Welcome back to our new series: The Thing About Pride. These are episodes showcasing the work and lived experiences of queer or LGBTQIA+ identifying persons in the fields of ecology and conservation.On our fourth episode, I bring to you a professional diver and marine biologist turned queer-affirmative sex educator - Tanisha RK. This was an episode that rang close to home in multiple ways, as Tanisha and I first began our foray into the realms of wildlife and conservation together several years

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01:27:23

#45 The Thing About Underwater Exploration

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/07/02

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

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01:30:49

#44 The Thing About Queer Wildlifers

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/06/25

On this episode, I speak with 3 fabulous queer wildlifers - all of whom you've heard from before during our second season from early 2022! The fields of wildlife conservation and biology are full of diversity, and I have some of those examples for you today. First up, we have Taniya Gill, who you first met in episode 16: The Thing About Personalities. Taniya is a doctoral candidate from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delhi, and works closely with urban rhesus macaques of

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01:08:01

#43 The Thing About Birds and Chai

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/06/18

Welcome to a new series within this podcast: The Thing About Pride. These are episodes showcasing the work and lived experiences of queer or LGBTQIA+ identifying persons in the fields of ecology and conservation.First up, on today's episode, I speak with Nisha Bhakat about her fantastic work studying birds in tea estates of Bengal, her journey in the intersection of being a wildlifer and a queer, female-identifying individual, and about some larger philosophical questions about what fieldwork

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01:12:29

#42 The Thing About Regenerative Farming

The Thing About Wildlife ·

2023/06/04

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

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