How these 5 Indian female biologists have contributed to the wildlife landscape

Writer Anita Manirsquos curiosity for the wild began with watching birds The initial motivation came from her son then four years old who had started birding as a hobby after his parents got him his first pair of binoculars and a book on birds ldquoSince he was too young to go out on his own I accompanied himrdquo she shares over a phone call from Delhi ldquoAt some point I got interested as well and we started travelling to watch birdsrdquoDuring her explorations Mani came in contact with several conservationists and wildlife biologists many of whom were women Birdwatching can be gruelling she tells us ldquoIn the Northeast the sun rises so much earlier In the summers you are up by 3 am with bootstoground by 345 am to watch birding activities the middle of day is best to spot raptors Typically one is out in the field till about 7 pmrdquo A hobbyist can be out for over 12 hours at a timeldquoThat made me really think about the kind of work that biologists and scientists dordquo she adds ldquoThey are out there collecting data under difficult circumstances raising funds for research and putting together conservation programmesrdquo It is onerous she shares And while none of us would immediately be able to recall an Indian wildlife biologist what she says is just as concerning is that several women biologists who have dedicated years to conservation efforts in the country face the same obscurity or worseThis is what led her to edit a justreleased title Women In The Wild Stories of Indiarsquos Most Brilliant Women Wildlife Biologists Juggernaut Books which documents the work of 13 wildlife specialists by leading nature writers Work on it began last year says Mani ldquoThis is not an exhaustive listrdquo she insists ldquoThere are so many more women doing incredible work but the criteria was someone whose fieldwork had had a substantial impact on species or landscape conservation or someone who has contributed to the resolution of the challenges confronting wildlife in Indiardquo We track five such biologistsAn early birdJamal Ara RanchiKnown as the first lady of Indian ornithology Jamal Ara was born in 1923 in a conservative Muslim household in Barh 70 km from Patna She was married young to her cousin and leading journalist Hamdi Bey but the couple separated ldquoMy father was a womaniser and he abandoned both of us before I had even begun schoolrdquo her daughter Madhuca told wildlife historian Raza Kazmi who contributed the essay on Ara It was another cousin Sami Ahmad an Indian Forest Service IFS officer from the 1940 batch of the Bihar cadre who looked after both Ara and Madhuca and nurtured her interest in birdsldquoJamal Ara was buried in historyrdquo Mani says adding that Kazmirsquos essay is the firstever account of her life She had written a slim booklet for children Watching Birds first published by the National Book Trust NBT in 1970 It has been in print for over four decades ldquoShe published excessively in the Bombay Natural History Society BNHS and the Bengal Natural History Societyrdquo Her works on the ornithology of the Chota Nagpur Plateau today part of presentday Jharkhand remain the only comprehensive study on the birds of the region till dateldquoA fascinating study Ara undertook was the search for the nowextinct pinkheaded duck an endeavour that enamours ornithologists across the world even today with multiple expeditions mounted across India and Myanmar in search of this enigmatic bird last shot in Darbhanga Bihar in June 1935rdquo Kazmi writesHer conservation vision was brilliant ldquoEvery major sanctuary that she identified for conservation has since been notifiedrdquo says Mani ldquoShe even popularised bird science for common people through her radio talks on All India Radiohellip She was far ahead of her timerdquoThe turtle trackerJ Vijaya ChennaiEmbodying the spirit of all things wild J Vijaya lived a short life 19591987 but left behind a formidable legacy Naturalist Zai Whitaker who has contributed the essay on Vijaya describes her as a ldquotrailblazer pioneer and a role modelrdquoAlso known as Viji Vijaya first enrolled as part of a volunteer programme at the Madras Snake Park ldquoAfter college she joined the Snake Park as a research associate and began the surveys and studies that have become famous landmarks in Indiarsquos herpetological historyrdquo writes WhitakerAt some point her attention and observations went ldquomore and more turtlewardsrdquo One of her most important missions was locating and studying the habitat of the Cochin forest cane turtleShe set up base in a riverside cave within Nadukani near Chalakudy Within the year says Whitaker she had captured and marked 125 cane turtles and Travancore tortoises enabling an indepth study of their natural history movements and range the first for both species ldquoBy the end of the study she had also extended the range of the cane turtle significantly adding the Neyyar Sanctuary and Agumbe in Karnatakardquo In 2006 when Peter Praschag and other herpetologists did taxonomic work on the cane turtle and DNA analysis showed that it was a separate genus from the Heosemys one it had been clubbed under ldquothey named the species Vijayachelys silvatica in her honourrdquo writes WhitakerA memory keeperNandini Velho GoaHaving studied at the Shiksha Niketan in Goa run by the late Nisha da Cunha where there were only four others in her class Nandini Velho ldquogrew up and embraced wildlife sciencesrdquo Anita Mani who has written the essay on Velho says ldquoNandini has worked across the landscape but extensively in the Northeast in and around Etalin and the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary one of the countryrsquos top birding hotspots in the Himalayan foothills in Arunachal Pradesh Her work centres around how living communities influence ecology and conservationrdquoIn 2020 Velho authored The Eaglenest Memory Project about the history of the birding hotspot where Mani says you can find different species at different elevations ldquoVelho records important events that took place here during its recent past Eaglenest was the theatre of action during the IndoChina war of 1962rdquo she says The sanctuary became the gateway for locals escaping an advancing Chinese army ldquoHer book traces this history of the people and what happened to themrdquo This history is retrieved from the memory of the Shertukpens Nepalis and Bugunsmdashthe three communities that live in the area More recently Velho coled the Save Mollem campaign in Goa an endeavour to stop developmental works at the Mollem National Park ldquoFor a naturalist or a biologist to pursue such work should tell you more about her than anything elserdquo says ManiThe Canopy CrusaderDivya Mudappa Valparai Tamil NaduEcologist Divya Mudappa spent her childhood in Madikeri a hill town in Kodagu Karnataka before she went on to get a masterrsquos degree in ecology and environmental sciences at the Saacutelim Ali School of Ecology SASoE in Pondicherry University She found her partner in conservation in TR Shankar Raman whom she later marriedIn 1996 Mudappa and Shankar launched Nature Conservation Foundation NCFmdasha nonprofit wildlife research and conservation organisation and established a field research station in Valparai Tamil Nadu in 2001 ldquoSince then NCF has planted over 100000 saplings of about 170 native species of trees and lianas and restored about 100 hectares in 35 rainforest fragments protecting a total of 1075 hectares of land Theyrsquore currently working on 15 rainforest fragments in the area The transformations have led to amazing results the canopy in these forest remnants has become denser the trees are healthier more saplings are growing on their own showing natural regeneration while litter and foliage have brought in insects which have further brought in mammals and birds to feed on themrdquo writes author Shweta TanejaThe team has also been instrumental in conservation of animals and endangered macaques that live in the area warning speeding vehicles with signboards in their hands especially when they are foraging or crossing highways ldquoOnce you get involved in conservation of a landscape you cannot leave it unless someone throws you outrdquo Divya told Taneja in her interviewThe leopard leaderVidya Athreya MumbaiFor Vidya Athreya who studied at St Anthony Girlsrsquo High School in Chembur and graduated in mathematics from Ruia College wildlife conservation was never on the radar ldquoA visit to Anamalai Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu as part of a college nature club trip organised by the World Wildlife Fund WWF triggered a change of directionrdquo writes journalist Ananda BanerjeeAthreya spotted her first leopard during her masterrsquos fieldwork in the Anamalai Hills and that would lead her to track the big cat She collared one of her first spotted cats in April 2009 releasing him in the Malshej Ghat area adjoining Junnar She named him Ajoba who was immortalised in the 2014 Marathi movie of the same name Over a period of a month the leopard travelled around 120 kilometres to Mumbairsquos Sanjay Gandhi National Park SGNPIn 2011 when the SGNP was grappling with humanndashleopard conflict Athreya led the collaring work to understand the secret lives of leopards in the city ldquoCamera traps and data from collared leopards around the SGNP showed Vidya and her team how leopards moved through the same forest paths taken by residents with the two crossing paths within minutes of each other without any human detection of the big catrsquos presencerdquoAthreya collaborated with several leading publications including midday to shine light on the ldquoadaptive neighboursrdquo Her work focussed on changing the public perception of leopards evolving from a dangerous bloodthirsty animal prowling the city to one that coexists with us ldquoIn a field dominated by men Athreya was one of the first women to conduct longterm research on big cats using radio collarsrdquo writes Banerjee Her count of collared cats currently stands at 11 leopards and one tiger