Coexistence In Practice

A series of online talks about how coexistence plays out in different landscapes, context and across species.

Previous talks

So you think, therefore you are?

By Dhee

In this talk, Dhee looks to explore the nature of our relationships with other-than-human beings. How do we perceive others? How does our perception of the other’s ability to think define the way we interact with them? How does this shape the way we share space with our ‘wild’ neighbours? Drawing from stories, experiences and insights from multiple rural and indigenous communities, the talk will unravel the relationships that unfold when communities consider animals as thinking beings.

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.

Changing Ecologies, Transforming Lives: Complex Human–Macaque Lifeworlds in the Indian Anthropocene

By Dr. Anindya “Rana” Sinha

In this talk, Prof. Anindya Sinha will briefly narrate stories of how the lives of our fellow nonhuman primates – the bonnet and rhesus monkeys of southern and northern India respectively – are changing forever and how they are being forced to survive in human-altered habitats by even transforming themselves into strangely human-like monkeys!

Anindya Sinha, also known as Rana, is a researcher and faculty member at the National Institute of Advanced Studies and the Transdisciplinary University in Bangalore, with affiliations to nine other institutions in India and the UK. His research spans behavioural ecology, cognitive ethology, evolutionary biology, and urban ecologies, focusing on nonhuman species and their interactions with humans.

Tiger Corridors and Livelihoods in Conservation Landscapes of a Peopled Central India

By Dr. Amrita Neelakantan

Over the last decade, Dr. Neelakantan has lived and worked in central India - the heart of India, where humans and tigers coexist. In her talk, she's excited to share some central Indian stories and recent scientific results from the Network for Conserving Central India. Her talk will discuss the 'Jugalbandi' in central India via building scientific consensus for tiger corridors and working on rural livelihoods as a vital consideration for wildlife conservation in human-dominated central India. She hopes to spark discussions about - 'what is coexistence?' and 'who decides how we coexist?'.

Dr. Amrita Neelakantan is a conservation scientist with 11 years of engagement in central India. She's the Executive Director of the Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI) and a member of the working group of the Coexistence Consortium.

Direct Intervention Tech in Reducing Conflicts and Improving Coexistence with Various Species

By S.R.Ayan

Scientific studies show that with an increase in human population, there has been an increase in human-wildlife interactions, especially in densely populated countries like India, which often lead to conflicts. Often these interactions end up causing a larger conflict that is detrimental both for humans and wildlife and thus to overcome these, technological solutions play a major factor. The talk addresses the tech solutions that have direct intervention in either altering the behaviour of wild animals in a non-invasive methodology or providing insights to humans to better manage the interaction, which could largely reduce the conflicts and improve the coexistence.

Ayan is the Founder and Director of Katidhan, a startup working in the agri-tech and wildlife tech space building technological solutions to help farmers overcome their crop losses.

How do we decide baselines for restoration? Insights from 10,000 years of disturbance.

By Meghna Agarwala

As conservationists, we aim to conserve forests so that wildlife may have suitable habitat for existence. Yet, forests are not a static entity and may change through time due to climate, fire, herbivory and human action, and these changes may occur at very long time periods. The forest we are seeing today may be fairly recent, and the wildlife we see in the forests today may reflect the forest composition of the past. This makes it difficult to understand what “forest” should be conserved for wildlife. Using Central India as a case study, in this talk, Meghna Agarwala explores this relationship between forests, climate, and human impact.

Meghna Agarwala, an Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at Ashoka University, employs ecology, remote sensing, and paleo-sciences to address long-term and large-scale forest dynamics, exploring their connections with human-wildlife interactions.

'Whose coexistence?’ Animal, spirit and human agency in Arunachal Pradesh

By Sahil Nijhawan

Through a series of vignettes from Arunachal Pradesh, Sahil Nijhawan explores how spirits mediate human-wildlife coexistence and what happens when outside interventions alter spirits themselves and associated beliefs.

Sahil Nijhawan is an interdisciplinary conservation anthropologist and has worked in Latin America, Southern Africa and India. His work integrates ecological methods and newer technologies with traditional ethnographic approaches to understand wild animals, people, and the relations between the two.

Reinventing nature: Rhinoceros conservation in Kaziranga, 1948-1974

By Biswajit Sarmah

Join Biswajit Sarmah as he takes us through the history of Kaziranga National Park, highlighting the rising cultural value of the rhino among the Assamese elite and the era of ‘total protection’ by the late 1960s.

Biswajit Sarmah is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Krea University.

Living with bees
By Apoorva BV

Join Apoorva BV as he delves into the intricate world of bees, shedding light on their life-cycle and behaviour. In addition, he talks about the impacts of the decline in bee populations and offer solutions to coexist with these essential pollinators.

A seasoned beekeeper, Apoorva also touches upon the art of beekeeping in urban spaces.

Apoorva is the chairman of The Hive, and the co-founder and director of HoneyDay Bee Farms.

How many tigers are too many tigers?

By Pranav Chanchani

In this episode of our #CoexistenceInPractice series, Pranav Chanchani reviews tiger population projections, caps and calls for culling to control their population. He then intersects these analyses with broader discourses about managing the human-wildlife interface and the system of decentralised forest governance in India. Pranav works with World Wide Fund for Nature - India, where he leads the tiger conservation portfolio.

Bicultural diversity and coexistence: A panel discussion

This International Day for Biological Diversity we delved into the concept of biocultural diversity, and how that influences the ways in which communities coexist with nature around them. Our panellists and fellows from our Coexistence Fellowship shared stories from across the country that highlighted the deep connections between biological diversity and cultural diversity.

This panel discussion was organised by the Coexistence Fellowship Programme in partnership with the Coexistence Consortium, British Asian Trust and University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology.

Lessons in compassion and coexistence with crocodiles

By Simon Pooley

In this talk, Simon draws upon his research on human-crocodilian interactions in southern Africa and Gujarat, to make a case for compassion in conservation science, particularly for those who must share landscapes with potentially dangerous animals. Simon is a long-term member of the IUCN SSC Crocodile Specialist Group, and a founder member of the IUCN SSC Specialist Group on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence for whom he leads a Working Group on coexistence.

Coexistence under threat in the Salai forest of Kuno

By Asmita Kabra

The forested landscapes of central India are home to many adivasi communities, each with their own traditional systems of habitat management. In this episode of Coexistence in Practice, Asmita Kabra describes the Sahariya Adivasi community's indigenous tree tenure system, that has withstood more than a century of colonial and postcolonial impulses of territorialisation by the state, and talks about how this system is crumbling under the onslaught of a more pernicious form of fortress conservation which is currently playing out in these forests.