Heart of Conservation Heart of Conservation. Podcast from the Himalaya

HI, I'm Lalitha Krishnan I bring you stories
that connect us with the natural world. On Earth day especially, we can't
ignore our reckless mis-mangement of waste. I’m speaking to two young, &
amazing Clean Tech innovators, Rahul Nainani (Founder) and Gurashish Singh
(Co-Founder & COO), at ReCircle, who converted bio-mining waste into a
booming business. It’s not every day we hear of such success  stories for 
positive  change. Listen to how
they convert waste into a resource, rebranded waste workers by empowering them.
How they have top brands on their side and create awareness creatively.

Hi, I’m speaking to the most passionate, naturalist/researcher/herpetologist-on-ground
in the Andamans - Nariman Vazifdar. We discuss the biodiversity of the archipelago – which is mostly unexplored islands with individual unique species.  He speaks about the rainforest of the islands and
he enlightens us about the hardwood Bullet wood tree and the Superior wood; and the historical connection involving British rule and the Japanese and their
impact on the local indigenous tribes, flora and fauna. Nariman also speaks of invasive/introduced species like stray dogs which are now a threat to the local
species like the turtles.  He tells us how animals from the mainland change their behaviour to survive in island habitats
e.g. frogs trying to eat snakes rather than the other way around.

He discusses the serious business of snake rescues including current dangerous trends and
how to ethically release them. We also discuss his co-written book on Turtles, Tortoises
and Terrapins post his sojourn with Turtle Survival Alliance. We talk about the impact of construction and lack of sustainable tourism on the ecology of the
island the depletion of groundwater and the increase in garbage. Even if you don’t ever visit the islands, this episode with Nariman is a #mustlisten.

#island_conservation
#snake_rescue_release #island_ecology #island_biodiversity #king_cobra #turtles
#terrapins #tortoises #author #naturalist #researcher #ecological_damage
#reptiles #nariman_vazifdar #invasive_species #island #animal_behaviour
#conservation #endemic_fauna  #endemic_flora
#bronze_back #wolf_snake #research_papers #andamans #tribes #british #japanese #rainforests
#development #littorial_forest #groundwater #heart_of_conservation #nature_podcast
#stories_from_the_wild #earthymatters_blog

 

I am speaking with two plant and tree lovers, basically tree experts with extraordinary insights, botanical facts, myths, history, current issues and personal stories relating to four florae of their choice. My guest Mallika Ravikumar is a lawyer-turned-writer. She writes about history, culture and nature has authored over six books mostly for children. Nishanth Srinivas is based out of Shillong, and is working with an NGO called Conservation Initiatives. He specializes in satellite mapping and is interested in human–elephant interactions and landscape ecology. Show notes coming soon on my blog EarthyMatters

Show notes are now on earthymatters.blog In episode #33 I’m speaking to Dr Suresh Kumar, a remarkable wildlife biologist from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), who specializes in animal ecology, migration and movement studies, conservation biology. In his pursuit of wildlife conservation, he has discovered a new species of pheasant, studied macaques, used satellite telemetry to obverse the distribution of olive ridley turtles, tagged and followed the long-distance migration patterns of the Amur falcon, and mapped habitats of the Great Indian Bustard. My second guest is Amarjeet Kaur, Together they tell us about the first study of Barn swallows in India. Also at WII, Amarjeet, has worked on the migration and conservation of Amur Falcons in Nagaland and Manipur, and another long-distance migratory bird. Amarjeet is now completing her PhD on the first study of Barn swallows in India.

The dugong is a Schedule 1 species in India, accorded the same protection as the Tiger but we barely know anything about it. My three amazing guests on episode#32 are researching Dugongs in three coastal pockets of India and doing a fantastic job as far as I can tell. I learnt a great deal about a mammal in my backyard which I was clueless about till now. Hope you enjoy listening to Prachi Sachchidanand Hatkar, Chinmaya Ghanekar and Swapnali Gole of their work with Dugongs as much as I did. Cover Dugong Photo Credits: Darius Quadros. Researchers photos courtesy Swapnali, Chinmaya and Prachi.

Transcript coming soon on Earthy matters (my blog). Radhika wears multiple hats as a coastal geographer, geospatial analyst, National Geographic Explorer. She is a Research Fellow at the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions working with wetland conservation in Asia. She recently completed her PhD at the National University of Singapore. We discuss the world's largest delta in detail covering the mangrove species, the only tiger species that lives in a mangrove and which probably has to climb a tree twice a day during high tide; the adapatibility of species, a resilient community and the meaning of "maladaptation" a new word to add to our vocabulary.